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Zest: The Metabolism
In the simplest of terms; your metabolism is your body's caretaker, its function is to decide whether or not to burn calories straight away or rather to store them as fat for a rainy day when food might be scarce.

Your metabolism can be fast and efficient or slow and clumsy. A fast metabolism reduces the need to store fat and secondly burns calories at an efficient rate. A slow metabolism doesn't function as well and as a direct result builds up fat deposits around the body. As someone looking to lose weight your ideal goal is to speed your metabolism up through diet and exercise.

Your metabolic rate increases with good nutrition, hydration and physical exercise. So for those of you who thought that starving yourself would help you lose weight forget it!

Starving yourself decreases the rate at which your metabolism burns fat and in some cases actually causes your body to store fat at the earliest possibility - which is when you next eat! Aim to eat a controlled and portioned meal every three to four hours to keep your metabolism ticking over. (That's five small to medium meals a day not five large, gut wrenching meals!!)

Therefore to speed your metabolic rate:
Exercise and increase your level of physical activity
Consume 2 - 3 litres of water a day
Eat regular meals, aim to eat at least 5 controlled portions of food a day
Maintain a healthy level of nutrition, ensure you consume a suitable level of vitamins and minerals

Still having trouble getting your head around the idea of a metabolism?
Try this analogy to help clarify the matter.
Two animals: one a deer, the other a bear.
The deer is a grazing animal and eats consistently throughout the day, because of this its metabolism works at an efficient rate and as a result its body is lean with small fat deposits.
The bear hibernates for long periods of time, going without food. When it does eat it gorges itself with gluttonous delight. Because of its poor eating habits its metabolism is slow and inefficient, as a result of this it builds up large fat deposits.