And if you exercise enough to put on more muscle, so much the better. Building up muscle can boost your metabolism by ten percent or more, which will generally mean you can eat a few hundred more calories a day.

But when you're dieting you need all of the help that you can get, so here are some ways to boost that metabolism and burn those calories off faster.

1.) Magnesium: To keep your metabolism at high speed make sure to get magnesium in your diet. If you are not getting enough magnesium in your diet, your metabolism may slow down. (When you buy vitamin supplements, never take more than the recommended dose, however!)

2.) Vitamin B is another vitamin that is essential for boosting your metabolism. B-12 in particular is known to give an energy boost and increase your metabolic rte.

3.) Spicy foods. Studies show that eating foods containing ingredients like black pepper, ginger, and chili peppers can boost your metabolism by as much as 8 percent for several hours after you eat them!

4.) Green Tea not only boosts your metabolism, studies show that it has health benefits including acting as an anti-oxidant and protecting against heart disease.

5.) Water. Dehydration causes your metabolism to slow down. Even mild dehydration can cause your metabolism to slow down as much as three percent, in much the same way that cutting back on calories does. Metabolic activity slows when dehydrated. Drinking water not only fills you up, it keeps your metabolism functioning efficiently.

If you follow these three rules with a decent diet you should be able to add a few pounds of weekly weight loss to your progress.

If you include exercise your results will be even better. Most people wonder why they're fat but they go to work... sit around all day. Then come home... sit around all night. Its no wonder obesity is at an all time high.