The chemical engine that keeps you alive is your metabolism.
The speed at which it runs varies depending on the individual. Those with a sluggish metabolism have more residual calories deposited as fat.
On the other hand, those with a rapid metabolism burn more calories and are less prone to gain weight.
This article discusses why specific individuals have fast metabolisms and how to increase your metabolism to burn more calories.
What Is Metabolism?
Metabolism refers to all your body’s chemical activities—the higher your metabolic rate, the more calories your body requires.
Metabolism is why some people can eat a lot without gaining weight, while others appear to require less to acquire weight.
The rate at which your metabolism operates is frequently referred to as metabolic rate. It is the number of calories burned in a specific time, also known as calorie expenditure.
There are numerous categories of metabolic rate:
- Basal metabolic rate (BMR): Your metabolic rate during sleeping or resting. The bare minimum metabolic rate is required to keep your lungs breathing, your heart pumping, your brain working, and your body warm.
- Resting metabolic rate (RMR): The bare minimum metabolic rate necessary to keep you alive and functional when at rest. It contributes to up to 50-75 percent of total calorie expenditure (1).
- Thermic effect of food (TEF): The number of calories your body burns when it digests and processes meals. TEF typically accounts for roughly 10% of total energy expenditure (2).
- Thermic effect of exercise (TEE): An increase in calories expended when exercising.
- Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT): The number of calories required for non-exercise activities. Fidgeting, altering posture, standing, and strolling about are all examples of this (3).
Contributing Factors
Several variables influence your metabolic rate, including:
- Age: As you become older, your metabolic rate slows down. This is one of the reasons why individuals acquire weight as they age (4).
- Muscle mass: The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn (5).
- Body mass index (BMI): The higher your BMI, the more calories you burn (6).
- Environmental temperature: When exposed to cold, your body has to burn extra calories to keep your body temperature from dropping (7).
- Physical activity: All bodily actions necessitate the expenditure of calories. The more you move, the more calories you burn. Your metabolism will speed up as a result (8).
- Hormone disorders: Cushing’s syndrome and hypothyroidism slow down metabolism and increase your chances of gaining weight (9).
Why Do Discrepancies Exist?
People’s metabolic rates differ from birth to birth.
Put another way; some people are born with a higher metabolism than others.
Although genetics may play a role in these disparities, experts disagree on how much they impact metabolic rate, weight gain, and obesity (10, 11).
Surprisingly, most studies demonstrate that obese persons have a greater total and resting metabolic rate than normal-weight people (12, 13, 14, 15).
Researchers remark that this is partly due to obese persons having more muscle to maintain their excess weight (15, 16, 17).
Despite this, studies show that fat persons have more excellent metabolic rates regardless of muscle mass (18, 19).
Other studies, on the other hand, suggest that formerly fat persons have a 3-8 percent lower metabolic rate than those who have never been obese (10, 20).
Regarding the metabolic rate, one thing is sure: not everyone is created equal.
The majority of this variety may be attributed to people’s ages, as well as their surroundings and conduct. However, the significance of genetics in these individual variances requires additional investigation.
What Is Starvation Mode?
Metabolic adaptation, commonly known as adaptive thermogenesis or “starvation mode,” may play a role in obesity development.
Your body’s response to a calorie shortfall is the starvation mode. When you don’t eat enough, your body tries to compensate by slowing your metabolism and burning fewer calories.
The degree to which metabolic rate reduces with calorie restriction and weight reduction varies significantly between people (21, 22, 23, 24).
This metabolic slowing is more significant in certain persons, obese people. The slower the metabolism, the more difficult it is to lose weight by dieting or fasting (21, 25, 26).
Genetics most likely influences starvation mode, although prior weight loss attempts or physical fitness may also play a role (27, 28).
Can You Speed up Your Metabolism to Lose Weight?
Weight loss is more than just consuming fewer calories. Effective weight loss methods often contain metabolism-boosting measures.
Here are eight straightforward approaches.
1. Move Your Body
Every bodily activity necessitates the expenditure of calories. The greater your metabolic rate, the more active you are.
Standing up often, walking about, or completing domestic activities significantly impact the long term.
This increase in metabolic rate is known as non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT).
Because of their increased weight, NEAT may account for a large amount of daily calorie expenditure in very obese persons (3, 29).
NEAT can be increased in a variety of ways. If you spend a lot of time sitting, consider the following strategies:
- Stand up and stroll about regularly.
- When feasible, use the stairs.
- Perform household chores
- By bouncing your legs or tapping your fingertips, you may fidget.
- Consume calorie-free gum (30)
- Make use of a standing desk (31)
If you work at a desk, using a standing workstation can help you burn 16 percent more calories (32).
Another 10-person research found that standing for one afternoon burned 174 calories more than sitting (33).
Even seemingly small tasks, such as typing, can boost your metabolic rate by 8% compared to doing nothing (32).
Similarly, fidgeting can have a substantial impact (34).
According to one study, participants who sat stationary for 20 minutes temporarily boosted their calorie expenditure by 4% compared to persons who lay motionless.
On the other hand, she was Fidgeting while seated boosted calorie expenditure by a stunning 54%. (35).
Anyone wishing to shed weight or enhance their health should exercise regularly. However, even minor activities such as walking around, doing housework, or fidgeting might provide you an edge in the long term.
2. Do High-Intensity Workouts
High-intensity exercises, also known as high-intensity interval training, are among the most effective types of exercise (HIIT).
HIIT is an exercise that incorporates short bursts of intensive activity, such as sprints or rapid push-ups.
It dramatically increases your metabolism long after the workout, a phenomenon known as “the afterburn” (36, 37, 38).
3. Strength Train
Strength training is another excellent strategy to increase your metabolic rate (39, 40).
Strength workouts increase mass muscle growth in addition to the direct effect of the activity itself.
Your metabolic rate is closely related to the amount of muscle you have. Muscle mass, as opposed to fat mass, considerably increases the number of calories you burn at rest (5, 41).
According to one study, completing strength exercises for 11 minutes three times per week resulted in an average 7.4 percent rise in resting metabolic rate after half a year — and an additional 125 calories expended each day (40).
Age is often connected with muscle loss and a decreased metabolic rate, although regular strength exercise can mitigate this adverse effect (42, 43).
Similarly, a calorie-reduced weight reduction diet frequently leads to declining muscle mass and metabolic rate. Strength training, once again, may assist in avoiding this deterioration (44, 45).
A study of overweight women found that daily strength workouts on an 800-calorie diet reduced muscle mass and metabolic rate reductions compared to those who did not exercise or just conducted aerobics (46).
4. Eat Protein
Eating enough protein is vital to gaining or maintaining muscle mass. However, dietary protein provides additional benefits.
Food causes a brief rise in metabolic rate, known as the thermic impact of food (TEF). However, compared to carbohydrates or fat, this impact is substantially more substantial after consuming protein (47).
In reality, protein can raise metabolic rate by 20-30%, but carbohydrates and fat only induce a 3-10% rise or less (48).
This increase in calorie expenditure may aid in weight reduction or prevent weight return following a weight loss program (49, 50, 51).
TEF is most significant in the morning or the first few hours after waking. As a result, eating a considerable part of your usual calories early in the day can optimize the effect (52, 53).
Consuming a high protein diet can also assist in offsetting the decrease of muscle mass and metabolic rate associated with weight reduction (54, 55, 56).
5. Don’t Starve Yourself
While eating less is an essential approach to losing weight, eating too little is typically harmful in the long run.
This is because calorie restriction lowers your metabolic rate.
This is referred to as starvation mode or metabolic adaption. It is your body’s technique of protecting itself against famine and death.
According to research, regularly consuming less than 1,000 calories per day results in a considerable decline in metabolic rate that lasts long after you quit dieting (57, 58, 59).
Studies on fat persons reveal that the starving reaction dramatically reduces the number of calories burnt. According to one research, this reduction in metabolic rate saves up to 504 calories each day (60, 61).
Surprisingly, intermittent fasting mitigates this impact (62, 63).
6. Drink Water
Temporarily increasing your metabolic rate does not have to be complicated. It’s as easy as taking a stroll or sipping some cool water.
Many studies have found that drinking water increases the number of calories burnt, a phenomenon known as water-induced thermogenesis (64, 65, 66).
Drinking cold water has a higher impact than drinking warm water since it needs your body to bring it to body temperature.
The outcomes of studies on this phenomenon differ. A 16-ounce (500-ml) glass of cold water may result in a 5-30% increase in the number of calories burnt for 60-90 minutes following (64, 66, 67, 68).
Increasing your water consumption appears to be helpful to your waistline as well. Several studies have found that consuming 34-50 ounces (1-1.5 liters) of water per day can result in considerable weight reduction over time (64, 69).
You may enhance these advantages by drinking water before meals, which also fills you up and helps you lose weight (70).
7. Drink Caffeinated Beverages
Although simple water is sufficient, caffeinated, low-calorie liquids such as coffee or green tea are also beneficial.
Caffeinated drinks can temporarily increase your metabolic rate by 3-11 percent, according to controlled research (71, 72, 73, 74).
However, this impact is more minor in obese and older people. Furthermore, seasoned coffee consumers may have developed a tolerance to its effects (75, 76).
Sugar-free drinks, such as basic black coffee, are ideal for weight reduction. Cold coffee, like water, maybe even more beneficial.
8. Get Good Sleep
Inadequate sleep is not just harmful to your overall health; it may also decrease your metabolism and raise your risk of weight gain (77, 78).
One study found that when healthy people slept for only four hours each night for five days in a row, their metabolic rate dropped by 2.6 percent (77).
Another five-week study discovered that sleep disturbance and irregular sleeping schedules lowered the resting metabolic rate by 8% on average (78).
As a result, a lack of sleep is linked to an increased risk of weight gain and obesity (79, 80, 81, 82).
The Bottom Line
Although you have little influence over your basal metabolic rate, there are several techniques to enhance the number of calories you burn.
The tactics discussed in this article might assist you in increasing your metabolism.
When it comes to weight loss, metabolism isn’t everything. A healthy, well-balanced diet is also essential.
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