If you've caused metabolic damage as a result of following
starvation diets or losing weight too rapidly in the past, it can be
extremely difficult to achieve any further fat loss at all. The good
news is, metabolic damage can be repaired. All it takes is the right
combination of metabolism stimulating exercise and metabolism
stimulating nutrition (NOT just a diet), all done consistently over
time.

The big irony is that most of the diet programs that claim to help
you get rid of excess weight, only end up making it harder for you in
the long run because they use harsh metabolism-decreasing diets and not
enough exercise (almost never any weight training).

It may take a little longer if you have really messed things up with
severe starvation dieting in the past, especially if you've lost a lot
of lean body mass, but it is never hopeless. Anyone can increase their
metabolism.

Most people get an almost immediate boost in metabolic rate when
they start the Burn The Fat program. However, the results are not going
to be "overnight." Give it a little time...

Within 3 weeks your metabolism will already be more efficient.
Within 6-8 weeks, it's burning hot. Give me 12 weeks of consistent
diligent effort, sticking with all the metabolism boosting strategies I
teach, and your metabolism really will become like a turbo charged
engine, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

What’s most important for upping your metabolism is CONSISTENCY in
applying the Burn The Fat nutrition and training principles every
single day.

That includes:

• Meal frequency: eat 5-6 small meals per day
• Meal timing: eat approximately every 3 hours, with a substantial breakfast and a substantial post workout meal.
• Sufficient Caloric Intake: maintain a small calorie deficit and
  avoid starvation-level diets (suggested safe levels for fat loss:
  2100-2500 calories per day for men, 1400-1800 calories per day for
  women; adjust as needed)
• Food choices: Select natural, unprocessed foods with high thermic
  effect (lean proteins like chicken, turkey, egg whites and fish are
  highly thermic, as are all green vegetables, salad vegetables and other
  fibrous carbs)
• Cardio training: Push up the intensity a bit if you really want to
  get a metabolic boost. Walking and low intensity cardio is fine, but
  higher intensity is more metabolism-stimulating
• Weight training: The basic exercises that include the largest
  muscle groups or even call into play the entire body as a unit (squats,
  front squats, split squats, deadlifts, stiff legged deadlifts, overhead
  presses, all kinds of rows and core-activation exercises) will have a
  much greater metabolism stimulating effect than isolation exercises
  (concentration curls, calf raises, etc)

The weight training is extremely important in cases of "metabolic
damage" because this is the stimulus to keep the muscle you have and
begin rebuilding new muscle tissue, which is the engine that drives
your metabolism.

The men don't usually have a problem with the weight training, but I
still hear women say they don't want to lift weights as part of their
fat loss programs. Well, people who wont lift weights can expect a
very, very long metabolism "repair process" if they achieve it at all.

Consistency is the key.

Nothing will undermine the "re-building" of your metabolism like
inconsistency. If you stop and start, or skip meals and workouts often,
you will not even get off the ground.

After your metabolism is back up where it should be, it takes
continued "stoking" of the metabolic furnace to keep it there. Once you
get your metabolic engine running, you've got to keep feeding it fuel
or the fire will die down.

Picture an old fashioned wood burning stove...

Imagine you're in a cabin up in the mountains in the winter. It's
cold in there and you want to keep the cabin warm. Can you achieve this
by feeding the fire once or twice per day? Nope. Not enough fuel to
burn, so not much heat is generated.

What if you just toss an entire pile of wood in the stove all at
once? Will that work? Nope. Lots of fuel, but can't all be used at
once... it just smothers the fire and the excess just sits there.

How about if you throw some tissue paper or crumpled newspaper in the stove, will that work? Nope - too quickly burning.

You have to keep putting small amounts of wood (the right type of fuel) on the fire at regular intervals or the fire burns out.

It's also difficult to get the fire lit again. In the case of
metabolism, it's like going through that initial few weeks of
overcoming inertia all over again.

Your goal is to get your metabolism burning hot and keep it burning
and this cannot be achieved by missing meals, missing workouts or with
sporadic, infrequent training.

I have only seen a handful of cases where all these things were done properly and there was still a longer "repair" process.

For example, one case was former ballet dancer. At 5' 5", she was
previously 110 lbs and had increased to about 145 or so. She didn’t
want to reach her previous 110, but find a happy medium of about 125
lbs.

I figured with 20 lbs to cut, this would be a simple and predictable
process, but she had a challenging time (and I didn't know why at
first).

I later found out that she had been anorexic and bulimic for many
years. This had caused a lot of damage, and although she did reach her
goal, it took about twice as long as we had anticipated.

The good news is, even in this extreme case, the same nutrition and
training principles worked! It just took a little longer. And by the
way her program included some serious training with free weights and
she ate a lot more (clean) food than she had ever eaten before. No
"starvation!"

That’s the power of burning the fat and feeding the muscles...
Trying to starve the fat with crash diets is what causes the metabolic
damage in the first place!

If you’re interested in the healthy, sensible way to take off the
fat, while keeping all your muscle and actually increasing your
metabolism in the process, then my Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle
program can teach you how. No gimmicks or false promises. Just the
truth - you have to work at it and you have to be patient. 

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto

www.BurnTheFat.com

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, an NSCA-certified
personal trainer (CPT), certified strength & conditioning
specialist (CSCS), and author of the #1 best-selling e-book, "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle"
Tom has written more than 200 articles and has been featured in print
magazines such as IRONMAN, Australian IRONMAN, Natural Bodybuilding,
Muscular Development, Exercise for Men and Men’s Exercise, as well as
on hundreds of websites worldwide.

For information on Tom's Fat Loss
program, visit: www.BurnTheFat.com