The best way to shed weight fast and naturally (besides getting proper nutrition) is to increase your metabolism. Having a faster metabolism is what will help you lose pounds (as much as 25 pounds in a month is certainly possible), burn fat, and so much more. What's even better is that you will be doing so consistently, quickly, and permanently! In today's post I hope to help you in understanding more on what exactly the metabolism is, and also many of the most effective ways for you to naturally increase it as high as possible! Continue reading on to learn more...

Firstly, what is the metabolism?

Well, to skip over all the medical mumble jumble, basically, your metabolism is not a specific part of your body, it's a specific function of your body that processes food into energy. This process will either be catabolism or anabolism.

Catabolism is where your metabolism will break down foods into energy. Anabolism is where your metabolism will break down foods and store them... as extra body fat! One surefire way to become anabolic is by eating too many calories at once. When you eat a lot of calories, and your body has nothing to do with these excess calories, then your body is forced to store these excess calories... as excess fat (check out #19 below).

So, as you can see, increasing your metabolism into a catabolic state is surely the best way to weight naturally and quickly, and with that said, I have for you my top 23 ways to boost your metabolism to lose up to 25 pounds of stubborn fat lightning fast:

1. Build Muscle - The first thing I would like to mention before I explain why building lean muscle is for sure one of the best ways to shed weight fast is that if you are a woman, you do not have to worry about building HUGE muscles! For women developing massive muscles, this is only done by taking supplements, lifting extremely heavy weights, and other unnatural things.

Now, the reason it is so important to build muscle tissue is because having more muscle tissue on you than fat tissue will AUTOMATICALLY burn away calories! This happens due to an increase to your metabolism during a weight training workout, and also due to an increase of your resting metabolic rate (when your body repairs muscle tissue during rest).

2. Interval Cardiovascular Exercise - This type of aerobic workout involves alternating between high and low intensity with your exercise. An example would be to jog for 2 minutes and then kick it up a notch for 30 seconds and sprint. Repeat this for a period of 20 total minutes and not only will you have had a more fun and motivating workout, you will have also increased your metabolism AND resting metabolic rate... plus this is a great stress buster!

3. Eat More Frequently - I'm pretty sure you've heard this dieting tip at one point or another... and I HIGHLY recommend you follow it. When you eat more frequently (such as with 4-6 meals), you are keeping your digestive system active... and will therefore increase your metabolism. You also help defeat annoying hunger and craving pangs!

4. Get Omega Fatty Acids In Your Diet - Omega fatty acids (and other healthy fats such as monounsaturated) are found in nuts, fish, fish oil supplements, olive oil, and more. Getting healthy fats in your diet will increase your metabolism since it will help with regulating your blood sugar levels, decreasing your susceptibility to leptin, and reducing inflammation.

5. The MIGHTY Green Tea - Drinking at least a couple of cups (I recommend five or more for SUPER results) of green tea everyday will increase your metabolism and is also a great source for antioxidants to help cleanse your body and help you shed weight fast. Drinking green tea will help boost your metabolism due to an active ingredient found in green tea called catechins.

6. NEVER Force Your Body To PRESERVE Energy - What does that mean? Well, if you go on one of those infamous "low-calorie" diets or even those insane starvation (fasting) diets, you can end up slowing your metabolism down. This happens because when you significantly reduce calories, your body thinks you are starving, and will then slow down fat loss to maintain your energy levels! To prevent this from happening, first avoid those "low-calorie" types of diets, and second, I recommend that you eat more than 3 meals a day (mentioned in #3 above)... BUT... make sure that each meal is small (such as around 300 calories).

7. START Right... And You'll FINISH Strong - Yes, the VERY common tip of ensuring that you eat a well-balanced breakfast has been beaten to death... but it still deserves to be mentioned again, and again, and again! Eating a "smart" breakfast (foods high in protein and complex carbs) will not just help you with sustained energy all day long, it will also help increase your metabolism.

8. Keep Away From Trans Fat - This is the most important type of fat to avoid by all means necessary. The health damaging effects of trans fat is flat-out scary! One of the problems eating foods high in trans fat can cause is a reduction in your metabolism. It does this by making your body insulin resistant, causing inflammation, and adhering to liver and fat cells.

9. Eat As Fresh As Possible - Organic foods, raw foods, etc. are some of the most important types of foods to add into your diet to help in SEVERAL areas (energy, fat loss, weight loss, increasing your metabolism, digestive health, heart health, and even improving the functions of your brain and mood)!

10. Protein - Healthy protein (turkey breast, chicken breast, egg whites, nuts, organic fat-free milk, organic fat-free yogurt, whey protein shakes, and more) is not just a popular nutrient amongst bodybuilders, it is a vital nutrient that can help you in so many ways... such as by SKYROCKETING your metabolism! The reason protein can help increase your metabolism is because your body has to burn a ton of calories just to process it! Not to mention, getting plenty of protein in your diet will fight off hunger pangs and so much more! Also, I recommend that you have some type of healthy protein with every meal for best results.

11. Avoid So-Called "Healthy" Foods - Many of those low-fat, low-carb, etc. food options you see at your local grocery store are actually not healthy for you. The reason why is because with reducing one bad part of a particular type of food, more than likely another bad area was increased to substitute (such as more sugar, more fat, aspartame, etc.).

12. Go Green - Dark green leafy veggies (spinach, dark green leafy lettuce such as romaine, broccoli, kale, collard greens, and more) can help increase your metabolism since they will enhance your digestive system and also because they are high in iron. Another benefit of dark green leafy veggies is that they will also support your red blood cells to supply nutrients throughout your body.

13. Detoxify Your Body - Processed foods, tap water, and even the air we breathe all contain contaminants that over time, will accumulate in our bodies in the form of toxins... better known as free radicals. This waste can not only be harmful for your overall health, it can cause pounds of excess waste to accumulate. If you detoxify your body (drinking more water, eating fiber, eating foods such as berries or drinking liquids such as green tea that are high in antioxidants, etc.), you can help speed up your metabolism, improve your overall health... and so much more.

14. Grapefruit - Eating this super-food can help boost your metabolic rate by helping to decrease insulin levels.

15. The Number One Essential - Water! You can increase your metabolic rate by up to 30% by drinking more water. A good rule of thumb to help you figure out how much you need to drink is to simply divide the weight you are currently at now, and drink this amount in ounces of FRESH filtered water each day. I recommend you don't waste your money on buying spring water. You can get similar quality water and SAVE A TON of money by simply getting a water filtration device for your faucet instead.

16. THIS Each Day Keeps The Doctor Away - That's right... good ol' apples! Apples are by far one of the greatest super-foods on the planet. Eating them will help in improving your metabolism, decreasing hunger pangs, decreasing cravings, SIGNIFICANTLY helping your digestive system, and more! Now, although this is a VERY powerful and VERY healthy food, given that it is somewhat high in calories and simple carbs, I recommend that you get a minimum amount each day (such as 1 or 2).

17. Berries - Adding berries (blue, black, etc.) to your diet will help detoxify your body, increase your fat burning abilities, and improve your overall health.

18. Make It SPICY! - Many researches have indicated that adding hot spices to your foods can significantly help raise your bodies fat burning ability. This is because many spices (such as cayenne pepper, jalapeño peppers, and more) contain Capsaicin, and this will help in increasing your bodies fat burning hormones.

19. Avoid Eating Too Late At Night - Especially foods high in bad carbs (sugar, white flour based, etc.) and fatty foods. Eating foods too late at night is a problem because when you sleep, your body doesn't need energy... and food is used as energy. So what happens to this food when it's not being used as energy? That's right, your metabolism slows down and stores it as extra body fat!

20. You Cheater! - If you want to trick your metabolism into increasing as high as possible, and if you want to actually enjoy dieting instead of dreading it, then one awesome thing you can do is to have cheat foods... THE RIGHT WAY. Yes, there is a right and wrong way with cheat days. Most people think that it's okay to go absolutely insane on their cheat days and this is further from the truth. You have to eat the right types of foods in the right patterns for this to work properly and not end up sabotaging your metabolism instead of strategically elevating it. This website HERE has more details on this awesome dieting trick.

21. Deep Breathing - Your metabolism requires oxygen... so doing deep breathing exercises will definitely help in increasing the health of your metabolism. Also, this is one surefire way to help decrease your stress levels as well.

22. Getting Good Quality Sleep - If you sleep straight for at least 7-8 hours EVERY night, you can help improve many areas of your life (energy, brain functions, and in this case... your metabolism).

23. Reduce Stress - Lowering the stress in your life can have a huge impact on your body's ability to efficiently burn off fat. This is because too much stress can:

A. Cause the chemical cortisol to release in your body... and too much of it will be stored as extra body fat.

B. Affect your bodies metabolism from working effectively.

Some things you can do to relieve stress are exercising, deep breathing exercises (such as what I mentioned above), meditation, fun activities, hobbies, decreasing caffeine consumption, eating fresher foods, not driving during rush hour (lol), and just simply LAUGHING!).

Also, the best diet that I strongly recommend to INCREASE your metabolism and Melt Away Fat Fast(10 lbs. of fat every 2 weeks) PERMANENTLY, is a diet system that will CUSTOM generate a menu plan of fat burning foods that will raise your bodies fat burning hormones.

By following this program for 8 weeks, I easily lost an amazing 52 pounds of fat and I flattened my stubborn belly...