#fatburning - increase your metabolism!

Every cell in our body plays a role in energy metabolism—the process of turning the food you eat into energy that keeps heart beating, lungs pumping, and muscles moving. The faster our metabolism, the more calories we burn. And just like there are ways to speed it up—by working out, for instance—certain habits can hit the brakes on our natural calorie-churning engine:

1) KEEP A REGULAR EATING SCHEDULE: In a 2012 Hebrew University study, mice fed high fat foods sporadically gained more weight than mice that ate a similar diet on a regular schedule. 

2) PREFER ORGANIC VEGETABLES: Chemicals in pesticides can interfere with our body's energy-burning process and make it harder to lose weight, according to a Canadian study. 

3) SLEEP MORE: A 2012 study found that people who sleep less move less the next day, which means they burn fewer calories. But it gets worse: sleep deprivation actually reduces the amount of energy our body uses at rest, according to the German and Swedish researchers.

4) STOCK UP ON IRON-FORTIFIED FOODS (cereals, beans, and dark leafy greens like spinach, bok choy, and broccoli): We lose iron during our period every month, and iron helps carry oxygen to our muscles. If our iron levels run too low, our muscles don't get enough O2, our energy plummets, and our metabolism sputters.

5) EAT CALORIES ENOUGH: When we skimp on calories, our body switches into starvation mode, slowing our metabolic rate to conserve the fuel it's got.

6) MOVE YOUR BODY! It takes only 20 minutes in any fixed position to inhibit our metabolism, according to ergonomic researchs.

7) JET LAG: When we disrupt our so-called circadian rhythm—by crossing time zones, for instance—our cells don't function the way they should and our metabolism suffers.

8) DRINK MILK: Calcium plays a key role in regulating our fat metabolism, which determines whether we burn calories or store them as fat. A diet that's high in calcium could help on fat burning.

9) HYDRATE WELL: All of our body's cellular processes, including metabolism, depend on water. If we're dehydrated, we could burn up to 2 percent fewer calories.

10) DON'T SKIP BREAKFAST: When we miss breakfast, we don't just set ourselves up to overeat at lunch. We actually tell our body to conserve energy—which means it burns calories more slowly. That's one reason a study from the American Journal of Epidemiology found that people who skip a morning meal were 4.5 times more likely to be obese.