Most people don't realize you spend a certain level of energy every day just to stay alive. This energy is used to ensure each of your organs and natural processes work in your body do their job. Without this you simply wouldn't survive. In carrying out this work, your body burns calories at a certain rate over the day.

The metabolism rate relating to just this energy expenditure is called your "Basal Metabolic Rate" (BMR). Now just because everyone burns calories throughout the day doesn't mean that you have the same BMR as someone else. In fact its almost certainly different.

Some people have a very quick BMR, and others a very slow one.

Now you may think that the BMR is really not going to make much of a difference because what matters is your metabolism rate when you exercise or your metabolism rate when you eat or just after that.

The facts are that up to 70% of your calories burned throughout the day is a result of your BMR!

Since it is the biggest influence on how many calories you burn, you should make it a priority to increase your BMR if you want to permanently lose weight. You will find the exact tips on how to do that on this web site.

First, lets look at what your BMR is influenced by? There are four factors:

• Body Composition - The more lean muscle mass you have, the higher your BMR is going to be. That's because muscle burns calories much more quickly than fat (yes - both fat and muscle burn calories - but at a different rate).  
• Age - as you get older, your BMR starts to slowdown. Studies show that your metabolism will slow down by an average of 10 calories per day per year after the age of 30. You can easily reverse this by the techniques you'll learn on this site.
• Gender - Men tend to have a higher BMR naturally, because they tend to have more lean muscle mass than women. Remember the more muscle, the quicker the metabolism.
• Genetic Make-up - You are primarily one of three body types. Depending on which one, your BMR is naturally very quick, or very slow (we'll talk more about body types at a another time).

Make sure you read the article, "Boost Your Metabolism" to see how you can manipulate these factors to increase your BMR.

Before I finish off, here's a couple of facts that twist what we've discussed so far that highlights the importance of increasing your BMR.

A faster metabolism burns calories quicker when you are resting OR when you are exercising. In other words let's say you and your friend both sat around all day watching your favorite TV shows. Then you may be able to guess by now that the one with the faster metabolism would burn more calories.

But, what about this: if both of you did the same exact workout, in exactly the same way, the one with the faster metabolism would burn more calories compared to the one with the slower metabolism. I hope that really brings home to you that the way to permanent long lasting fat loss is to increase your metabolism rate. It doesn't just give you a slight advantage - it is THE way to permanent fat loss.

No matter what you do, you burn more fat the faster your metabolism rate - even while you sleep!

So how do you increase your metabolism rate? The tips given in the diet and exercise sections will definitely help you to influence these factors.