Metabolism is the process through which your body processes the food you eat, and it is largely in charge of determining how easily you gain and lose weight. Individuals with a slower metabolism may have trouble losing body fat even if they are on a restricted-calorie diet. To some extent metabolism is genetic, but diet and exercise can influence how many calories you burn a day. Eating a healthy diet and exercising daily will help you burn fat and speed up the rate at which your body converts food to energy.
Step 1
Eat a nutritious diet consisting mainly of whole foods. Whole foods aren't processed or refined. They're as close to their natural state as possible and retain a higher nutritional value than processed foods. They usually don't contain added sugar or oils. Fresh fruits and vegetables, lean meats and poultry, whole grains, fish, nuts and legumes are examples of whole foods.
Step 2
Make vegetables the mainstay of your diet. Vegetables are high in fiber, nutritious and low in calories. They are the perfect fat loss food. Cruciferous vegetables, like broccoli, cabbage, kale, red peppers, celery and carrots can be eaten in large quantities and help fill you up so there's less room for more fattening foods. Starches such as squash, sweet potatoes and beets can also be consumed but in lesser quantities.
Step 3
Limit your intake of grains. Whole grains are good for you in small amounts, but eating too much can slow your metabolism and make you feel sluggish and even fatigued. Excess grains that are not used by the body for energy are converted and stored as fat.
Step 4
Exercise consistently at a moderate to high level of intensity. Exercise raises the heart rate, requiring the body to produce more fuel to power activity. The body uses the food you eat to create this fuel, burning calories as a result. The more you get your heart rate up, the faster your metabolism will operate.
Step 5
Build muscle to boost metabolism. Muscle burns more calories while at rest than fat. Your body uses calories from the food you eat to build and maintain lean muscle mass. That means that even after your weight-lifting session is over, your body is still hard at work building muscle. Fat at rest doesn't use any energy or burn any calories. Weight lift at least three days a week to keep the fat-burning cycle going. Be sure to also give your body time to rest in between weight-lifting sessions so that it has time to repair and recover.
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