The 6 Golden Rules for helping your metabolism

1. Don't starve.
   Dropping your calorie intake below 1,000 calories a day will signal to your body that you are in starvation mode, and will slow down your metabolism.

2. Eat smaller meals more frequently.
   Smaller, more frequent meals keeps your blood sugar stable and provides a steady source of energy to fuel metabolism.

3. Get enough aerobic exercise.
   As much as you can is really a help for your metabolism, and if you do it in the morning, you'll raise your metabolism all day.

4. Build muscle with weight training or resistance exercise.
   At least two to three times a week, you should add weight training or progressive resistance exercise that builds muscle. Muscle burns more calories than fat, and the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest! Maintain a healthy muscle mass to help your metabolic rate

5. Water, water, water!!
   You've heard it before, but drink those 8 8-ounce glasses of water every day. The energy burning process of metabolism needs water to work effectively.

6. Make sure you eat breakfast.
   If you don't eat breakfast, you slow down your metabolism and send the body into "hoard mode," thinking it's starving because you're going a long period of time frequently 8 to 10 hours or more, without food. Try a shake packed with nutrients, hunger busting soy protein and complex carbohydrates instead of skipping breakfast.