Do you ever feel like your body is your worst enemy? You try and try to lose weight by diligently following every diet that promises you will shed the pounds. It just seems like the fat just sticks to you, going nowhere. You feel like a failure, and you want to give up on the chance of ever being thin.

It may not be you at all, but that your body needs its metabolism jumpstarted. There are three things to consider where your metabolic rate is concerned. First of all, you are always burning calories since your body’s processes (like breathing, heart rate, etc.) need energy to work. Energy is also needed to digest the food you put in your stomach. Then you have the energy that is needed for activity. Your resting metabolic rate (RMR) is what your body burns at rest. Having your RMR burn at a higher rate will be the key to losing weight. A higher metabolism allows you to burn calories at a faster, more efficient rate. The pounds will start to come off like they should with a balanced, healthy diet and moderate exercise. But how does one “jumpstart” their metabolic rate?

First of all, the worst thing you can do to cause your metabolism to nosedive is crash dieting. Reducing your calories per day to ridiculous lows (less than 1000 calories a day) will make resting metabolic rate sluggish. You need to eat no less than 1,200 calories a day if you’re a woman and 1,800 calories if you are a man.

Put more carbohydrates in your diet and less fat. Fat contains 9 calories per gram versus the 4 calories per gram in carbohydrates, so as you can see, the calorie count can go up very quickly the more fatty foods you eat. You can find many low-fat versions of your favorite foods at the supermarket.

Learn to graze. The concept of eating smaller, more frequent meals is new for many people but has been shown to improve the metabolic rate. Do not overeat and starve the rest of the day. Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on smaller plates. Then add two small snacks in between the meals.

Be more active. Exercise will in itself increase a person’s ability to burn calories. Adding muscle mass will raise the metabolic rate since muscles need calories to sustain itself. The more muscle tissue, the higher your metabolism will be.

Choose foods that take more effort to digest. If you eat vegetables and fruit in their natural form, the body will have to work harder to break it down. Just think about a raw carrot slice soaking in warm water. It will not break down much at all this way. Using energy to boil it, you can get it soft and press it flat. Now think of how the body needs to use enzymes and hydrochloric acid in your stomach to break apart the carrot in tiny particles. The energy expended is calories burned.