If you want to boost your metabolism and keep it in a fat burning mode, try fitness strength training. Don't rely solely on chemical weight loss products hype. To understand how to boost your metabolism, you need to know what metabolism is and how it works.

It is simply the process by which your body mixes oxygen with the nutrients to produce energy. That energy is measured in calories. Burn more calories than you consume and you lose weight. A lot of it depends on age, sex and genes as well as on your diet and the amount of exercise you get on a daily basis.

Sure, dieting can help, but to boost your metabolism the correct way you should never skip meals. That will only signal your body to kick into a survival mode and store fat. It may even make you eat more when you do sit down for a meal. We have all shoveled in food and claimed, "I'm starving enough to eat a horse." It is better to keep your metabolism ginning at an even level by eating several smaller meals throughout the day, say every four hours or so.

But, to really rev it up, add fitness strength training to your routine. Here is why. People who try to lose weight end up on a plateau. Their bodies have gotten used to that metabolic rate. Through exercise, our body signals the brain to produce more energy as a result the metabolic rate climbs. Sure, jogging, walking and other aerobic exercises can get your heart rate up and increase your metabolic rate to some extent. But soon, your body will become used to that and you will begin to plateau, again.

When you add fitness strength training, you are adding resistance through bands, weights and repetition, thus making your muscles work. The more your muscles contract and flex, the more oxygen and nutrients they need. In an average workout using weights, you can burn five to ten calories per minute. In 30 minutes of a good fitness strength training routine a person can easily burn 250-300 calories or more.

The amount you burn will depend on the level of exercise versus weights. In other words, the harder your muscles work, the more energy it will need.

And here is the best thing. It takes a while for those muscles to cool back down. That means more post training oxygen is consumed. In other words, even after exercising, your metabolism will still stay higher for hours. Just remember to start slow in your fitness strength training and increase in reps and weights as time goes by. Never overwork your muscles or they can become strained and injured.