It’s possible to boost your metabolism with simple tweaks to your daily routine. Making these small changes will make your body more effective in its battle against fat.

Eat Breakfast 

It is more than just a name: break-fast. Your body has been deprived of nutrients while you have been slumbering. Skipping breakfast sends your body into starvation mode. Eat your morning meal every morning. Make it 20-40% of your daily caloric intake.

Drink Cold Water

Research shows that women who drank eight 12 oz glasses of water daily have a higher metabolic then those who only drank four glasses. Drinking cold water will also help burn a few more calories because your body has to heat the water before it can use it. See our 40 Fruit water recipes post.

Sip Green Tea & Java

Forget all the bad said about your morning cup of joe. A caffeinated cup can boost the metabolism 16 percent and is packed with antioxidants to boot. Sipping four cups of green tea daily will burn 100 more calories. The brew also contains ECGC a compound that promotes fat burning.

Eat Calcium Rich Foods

Eating diary-rich foods can help your body metabolize fats more efficiently by increasing the rate your body gets rid of fat as waste.  Calcium supplements don’t have the same effect. Try eating diary which is rich in calcium.

Chew on Some Protein

Protein is responsible for tissue repair and muscle growth. Use it to aid in your strength training efforts. Your body also exerts more effort breaking down protein rich foods helping to increase your metabolism and keep your fuller longer. Check out our post workout fuel post for ideas.

Be Green

Studies prove that chemicals found in pesticides get stored in fat cells which stall metabolism. Eating organic reduces the pesticides in your body. Eating organic to expensive? Check out “The Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen“.

Turn the Heat Up

Capsaicin gives chili peppers the sweat-on-your-brow zing and will make fat sweat a little too. Chilis boost the bodies heat production and nervous system activity. Add red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to pasta, chicken, salads, or soup for a temporary kick to your metabolism. Check out The Chili Pepper Diet

Take on Iron

Iron is responsible for bringing oxygen to your muscles. When you are lacking iron in your system, your muscles stop operating at full efficiency. Take a iron supplement or eat iron rich foods like beans and broccoli. Don’t forget your iron is lowest during your period.

Pump Iron

Just two weight lifting sessions a week can reduce your overall body fat without cutting a single calorie. Weight lifting breaks up muscle tissue (in a good way) and your body has work hard, long after your workout, to repair the tissue. Read this book for more info on lifting weights correctly and efficiently: The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess

Get your Shut Eye 

Your body needs sleep to replenish and restore hormones. When you dont get the recommend eight hours of sleep, hormone production is thrown off and there is an increase in body fat.