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Skeletal muscles are your body’s natural fat burners, according to exercise physiologist William McArdle. They constantly use fat and carbohydrates to keep you warm and provide you with energy for movement.

Calories Burned

One pound of muscle burns about 6.5 calories per hour, according to McArdle. Muscles burn 5.5 times more calories than fat tissues, which burn about 1.2 calories per pound per hour.

Strength Training

You can increase your muscle mass by strength training, which stimulates your body to develop thicker muscle fibers. You can use various methods to increase muscle size, such as weight training, calisthenics (circuit training / boot camp), sprinting and jumping.

Basal Metabolic Rate

Basal metabolic rate, or BMR, estimates how much calories you burn when you are at rest, according to dietitian Ellen Coleman. The more muscles you have, the more calories you burn when you exercise and rest. A man with 100 lbs. of muscle would burn about 1,342 calories per day, while a man with 120 lbs. of muscle burn about 1,558 calories a day.

References

• “Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition, and Human Performance”; William McArdle; 2001 + “Ultimate Sports Nutrition”; Ellen Coleman; 2004

When considering exercise there are generally three types of people.

The first is the extreme athlete who knows exactly what to do to keep on top of their game.

The second type is those of an average to high fitness level who enjoys exercise and sport and maintains their fitness all year round.

The third and most common type is the person of low to average fitness who can never get into a steady exercise routine. They normally ‘Yo-Yo’ on their diets and exercise often starting with new year resolutions and finishing in February or March to start again 4-6 weeks before the summer holidays by which time its much too late.

The key to a healthy lifestyle is consistency. Someone who has never exercised before needs to start slowly and progressively increase their fitness level and once they have achieved their goals they need to work to maintain that level.

It’s very hard both physically and psychologically to achieve past goals such as a target body weight or running a marathon in a certain time after a period of no exercise.

People also have to be careful not to ‘overtrain’ as that can lead to ‘burnout’ and ‘staleness’ which have negative effects such as amongst other things fatigue, mood swings, cold like symptoms, impaired performance and loss of concentration.

Sleep is essential for a person’s health and wellbeing.

According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) when people don’t get enough sleep they can suffer from the following:

– Irritability / mood swings
– Slowed speech
– Impaired memory
– Inability to multitask
– Micro sleeps (nodding off for 5-10 seconds, especially dangerous when driving)

In terms of exercise your body rests and recovers when you’re asleep and the nutritional value of all your meals is realised to rebuild and replace vitamins and minerals lost during the day such as calcium, potassium, sodium, protein, carbohydrates, vitamin C…

If you are just starting an exercise regime or have been training hard for an event such as a triathlon and you are not getting enough sleep then your body will never fully recover or and your training will not progress as it should.

Individual sleep needs vary. In general, most healthy adults are built for 16 hours awake and need an average of eight hours sleep a night. However, some individuals are able to function normally and without feeling tired after as little as five or six hours sleep. Others cannot perform at their peak unless they have had ten hours sleep.

You should by now know how many hours sleep your body and mind needs to feel fully refreshed and you should aim to get that many hours every night in order to get into a rhythm. If you are struggling with a long term lack of sleep then you should consult your GP to find out what treatment or remedies might work for you.

Another topic which has been talked about a lot in the media of late is the damaging and long term effects of too much sunbathing.

People are going on holiday and not applying suntan cream often enough or using one with the right sun protection factor (SPF) and they generally think that getting sunburnt is part of the tanning process. People back in the UK are also using sunbeds for too long or too often which greatly increases the chances of getting skin cancer.

In terms of exercise if you have been sunburnt you will find it hard and uncomfortable to train which might mean having to have a couple of days break from your training regime, which will delay you in achieving or maintaining your goals.

If you train outdoors even in the winter time you should wear a suitable sport / sweat / water resistant SPF cream to help protect and moisturise your exposed skin.

Visit http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/sunbathing.htm for useful tips on how to sunbathe safely and avoid becoming sunburnt.

The human body is about 60% water in adult males and 55% in adult females. Water is essential for life and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.