With obesity rates in an all time high in the US and on the rise in other Western countries, everyone is looking for the fastest, easiest way to drop excess weight.

Thanks to this interest in weight loss, the news is filled with stories of dieting tips, magazines have nearly cover to cover stories on one diet trick or another, and every other commercial you see seems to be hocking some kind of weight loss magic bullet.

Through all of this coverage of diets, a lot of words get tossed around without any real explanation.

Case in point: metabolism. Your metabolism is crucial to the success of any weight loss plan, and many diet aids claims to be able to “speed up” your metabolism. But before you go out and hand over your hard earned money for metabolism boosting pills, you should learn exactly what it is, how it is related to weight loss and how to rev it up (if you can). (more…)