"Raising Your Metabolism
We suggest that you speak with a doctor before turning to artificial means such as drugs or herbs to raise your metabolism. And if you're attracted to gimmicks like eating hot spices, drinking cold water, or chewing gum, you might want to speak to a therapist that specializes in eating disorders. The following topics present ways in which your metabolism can be increased naturally through healthy living.
Eat Frequently
Never skip a meal, and eat healthy snacks between meals. Eating frequently prevents hunger pangs, provides consistent energy, and maintains metabolism efficiency. Our bodies were designed with the survival mechanism of hoarding fat to protect us from famine. When we skip a meal or go on a crash diet, our bodies think they're starving and slow down our metabolism to conserve energy. What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.
It is often suggested that to raise our metabolism we should eat five or six times a day, three meals with healthy snacks in between. The reason is that eating raises our metabolism, and so the theory is that if we eat many times during the day it will keep our metabolism running high.
Should you choose to practice this, remember that it was probably snacking between meals that caused you to become overweight in the first place. It will be very important that the snacks are healthy, and that the meal sizes are reduced to compensate for the additional calories the snacks provide.
Exercise Regularly
Dieting or restricting your caloric intake can cause your metabolism to slow down. Exercising can help to reduce this effect.
At home, at the gym, playing sports, participate in both aerobic and strength building activities on a regular basis. Not only does the exercise itself increase your metabolism, but your metabolism will remain at an increased rate for a significant period after you stop exercising.
Exercise is the one sure way to burn more calories safely. The improved health you will gain through regular exercise will increase your life expectancy so significantly that the benefits will far outweigh the aging effect of an increased metabolism.
Improve Your Body Composition or Percent Muscle vs. Fat
Generally speaking, aerobic activities like running burn more calories than muscle-building activities like weight lifting. But it is important to note that muscle burns more calories than fat. This means that the more muscular you are the higher your metabolism will be -- 24 hours a day.
If you examine the equation used to calculate RMR, you will see that metabolism decreases with age. This is largely due to the decrease in muscle mass typically experienced as people age, and can largely be countered by continuing to perform muscle-building activities. "
see http://www.caloriesperhour.com/faqs_metabolism.html for the entire article and more info.