Metabolism Boosting Diet

Metabolism is the chemical process that breaks down nutrients into energy and determines how much food you need. Your metabolic rate essentially is how many calories your body needs to burn to keep itself functioning. The more calories it needs to burn just to keep you living, the higher your metabolic rate. Anything you do that increases your metabolic rate will help keep your body from storing fat.

Exercise

• Building muscle without putting on fat is the fastest way to increase your metabolism. Studies have repeatedly found that doing resistance training, such as lifting weights or doing push ups, builds muscle in every age group. The more muscle you have in comparison to the amount of fat you have, the higher your metabolism.

  Doing aerobic exercise burns calories while you're doing it, while weight training burns calories continuously for as long as your muscles maintain their size, with an extra boost for several hours after the workout. A good metabolism-boosting program will incorporate both types of exercise, usually on alternating days.

Eating

• Researchers have found that increasing protein intake, and having protein and carbohydrates together directly after exercising, can significantly boost metabolism. Protein intake of .75 grams to 1.25 grams per pound of body weight is recommended for increasing muscle mass, and thus metabolism. These should be from whole protein sources such as meat, dairy and soy.

  While increasing your metabolism it is critical that you get enough calories. Counter-intuitively, trying to build metabolism actually requires more calories than you would normally need. Do not try to restrict calories, as this significantly lowers metabolism.

  Instead, eat small meals five or six times per day, starting within 45 minutes of waking. Eat breakfast, even if you're not hungry for it; this will boost your metabolism and prevent your body from entering "starvation mode." Specific foods that help elevate your metabolism include grapefruit, chilies, high-fiber vegetables and all forms of protein.

  Drink lots of water. You need about 1/2 oz. of water per pound of body weight, per day. Supplement this with green tea, which also provides a metabolism boost. Avoid alcohol, which is dehydrating.

  Refined sugars and flours increase short-term energy, after which they are stored as fat. Therefore, they should only be used during aerobic exercise, when the body needs an extra boost of energy. At other times they are likely to contribute to fat, which lowers metabolism, and thus should be avoided.