Although your body’s ability to remain stable despite the constant changes around you is normally a good thing (such as keeping your blood pressure and blood sugar steady), it can actually work against you when your goal is to try to lose weight. Your metabolism automatically reduces in an attempt to keep you right where you are.

This means that sometimes you need to find a way to turn up your internal calorie burning furnace on your own. So, here are five quick and easy ways to do just that:

#1 – Drink More Water

Your body requires water the same way that an automobile requires gasoline. When you are dehydrated, your body is going to slow down if not stall completely. However, you can keep your engine burning hot by fueling yourself with water throughout the day. Always have a bottle by your side and you’ll naturally drink more, and burn more fat.

#2 – Eat Natural Foods

Have you tried to lose weight so many times that you would need more than just your fingers and toes to count them on, as well as those of every member of your family? And does each attempt eventually result in you weighing the same as, if not more than, when you first started your weight loss journey? If so, unfortunately you are not alone.

Dieting is one of the most understood lifestyles around the globe. People everywhere are watching what they eat in an attempt to lose weight and gain health. But, if that’s the case, why is it that there is an obesity epidemic that is threatening the health of people all over the world?

The answer is simple: diet. Not diet as in what food people eat (although healthy eating is obviously very important), but diet as in the process. It’s about what effect calorie restriction has on your physical body.

You Can Blame Your Slow Metabolism on Your Grandparents

It’s a fact revealed in the neon headlines splashed across every magazine cover in America, and a pressure that most women feel on a daily basis: you should strive to be tall, thin, and beautiful.

Entire fortunes have been made by diet companies selling all sorts of products to help you get there. There are plans such as the cookie diet and the South Beach movement, or others like grapefruit regimens and Paleo theories. The Slim Fast campaign sold itself in chocolate-flavored shakes and protein bars, while other methods like the Atkin’s Diet marketed purely based on a book and a theory that a low-carb life led to happiness.

Most people like French fries, and protein shakes never taste as good as the real sugary thing.

Of course, there’s always the good old doctor adage of daily exercise, but when you’re busy with work or kids or school, that doesn’t always seem like a feasible option either. There’s always something more to be done or cleaned, and the call of the treadmill or the nightly jog simply isn’t alluring enough to tear a woman away from the hectic pace of her life.

The quest for weight loss has been an elusive chase for many people, so really it’s only fitting that this magical fruit would hail from an equally exotic locale. Native to the tropic forests of Indonesia, the Garcinia Cambogia plant is rapidly receiving attention for its medicinal qualities.  It has recently been praised by Dr. Oz as a miracle breakthrough for weight-loss. Who knew such a hard-to-pronounce plant would soak up so much limelight?

What You May Not Know About Garcinia Cambogia

The Garcinia Cambogia is an Evergreen plant which bears a round citrus fruit (commonly known as Malabar tamarind fruit) that vaguely resembles a small pumpkin. The fruit can come in a variety of colors, from bright yellow to orange to even purple in some cases. When cut open, Garcinia Cambogia clearly resembles the more common fruits of the citrus family.

Widely known in India and other areas of southern Asia, extracts of the fruit are traditionally used as a spice and for cooking curry; the rinds are also used as a preservative for fish due to the high acidic content it contains.