Many of my clients have often asked me what does the term building your metabolism mean? The answer: It means though proper training and nutrition you can steadily increase muscle mass, thereby increasing your metabolic rate and fat burning capacity. Metabolic rate is proportional to lean body mass, so the more muscle you're carry, the more food you have to eat. The conventional strategy to lose weight is restrict calories. Current medical literature reports that this approach fails 90% of the time. This is because during energy restriction as much as half of the weight lost is muscle. This lowers your metabolic rate and sets into play the body's starvation response,which actually promotes fat retention.