Can You Speed Up Your Metabolism?

Can you increase or reset your metabolism? There are millions of answers to that question on Google—and most of them say that you can either reset, supercharge or outright hack your metabolism. And, of course, nobody gives advice on how to slow down metabolism. I supposed nobody wants a slower metabolism.

The dream of having a faster metabolism would be a silver bullet, since so many blame our inability to lose weight on a sluggish metabolism. Some internet searches lead to sites that promote green tea, eating spicy foods, or cooking with coconut oil as ways to boost our internal energy-burning engines. There are also no shortage of supplements, diet books, eating regimens and workout programs, all designed to help you hit the reset button.

Do any of them work? Dr. Arya Sharma, professor of medicine at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and leading global authority on obesity, offers some insight.

Does Bulking Up Help?

Let’s discuss resistance exercise, since fitness experts often advise bulking up, based on the idea that muscle burns more calories than fat.  “Muscle mass does burn calories even when it’s not doing anything, but this still only amounts to a small amount of the total ‘resting metabolic rate’ so it won’t make a lot of difference,” said Sharma. “And it’s really hard to build muscle, so this idea that, you know, ‘I’m just going to bulk up and that’s going to make me burn calories in my sleep,’ doesn’t really work, because it doesn’t have a huge impact on your actual ‘resting metabolic rate.’”

Just to take a momentary deep dive: Our “resting metabolic rate” or “basal metabolic rate” (BMR) refers to the calories our bodies need to burn just to stay alive. It takes a certain amount of energy to regulate our body temperature, keep our blood circulating and maintain our organs, including the tissues — both muscle and fat. Muscle is more “metabolically active,” meaning that, even when we’re at rest, muscle burns through roughly three times more calories than fat. However, only 15 percent of our BMR is devoted to keeping tissues alive and the other 85 percent is spent regulating our heart, brain, liver, kidneys, lungs et cetera, so converting a little fat to muscle doesn’t do much to move the needle.

Can’t Speed Up Resting Metabolic Rates?

The BMR, however, isn’t the only component of our overall metabolism—only the most important part. “The basal metabolic rate is the biggest chunk of calories the average Canadian burns,” continued Sharma. “It’s about two-thirds of your daily calories, or about 1,400 calories per day for the average person. And those are the calories you burn just sitting in your chair or lying in your bed. So the majority of your daily caloric requirements is just to sustain life.”

What Else Contributes to Metabolism?

Sharma divides the remaining third of our energy expenditure into two categories — activities of daily living and “intentional exercise.” The first refers to the low-level physical activity we engage in when we putter around the house, climb a set of stairs or walk around the grocery store. And most of us expend more energy doing “unintentional exercise” than we do on proper “intentional exercise.” No matter what impression we might get from social media, Canadians just don’t get a lot of exercise.

“Other than that, there is a very small amount of calories that get burned just digesting your food,” he added. (It depends on what you eat and how often, but it’s roughly 10 percent of your caloric intake.)

All these together make up our “metabolism” — the total number of calories we burn. And, since two-thirds of our calories are burned while we’re at rest, the BMR is what most “booster schemes” are hoping to impact. “The problem is that it’s very difficult to change our resting metabolic rate, because you can’t change the number of calories that your brain needs or your heart needs or your kidney needs or all your internal organs need,” says Sharma. “That’s a pretty fixed number that doesn’t change very much.”…Except, it turns out, as we age. Sadly, it changes in the wrong direction. Every birthday, we need at least 10 fewer calories per day than we did the year before. That might not sound like much but it adds up to hundreds of calories over decades. For postmenopausal women, that number might be even higher, since hormonal changes can affect metabolism. Some pregnant women also experience metabolic change — also in the wrong direction.

When You Lose Weight Your Metabolism Slows Down

“There are no tricks, really, except if you’re looking for ways to slow your metabolism down,” said Sharma. “The best way to do that is to lose weight, because, every time you lose weight, your metabolism actually does slow down for all kinds of different reasons.” And the main reason there, Sharma explained, is simply that our bodies resist weight loss. “The whole problem with weight loss is that bodies don’t like to lose weight,” he said. “So anytime you try to trick your body into losing weight, it doesn’t matter how you do it, your body fights you. Your metabolic rate goes down and you actually become more fuel- efficient so that your body runs on fewer calories.”

This is the problem with “yo-yo dieting” — each time you lose weight, your BMR drops a little more. Sharma warned that any diet that advertises a metabolic “trick” is likely one you have to be on for the rest of your life in order to avoid gaining back the weight. And the more restrictive the diet, the less realistic that is.

Focus on Solid Principles of Healthier Living

So, in summary, there is no significant way to increase your metabolism. That might sound like sad news, but the good news is that we can give up fad diets and just focus on the basic principles of healthier living, starting with eating more high-fibre foods, including fresh fruits and vegetables, less meat (especially fatty meat) and fewer processed foods. Add to that some more intentional exercise and getting more steps in and you’ll see good results. “That’s pretty much the best advice,” Sharma said. “The healthiest approach is to try to eat as balanced a diet as you can, making sure there’s everything in your diet that your body needs and to be as physically active as you can. I mean, that’s healthy advice but that’s not just for controlling weight, that’s for having a healthy body no matter what size you are.”