There are seven common “facts” about boosting metabolism, burning calories and losing weight. Some are true. Some are not. Today, I will tell you which to believe and which to avoid—and where to save your money.

Your metabolism is the engine that runs your fat-burning machine. More specifically, it’s the rate at which you burn calories every day. Children have a much faster metabolism while they grow, but a person’s metabolic rate declines with age, and even more so in sedentary individuals. If your metabolism has slowed with age, you’ll find it much more difficult to burn body fat with your workouts and diet.

There has recently become a large, lucrative industry in boosting your metabolism. All sorts of powders, potions, pills, drinks and secret techniques have been promoted to raise your metabolic rate and help you burn fat. The trouble is, very few of these metabolism boosters actually work.

The good news is that you can increase your metabolism through exercise and fat-burning nutrition. Of course, that shouldn’t surprise you. Staying active, building muscle and eating the right foods in the right amounts help you keep your metabolism stoked.

I’ve examined the claims about seven popular metabolism boosters, from exercise to nutrition, to show you which ones work and which ones aren’t worth trying.

1. Strength training.
Claim: Boosts metabolism up to 10 percent after a training program.

Is it true? Yes.

And a recent study from the prestigious Journal of Applied Physiology showed strength training also doubled post-exercise fat burning. Any “expert” who says strength training doesn’t burn fat is living in the 1970′s. Strength training MUST be a part of your fat-blasting workout routine.

Focus on multi-muscle exercises, such as squats, pushups, rowing and standing single-leg exercises such as lunges. Strength-train three days per week, taking a day off between workouts. Do total body workouts each day, picking one lower body exercise, one upper body pushing exercise and one upper body pulling exercise to complete your workout.

2. Eating breakfast.

Claim: Breakfast boosts metabolism because it breaks your overnight fast.

Is it true? This is a tough one to prove.

However, research clearly shows that eating breakfast is associated with successful weight loss. So make it a habit to consume some protein, fiber and fruit (and even vegetables) at this time. This will keep your appetite in check till your next meal.

An omelet made of omega-3-enriched eggs, along with broccoli, mushrooms and peppers, is a high-fiber, high-protein breakfast that helps you get a lot closer to your recommended intake of vegetables for the day.

3. Green tea.

Claim: Burns an extra 80 calories per day

Is it true? Yes and no.

It has been shown to burn 80 calories per day in young men on the first day of supplementation. But will this effect last once your body gets used to it? I don’t think so.

After all, take a look at caffeine. You can find studies that show it increases metabolism as well. But really, is anyone losing fat with caffeine? The revolving doors at Starbucks say “No!”

Coffee is okay in moderate doses, and I recommend green tea to everyone for health reasons. But don’t expect rapid fat loss from green tea or green tea supplements. The only way you will lose fat with green tea is if you replace a 300-calorie Frappucino with an iced, unsweetened green tea.

4. Fat-burner pills.

Claim: Boost your metabolism big time!

Is it true? See the above comments on caffeine and green tea.

Most fat burners are simply caffeine pills with a few other ingredients thrown in. You’ll get an increase in mental energy, but that doesn’t mean it will boost metabolism or burn fat. So it doesn’t matter if the pills contain green tea extract, caffeine, CLA, Hoodia or any other “miracle ingredient.” Research hasn’t proven the effectiveness of these pills. Avoid them, and avoid the potential crash and burn from high caffeine pills.

5. Ice-cold water with lemon juice.

Claim: The body will burn calories warming up the water and the lemon juice also burns more fat.

Is it true? Nice in theory, short in practice.

Nobody is losing fat with ice-cold water. If it sounds too good to be true … you know the rest of the story.

6. Eating six small meals per day.

Claim: Boosts metabolism and can help control cholesterol.

Is it true? Yes.

And it’s simple and effective. Try to split your meals up into smaller meals that can be eaten over the course of the day. Start the day with breakfast and then snack every three to four hours until your day is done. Avoid buffets or gorging at any specific meal. You’ll have a steady state of mental alertness and your body will be a fat-burning machine.

7. Interval training.

Claim: Interval training causes a greater increase in post-exercise metabolism than regular cardio.

Is it true? Yes.

Interval training is simply a short bout of hard exercise followed by a short bout of easy exercise. This process is repeated about six times per workout (following a warm-up and preceding a cool-down). For example, you might speed walk (or run) for one minute and then walk at a slow pace for one minute.

A recent study from Australia found that an interval program led to more weight loss than a long, slow cardio training program. Other research has shown interval training results in greater fat burning during recovery from exercise. So while long, slow cardio training stops burning calories as soon as you step off the treadmill, interval training keeps your metabolism going and going and going.

Bottom line: Hard work and proper nutrition burn more calories and help you lose fat. On the other hand, magic pills and potions just don’t work… But that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone!

The basic weight loss method behind cardiovascular exercise (or any kind of exercise, really) is, as you know, a matter of catabolism (The metabolic breakdown of complex molecules into simpler ones, often resulting in a release of energy). Essentially, if you can design your body to require more energy, your body will respond by breaking cells down to deliver it; and that method (metabolism: In some substances within your body are broken down to yield energy for vital processes while other substances, necessary for life, are synthesized.) burns calories during exercise. Simple, right?

So with that in mind, something called interval training neatly fits in with our overall exercise plan. Interval training is simply a adding high-energy burning component to your exercise plan on an infrequent, or interval, basis. For example, you may be at a stage where you can jog for 20 minutes every other day, and thus put your heart into a cardiovascular zone during this time you exercise.This, obviously, is going to help you boost your metabolism and thus burn calories/energy.
But let’s rev up your metabolism a bit with one simple trick, during that 20 minute jog, you add a 30 second or 1 minute sprint. Why? Because during this 30 seconds or 1 minute, you give your body a bit of a jolt. Not an unhealthy jolt; remember, we’re talking about quick short bursts here, not suddenly racing around the track or through the park! By giving your body an interval jolt, it automatically – and somewhat unexpectedly – has to turn things up a notch and to compensate for your extra energy requirements, the body will burn more calories.

It’s essential for you to always keep in mind that interval training only works when it’s at intervals. This may seem like a strange thing to understand, but it’s actually very straightforward. The process hails to our ancestors times (caveman days) when the body would store energy for when it was needed, either to run to hunt or run to survive. The body tries to hold that store energy (body fat) for survival, thus interval training tricks the body into burning the stored energy (body fat). The metabolism-boosting benefits that you enjoy as a result of interval training while exercising are primarily due to the fact that your body, suddenly, needs to find more energy and calls upon the stored energy (body fat).

While your metabolism is chugging along and supplying your energy needs during your cardiovascular exercise, it all of a sudden needs to go grab some more energy for 30 seconds or a minute; and in that period, it will boost your metabolism as if it were given a huge boost. As you can see, if you suddenly decided to extend your 30 second or 1 minute sprint into a 20 minute sprint, you simply wouldn’t experience all of the benefits of interval exercise. Yes, your body would use more energy if you extend yourself to the higher range of your aerobic training zone. But your body won’t necessarily get that boost that only comes from interval training.

So your ultimate goal with interval training is to give your body a healthy energy boost where your body suddenly says to itself: “Hey! We need more energy (body fat) here FAST, we increased our heart rate from 180 beats per minute to 190 beats per minute! Let’s go to any available cell, like those fat cells down at the waist, and convert them to energy so that we can get the energy that they need!”

Remember (sorry to be repetitive, but this is very important): the whole point of adding interval training to our exercise routine is to give your body a sudden, limited, healthy jolt where it needs more energy – quick! This keeps the metabolism from adjusting to our exercise routine and not releasing that stored energy that sits on our waist line, we call belly fat. That is why when you exercise you hit that ugly plateau where you would not burn any body fat and seem to maintain your weight, you need to add some type of interval exercise to your exercise plan to start dropping that stored energy.