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Of course you do! Especially when you come to know that increasing your metabolism will begin a process that will help you to lose weight scientifically and, more important, maintain your body weight at the new levels on a more permanent basis.

Melting kilos might happen with one of those crash diets or so called planned diets that go by various names. But how many of you have discovered that once these diets are discontinued, the lost weight seems to find cozy corners on your body to settle down and grow firm roots again? Daunting thought huh! Solution? Start concentrating on increasing your metabolism. This way, not only will you process food faster in your body - something that will help your body store less fat in your system - but you will also begin to burn up existing fat in order to produce the requisite energy that your body needs to support itself now.

So how does metabolism work?

This is rather tricky because your metabolism can either work for you or against you! The main source of our energy comes from glucose or blood sugar as we also know it. If you suffer from high blood sugar, your body, in a frenzy to protect you, will start storing fat so that it can be used later. However, when blood sugar runs low, our metabolism begins to burn the fat in order to produce more energy.

How can you get metabolism to work for you?

You will be quite surprised to learn that health pundits recommend that we simply go ahead and eat well. The key to losing weight does not, repeat, does not lie in your stopping or limiting your intake to a bare minimum. In fact that is sure to have a totally negative effect on your metabolism because on sensing that you are not eating enough, it will automatically slow down. And then, when you begin to eat, even if you increase your intake slowly, your blood sugar will simply shoot up, sometimes

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uncontrollably, and your metabolism will end up storing all that extra glucose as fat in your body.

• So here is the first lesson you have to learn if you want to lose weight sensibly. Do not starve yourself, but eat smaller, well-spaced, healthy and nutritious meals that are not only low in calories but also in fat. (This means you can eat all fruits and vegetables as well as drink plenty of water). This way you get to curb your appetite and your body is tricked into believing that there is plenty of food intake! Result? Your metabolism gets into action " except that now it does so with healthy benefits. When it doesn't find enough glucose that it needs to produce energy (because of all the healthy eating) it will begin to use up all the fat that is already stored in your body! Exciting thought isn't it?

• The second way to get your metabolism working for you is to get up and get going! Yes! We mean Exercise. If you exercise, you are guaranteed to increase your metabolism. Decide on a good regimen that suits you " your doctor or trainer can advice you on this. Even a simple aerobic exercise like walking for 20 minutes a day can give you tremendous health benefits. Regular exercise will work by building your muscles and these muscles will burn up calories. When you exercise, your body needs plenty of energy to support this activity. So the metabolism does what it knows best " burns the stored fat to supply you with energy. The trick is to be regular in whichever form of exercise you decide upon to give your metabolism a boost.

We hear of so many people embarking on ambitious programs to lose weight and seemingly succeeding in their quest " only to put back all that weight when they start eating their usual meals. They fail miserably in keeping that weight off permanently. Instead, if they would only work on increasing their metabolism, they will find that not only will they see visible improvement with all the fat melting away, but will even find that their weight has dropped to a healthy level. So begin to eat smaller and healthier meals at short intervals, and more important " EXERCISE REGULARLY and see the difference it makes!