Supercharge your metabolism.

I read a very interesting article in a magazine yesterday and I though I would share it with you. "Women unwittingly sabotage their calorie-burning potential with crash diets, ineffective exercise strategies, and other metabolism-bursting habits. Six biggest mistakes you can make. 1.)Mistake- Relying on just your scale: The basic ones, which only calculate pounds, can't tell you what percent of body fat is lean, calorie-burning muscle and how much is puffy, sluggish fat. Even a woman who's weight is in the normal range can have a high percentage of body fat and a low percentage of muscle. And the less muscle you have, the fewer calories you'll burn. The metabolic difference between a pound of muscle and a pound of fat is dramatic. Muscle burns at least three times more calories. A woman who weighs 130 pounds and has a healthy 25% body fat will burn about 200 more calories per day than a 130 lb woman with about 40% body fat. The Fix: Get an expert to weigh in. Visit your local gym or a fitmess center affiliated with a hospital and ask for a body-fat reading. To track your progress get rechecked every 3 months. Anything over 30% body fat should be a wake up call to make some real changes. 2.)Mistake-Crash dieting:

When you slash too many calories, you send your body into starvation mode. A flat out fast will drop the average woman's metabolic rate by at least 25%. If your on a very low calorie regimen, in the 400-800 calorie range, it falls by 15 to 20%. Eating fewer than 900 calories a day also prompts your body to burn desirable muscle tissue as well as fat, which slows your metabolic rate even more.

The Fix: Shed pounds S-L-O-W-L-Y

If you stay within the 1,200 to 1,500 calorie range, you can still slim down and you'll lower your metabolic rate only by about 5%. What's more, about 90% of the weight you lose will be fat. Regardless of which type of diet plan you choose, be sure to include lots of lean protein, such as chicken, fish or lean beef. Protein contaims leucine, an amino acid that seems to protect you from muscle loss during a diet. Skim milk can help even more. Fifty six men were tracked who pumped iron five days a week for three months and found that those who downed two cups of fat free milk soon after their woekout built more muscle and lost more flab than those who drank soy milk or a flavored carbohydrate drink. Evidence shows the benefit is very similar for women. They don't put on as much muscle as men but they lose more fat.

3.) Mistake-Only Doing Cardio: If you never challenge your muscles with strength training moves, you'll lose up to five pounds of muscle each decade. Cardiovascular exercise like walking,biking, swimming or sweating through an aerobics class is great for your health, but it isn't strenuous enough to build or even preserve much muscle mass. Only strength training creates the microscopic tears that prompt muscles to rebuild themselves. Lifting weights promotes a continual remodeling of muscle tissue. The process burns a lot of calories.

The Fix: Pump Iron

When woman at the South Shore YMCA strength trained for 20 minutes twice a week for 10 weeks, they added 2.6 lbs of calorie-hungry lean muscle and lost 4.6 lbs of body fat, which other research shows is likely to boost metabolic rate by 7 %. You should aim for 40-60 minutes of strength training a week. Once your at it for a while you will need to increase more weight or resistance. Often, woman don't push themselves hard enough because they're affraid they'll bulk up with heavier weights, but that kind of muscle gain is unlikely because females don't have enough testosterone in their bodies to make muscles like men do.

4.) Mistake-Sticking to the same exercises If you always walk the same route, swim laps at one speed or even have a single strength training routine, your muscles adapt and become so efficient that they burn fewer calories while you work out. How to tell when it's time for a change? If any of the following is true: If your not sweating as much at the end of your routine; you don't feel that tired after working out; or your gaining weight even though your not eating more or exercising less.

The Fix: Switch it up Give your metabolic rate a big boost by adding a few short, fast-paced bursts of speed to your regular walking, biking, swimming or other aerobic routine. Woman who did interval workouts on stationary bikes for 2 weeks burned 36% more fat when they completed a continuous ride afterward,. The reason, more muscle fibers got worked during those high-intensity intervals. When you push hard in short butsts, it reactivates nerve fibers, builds new capillaries and forces your body to repair the muscle. All that burns a tremendous amount of calories-long afer you've completed your session.

The best news: You don't have to be an elite athlete to get the benefits of intervals, if your a walker, pick up the pace for 20-30 seconds, then slow down to your usual pace for a minute or two. then do it again. Start small, with one, two or three intervals in your walk. As you grow stronger, add more intervals and make them longer and more intense.

5.) Mistake-Eating Lightly (or not at all) Before Noon: Woman often have one of two problems with breakfast. If they overindulge at night they don't have much appetite in the A.M. Or they're trying to cut calories early in the day so they don't eat enough in the A.M. Breakfast skimpers and skippers, plus woman whos diets resolve is strongest in the morning (just coffee and dry toast), commit the same metabolic faux pas: eating too little to flip on their metabolism as well as vital "satisfaction switches" in the brain that register fullness in the stomach.

The Fix: Munch On More Food In The Morning:

Woman/Men who eat breakfast eat 100-200 fewer calories later in the day. Woman who skipped breakfast were 30% more likely to be overweight. The best A.M. filler-uppers: oatmeal, eggs, peanut butter-or anything with fiber and protein.

6.) Mistake-Living A High- Stress, Low Sleep Life:

When things get extra-hectic, your levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, shoot up. And that can trigger cravings for high-fat, high-carb. foods. The worst part: Your body also sends that ectra fat to your waistline.

Sleep deprivation wreaks havoc on your waistline, too. Researchers found that those who average 5 hrs sleep per night were 32% more likely to gain 33lbs than those who got seven hours a night. Those averaging 6 hrs of sleep per night were 12% more likely to gain weight. What gives? Sleep deprivation increases the appetite-stimulating hormone, ghrelin and decreases the satisfaction hormone, leptin. In a study they conducted, tired volunteers craved more candy, cookies, chips and pasta.

The Fix: Sleep More, Stress Less

Aim for at least 7 hrs of sleep most nights. Woman who snoozed for that or longer had a lower risk of weight problems. And try meditation-it could keep you in your skinny jeans.

Top 7 Super Foods:

1.) Whole-Grain Cereal

Complex carbohydrates in the A.M. are an easy way to refuel your body and pump and prime your metabolic rate.

2.) Low-Fat Dairy

Packed with protein, it helps build muscle and banish flab.

3.) Coffee

Caffeine is a stimulant, which can help speed up your calorie-burning furnace.

4.) Lean Meats

They are rich in protein, which takes more energy to digest than carbs or fats. Protein keeps you feeling satisfied, too.

5.) Green Tea

It's caffeine and catechins (plant mutrients) may help rev your metabolic rate by up to 3.5%: sip 32 ozs a day.

6.) Nuts

Thanks to their fiber and protein, a handful at snack time keeps your body's engine humming.

7.) Tofu

A good source of leucine, this diet-friendly protein helps you stay trim."

Article in Good Housekeeping Magazine April 2008

Article written by: Sari Harrar