It is a shock when you have been in good shape all of your life and suddenly you realize that you have acquired some excess body fat that has snuck up on you. When you catch sight of yourself in a shop window or see a photo taken of yourself you cannot believe how much larger you have become. How did this happen? It feels like it this unwanted fat has appeared overnight.

The reason that this can happen is that your metabolism (the rate you burn calories) does drop quite naturally by the thirties and onwards. So, you will start to put on weight much more easily. But before you get too upset over this, be aware that this does not have to happen, it is not inevitable and you have control over this situation.

It is possible you have become less active with other priorities in your life like family or career (or both). With less activity we start to lose some strength and muscle tissue each year from our mid 20's onward. As each pound of muscle tissue burns about 50 calories a day even when you are at rest, it is important to gain that strength back through a proper exercise program that contains mostly strength training exercise.

Our metabolism ? our bodies engine is responsible for whether we burn body fat for energy or store body fat. So the only way to make sure it is burned up for fuel is to make sure our metabolic rate is as high as possible as we add candles to our birthday cake.

It is important to avoid any diet which causes a restriction in food below 1800 calories a day. Anything below this will likely trigger the 'starvation mode' which brings fat burning to a halt and muscle tissue is then burnt for energy. This is a very bad situation as you will then be left with even less of the highly active muscle tissue that is responsible for a healthy metabolism.

This situation is working against your body not with it. A healthy option is to eat 5-6 small meals (around 300 calories) spaced throughout the day. Each meal should contain at least 20 grams of protein and the balance made up of vegetables.

This method of eating will stimulate your metabolism and have you burning more calories for fuel every minute of the day even when you are resting or sleeping.

The 'secret' to eating like this is to prepare all of your meals the night before and take them with you wherever you go. This way you will not be tempted to eat wrong food choices.

Along with your strength training program add in a couple of interval exercise sessions each week. These are short bursts of all out activity alternated with rest periods to 'rev' up your metabolism even further. This type of exercise will make you feel unbelievably good and is a great stress reliever as well.

An example of this type of training would be10 seconds of sprinting then 30 seconds to one minute of walking to recover repeated ten or more times. Start with just a couple of bursts and build up as you increase your fitness level. These sessions are quite hard and you get better at it and more conditioned the more you do it.

In your thirties you are unlikely to see the symptoms of the poor health choices that you may be making. Things like heart disease, diabetes and other 'lifestyle diseases' have yet to show their face but these silent killers are loitering in the background.

Don't take your health for granted, give it top priority and do something about it and your increasing weight while you still have plenty of time. You can still look great in your thirties, forties and beyond, and that is something that you choose ? and it is all up to you whether you want to be fat or fabulous by the time you reach 40.