BBC Focus Magazine

[scott fairbrass]

is there ne food that speeds up your metabalism to aid in weight loss?

[M Paul Lloyd]

I think I read somewhere that hot chilli peppers and spicy foods in general have this effect but I wouldn't recommend eating too many chilli's as they can have some interesting side effects.

Beyond that I'm not really sure, sorry.

[MikeG]

I've read the same thing MPL. Also, I would say that a diet heavy in fish and rice should contribute to maintaining a proper weight. Apparently most Japanese women were almost flat chested, and had almost no "rear bumpekrs" when they stuck to traditional Japanese cuisine. It's only quite recently, when they were introduced to Western diets, that their bodies changed, and filled out more.

[Thinker]

And how can you healthily do the opposite? I can't seem to put weight on at all! I'm too skinny!

[MikeG]

Try a protein shake with 3 raw eggs, milk, and fresh strawberries (for flavor) every day in addition to your normal everyday diet. That should be a start and it worked for me. As a standard disclaimer, I don't claim to be a dietician, nutritionist, or anything related

[Liam Sheppard]

beetroot increases oxygen absorbtion apparantly

[M Paul Lloyd]

Ah yes Beetroot, another potential superfood, it was suggested to me as a diet supplement as it is thought to relieve hypertension (high blood pressure) but apart from turning my wee a funny shade of orange it didn't have much effect.

Its other possible benefits I cannot report on I'm afraid.

[Thinker]

Try a protein shake with 3 raw eggs, milk, and fresh strawberries (for flavor) every day in addition to your normal everyday diet. That should be a start and it worked for me. As a standard disclaimer, I don't claim to be a dietician, nutritionist, or anything related.

Sounds lovely!

I only ask this because I am scrawny! I could put a lighter touch to the comment and say, I'm a little bit skinny, or I'm pretty slim, but I'm only cheating myself. It also winds me up when people say "Count yourself lucky, I would love to be like you." Yeah, great. If I could hand over the reigns of my bone clinging physique, I would in a flash.

I spent a period of time just chowing everything in a fit to get stocky, I ate fry ups, pasta, jacket potatoes, but it just didn't seem to work. My cousin once mentioned that he's the same and he managed to put on weight once by drinking those body building drinks, but I don't know if that's a good idea just to put on weight!

[M Paul Lloyd]

Well I'm no dietician either but over the years I have come to realise that the kind of food you eat is far more important than the qauntity and just bulking up with high energy cocktails isn't going to serve your general health any favours in the long run unless it is offset with all the good stuff. Having said that MikeG's suggestion looks better balanced than some I have come across.

It seems to me Thinker that you have a high metabolism and a tendency not to store much subcutaneous fat. Which is really not a problem and terms like 'skinny' or 'fat' should be banned if you ask me, we are what we are, it's general health that is much more important. So if your blood pressure is ok and your blood/urine shows nothing wrong with your liver/kidney's and such and your BMI isn't way off the scale, well I wouldn't worry to much.

The real problem with aiming for a healthy body is the amount of visceral fat in your system, the sort of fat that clings to your organs and arteries that is of real concern and even someone who has a very low BMI may still have a lot of this fat in their system without any outward signs that it is there.

[Thinker]

The thing is. I don't want to be scrawny. Many people may come across and say, well that's life if you don't like it lump it. But there must be a solution to this problem. I wish I was the sort of person that could sit there and gorge mountains of food, but I'm just not like that. I have one mouthful of a Mars bar and feel nauseous.

When I was a roof tiler, I put on muscle, but I didn't realise it until someone pointed out that I looked like I had been working out. Hence, every evening now I'm doing press-ups, sit ups, tricep and bicep excercises to get that bulky look back. I'm toying with the idea of protein shakes, but will probably just carry on with my normal diet of cheese on toast, pizza and chilli con carne every other day.

[M Paul Lloyd]

A healthy weight gain would be about 2lb a month and to achieve that I would aim to increase your calorie intake by 300 to 350 calories a day.
I would try and keep a food diary for a couple of weeks about what and how much you actually eat and to sort out when and where you can add calories.

At the risk of teaching you stuff you already know you could just eat more of what you already have or eat stuff that has more calories in it, butter instead of marg' full fat milk instead of skimmed and so-on.

On the excercise front you'll only build muscle if you have the food intake to balance that up so you might wish to add an extra slice of something to your lunchtime platter anyway. Cheese is good.

After many years of being very active my joints are now crumbling away and my Doctor suggests I aim for about 30 minutes'physical activity five days a week (oh my how the mighty have fallen) thing is I now struggle to keep my weight down which is a real pain because I do love my food. .

[KingPhillip]

In order to bulk up in a healthy manner, one should take in nutrients to provide the energy to do the exercises. The exercises should demand the muscles work harder than they are used to so micro-tears of the muscle fibers occur. After the exercises, the body should have a source of broken-down proteins, fats and carbohydrates to repair and build on the muscle fibers.

Chicken breasts are the best source of protein for bodybuilding.

When the cycle of intake and work are timed correctly, the body will build muscle mass, as well as, lose extraneous fat.

From one perspective, high metabolism seems to be a pathology. The body thinks it needs more energy and metabolises, and possibly cannibalises, whatever is readily at hand.