If you think of your body like a car, your metabolism serves as the engine that burns fuel and produces energy to get you through the day. Rev up that engine, and you enter high-performance mode.
So, how can you increase your metabolism to get a turbo boost? Let’s talk shop with endocrinologist Marcio Griebeler, MD.
How much can you speed up your metabolism?
Genetics, sex and age play a significant role in your body’s metabolism and ability to burn calories. Ditto for hormones and various health conditions. The common theme? These are factors you often have little to no control over.
“Metabolism is a hormonal process,” Dr. Griebeler explains. “How efficiently your body burns calories depends on your body. It’s different for every person.”
But while your metabolism is largely set, it’s not unchangeable. You do have some influence over it. The way you live your life can nudge your metabolism higher, which can bring benefits like:
Improved weight management
Increased energy
Better digestion
Improved circulation
Hormonal balance
6 ways to boost metabolism
Your metabolism is a complex system, but there are some simple things you can do to speed it up both long term and temporarily to help it torch calories more efficiently. Here are six examples.
1. Build Muscle
Increasing your muscle mass through regular exercise can boost your resting metabolic rate, or the amount of calories your body burns while at rest. The reason? Muscle burns more calories sitting around than fat tissue does.
So, if you build muscle, it’ll burn extra calories even while you’re lounging on the couch. Basically, you keep your calorie-burning fires stoked even when you’re done exercising. (It’s known as the afterburn effect.)
How can you build muscle? “Do both aerobic exercise and strength training for a combined 150 minutes each week,” recommends Dr. Griebeler. “Start slowly and progress steadily as you build a routine and make movement a bigger part of your day.”
Aerobic exercise can help melt fat and build muscle. Options include:
Running, hiking and walking
Cycling
Swimming
To bulk up muscles through strength training, try:
Body-weight exercises (like push-ups, lunges and squats)
Weightlifting
Resistance bands
You may also want to consider high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or low-intensity interval training (LIIT) for combined cardio and strength training effects.
2. Eat Regularly
Fires need to be fed to keep burning, right? Well, that same sentiment applies to your metabolism, says Dr. Griebeler. Eating healthy meals and snacks throughout the day helps keep your metabolism active.
Skipping a meal, on the other hand, can slow your metabolism, as your body tries to conserve its energy reserves.
3. Focus on Protein Intake
Protein takes more energy to digest, absorb and process compared to carbs and fats — and that demand can temporarily boost your metabolic rate. (This is all part of what’s called the thermic effect of food, or TEF.)
Protein also supports muscle growth to further boost your metabolic rate, notes Dr. Griebeler. Win-win!
4. Drink Enough Water
Remember how not eating enough can slow your metabolism? The same holds if you’re not drinking enough. “Dehydration can slow your metabolism, so drinking enough water throughout the day is essential,” emphasizes Dr. Griebeler.
When you down a glass of water, your metabolism ticks up a bit as your body uses energy to process and absorb the fluid. (Fun fact: Drinking cold water increases energy expenditure, as your body also works to warm it.)
Staying hydrated also helps your cells and organs work properly, which can keep your metabolism cranking.
5. Manage Stress
Chronic stress can flood your body with metabolic changes that increase insulin resistance and make weight loss more difficult. Too much or too little of certain hormones in your system can chip away at your metabolic rate by:
Interfering with your thyroid function, which slows down the production of hormones that regulate your metabolism
Disrupting blood sugar regulation
Promoting muscle breakdown for energy use
Changing cortisol levels, which contribute to insulin resistance
Weight gain related to stress may also contribute to a slower metabolism. (“I rarely see people losing weight if they’re stressed,” shares Dr. Griebeler.)
Relaxation techniques, like deep breathing, meditation and yoga, may help lower your stress levels to keep your metabolism operating at peak efficiency. Ditto for exercise, which carries the extra benefit of boosting muscle mass.
6. Get Enough Sleep
If you’re not catching enough ZZZs at night, your body dials back your metabolism. It’s a defense mechanism to save energy and power you through a sleep-deprived day, explains Dr. Griebeler.
Being chronically tired also creates a stress response in the body, which can harm your metabolism.
In general, most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep per night.
Final Thoughts
While your metabolism is largely shaped by factors outside of your control, you can raise it by making healthy lifestyle adjustments.
“There’s no magic fix for your metabolism,” says Dr. Griebeler, “but you can improve it.”