Powering up your Metabolic Rate
There are several easy and effective ways to support your metabolism, many of which involve making simple changes to your diet and lifestyle.
Your metabolism is responsible for converting nutrients from the foods you eat into fuel. This provides your body with the energy it needs to breathe, move, digest food, circulate blood, and repair damaged tissues and cells. However, the word “metabolism” is also used to describe your basal metabolic rate (the number of calories you burn at rest).
The higher your metabolic rate, the more calories you burn at rest. Many factors can affect your metabolism, including your age, diet, body composition, sex, body size, physical activity, health status, and any medications you’re taking.
There are several evidence-based strategies that can help increase your metabolism to support weight management and overall health.
Eat Plenty of Protein at Every Meal
Eating food can temporarily increase your metabolism for a few hours. This is called the thermic effect of food (TEF). It’s caused by the extra calories required to digest, absorb, and process the nutrients in your meal.
Protein causes the largest rise in TEF. Dietary protein requires 20-30% of its usable energy to be expended for metabolism, compared to 5-10% for carbs and 0-3% percent for fats. Eating more protein can also reduce the drop in metabolism often associated with losing fat. This is because protein helps muscle loss, which is a common side effect of dieting.
But this doesn’t mean you should switch to a protein-only diet to boost your metabolism. Rather, meals should include vegetables and a source of protein, balanced with wholegrain carbs and good fats to support optimum health, disease prevention and weight loss.
High-Intensity Workout
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) involves quick and very intense bursts of activity.
If this type of exercise is safe for you, it can help indirectly speed up your metabolism. Your muscle cells will burn energy at rest, which helps you burn fat and build muscle. This effect is believed to be for HIIT than for other types of exercise.
To get started, choose a modality, such as biking or running, that you are already familiar with. It’s also important to mix things up, as following the same routine every day can quickly lead to boredom and exercise avoidance.
Neglecting exercise will just as quickly result in a decline in muscle mass, and your lost muscle will slow your metabolism and hamper your efforts to lose weight.
Stand Up & Move
Sitting too much can have negative effects on your health, partly because long periods of sitting burn fewer calories and can lead to weight gain.
Studies found that standing or stepping at work was associated with lowered cardiometabolic risk (CMR) scores, weight, body fat, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, fasting triglycerides, total/HDL cholesterol, and insulin.
However, stepping rather than standing resulted in greater improvements to lower systolic blood pressure and insulin resistance.
If you have a desk job, try standing up and walking for short periods to break up the length of time you spend sitting down. You can also try going for walks during the day or invest in a standing desk. In a 2020 study, researchers found that doing this resulted in reduced blood insulin and sugar.
Get a Good Night’s Sleep
Lack of sleep is linked to a major increase in the chance of obesity. It’s also been shown to affect levels of ghrelin, the hunger hormone, and leptin, a hormone that controls fullness (satiety).
This could explain why many people who are sleep-deprived often feel hungry and may have difficulty losing weight or may gain weight.
In a 2019 study, researchers also found that a lack of sleep for four nights or longer may slightly decrease how the body metabolizes fat. That said, this increase is small and easily restored by one good night’s sleep.
A simple way to achieve this is to avoid screens for at least one hour before bed. Screens are a big sleep disruptor because they suppress melatonin production in the brain, telling us it’s daytime instead of nighttime.
The Body Relies on Balance
Researchers suggested that following a regular meal pattern can help reduce inflammation, improve circadian rhythms, increase the body’s ability to withstand stress, and manage gut flora, the composition of bacteria that help keep the gut healthy.
They suggested that the following may provide health benefits:
Eat breakfast
Consume most energy-providing foods early in the day
Eat two to three meals per day at regular times
Have planned periods of fasting
Reduce Stress
Stress affects hormone levels, and it can cause the body to produce more cortisol than usual.
Cortisol is a hormone that helps regulate appetite. Researchers found unusually high cortisol levels in people with disordered eating. If stress persists, the adrenal glands release a hormone called cortisol, and cortisol increases appetite and may also ramp up motivation in general, including the motivation to eat. Once a stressful episode is over, cortisol levels should fall, but if the stress doesn't go away — or if a person's stress response gets stuck in the "on" position — cortisol may stay elevated, leading to impulse eating.
Stress could also have an indirect impact by affecting eating patterns and sleep, both of which can alter the rate of metabolism.
Seek Treatment for Hypothyroidism
People with low levels of thyroid hormone often have a slower metabolism.
Thyroid hormone stimulates the production of substances that increase oxygen consumption, respiration rate, and body temperature. This involves a higher rate of energy consumption. Conversely, the body of a person with hypothyroidism is likely to burn energy at lower rate. Their metabolic rate may be slower, and they may have a higher risk of weight gain and obesity.
For those with hypothyroidism, taking medications that increase the levels of thyroid hormone can increase their resting metabolic rate. Seeking help for hypothyroidism can help speed up metabolic rate and reduce the risk of complications linked to this condition.
How Do You Fix a Slow Metabolism?
“Fixing” a slow metabolism may start with consulting a healthcare professional for a comprehensive assessment. They may explore underlying causes and offer you a tailored plan. Managing any condition that slows down your metabolism, like hypothyroidism, can help make other efforts more productive.
Jumpstarting your metabolism may also require you to change a few habits like a nutrient-dense diet with limited processed foods, regular physical and optimum sleep hygiene that allows your body to rest and recharge.
You may also avoid doing things that slow down your metabolism like restricting too many calories or not doing any strength resistance training. Being consistent with your actions, goes a long way in helping to address and manage your metabolic rate… good things take time.
What Are the Signs of a Slow Metabolism?
Every body is different. Signs of a slow metabolism may vary individually but may include fatigue, digestive upset, not losing any weight despite your efforts, and easily gaining weight. Along with this, as our bodies age, they stop working as efficiently as before. Around the age of 40, our muscle mass starts naturally declining, and the ratio of body fat to muscle increases.
Because muscle mass helps determine the body’s metabolic rate, this decrease in muscle means our bodies start to burn fewer calories at rest, decreasing our metabolic rate.
Some common signs to look out for:
You are always tired. Feeling tired all the time is one of the most common signs of a slow metabolism. If you find yourself struggling to get out of bed in the morning or nodding off at your desk in the afternoon, it could be a sign that your metabolism is running slow.
You have trouble losing weight. A slow metabolism can make it difficult to lose weight, even if you are eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly. If you’ve been trying to lose weight without success, it might be time to check your metabolism.
You have cravings. If you find yourself constantly craving high-sugar or fatty foods, it could be a sign that your body is struggling to convert food into energy. This can lead to weight gain and other health problems.
You feel bloated. Feeling bloated or constipated is another common sign of a slow metabolism. If you’re having trouble digesting your food, it could be because your body isn’t able to break it down properly.
You have dry skin. Dry skin is a common symptom of a slow metabolism. The hormones that control your body’s metabolic process also play a role in keeping your skin hydrated.
Please keep in mind, that only a healthcare professional may accurately assess your metabolism and the underlying causes of these symptoms. There’s nothing wrong with asking for advice/guidance to help you on your way.
Why Does our Metabolism Become Dysfunctional After Dieting?
Restrictive diets may sometimes lead to a slow metabolism, among other health effects. Although for weight loss and fat burning you do want to consume fewer calories than you burn, your body still needs to get enough fuel and nutrients to perform body functions. Instead of eating less, you may want to focus on nutritious foods and move more. Typically, when we diet to lose weight, we lose both fat and muscle, and the decrease in our calorie-burning muscle mass slows our metabolism.
We can account for the expected decrease in metabolic rate from the decrease in body mass, but even after we regain lost weight our metabolism doesn’t recover.
Research shows that for every diet you attempt, the rate at which you burn food slows by a further 15% that can’t be accounted for.
Long term restrictive diets may sometimes lead to a slow metabolism, among other health effects. Although for weight loss and fat burning you do want to consume fewer calories than you burn, your body still needs to get enough fuel and nutrients to perform body functions. Instead of eating less, you may want to focus on nutritious foods and move more.
What Foods Speed up your Metabolism?
Foods that boost your metabolism typically include protein such as meat, dairy, or legumes. A few other specific foods can also help, but it’s more about your overall eating plan and caloric needs.
Metabolism-Boosting Powers of specific foods:
Fish (salmon, tuna, sardines and mackerel) are rich in omega-3 fatty acids and protein. Your body burns slightly more calories digesting protein than fat and carbohydrates
Hot peppers like chili peppers and jalapeños contain the chemical capsaicin, which gives these vegetables their heat. Capsaicin increases your body’s internal temperature which temporarily helps you burn more calories. Even though this might boost your metabolism, eating more of these won’t significantly help your weight loss.
Chicken, turkey and other protein-packed lean meats take more energy for your body to break down than carbohydrate or fat-rich foods, therefore, burning slightly more calories during the digestive process.
Oatmeal. This is a powerhouse full of fiber that will not only help you last through the morning without hunger but will slow down the release of sugar into your blood stream.
Water can suppress your appetite and maybe boost your metabolism for a short amount of time. Research suggests the more hydrated you are, the better able your body is at just about everything from thinking to making exercise easier.
How can you Lose Weight with a Slow Metabolism?
To lose weight, you need to create a calorie deficit. This means you need to eat fewer calories than you burn, or better, burn more calories than you eat. You may want to focus on healthy eating habits while you consume enough calories to support your body functions. Consider reducing processed foods, sugar and alcohol intake, and saturated fats. You’ve probably heard it all before, but sensible choices are the key. Check out our article on the “80/20" Rule”
Resistance training and eating an adequate amount of protein can help preserve lean body mass. Muscle growth helps you burn more calories at rest, boosting your weight lose journey.
Don’t Waste your Money on Diet Pills
Thousands of products promise to activate your metabolism and speed up your weight loss. While some may have ingredients that will boost your metabolism immediately after you take them, such as caffeine and capsaicin (the component which gives chillies their heat), research confirms the effect is temporary – they don’t support long-term weight loss.
Most products promising to help you speed up your metabolism to help you lose weight don’t offer any scientific evidence to back their efficacy. Two extensive reviews published recently examined around 120 studies of weight-loss supplements and found they just don’t work, despite the bold marketing claims. There are prescription medications that do work, but often the risks can out weigh the benefits, along with the likelihood of the weight quickly returning once the cycle of medication is stopped.
So leave the pills, potions and powders on the shelf, focus on the things that work and put in a little hard work to achieve your goals . Your metabolism – and your hip pocket – will thank you.
The Bottom Line
Making small lifestyle changes and incorporating these tips into your routine can help increase your metabolism.
A good metabolic rate may help with weight management. But for those seeking to lose weight, it is better to focus on eating a varied diet with plenty of whole foods and being physically active. While some foods, such as spices, may help boost rates temporarily, they are not a long term solution.
It is always best to speak with a doctor before adjusting a diet or making changes to an exercise routine.
