Women in particular have a tendency of following diets that encourage you to consume few calories, with the result being that you end up looking boney and ill. However the worst thing is that the weight comes back after the diet, plus a little bit extra.

Forget about diets. They won’t work. You have to make a total lifestyle change, change your eating and exercise habits. When you don’t allow yourself to have any food, your metabolism a.k.a Basic Metabolic Rate reduces.

This is the body’s natural reaction when it get used to to less calories being consumed.

Here is what you should do to raise your metabolism:

1. Do some exercise. It burns calories to get the energy demanded. These calories are sourced from food. Doing aerobic exercise increases the metabolic rate, but the best kind of exercise to burn calories is weight lifting. This is because you challenge your muscles to become bigger when you lift weights. The consequence of this challenge can speed up your metabolic rate even 2 days after you have stopped exercising!!! The more muscles you have, the more energy you demand. You can eat more and also look great!

2. Don’t miss any meals, eat more regularly and have smaller portions. Your metabolism is given a boost when you do, so it speeds up. A good recommendation is to try and eat 4-5 small meals a day. If you already go to the gym then 3 meals and 2 snacks is a good eating plan. You should try to eat something small around every 3 hours.

3. You shouldn’t ever miss breakfast. The phrase about it being the most significant meal of the day is true. It increases your metabolism after you have been fasting overnight.

4. Protein, protein, protein. I can’t repeat it enough how important it is to eat protein with every meal, specifically if you want to create some muscle. Protein is also very thermogenic, i.e. it makes the body burn a lot of energy during the digestion process.

5. last but not least look out for traps like a night out with friends or that cocktail with coworkers. Be conscious of your mean size and what’s in it when you order and don’t let others to influence you with what to eat. Be aware of how many drinks you have. If you need to drink, choose a small glass of wine.

Wine has natural antioxidants and the alcohol content is much lower than in whiskies, vodka and other stronger alcoholic drinks. Cocktails often contain a lot of sugar.