Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns its calories just to keep your body alive—for the functioning of the vital organs, such as the heart, lungs, brain and the rest of the nervous system, liver, kidneys, sex organs, muscles and skin. Your body is burning calories 24-by-7, even while you’re hiding from your boss reading these articles. Basically, an average man burns about 11 calories per pound of body weight every day. If you weighed 150 lbs, then your metabolism rate is around 1650 calories.

Okay, now you know your metabolism is helping you to burn calories. What else is burning your calories other than this?

Way #1 – The Physical activity..
..still need the explanation? The more muscles you involve in your physical activity, the more calories you will burn.

Way #2 – The Thermic Effect of Food..
TEF in shorthand is the increment in energy expenditure above resting metabolic rate due to the cost of metabolizing for storage and use. The magnitude is about 10% of the caloric intake of a given time period, though the effect varies substantially for different food components. Basically, a complex food component such as protein, high fiber food, and low glycemic index carbohydrate has a much larger thermic effect, compared with dietary fat and simple sugar.

You can read more details about Thermic Effect of Food here.
I also recommend you to check more about Glycemic Index here.

Bingo! Now after reading these, I believe you already got the idea – how to incorporate your diet plan, exercise plan into your weight loss program. Exercise and pack some muscle to raise your metabolism, choose good that has larger thermic effect as your natural fat burner, and be physically more active. Thats it.