Biggest Loser

Want to drop some serious weight? Want to continue to build lean muscle and also burn excess fat at the same time? Take advice from the pros. Best way to speed your metabolism and shave off the pounds is to do it naturally. Stay clear from store-bought "metabolism-enhancers" that have not been proven by the FDA to actually help you lose weight. In addition, false metabolic-enhancers can create damage by excelerating your heart rate and pumping an overload of caffeine into your system which will skyrocket your blood pressure.

R.D. and nutritionist Cheryl Forberg from NBC's Biggest Loser offers tips on sheding the pounds:

1. Eat three meals a day. She advises to eat a snack in between each meal which confirms the recent popular belief that eating six meals a day raises your metabolism.

2. Guzzle more H20. Drinking water will help you feel fuller, longer and will keep your body operating as it should to help rid itself of all the fiber ingested during meals. It also helps replenish your body after exercise.

3. Think calcium. Down low-fat yogurt and cheese, string cheese is the quickest snack to take with you. Calcium is important to increase your bone mass which will improve your game in the lifting room and help avoid injury.

Madelyn Fernstorm, PhD, CNS, and founder of University of Pittsburgh's Medical Center Weight Loss Center debunks metabolic and weight loss myths:

Myth: Have a pre-workout sports drink.
Fact: Sports drinks are loaded with sugars that the average person doesn't need. Even though you see basketball and football players guzzling these during games doesn't mean you need one to replenish your hour-long workout. Ball players are continously moving for long periods of time and need the extra sugars to replenish their energy stores. Instead, water and a pre-workout coffee or tea is plenty to speed metabolism and prep your body for workouts.

Myth: Exercise is the only factor in affecting metabolism.
Fact: Although exercise does lower metabolism and eating consistently throughout the day as well, age has more of an effect on your total gains or losses. After age 30, your metabolism drops about 5% every 10 years. That means that every 10 years we need to cut back our diet 100-150 calories a day in order to maintain our weight.

Myth: Eating 6 small meals a day is better than eating 3 full meals.
Fact: While she doesn't say that eating six small meals won't help raise metabolism, she does bring it up to advise a word of caution. Your blood sugar can regulate fine with three meals and it might help "grazers" from over-eating. Giving the green light for people with over-eating problems to eat six meals might cause more problems with weight gain. If its three or six meals a day, make sure each meal has a balanced mix of proteins, carbs, and fats.

When taking in consideration tips that will aid weight loss, above all exercise your intuition. If you're unsure of whether or not what you're consuming will help you lose the pounds, research and know what you're doing. Otherwise, you could be running around with weight gainer bars that you're enemy swore to you would help you lose the extra pounds. Ever seen Mean Girls? People can be cruel.