One of the key factors in becoming fit and maintaining the new body is learning how to boost your metabolism. While exercise is important for boosting metabolism, it is certainly not the only method nor should it be. Maintaining peak metabolism requires both exercise and the proper exercise. It is essential for the two to work together as a team; neither one can accomplish the task by itself. It is the combination of diet and exercise that will allow a person to boost his o her metabolism and thus attain and maintain a healthy and fit body.

Where does fitness begin? One place many people make a huge mistake is thinking all they have to do is cut back on the number of calories they consume. They do not understand it is not necessarily they number of calories they consume but the type of calories that are contained in those foods. For instance, those who consume many processed and bleached foods such as white rice, white pasta, white bread and the like are likely to gain weight no matter how little food they eat. Carbohydrates of any kind turn to sugar when they enter the body, but whole grain products-wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, brown rice, etc.-take longer to turn into sugar. That means the body has more time to burn the calories consumption of grain products causes.

Exercise is important, but the combination of aerobic exercise-walking, running, bicycling, swimming, etc.-in combination with resistance exercise is the key to boosting the metabolism. While resistance exercise does not boost the metabolism as aerobic exercise does, it creates lean muscle mass which burns calories at a faster rate than muscle mass that contains more fat. Therefore the combination of aerobic and resistance exercises are essential for optimal metabolism.

Water consumption is also an essential part of not just optimal metabolism but overall good fitness. What it amounts to is the real test of quality for your metabolism involves drinking plenty of water, reducing the amount of refined products you eat and replacing them with whole grains, exercising regularly and drinking plenty of water. Your efforts will not only provide you with a fitter body but a healthier one as well.