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We all know that our metabolism decreases proportionally to each year that we age, so we have to be proactive just to maintain the rate at which our bodies burn calories. We need to be more careful with our portion sizes and ensure that we exercise regularly just to control weight gain (insert moaning and groaning here!). Here are some helpful strategies for keeping your metabolism high:

1. Strength training-Do it! You've heard it before, but are you doing it? Consistently? Our bodies burn calories all day, even when we are just sitting on the couch watching TV, but we can control (to some extent) how much is being burned. Your resting metabolic rate is higher when you have more muscle since every pound of muscle uses about 6 calories a day just to sustain itself while each pound of fat only burns 2 calories per day. While it sounds like a small amount, the long term affect can help you maintain (or lose) your weight.

2. Drink more water. The body needs water to process calories and perform its everyday functions more efficiently. Your metabolism may slow down if you are even mildly dehydrated, and you should be drinking water before you recognize that you are thirsty. In a study performed recently, adults who drank eight or more glasses of water a day burned more calories than those who drank four. Try drinking a glass of water before every meal and snack and if you do snack, choose fruits and veggies which contain a lot of water anyway.

3. Eat more often. Eating smaller meals (or healthy snacks) throughout the day helps your metabolism stay active but when you eat large meals with large gaps of time in between, you train your metabolism to slow down. Additionally, if you eat healthy snacks between meals, you are likely to eat less at meal time.

4. Don't d-i-e-t. This is a four letter word that you should avoid. Crash diets -- those involving eating fewer than 1,000 calories a day -- are disastrous for anyone hoping to increase their metabolism. These types of diets will probably help you lose weight but you usually deprive yourself of one or more food groups which is never healthy. Additionally a large percentage of your weight loss comes from muscle unless you are purposely counteracting this effect with strength training. The lower your muscle mass, the slower your metabolism will be. And the slower your metabolism, the slower you will burn calories.

by Kim Farmer