Things to Know about Burning More Calories

4. Build muscles. Muscles grow through protein synthesis, which is one of the most energy consuming processes in the cell (Rolfe & Brown, 1997). If you’re building muscles, it is not just the workout itself but also the growth of muscles that consumes energy and burns calories. Additionally, muscle tissue is metabolically more active and burns more calories than fat tissue. The more muscles you have, the bigger your resting energy expenditure, which means that your body burns more calories “while doing nothing”.

If weight loss is your goal, including strength training into your exercise routine is important. This way you can improve your body composition, that is losing fat and maintaining – maybe even gaining – muscles. It’s also important to keep in mind that muscles require enough nutrients to grow. You can’t cut back on calories too much, if you want to increase your muscle mass.

5. Relieve stress and sleep well. If you are stressed or sleep deprived, it’s hard to make lifestyle changes that promote weight loss. Stress management, good sleep and nutrition go hand in hand. Where acute stress can trigger a loss of appetite and body weight, chronic stress can lead to eating too much and gaining weight (Rabasa & Dickson, 2016). Also sleep deprivation may result in consuming more calories the following day (Khatib et al. 2017).  Let’s not forget that exercise is a great stress buster and reduced stress will also help you to succeed with weight loss.

Firstbeat All-day Stress & Recovery reveals the presence and intensity of stress and recovery reactions in your body during day and night. Seeing how your body responds can lead to better decisions towards a healthy, more balanced life – that will also support weight loss when that’s your goal.