Natural Metabolism Boost

Maybe you've noticed lately that the foods you love to eat aren't as easy to keep off the stomach and love handles. Don't blame the food--your metabolism is probably slowing down. As you grow older, your body becomes more efficient at producing its required energy, and the amount of energy you expend in a day also becomes less. If you're looking for ways to jump-start your metabolism again, the key is to find dietary supplements that will activate the thyroid gland and its hormone production, which has a significant impact on your body's metaboiic rate.

Coconut Oil

• Coconut oil is a well-known metabolism booster. In fact, it was used on cattle by farmers in the 1940s but had a reverse effect, making the livestock thin and active instead of fattening them up as intended.. Coconut oil is a medium-chain fatty acid, a kind processed into energy directly by the liver rather than being stored as fat. You can take coconut oil either in teaspoons daily, use it as a substitute for cooking oil, or both, and it will have a positive effect on your metabolism.

Green Tea

• Green tea has a heat-producing effect on the body, increasing your body's sitting heat production by three or four percent. Many people think the caffeine in green tea is the cause for this, since the tea increases your energy when you drink it, but you can actually drink caffeine-free green tea and enjoy the same effect. It is actually the catechin polyphenols found in green tea which are believed to influence how the body uses norepinephrine--a chemical transmitter found in the nervous system--to increase its calorie burning and metabolism.

Kelp

• Kelp contains iodine and precursors of the thyroid gland's active hormones, which combine to increase your basal (resting) metabolic rate and improve your body's ability to metabolize fat. In a study conducted over a period of 60 days, Carole Fisher and Gillian Painter found that, though taking kelp wasn't demonstrated to be of benefit to someone without a clear thyroid problem, it could help someone in need of a thyroid-benefiting herb. For metabolic purposes, this would validate its use for someone whose metabolism problems were connected to the thyroid, as many are.