Your body gets the energy it needs from food through a process called metabolism. Metabolism is a complicated chemical process, so it's not surprising that many people think of it in its simplest sense: as something that influences how easily our bodies gain or lose weight.

• Learn How to Fix Slow Metabolism
  
• Learn 7 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism
  

The real key to weight loss is knowing precisely what YOUR body needs. The only way to know just what your body needs is through Metabolic Testing!

Metabolic Testing

Metabolic measurement is one of the key components that we use for initial diagnostic testing to evaluate and treat your weight problem. It provides us with the scientific principles to screen for slow metabolism and to construct a truly customized weight loss program for you.

• High Tech: Our hospital quality metabolism equipment determines the exact number of calories that you need to lose weight safely and quickly.
• Scientific: Once completed, your metabolic rate is used to calculated your Target Caloric Zones. Your Zones will show you how to eat the MAXIMUM amount of food and still lose weight. Your body will be healthy, happy, and satisfied.

REMOVE All GUESS WORK!

We will measure your resting metabolic rate with a simple 10 minute breath test. Testing your metabolic rate will determine exactly how many calories you may eat and still lose or maintain weight. No more charts, averages, or guessing. For the first time, there is something truly new for to help you lose weight safely and effectively.

After we measure your metabolic rate, our experienced medical staff will design for you a personalized meal plan (with grocery list). Your metabolic results will also be incorporated with your blood work up to design your overall weight loss treatment.

How to Fix Slow Metabolism

The human body is a funny thing. It’s VERY ADAPTABLE for survival. So when you give it less food, the result is a slow metabolism for survival purposes. That's why it is important to take a break from your diet (but stay in control of your food intake) and focus on eating healthy, balanced meals with exercise. This will prevent your metabolism from getting too slow.

Hundreds and thousands of years ago, when eating was a matter of survival, the body would protect itself by slowing down the rate that it burned calories (lower metabolism) to maintain weight. In modern society, we have the opposite problem of too much food, temptation and consequent weight gain.

Our bodies are designed for survival and less food is a threat to its survival. You must control the slow increase or decrease of food intake to successfully lose weight and keep it off. If you stop eating or skip meals, your metabolism will come to a SCREECHING HALT.

If you maintain control and balance your diet, you will lose weight. However, over time, your body’s metabolism will adapt and eventually slow down. That’s why we need to take a short break from dieting. But if you give up and SUDDENLY start eating back to your pre diet days, you will quickly gain the weight back because your metabolism will slow down.

You should consider sticking to a good diet plan. We offer many custom meal plans that are tailored to your own metabolic rate. Learn more… (links to Meal Plans)

7 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

1. Build Muscle Mass. Strength training builds lean muscle tissue, which burns more calories at work or at rest, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The more lean muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be. How do you start strength training? Try some push-ups, or a few squats or lunges. Use 5 lb. free weights to perform simple biceps curls or triceps pulls. Do these exercises three to four times per week and you'll soon see a boost in your metabolism as well as an improvement in your physique.
   
   See our Simple Exercise Guide
2. Do Not Skip Meals or Drastically Reduce Your Calories. If your body senses that food is in short supply, it will slow your metabolism to conserve energy. Over time, the result is that when you do eat (even if you consume the same foods as always) your body will be slower to use the calories as fuel, thus creating a backlog of unwanted pounds. A good strategy is to cut your caloric intake by no more than 500 calories per day and never less than 1200 calories total each day. Once you determine your goal for calorie consumption, divide those calories into 6 different small meals/snacks throughout the day.
3. Increase the Amount of Protein in your Diet. Most researchers agree that protein helps to stabilize the secretion of insulin into your blood stream, a process that can affect metabolism. The average person would benefit from protein intake at a minimum of 70 grams or higher each day.
   
   Some new research has shown that protein helps to maintain metabolism better than either carbohydrates or fat during dieting. In fact, metabolism decreased only half as much after seven days when people ate a high protein diet as compared to those eating other diets. When several groups were put on various 1000 calorie per day diets, the high protein group had only a 3.2% slow down in metabolism compared to 6-7% for the other diets. That amounted to about 50 calories per day difference. The high protein diet was also better at satisfying appetite then any of the other diets tested.
   
   If you are trying to manage your weight you should consider lowering your sugar and fat intake and increasing your protein intake. The protein rich diet will help you to spare muscle tissue, keep your metabolism high, and feel satisfied.
4. Get Adequate Sleep. As funny as it sounds, sleep deprivation may make you fat and not just because you're susceptible to cases of the late-night munchies. According to researchers at the University of Chicago, women who got less than four hours of sleep per night had a slower metabolism than those who slept for a full eight hours.
5. Do Some Evening Activity. Although being active at any time is good for you, evening activity may be particularly beneficial. Many people's metabolism slows down toward the end of the day. Thirty minutes of aerobic activity before dinner increases your metabolic rate and may keep it elevated for another two or three hours. What that means for you: those dinner calories have less of a chance to take up permanent residence on your hips!
6. Increase Movement in Daily Lifestyle. The more you move, the more you burn! You can actually make a significant addition to the number of calories you burn each day by relatively minor changes in lifestyle. This can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator; park a distance from the mall or office; window-shop with your best friend rather than sit over coffee; walk the dog instead of just let him out; do a little gardening or clean house while you talk on the phone. Making these types of changes for just 20 minutes of your day will cause you to burn an additional 100 calories per day or an additional pound per month. Making more of these changes can help you burn as much as an additional 1,000 calories per day!
7. Aerobic Workout 3 Days a Week. Even though exercise doesn't affect your RMR, the extra calories you burn could add up to an additional 1-2 pounds of weight loss per month.