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Ever wonder why your best friend can go through a pint of ice cream without gaining a pound while just one spoonful goes straight to your hips? The answer lies in your metabolism, that little engine in your body that burns calories all day, every day. Because of genetics, some women burn fat faster than others. But age, weight, diet, and exercise habits also play a role.  As women age, their metabolisms slow down, mainly because they are losing five or six pounds of muscle each decade starting in the mid-20s. Translation: You may be burning 100 fewer calories a day at 35 than at 25. But there are easy things you can do to stoke your fat-burning potential.  There's no reason you can't have the same metabolism in your 30s and 40s that you had in your 20s.

Try these get-thin-quick tricks...

1. Don't Overdo Calorie Cutting 
   Putting yourself on a very-low-calorie diet is a surefire way not to lose.  Your body is programmed to defend your usual weight.  So if you suddenly drop 1,000 calories from your diet, your metabolism will automatically slow down because your body will assume that you're starving.
2. Eat Breakfast
   Believe it or not, it may be the most important meal of the day as far as metabolism (and weight loss) is concerned. Breakfast eaters lose more weight than breakfast skippers do, according to studies. Your metabolism slows while you sleep, and it doesn't rev back up until you eat again.
3. Pile On The Protein
   Research shows that getting plenty of protein can boost your metabolism, causing you to burn an extra 150 to 200 calories a day.  That doesn't mean you have to live on the high-protein Atkins diet. But you should make sure that 10 to 35 percent of your total daily calories comes from protein.
4. Go For The "Good Carbs"
   Refined carbs, such as bagels, white bread, and potatoes, create a surge in insulin that in turn promotes storage of fat and may drive down your metabolic rate.  It's important to keep carbohydrates in your overall diet but focus on vegetables, fruits and whole grains which have less of an impact on insulin levels.
5. Nibble All Day
   It sounds counterintuitive - why would you eat continually if you wanted to lose weight?  Eating five to six mini meals rather than three larger meals every day keeps your metabolism humming 24/7.  It will also prevent you from going without food so long that you become so hungry you overeat. Try not to let more than four hours elapse between meals and make sure each meal includes protein for an extra metabolic boost.
6. Drink Milk
   Studies show that women who consumed milk, yogurt, and cheese three to four times a day lost 70 percent more body fat than women who didn't eat dairy.
7. Skip the Alcohol
   Thinking about having a cocktail or two before dinner? Think again. Having a drink before a meal causes people to eat around 200 calories more.
8. Pump Iron
   Experts say weight training is the best way to crank up your resting metabolic rate.  As you get older, your resting metabolic rate drops, but weight training can rev it right back up again.  A pound of muscle burns up to nine times the calories a pound of fat does.  Don't think you have time to hit the gym circuit? You can get great results with only two 15-minute lifting sessions a week.  When women lift weights, their metabolisms remain in overdrive for up to two hours after the last bench press, allowing them to burn as many as 100 extra calories.
9. Change Up Your Exercise Routine
   If you do the same thing week after week, month after month your body will start to get used to what you're doing to it and will eventually stop making changes. You will also stop adding any more lean muscle.  For the most part you should change some aspect of your workout every 2 - 3 weeks. This can be anything from the number of reps or sets per exercise. The exercise order you perform and the exercises themselves.
10. Get Plenty of Sleep
    Skimping on sleep can derail your metabolism.  Studies have shown that people who got four hours of sleep or less a night had more difficulty processing carbohydrates. When you're exhausted, your body lacks the energy to do its normal day-to-day functions which include burning calories so your metabolism is automatically lowered.