Your metabolism is the rate your body burns and uses calories effectively. Registered dietitian Fiorella DiCarlo says certain foods can help you boost your metabolism.
"Proteins have a thermogenic effect in the body, which means just merely digesting proteins burns calories,” said DiCarlo. “So every time you ingest protein throughout the day you're burning more calories."
DiCarlo says fish is good, and so is red meat because it has B12 vitamins, zinc and iron, which help boost your metabolism.
"You can get very big forms of lean proteins in the form of red meat like filet, sirloin and flank,” she added. “You can also do pork loin. Pork loin has the same amount of fat as chicken breast with a lot more iron."
Spicy foods, from peppers to red pepper flakes, all help, too.
"It has an element in the spicy foods like peppers and red peppers called capsacin, and capsacin is basically an enzyme that gives red peppers the heat. So as your body is getting more heat in it, it's burning calories, and then the body tries to cool itself down which also burns more calories," DiCarlo continued.
Another favorite metabolism booster of DiCarlo's is green tea.
"Try to replace one cup of coffee with the green tea because you're also getting the added antioxidants from that as well, and it doesn't have as much caffeine as coffee depending on the brand that you use, and you can have it as your afternoon mood booster too," she said.
DiCarlo also says that not getting enough sleep and going too long between meals will both slow down your metabolism.