Many women blame a slow metabolism for the fact that they struggle to lose weight. Your metabolism refers to the rate at which your body burns kilojoules, and although there are quite a few factors influencing this rate – like your diet and age – there are a couple of things you can do to speed up your metabolism.

1. Don’t skip breakfast

If you skip breakfast, your body starts to ‘collect’ fat because it thinks it will be going hungry. By not eating breakfast, your metabolism only kicks in later on in the day, and will then automatically be slower than usual.

2. Drink plenty of water

You have probably heard this many times before, but you should be drinking six to eight glasses of water per day. For your body processes – like burning energy – to function normally, your body needs lots of water regularly.

3. Eat more smaller meals

By eating more often, your metabolism keeps going. This won’t only keep those food cravings under control, but will also prevent your blood sugar levels from falling too drastically. Ideally, you should be eating five to six small meals per day. This will also keep you from overeating because you haven’t had food for hours.

4. Don’t starve yourself

If you skip meals, your body will think it’s going to starve. It then stores up energy (read: fat!) instead of burning it. To starve yourself therefore has the opposite effect to what most people believe.

5. Consume lots of vitamin B12 

If you’re always feeling tired and have no energy, eat more foods containing lots of B12 or take a vitamin B12 supplement. This will give you an energy injection and help your metabolism to speed up. (Leafy green vegetables are rich in vitamin B12. Read more on why green veggies are so good for you.)

Don’t miss the next 5 steps in our follow-up article next week!