Do I have a high metabolism?

I'm a 16 year old guy, about 5' 8.5" and I weigh 150 ibs. I work out ( lift weights) 5 days a week and I bike an average of about 3 miles every weekend. I took a test and it said I need to consume about 2721.707 calories to maintain my body weight at my height. I'm not sure how to tell if a I have a fast motabalism or not, but I'm just wondering how fast it is.

How to Calculate Calorie Intake to Lose Weight

Recommended Answer:

Forget about metabolism. You, like almost everyone else, has a normal metabolism. If you had a fast or slow metabolism you would have a host of symptoms and be under the care of an endocrinologist.One of the most common myths or misunderstandings in diet, nutrition, and fitness is that metabolic rate is responsible for a person's natural tendency toward being fat or thin or muscular. Or that metabolic rate can be changed to help lose fat or gain weight. This is not true and easy evidence of that fact can be found here ---> http://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html where basal metabolic rate (BMR) can be calculated with only height, weight, sex, and age. If metabolism was responsible for gaining fat or staying thin, that natural tendency would have to be included in the calculation of BMR. It's not. It's important to understand this fact because it will put an end to the frustration that comes with trying to change the metabolic rate to create a specific effect such the loss or gain of body weight, fat, or muscle. Unless you have a real medical issue, your metabolism is fine and nothing you do is going to create more than a normal temporary change in metabolic rate with one exception. Adding lean muscle mass will raise your BMR by about 50 cal/day per pound of muscle for as long as you maintain that muscle. That's a lot of work for a little change but for many, it's an excellent metabolic investment. If it's important to you to blame something for being an easy or hard gainer, then blame your parents because those propensities are inherited...genetic. Or blame your soma (body) type (ecto, endo, or mesomorph) and the number of fat cells you have. But don't blame your metabolism because it is nothing more than the totality of the energy exchanges which happen every second of every day as required to sustain your life given the demands of the moment. Most people would be well advised to not even use the word metabolism as it has no real relevance to the problems of being an easy or hard gainer. It makes no more sense to think about your metabolism in regard to diet or exercise than it does to think about your car's horsepower when pressing on the gas pedal to go or the brake pedal to stop. If you're concerned with losing fat, gaining weight, building muscle, or maintaining, follow good diet, exercise, and fitness strategies and your metabolism will take care of itself.For more about metabolism, go here and see what the experts have to say ---> http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/metabolism/WT00006NOTE - It's worth mentioning that there are websites with articles about "boosting" the metabolism. Livestrong.com and WebMD.com are examples of credible websites which suggest ways to boost the metabolism. And, although what they say is true qualitatively, they don't provide any quantitative information thereby leading the reader to believe they may be able to make fat loss easy. The truth is anything you do to increase your energy output temporarily will increase your metabolism. However, nothing other than adding muscle will boost your metabolism significantly and permanently. Be very careful about information you glean from dot coms. There is as much bad information on the internet as there is good and most of it is driven by profit motive.Good luck and good health!♠

Read More >>

Does the elliptical help shape and thin your legs especially your thighs?

So I'm on a healthy diet this summer and I'm trying to get rid of my chubby thighs like every other girl. We're getting an elliptical this week, if i work out on it for hours (which i will cause i have no life haha) in front of the tv, will it ton my thighs and legs or just make them go huge with muscle. If you don't mind, which is better Running or Elliptical. I find using ellipticals is easier that running outside or on a treadmill for my asthma.Thanks

How to Lose Weight By Eating Fruits

Recommended Answer:

The key to fat loss is not exercise, it's diet.Any exercise will burn calories but no exercise will burn fat unless your diet allows it. You can burn fat in your sleep or you can run all day and never burn any fat. It all depends on your diet. Fat loss is determined by calorie control, not by exercise. Good exercises for burning calories are speed walking, biking, swimming, dancing, etc. and ANY other physical activity which makes you move a lot of weight for a long time. But NO exercise is good for burning fat if you eat too many calories because you can always eat more calories than you can burn but you can't always burn as many as you take in.Too many people waste energy and time because they do not understand this one simple point. The result is too often giving up in frustration, abandoning gym memberships they continue to pay for, and many other unnecessary problems not the least of which is a lack of success. An average person must walk about five miles every day for a week to burn the calories equivalent to a pound of body fat. So, unless you think walking about five miles a day (or doing an equivalent amount of exercise) with no guarantee of fat loss makes sense, focus your fat loss program on diet.Diet for fat loss. Exercise for fitness. When you are in a fat loss mode and burning body fat, it is your body (based on your genetics) and only your body that determines where that fat loss will happen. You have absolutely no control over where your body loses fat first, last, and in between no matter what you do. It is not possible to lose fat only from a specific part of your body of your choosing. Where your body stores and removes fat is determined by your genetics and there is nothing you can do to change that short of radical procedures such as liposuction. And, in general, where it stores fat first is where it will lose it last and visa versa. The world of health and fitness has an unfortunate abundance of myths and spot reduction is one of them. There is no exercise, no pill, no supplements, no spa treatment, and no natural way to spot reduce. Your only choice is to create a caloric deficit with diet and preferably some exercise, burn fat, and wait for it to leave the desired body parts.Some women may be disappointed to learn that they can't remove their unwanted belly fat without losing a cup size or two. And, some men may be disappointed to find out they can't get a ripped abdomen without cutting into their essential body fat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_reductionhttp://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Myths.htmlhttp://www.fitnesstipsforlife.com/the-spot-reduction-myth.htmlTo find out how the best minds in nutrition in the world (at the US NIH) have recommended for decades we lose fat, read my answer about how to lose fat --> http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=As615QJM4X_3ID9_05qmmlXty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20111028185603AAVcP4D Exercising your legs aerobically (eg: elliptical, treadmill, bike) will not build very much muscle. Muscle size comes from intense contractions for a short time. So, lose the fat and do the elliptical (or just walk a lot) and you should have great thighs.Good luck and good health!!♠

Read More >>