Focus on metabolism to lose weight

You diet more than ever, but you don’t weigh any less. You exercise regularly, but still feel flabby. And your once perfectly fitting clothes now seem snug.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement, chances are you’re a member of the over35 club. Like most members, you probably have a stay-slim formula that no longer seems to work.

Don’t fret yet. There’s plenty you can do to boost the number of calories your body burns every day and thus maintain or even lose weight.

Here are some of the biggest weight-loss mistakes you can make — and their researchproven metabolism fixes. (For more metabolism-boosting tips and tricks, visit goodhousekeeping.com).

Mistake: Relying on just your scale

Basic scales, which only calculate pounds, can’t tell you what percentage of your body weight is lean, calorieburning muscle and how much is puffy, sluggish fat.

The metabolic difference between a pound of muscle and a pound of fat is dramatic: Muscle burns at least three times more calories.

The Fix: Get an expert to weigh in. Visit your local gym (or a hospital-affiliated fitness center) and ask for a body-fat reading. People who have been certified by the American College of Sports Medicine or who are exercise physiologists should have training in body-fat analysis.

Mistake: Crash dieting

When you slash too many calories, you send your body into starvation mode. “A flatout fast will drop the average metabolic rate by at least 25 percent,” said David C. Nieman, Dr.P.H., director of the Human Performance Lab at the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, North Carolina. “If you’re on a very lowcal regimen, in the 400-calorie to 800-calorie range, it falls by 15 to 20 percent.”

Eating fewer than 900 calories a day also prompts your body to burn desirable muscle tissue as well as fat.

The Fix: Shed pounds slowly. “If you stay within the 1,200-calorie to 1,500-calorie range, you can still slim down — and you’ll only lower your metabolic rate about 5 percent,” explains Nieman. “What’s more, about 90 percent of the weight you lose will be fat.”