In Part One of this article, I discussed how our metabolisms work and why most diet plans aren't actually tailored to get rid of fat. While you might loose weight for about two weeks, what you are really loosing is water and muscle and forcing you body to go into survival mode and store up fat instead of getting rid of it. In this second half, I'm going to outline five things that you can do that will raise your metabolism permanently. These five steps are guaranteed to help you loose fat and keep it off while getting into the best condition of your life. Are you ready for the challenge?

As I've said before, don't be fooled into thinking that this going to be easy, or that you won't have to exercise. While I can guarantee that these steps will work, I also guarantee that you will have to work hard for them. You can try to cheat and you can try to cut corners, but you'll realize soon enough that adherence to the rules of your body is everything. Get your diet and your exercise right and 12 weeks should be plenty of time to sculpt the body you've always wanted. Start now and you'll have the perfect body by Christmas. Is that a gift you'd like to give yourself? Then knuckle down, and let's get to work.

1.Eat More, Eat Frequently.

So many people try to loose weight by lowering the amount of calories they eat everyday, but as we discovered in Part One, this is actually counter-productive. Not only do you not loose fat, but you lower your metabolic rate, making it easier to pack on the pounds. If you want to raise your metabolism you have to give it an ample amount of fuel. Make sure that your body never has a chance to switch over to eating muscle.

Eating three large meals a day isn't the way your body is designed to eat. The time in between meals, when your body finds that it is out of fuel, it switches over into a muscularly catabolic state, which means it begins to eat muscle. You tend to feel very tired in these periods between meals, not to mention that eating a large meal diverts a lot of your energy into trying to digest it and causes your blood sugar to spike which are both contributing factors to why so many of us get sleepy after lunch. Start eating five to six small meal throughout the day and not only will your metabolism have to rise to meet the challenge, but you'll find that this rise in metabolic rate will also bring a rise in your overall energy levels.

The logic behind lower calorie diets is, in fact, sound. That is, you have to burn more calories than you take in, but be sure you are lowering your calories correctly to avoid lowering your metabolism in the mix. To effectively lower your calories be sure that you don't lower them too much or for too long. Reducing your caloric intake by 200 to 300 calories a day should be more than sufficient to see results and never keep this diet for more than two weeks. If you need 2,000 calories a day, reduce your intake to around 1,800 for about two weeks, then spend two more weeks eating 2,100 to 2,200, then once again switch back to 1,800. Two weeks of lower calorie intake, followed by two weeks of a higher calorie intake. The point of this caloric cycling is to keep your body from lowering its metabolism. As soon as it start to think about lowering its metabolic rate, it suddenly finds that it has more food than it needs and keeps the metabolism high. Neglect this cycling and you'll find yourself hitting a plateau after about two weeks.

2.Embrace Cheating.

We are so often led to believe that to look good we must suffer by never getting to have our favorite foods again, but let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. In all actuality, cheating is good for your diet, if you do it correctly. Sylvester Stallone observes one day out of the week to eat anything he wants, a practice he has kept since the early Rocky movies. Even Tobey Maguire utilized this plan when bulking up for the Spider-Man films. In his book The Lean Body Promise, bodybuilding superstar Lee Labrada takes a slightly different approach to cheating, outlining two cheat meals a week instead of one entire day.

Regardless of which option you choose, cheating is vitally important. Not only will it help to keep your body from lowering its metabolism, but it can actually help to speed it up. Confuse your body with more calories than it's used to and it will pick up the metabolic pace just in time for you to go back to your normal caloric intake, leaving it to burn fat along with food. Not only is it helpful from a metabolic stand point but it will also help you eat healthier during the rest of the week and avoid binge eating.

Now I know some of you out there will scoff at this, but believe me it's true, cheating helps. I know that some of you will be tempted to skip this step and just stick with your diet, but I'm telling you the physiological and psychological benefits cannot be denied. If you think you're having trouble sticking to your healthier diet, try having one day out of your week free to eat anything you want. Not only will you be less tempted to cheat during the week, but you'll notice how ready you are to eat a salad by the end of 24 hours of junk.

3.Drink Lots of Water

I won't spend too much time on this subject simply because the science and sources behind this one aren't hard to find online or in health journals. There is no denying that our bodies and our brains need water to survive and it is essential, especially if you are working out, that you adhere to this. Water makes your body function properly. Not enough water means suboptimal function and we don't want that. Stay hydrated and stay healthy. All of this is on top of the fact that water can help curb hunger cravings and some people say that drinking cold water can actually burn calories.

4.Weight Train. Period.

Remember those aerobic videos from the eighties? Yeah, there's a reason you don't see many of those anymore: they don't burn fat. Let's get this straight, cardiovascular exercises, like running or cycling, raise your metabolic rate for the time it takes to do that exercise. This means that if you run for twenty minutes you metabolism is raised and burns fat, or stored glycogen, for twenty minutes. Once you're off the treadmill, your metabolic rate goes back down to normal. If you are looking to raise your metabolic rate permanently, cardio is not the answer. Weight training will significantly raise your metabolic rate for up to 12 hours after you are finished with your work out! Not to mention reason number five down below.

Cardio is great for burning existing fat, so long as you are doing intense session, in your target heart rate, for no more than twenty to forty minutes. Go over that line and you go catabolic as your body starts to burn muscle in the hopes of finding a better fuel source. Do your cardio in the morning, on an empty stomach, when your body is depleted of glycogen, the stored fuel from food, and you'll burn fat for twenty minutes. Just be sure to drink at least 16 ounces of water before hand.

5.Build Muscle. Build it Now.

I told you in Part One that 5 pounds of muscle can metabolize around 50 calories. This means that if you pack on five pounds of muscle, you can eat a 250 calorie candy bar and burn it off just by sitting around and watching television. Sound good? I told you before that muscle is costly and this is why. This is also why professional bodybuilders and athletes can eat more than 3,000 to 6,000 calories in a day. All that muscle needs a lot of food to make sure that it doesn't get sacrificed by the body.

If you want to lose fat, get in shape and never have to worry about a slow metabolism again, build muscle. There is no other way to permanently increase your metabolic rate and look great doing it. You'll create a leaner body, you'll have more energy, and to top it all off you'll have the metabolism of a hummingbird. Now of course this doesn't mean that you can build yourself up, and then you get to stop training and eat all day. Do that and you'll just get fat again. You have to continually show your body that you use the muscles that you have in order for it to be deemed appropriate that you keep such a costly expense. This isn't going to be a 12 week run of work just to get a lifetime of laziness. Nope, this is a lifetime commitment to living better.

Are you ready for the challenge?

If you answered yes, then start now, there is no better time to begin working toward the life you want. If you have questions or concerns or don't know where to begin, click the contact button up at the top of the page and send me an email. If I can't answer your question, I can certainly point you in the direction of someone who can. Or, if you're looking for some motivation along the road, email me your story and I'll do my best to help. I'll be traveling the next twelve weeks with you as I strive to obtain the body I've always wanted by Christmas. If you're ready, the challenge begins now.

If you want more information regarding your fitness, your metabolism and some of the things I've talked about in these two articles I encourage you to read through the books below. I have personally read them and they are among the best resources out there for working toward real results.

• 1.The Body Sculpting Bible for Men – Villepigue and Rivera
• 2.The Lean Body Promise – Lee Labrada
• 3.Sly Moves – Sylvester Stallone
• 4.Body For Life – Bill Phillips