Do you think you have a slow metabolism? Is it hard for you to lose weight or to keep it off once you have lost it? Do you gain weight easily even when you think you are making healthy choices? If so, read on and learn what metabolism is, what factors influence it and—the big payoff—how you can make small changes to kick your body’s metabolism into higher gear!
What Is Metabolism, Anyway?
Metabolism is the sum of all the processes your body undergoes to maintain homeostasis. Your body uses calories from what you consume to fuel those processes. Your metabolic rate, or total daily energy expenditure (TDEE), is the number of calories your body requires each day to maintain your weight. TDEE is made up of three components: basal metabolism, thermic effect of food and physical activity.
Basal Metabolism
Basal metabolism, or BMR, consists of all the calories your body needs simply to maintain life. It is influenced by many factors, and unfortunately you can’t control most of them very much. Some of these factors include age, sex and genetics. As we age, metabolism tends to decrease. At rest, women usually burn fewer calories than men because of differences in body composition. And some folks’ genetic makeup causes them to burn more or fewer than others’. As we think of ways to increase your TDEE, there isn’t much we can do to change BMR.
Thermic Effect of Food
The thermic effect of food (TEF) is a measure of all the calories you burn during digestion. TEF makes up a very small percentage of the calories you burn each day and, like BMR, you don’t have much control over it. Eating a high-protein diet can increase TEF slightly, but not significantly enough to stimulate weight loss on its own. Other “tricks” like apple cider vinegar supplementation, drinking ice-cold water, and consuming spicy foods, have been rumored to increase TEF, but at this time there is no evidence that any of them actually work.
Physical Activity: Exercise and Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis
So far, we’ve only discussed aspects of metabolism that we don’t have much control over. Thankfully, this last one, physical activity, is one we can control. It’s also the one that will make the biggest difference in your metabolic rate. The physical activity component of TDEE does not just mean “gym time.” It includes all of the calories you burn during ALL your movement throughout the day, such as walking, typing, working around the house, shopping, gardening, etc. Since these types of movement take place outside of dedicated exercise, they’re called non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT. And just by increasing how much you move each day you can greatly affect your TDEE.
Using Exercise and NEAT to Rev Up Your Metabolism
Without a doubt, physical activity in the forms of exercise and NEAT is the most powerful thing you can do to speed up your metabolism and burn more calories. Here are some ideas to help you start incorporating more physical activity into your life.
1. Join a gym or start working out consistently at home. One hour of daily exercise can counteract the negative health effects of sitting for eight hours every day (for example, at a desk job). You’ll burn hundreds of calories at the same time, making a daily workout an excellent decision!
2. Take up an active hobby or recreational sport. Golf, tennis, dance and bowling are just a few activities you can pick up at any stage of life. Learn new skills, make new friends, and burn more calories all at once!
3. Get an activity tracker. Challenge yourself to hit a certain number of steps each day (10,000 is a great goal to work toward) or to burn a certain number of calories each day. You’ll learn quickly that the more you move, the more calories you burn.
4. Get your friends involved and encourage one other to be more active. Go on walks together after meals, before or after work, or on the weekends. Check out a local park or walk downtown when the weather is nice.
5. Take the stairs, and choose a parking spot farther away from your destination. These little changes might not sound like much, but over time they will add up.
6. Sleep more. This sounds counterintuitive, but getting enough sleep will give you the energy you need to start moving more throughout the day. Good sleep also promotes healthy hormone balance, which will make it easier to manage your weight.
7. Start drinking coffee or green tea. The caffeine and other compounds found in these popular drinks speeds up your metabolism slightly, and the energy boost they provide might motivate you to get up and move more. An extra bonus: Consuming caffeine before workouts can help you burn more calories and fat, leading to more results in the long term.