“How boost your metabolism” is a question I often get asked.
And this is why a lot of people make money off of a “damaged” or “broken” metabolism because when people hear that, they think something is wrong with them.
Well my friend, I’m here to tell you that your metabolism is not “broken” or “damaged” and nothing is wrong with you.
You’re not a car that gets into a car crash and needs repaired at the mechanic.
You’re a human being that has an adaptive metabolism based on your genes and environment that has evolved over thousands of years as a survival mechanism.
Damn that was a mouthful but you get the point.
Might you have more of a disadvantage compared to others?
Yes, but that’s life.
Some people will have better (or worse) genetics and lifestyle than you.
The only way to overcome this is to take action and stop feeling bad for yourself.
I know… a little harsh but I’m telling you what you need to hear not what you want to hear because I know for a fact you can do this.
I have plenty of clients who’ve gotten amazing results to prove it.
Now, there are some conditions that can affect your metabolism and make it harder for you to get results.
In this case, this article is not for you. So if you think this is you, go see a doctor to get the proper medication so that you’ll be ready to take action and follow these steps in this article.
Below, I’m going to break down what your metabolism is and is not, how it works, and leave you with 7 simple and practical ways to boost your metabolism.
Are you ready? Grab a cup of coffee and let’s dive in!
What Is Your Metabolism?
Let’s first go over what your metabolism is not.
It is not some fire that is in your belly burning your body fat like wax from a candle.
You can’t roast marshmallows over it to make smores.
Your metabolism is simply all of the processes going on in your body to keep you alive and able function daily. (i.e. breathing, moving, digesting food, etc)
And it can be measured by how many calories your body burns per day to accomplish this.
Many things affect your metabolism such as your weight, age, sex, genes, and physical activity which I will dive into more down below.
That said, there is still a lot that we don’t know about metabolism and how it actually works but every year, there is more research coming out about it.
Something that goes unnoticed is that your metabolism is adaptive… meaning it changes based on your body weight and how many calories it needs to function.
So, contrary to popular belief, it’s not the cause of weight loss or weight gain per se, but it’s an effect of it.
For example, the less you weigh, the slower your metabolism will be because it requires less energy for your body to function.
On the flip side, the more you weigh, the higher your metabolism will be because it requires more energy for your body to function.
Yes, you can be very overweight and have a fast metabolism.
So, when I’m talking about “boosting your metabolism” in this article, I’m talking more specifically about improving your body composition in a favorable way which has a huge effect on your metabolism.
Different Parts That Make Up Your Metabolism
There are 4 different parts that make up how many calories you burn per day.
1. BMR – Basal Metabolic Rate
This is the amount of calories you burn per day to function.
So, if you were to do nothing all day, lay in your bed and watch Netflix for a whole 24 hours, this is how many calories you would burn.
This makes up about 65-75% of your total calories burned per day.
2. NEAT – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
Basically all of the activities you do outside of exercise throughout the day.
Think of things like walking, cooking, cleaning the house, fidgeting, picking things up and down, going up and down stairs, opening things, etc.
This makes up about 15% of your total calories burned per day and is why movement is important to boost your metabolism.
3. TEF – Thermic Effect of Food
This is how many calories or energy your body burns while digesting food.
Different foods and macronutrients take more or less energy to digest.
This makes up about 10% of your total calories burned per day.
4. EAT – Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
This is the amount of calories you burn per day from planned exercise.
This would include going to the gym to strength train, cardio, silly boot camp classes, etc.
This makes up about 5% of your total calories burned per day – which is why exercise is a shitty way to lose weight.
Clearing Up Myths Surrounding Your Metabolism
1. Eating Breakfast Boosts Your Metabolism For The Rest of The Day
While eating breakfast may burn more calories in the morning from the thermic effect of food, it’s the total calories at the end of the day that matter.
That said, breakfast can help keep you more full for the rest of the day and eat less total food – especially if it’s a breakfast high in protein and fiber.
But, whether you eat breakfast or not, isn’t going to boost your metabolism directly.
2. Eating Smaller But More Frequent Meals Will Boost Your Metabolism
I used to think eating more meals would set your metabolism on fire – almost like I was melting body fat away could feel the heat radiating off of me.
So, I would eat as many meals as I could throughout the day.
The ironic thing is that, no matter how many meals you eat, it’s the calories at the end of the day that matter.
Here’s an example if you burned 2,000 calories each day:
2 meals: Meal 1 (1,000 cal burned) + Meal 2 (1,000 cal burned) = 2,000 cal burned for the day
6 meals: Meal 1 (333 cal burned) + Meal 2 (333 cal burned) + Meal 3 (333 cal burned) + Meal 4 (333 cal burned) + Meal 5 (333 cal burned) + Meal 5 (333 cal burned)
The difference is how long your body is digesting the food for, hence, burning calories.
But, the number at the end of the day stays the same.
3. Losing Weight Destroys Your Metabolism
There is a difference between losing weight and losing body fat.
The goal is to lose body fat and retain/build muscle because this is what is going to keep you lean and healthy long term.
Also, your metabolism is very adaptive and hates change.
So, it does what it needs to do to keep your body at homeostasis – basically not changing.
As you lose body fat, your metabolism starts to adapt, but this is normal.
You see, when you lose weight, your body naturally down regulates your metabolism so you burn less calories.
This is the survival mechanism I was talking about before.
Think about it like this, if you continued to burn a lot of calories and lose body fat at a quick rate, you would eventually turn into nothing and starve.
So, our body has to do something to slow down the weight loss and it does this by decreasing your metabolism mostly from NEAT levels.
Basically the leaner you get, your body moves less on purpose.
So, even though your metabolism may slow down when you lose body fat, it’s normal.
Just like it’s normal that your metabolism speeds up when you gain body fat because it wants to then burn extra calories to prevent weight gain.
Hmmm… bet you didn’t think of that?
4. “I’m In A Plateau”
If I had a dollar for every time I heard this I swear I would own a professional sports team right now.
The problem here is that people are so impatient and so much in a hurry that they freak out the first time the number on the scale doesn’t change.
This is where most people fuck up. They think it’s not working, cut their calories super low to where it’s unsustainable, and eventually give up.
Or, maybe you’re not being honest with yourself and you think you’re being 80% consistent with your diet when in reality you’re going off track on the weekends and ruining your progres.
If you were to stay patient and let the results play out and focus on the process rather than the outcome, you’d succeed and would be able to boost your metabolism.
Your weight will go down.
It will stay the same.
And it will go up.
This is normal.
It’s the trend over time that matters the most.
So, not losing weight for a few days is not a fucking plateau.
This is NOT a fucking race so relax and calm down.
Unless you’ve truly been consistently hitting your nutrition targets 80% of the time and you still haven’t seen any changes over a month, you’re not in a plateau and don’t need to make a change.
Side Note: I have an article on 4 reasons why your fat loss has stalled that you can read here.
7 Ways To Boost Your Metabolism:
Now that we sifted through all of the bullshit, it is time for you to take action.
Keep in mind… these aren’t magical pills that are going to make you start burning more calories instantly.
These are practices to put in place to help you boost your metabolism so you can stay lean long term.
1. Eat More Protein to Boost Your Metabolism
The main thing protein is known for is retaining and building new muscle with the addition of strength training (more on this below).
Think of protein as construction workers and your muscles as the house. You want to build the house but need the workers and tools to do it.
So, you send a signal to build muscle in the gym, and protein builds it into bigger muscle outside of the gym.
That said, protein also has two other benefits as well.
First, it’s the most satiating macronutrient out there. This is a fancy way of saying that it’s very filling.
When you eat protein, certain hormones get released that tell your brain that you are full.
As a result, you eat less food.
Second, protein has the highest thermogenic effect of food – meaning it takes the most energy to digest out of all of the macronutrients.
- Carbs: 5-10%
- Fats: 0-3%
- Protein: 20-30%
It’s not a crazy amount but it can add up and is hard to store as body fat.
Aim for .7-1g per lb of your goal body weight and you’ll be good to go.
2. Strength Train 3-4 Times Per Week To Boost Your Metabolism
Here is the one that gets people.
Most of the time you will see people doing cardio for fat loss.
This is where they royally fuck up.
While you should do cardio for your health and well being, it’s fucking terrible for burning calories over the long run.
Think about it… in order to burn those calories you actually have to perform cardio every day.
And you don’t burn as many calories as you think. Remember, exercise only burns 5% of your daily calories.
Plus, research has shown that some devices can be up to 90% inaccurate.
Yikes.
So, the combination of you having to do it everyday for hours on end and not being efficient at burning calories is a recipe for disaster and why most people fail.
On top of that, you’re more likely to lose muscle and become skinny fat.
Double yikes.
Instead, what if you had your body burning calories for you throughout the day?
This can best be achieved by building muscle which is done via strength training.
The more muscle you have on your body, the more energy your body burns per day.
The reason being is that muscle is very expensive for your body to hold onto.
As a result, you’ll be able to eat more and stay lean.
The cool thing is you only need to strength train 3-4 times per week at 45-60 minutes a pop.
That is it.
Compare that to doing 3 hours of cardio every single day and you can’t beat it.
3. Do More and Sit Less
This can play into either NEAT or EAT depending on how you look at it but the fact is that getting in more steps throughout the day is going to help boost your metabolism.
The reason being is obvious – you will burn more calories throughout the day.
And something else that is important is that not only is it good for losing weight and getting lean, but it’s great for your health and maintaining a lean body.
So, having a step goal is a great way to make sure you’re staying active.
If not, it’s easy to become sedentary and cave into your body wanting to be lazy and sit on the couch all day.
So, aim for 7-10k steps a day.
This can be done by going for walks, parking farther away from buildings, taking the stairs, cleaning your house, doing zoe 2 cardio, etc.
The more you can do, the better you’ll boost your metabolism.
4. Sleep More To Boost Your Metabolism
Sleep is your reset.
This is when your batteries are getting recharged in your body.
So, the more sleep you get, the more energy you have and the better your body functions.
The better your body functions, the more muscle you can build, the more movement you’ll get throughout the day, the less stress you’ll have, and just overall will boost your metabolism.
Also, having more sleep is coordinated with having less cravings. Therefore, you’ll be less likely to go in your pantry and eat a tub of Oreos.
So, aim to get 7-9 hours of sleep a night.
Oh, and get the fuck off your phone before bed and do not drink caffeine 6 hours before bed.
Those will make it very hard – trust me.
5. Decreasing Stress
Stress acts on your autonomic nervous system which has a big effect on boosting your metabolism.
When you’re less stressed, things are all and well.
When you’re more stressed…well think of it as world war 3 in your body.
Things start to slow down to deal with the stress which means you burn less calories throughout the day.
You have less motivation to do anything.
You’re less likely to get good sleep.
You’re less likely to recover ( important)
You’re more likely to eat more food and higher calories foods.
So, relax.
Go outside for walks and get some sun.
Read a book.
Meditate and/or journal.
Listen to some soft music.
Have sex.
Find a way that you can decrease stress throughout your day because it will go a long way.
6.Caffeine
Believe it or not, caffeine can boost your metabolism.
And hey… just another reason to drink more coffee right?
Anyways, there are no magical “metabolism” benefits though.
If this were the case, do you think with the amount of people who drink coffee, we’d have an obese epidemic?
Of course not.
What caffeine does is two things:
First, it gives you more energy to move around.
Have you ever noticed that you’re more fidgety when you drink coffee or an energy drink?
Second, caffeine can be an appetite suppressor – meaning that it can push away hunger for a little bit which can make it easier to eat less.
The less you eat, the more likely you are to lose weight and stay lean.
Now, your body adapts very quickly to the effects of caffeine which is why you see people drinking 8 cups of coffee a day and still being a walking zombie.
But that’s besides the point.
It’s not going to move the needle too much but why the fuck not add it in?
I would say a cup of coffee a day can help keep the laziness away… I guess.
Research has shown that most people can safely have up to 400 mg of coffee or caffeine a day.
However, this is different for everyone. If you’re sensitive to caffeine, be smart and consult with your doctor.
7. Track Your Calories
This last point indirectly affects your body composition and boosts your metabolism.
Fat loss mainly comes from nutrition.
So, the combo of eating in a calorie deficit and strength training is going to set you up for success.
Track your calories for at least 30 days to make sure you’re being accurate with your portion sizes and how much you’re eating.
Side Note: I have a guide on how to track your macros that you can read here.
How to Boost Your Metabolism: Final Thoughts
And there you have it.
Remember… Boosting your metabolism is mainly changing your body composition.
As nice as it would be, there are no magic spells, pills, powders, potions, or quick remedies to bypass the hard work.
Follow these 7 simple steps forever and you will have a metabolism that is faster than a race car.
-Bob