Boosting your metabolism is an important part of losing weight. With summer fully upon us, you might be in a hurry to shed a few pounds. Try to add some of these great metabolism-boosting foods to your diet and watch the extra weight drop off.

1. Citrus Fruits

Citrus fruits are especially great for metabolizing fat, which means increasing your consumption of citrus fruits will help you lose weight faster. Try adding oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and limes, which will not only give you a big boost in vitamin C, but help burn fat faster. Grapefruit with each meal is especially recognized as a fat burner, but if you take any medications you should definitely check with your doctor before eating grapefruit, since certain drugs can have interactions with this food.

2. High Fibre Cereals

Those who consume high fibre cereals on a daily basis are 30% less likely to experience obesity, compared with those eating other common breakfast foods. When you eat high fibre cereals, your metabolism gets a huge jump start in the morning. These cereals also digest slowly, helping you to feel full and satisfied for longer. When you eat high fibre cereals, you also keep your insulin levels well regulated, and this helps prevent your body from storing fat.

3. Berries

All berries are naturally high in dietary fibre. Because the body cannot digest fibre completely—but it does try—many calories are burned. For example, a cup of raspberries contains 8g of fibre, yet it only packs about 60 calories. Other berries, including strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, also contain high levels of fibre. Fibre helps to flush your system of fat and toxins, and will remove many grams of fat and many calories before your body has a chance to absorb them.

4. Garlic

Garlic is well known to be a nutritional powerhouse, and it provides tons of great health advantages. Garlic helps to boost your immune system, fights the aging process and keeps you healthy and helps you avoid chronic disease. Interestingly, garlic also helps to boost your metabolism and give you some extra fat burning power, even in small amounts.

5. Lean protein

Many lean meats, including lean chicken, beef and turkey, will help to increase your body’s metabolism and help you to burn more fat. It takes a great deal of energy for your body to digest protein, which means you burn calories just by burning these foods. Protein is also very important for building muscle mass. Muscle mass burns more calories than fat tissue, so the more muscle you have, the more calories you will burn and the more weight you will lose along the way.

If you are looking for ways to boost your metabolism and lose weight more quickly, consider adding these five powerhouse foods to your diet on a regular basis. Each one has plenty of great benefits, and they are tasty and nutritious, too!