Ok it is that time of year.  I know I talk about this every year, but I think it is important to hear.  January is approaching fast, and many are starting to set their resolutions.

We all know the stats.  Most people will not hit their goals they set.  That doesn’t mean New Year’s Resolutions are bad or not worth setting.  Many set poor or unrealistic goals.  That is the main reason most will fail.

First, a year is a really long time.  To set a goal now for the entire year is very difficult to do.  You might have your big goal you want to reach, but for your resolution, you will want to focus on one actionable item you can do for January.  Try not to look past 30 days.  Find one thing you can start or stop doing for one month that will get you closer to your goal.

So instead of focusing on losing 20lbs, you can put all your effort into one thing for January.  Maybe you start tracking your food, walking everyday, getting to the gym 3 times a week, etc.  If you were to do those things for one month, you have no choice but to take a step closer to your goal.  Then in February you can reassess and continue or maybe add something.

I know many will focus on their weight in 2024.  I wanted to try and convince you to shift your focus from weight.  You’ve heard this before, but most need to hear it again.  Your weight doesn’t tell you the whole picture and there is something much better you can pay attention to.

Instead of focusing on your weight, focus on your metabolism.  Your metabolism is the sum of all the reactions that go on in your body.  Most will refer to this as how many calories you expend each day.  The higher your metabolic rate, the easier it is to manage your body compensation.

So how do we change our metabolic rate?  The biggest thing that will impact metabolism is lean muscle tissue.  The more muscle tissue you have the higher your metabolism.

This doesn’t mean you have to be a body builder to see the benefits.  Just adding a few pounds of muscle will do incredible things to your metabolism and ultimately help you manage your weight.

Yet most still focus on weight alone.  The interesting thing is, when you look at weight loss studies that only use a diet intervention we see an interesting thing.  When you reduce calories you will lose weight.  You lose body fat, but you will also lose muscle tissue.  This

means that not only will the scale go down, your metabolism starts to drop.  This results in short term improvements, but in the long term it makes weight loss much more difficult.

Now compare this to studies that use diet plus strength training.  These studies will not show as impressive results on the scale.  This is because lifting weights can increase muscle mass or at least maintain muscle mass.  So while the scale doesn’t change as much, there is still significant body composition improvements.

The best part is, we see less of a change in metabolism.  So while there might be slower results initially, in the long run we will continue to see improvements.

Now the question, how do we boost metabolic rate?  The two most important things you can do is eat sufficient protein regularly and incorporate resistance training.

You should aim to eat about .7grams/lb of body weight of protein everyday.  This is usually much more than people are used to.  Add to that 2-3 days of resistance training and you have a great formula for improve muscle and boosting your metabolism.

If you still choose to use a scale to monitor progress, choose a scale that uses other body metrics in addition to weight.  I recommend the Dara scale from Fit Track.  If you are interested use code OCRUNDERGROUND and get 51% off!

I hope this helps you get started planning your 2024.   As always if you need help along the way let me know.

Mike Deibler MS, CSCS

San Diego Premier Training

Need more help getting started on managing your body composition?  Check out this free webinar on the Fat Loss Blueprint.  Learn why most diets fail, the 4 keys to success, and an action plan to implement them.  Click  here to get access.