The word “metabolism” is often used when referring weight loss. It is, however, defined as all the chemicals processes which occur in living organisms allowing the continuation of life.

We often use metabolism interchangeably with metabolic rate which describes the number of calories you burn. The higher your metabolic rate, the more calories you burn and the easier it is for them to remain off. If your metabolism is high, you are likely to have more energy and feel better overall.

Here are 10 ways to improve your metabolism:

1) Eat Plenty of Protein at Every Meal

As ironic as it may seem, eating food can boost your metabolism for a few hours. The extra calories required to digest, absorb and process the nutrients in your food results in the thermic effect of food (TEF). Eating protein will give the highest increase in your TEF and also helps you to feel more full which will prevent you from overeating.

2) Drink More Cold Water

Drinking more water and avoiding sugary drinks will allow you to lose more weight and aid in keeping it off. Most sugary drinks are high with calories and will definitely not help in your weight loss attempt. But if you drink water, not only does it reduce your calorie intake but can also temporarily speed up your metabolism. To give yourself an even higher chance of burning calories, consider drinking cold water as your body will use more energy to heat it up to body temperature. Water also fills you up before meals, reducing the amount of food you can actually eat.

3) Do a High-Intensity Workout

High-intensity interval training involves quick and very intense bursts of activity. This helps to increase your metabolic rate a d continues doing so even after the workout is finished. It has even been proven to help burn fat. So mix up your exercise routine and throw in a few high-intensity workouts to boost your weight-loss regimen.

4) Lift Heavy Things

Building muscle can help to increase your metabolism allowing you to burn more calories each day, even when you are resting. Lifting weights will aid in building and retaining the muscle needed to combat the drop in metabolism that occurs during weight loss. Higher amounts of muscle will result in higher metabolism.

5) Stand Up More

It is well known that sitting for too long can be bad for your health as your body is essentially in a resting state and less likely to burn calories. Standing up at intervals will help to break up the time spent sitting, especially if you have a desk job, and can burn an extra 174 calories.

6) Drink Green Tea or Oolong Tea

Green tea or oolong tea have been shown to increase your metabolism by 4-5%. In addition, they both have weight loss capabilities as they convert some of the fat stored in your body into free fatty acids resulting in increased fat burning processes.

7) Eat Spicy Foods

Peppers contain capsaicin, a substance which can boost your metabolism. Though it’s effect is quite small and used alone may not have any significant desired effect, when used along with other metabolism-boosting techniques, it is worth a mention.

8) Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Sleep deprivation has negative effects on metabolism and as a result the lack of sleep is linked to risks in obesity. In addition, there is also a link between lack of sleep and increased blood sugar levels and insulin resistance. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, not sleeping can cause you to feel hungry, increasing the hunger hormone gremlin and decreasing the fullness leptin.

9) Drink Coffee

Drinking coffee, as with green tea, can give a boost to your metabolism, increasing it by 3-11% and also has fat burning capabilities. Studies have shown that the fat burning properties may favor lean women more, however.

10) Replace Cooking Fats with Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is relatively high in medium-chain fats and can help increase your metabolism more than long-chain fats such as butter. One study resulted in a 12% increase in metabolism when using medium-chain fats as opposed to long-chain fats which raised it by only 4%.