Metabolism in a nutshell

 Metabolism is important for our daily lives. It helps to break down and create cells in the body. They are enzyme related reactions and are determined by Catabolic and Anabolic. The body is constantly working towards building and also breaking down matter for one purpose: Keeping itself going. 

By providing adequate amounts of food, the body will break it down and create new cells or repair what is broken! Amazing!

 How to make your metabolism work harder? Actually it is dependent on the lifestyle of the individual.

A sedentary individual will generally a lower metabolism compared to a person who works out regularly.

If both consume a sugar glazed doughnut, the individual who works out regularly will better utilize the nutrients from doughnut because the insulin spike after an intense workout promotes muscle recover and replenishes glycogen back into the muscles. 

As for a sedentary individual, it will most likely be part of the day’s caloric intake but if the body considers it an excess then it gets stored as fat.

Now for another example that will blow your mind. If an individual who works out 3 to 4 times a week but consumes an amount of carbohydrates lower then what is required by the body. What do you think happens? The body’s reaction is to store fat as well. But why?

The answer lies in the metabolism. Lower food consumption and eating lesser than what is required lowers the metabolic rate and in turn hinders fat burning. 

Hope you enjoyed this article and please share if you felt this was beneficial!

Next topic: Healthy Eating 101

Written By: Ryan Lye

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Find My Maintainence Calories

Last topic I touched on why does one store fat. So now how do I eat all the yummy food and slim down and get sexy? Hold on. It isn’t that simple. First you have to find out your maintenance calories. 

 I would suggest going to IIFYM and use the iifym calculator to determine your calories required. It is really user friendly so just take few minutes to key in your vital stats. 

 

An app that i would highly recommend downloading in conjunction with IIFYM is Myfitnesspal. Which helps track your caloric intake and if you are meeting your daily requirements of macro and micro-nutrients.

Once the number of calories has been determined based on your fitness goal, there will be a breakdown of how much proteins, fats and carbohydrates are required daily. The key is consistency. It is alright to have a 5% to 10% variance but the idea is to be hitting around the recommended amount and tweaking the macros according to how your body reacts.

Disclaimer: everyone has a different metabolic rates (e.g fast or slow), muscle mass and body type. Also the existing lifestyle, sedentary or active and how active.

I am sure there are other factors but these are the main ones that determine the amount of calories that you need.

Now homework is to find your maintenance calories!!!

Next topic: Tweaking my calories.

Written by Ryan Lye

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How to reduce body fat?

In my last article i mentioned about Macros and how we can continue to eat most foods and still be healthy. But before i get to that i want to touch on fat and how it accumulates in our body.

Blame it on low metabolism, too much work, lack of exercise. I am sure we all battle with it at some point. It is truly frustrating and the odds seem to be against us. 

But there is another reason why we store fat that most people don't realize.

Most people aren’t eating enough. 

When I asked my clients what they eat on a regular basis, some find it like a trick question or struggle to remember what they had yesterday. You see folks most of us just want to fulfil our body’s natural response. Satisfy hunger. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it fills us up. 

 

But what if you found out that you were eating too little and it actually caused you to store fat? 

The body is built for survival. If you are not eating enough the body’s natural response is to store fat. It’s that simple. But wait! If i eat very little carbs and more protein and vegetables for my meals why then does one still store fat? The key thing is calories. Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats all have calories. If the body is undernourished it will convert calories into fat and store it in the fat cells. Once the cells are full, they multiply. The source of the calories does not matter. 

The quality of each meal is also essential but overall if we eat adequately and moderately, the body will be inclined to not store fat as it knows that it has enough REGULARLY. 

That is why most fitness enthusiast understand this and they keep their meals consistent and maintain a proper caloric intake daily. Ever wondered how they maintained their slim fit figures and eat ice cream and fried chicken even though they eat fried chicken and ice cream regularly?

Well i am going to teach you how.

 

Stay tuned for the next topic: Finding my Maintenance calories

Ryan Lye

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Fitness In the Air

Fitness In The Air - FITA

Today we will show you some very basic moves on the trampoline that can race your heat beat up really fast. These are really simple exercises and can be easily performed with proper techniques. The challenging part of these exercises is that it is on the trampoline ..(get that?) Having said that, the impact on the trampoline can be as high as 4-5 times of what you get from the hard ground. Especially the whiplash effect !!

We will try to get the movement right before we arrange them into a circuit workout. First, we learn to stabilize our body on the trampoline, and this requires our core strength.

The important key points are:
1. Keep your body straight and firm up your stomach and back.
2. Try your best not to rock your body, or let your back collapse.
3. Remember to breath.

The progression of the exercises is slow and safe. We want to enjoy ourselves and have a great workout without injuries right? The next exercises will be working out more on the adductors. This can be quite tiring for people who doesn't really work on their adductors before. The wider you open your legs, the more you will be working on it. But please don't be too adventurous, don't do a split...

Now is the coordination part, we will combine the 2 exercises above and work on the required muscles and also to build on our coordination. It might seem really straight forward and easy, but you'll be surprise how uncoordinated you are when you start doing it..

Last exercise we going to show you something more challenging. We do wide cuts mountain climbers on the trampoline. Coordination, flexibility and strength, all in one! Did we say that this is only for the legs? Come and do it and tell us if you can hold in this position without complaining your arms aching like mad..

Hope to see you in Amped, we going to shed some excess!
Contact Amped for more information!
http://ampedsingapore.com/

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Fitness In The Air

Bounce Your Fats Off!

This year, we had a few new programs coming up and one of it, which is super fun and interesting! Introducing our latest collaboration partner: Amped Trampoline Park! 

The Park is located at :
369 Tanjong Katong Road, Singapore 437126, (Level 2) Located above the food court.

If you haven't been there, then you are missing out something real big! 

Reactiv launched the new program: Fitness In The Air, it is a total body weight and resistance band training on the trampoline! Combining our existing program Triple-T Training system, our experience instructors came up with a hybrid of exercises with the unstable nature of the trampoline. A good 45mins of non-stop activities will definitely burn your unwanted excess off!

Do find out more from the Amped website:
http://ampedsingapore.com/

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