Mastering Your Metabolism To Control Unwanted Weight
Jeff Zwiefel

Many of us fall victim to fad approaches to weight loss because we lack the knowledge of how the body functions and how amazingly sophisticated it is when it comes to responding to specific messages.

When you lack this information it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to process or synthesize the information that regularly bombards us from the media, infomercials, diet programs and weight-loss schemes. The majority of these programs only provide you with select knowledge that limits total understanding of all health ramifications associated with the product they are attempting to sell.

You can compare this situation to a familiar fish analogy: "Give me a fish allowing me to eat for a day rather than the lifetime of knowledge I need to fish for myself."

As a society, we are so interested in health and fitness that it seems that this heightened curiosity has become our worst enemy. Bahram Akradi, chief executive officer of LifeTime Fitness, has been passionately concerned about the lack of comprehensive education available to the public.

"It is difficult to communicate the truth after people have been deceived into thinking that there is another way," he says. "Even some of those who spend countless hours in the gym and think they are healthy eaters are still unclear of what is happening inside their bodies."

Some get lucky and appear to have the knowledge, often passing bad information to others who may not be as genetically blessed, notes Akradi, whose latest project, "Master your Metabolism" is like an operating manual for the body.

"When you buy any piece of technology--a car, VCR or telephone--it comes with an operating manual that explains how it works," he says. "When it comes to the human body, there has been no manual, so we attempt to operate it without truly understanding it."

The human body is an amazing machine with incredible capabilities because it operates on a pure and perfectly logical platform. Our job is simply to understand that logic and learn how to communicate with our bodies. Once we have gained this knowledge, the results we have been looking for will happen automatically.

The Potential of the Human Body

The human body is designed to last between 90 and 100 years, in working condition. Your body can aid in the prevention of many lifestyle-related illnesses, such as cardiovascular disease, cancers, aches and pains that are very prevalent in our society today. Furthermore, we have the ability to maintain a healthy weight naturally.

The safe and effective solution to a long-term healthy lifestyle is simply gaining a big-picture understanding of how our bodies work. We must learn to properly communicate with our bodies so that we can send the right messages consistently. To achieve this we must understand the logic of the body. Unfortunately, shortcuts are not an option. The reality is that we can take control of our bodies and lives by simply obtaining the necessary knowledge about our metabolism and how it can be accelerated.

How Your Body Metabolizes Food

Metabolism is simply how your body breaks down food and regulates energy, giving you the ability to move and do the things you need to do in life. If you have a fast metabolism, your body stores less fat, giving you more energy to enjoy life. On the other hand, if you have a slow metabolism, your body tends to store more fat, making you feel more sluggish and tired throughout the day.

To help you understand and simplify the body's metabolic processes, let's compare the human body to car. Although the body is more sophisticated than a car, they both burn fuels to produce energy for movement.

Slowing Your Metabolism

Research shows that slow metabolism has been associated with four possible factors--genetics, age, low physical activity and poor diet. You have no control over genetic makeup or age, but you do have direct control over your level of physical activity and eating habits. Your body has a very intelligent response to the messages you send it . For example, a lack of physical activity and/or a low-calorie diet that prompts a starvation response that signals your body to slow down its metabolism.

Through inactivity your body doesn't require as much quick energy, and this storage capacity, referred to as your "glycogen storage," is reduced. This creates a very damaging and vicious cycle. Since less fuel is being burned for energy, you require fewer of the body's critical elements to burn the fats in your system. These fats are burned with oxygen; therefore, when you are inactive you reduce the need for oxygen delivered to the system.

When you severely restrict your calorie intake, your body interprets this action as if there are lean times ahead. It then attempts to store or conserve as much fat as it can for future long lasting fuel. Your body also reduces the size of its engines or muscles as much as possible to reduce its fuel consumption. Thus, the body actually will break down its lean body mass and utilize their protein for fuel for energy production.

Throughout this entire process, you have been losing muscle and gaining fat. Metabolism and muscle mass are directly correlated. In other words, the more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism is and vice versa. Muscle is your body's fat-fighting friend.

Accelerating Your Metabolism

The good news is that everyone can change his or her own metabolism dramatically by sending the appropriate messages to your body to speed it up. When you incorporate a regular exercise program with a consistent balanced diet, you start sending messages to your body asking for improvement. When your body is challenged, it will adapt and become stronger and more capable of performing the activities you desire to participate in.

In order to develop a fast metabolism, it makes sense that you must be capable of burning large amounts of fuel, particularly fat fuel. In effect, you need big engines or muscle cells. When you increase your physical activity and exercise at the proper intensity, you are instructing your body that you want to burn a substantial amount of fuel. This increased fuel consumption occurs not just during your physical activity, but around the clock.

One reason you experience a faster metabolism is that you have increased your glycogen storage for your body to use as quick energy for activities. This gives you an ample supply of quick energy and a leaner body and enhances your ability to burn fat for fuel along with greater oxygen delivery to the system.

A Road Map to Improved Lifestyle

This information provides you with a road map to human body that points you in the right direction. This map provides you with the comfort, clarity and freedom to see your destination clearly and select the route you want. Most importantly, it empowers you to take control and make decisions for yourself.

Akradi's video is the first of its kind to deliver the proper information honestly, without holistic theories or backdoor products to sell. Instead of being blindly led by every new diet and exercise fad, viewers will possess the knowledge to understand what works, what doesn't work and why.

"People have been trained through the media that understanding health is simple; therefore, some may have to view the video more than once to completely comprehend the details," he says. "There is no question that this information will open their eyes to a whole new world--one they may have thought was unobtainable."

Other fitness industry leaders agree that it is time to recognize that improved health is not found in special pills or from a prescription form from your doctor. It is obtained through a comprehensive understanding of the language of the human body. Chances are, if this information were taught in elementary school as part of the curriculum, there would be a significant decrease in obesity related diseases.

When people possess an understanding of how to communicate with their bodies through diet and exercise practices, natural weight management becomes as logical as dental hygiene and the quality of life increases. By gaining an appreciation for the body's logic, which follows a very predictable and clear pattern, viewers can be assured they will speed up their metabolism automatically.

You can achieve optimal health and fitness by committing yourself to understanding and applying this type of information along with exercising only four hours a week and incorporating a balanced diet. When you learn how your body works, the true purpose of exercise and how to send the correct messages, it will enable you to succeed at managing your body weight and ultimately mastering your metabolism.

"Master your Metabolism" human body operating manual provides the understanding of why and how your body responds to daily functions and results that occur over time. Through the use of clear graphics and animations it illustrates how your metabolism slows down when fed a low-calorie diet coupled with inactivity. You also learn how you can never reverse this process by changing these unproductive messages.

Bahram Akradi is CEO of LifeTime Fitness, international speaker and educator, and former co-founder and executive vice president of U.S. Swim and Fitness. He is also a chairman on the Health and Fitness Industry Leadership Council.

Jeff Zwiefel holds an M.S. in exercise physiology and is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the National Strength and Conditioning Association(NSCA). As the former vice president of product development for Nordic Track, Inc. and the present president of LIFETIME Fitness' Health Enhancement Division, his primary areas of expertise include product management, development and marketing.

For more information related to ordering the "Master your Metabolism" program contact LifeTime Fitness at (888) 430-LIFE, or visit its web site at www.lifetimeenhancement.com.