1 MUSCLE UP YOUR METABOLISM
Quite simply, metabolism is the rate at which our bodies burn the energy from food calories. During your skinny teens, your body was a raging, hormonally fed inferno. But your burn rate falls by 2 percent every 10 years from your twenties onward, and you know what happens to energy that isn't used: It's stored as fat.
Muscle is several times more metabolically active than fat. The more muscle you have, the hotter your fire burns. And if you activate those muscles through physical activity, the potential fat burn can last for up to 24 hours. Any light exercise that maintains muscle mass will attack fat at the same time.
2 MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MORNING
A study from the University of Massachusetts Medical School determined that people who skip breakfast are 4 1/2 times more likely to be obese than people who make time for it. An expert from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center estimated that going without breakfast can slow your metabolism by up to 10 percent.
Build breakfast out of protein and healthy fat. Eggs. Greek yogurt. Peanut butter. Milk. The more protein you eat, the more satisfied you'll be: A 2008 study published in the British Journal of Nutrition noted that the protein can lead to feelings of fullness that last all day long.
3 SHRINK YOUR POT, SHRINK YOUR BELLY
I kid you not. Brian Wansink, Ph.D., a food visionary who runs the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab, has devoted extraordinary attention to the effects that the containers that carry our food and drink have on how much we consume. His rule of thumb: The larger the plate or bowl or glass, the more you will eat or slurp or drink from it. The bad news: We're on the wrong side of a century-long expansion in the sizes of our dinner plates and the volumes of our drink- ing glasses. As go your portion sizes, so goes your personal size.
Instead of 1 cup of chocolate ice cream, enjoy 1⁄2 cup of chocolate ice cream with 1⁄2 cup of sliced strawberries. The fruit tastes great, adds tons of antioxidants, and saves you 115 calories.
