Boost Your Metabolism: 9 Effective Strategies for a Healthier You

Many of us will be familiar with the fact that, as we age, we can’t eat like our younger selves. This is because our metabolism – the rate at which our body burns energy – naturally slows down over time. Generally, this makes it easier to gain weight and more difficult to lose it. The good news is that it’s possible to boost your metabolism by making a few positive lifestyle changes.

Below, we’ll take a closer look at what metabolism is, how it changes with age, and what you can do to boost yours.

Understanding Metabolism

In simple terms, metabolism refers to all of the chemical reactions that occur in your body to keep you alive and functioning. These processes include breathing, heartbeat, and breaking down nutrients from food. Your metabolism determines how quickly your body burns energy to complete these functions.

Ultimately, the faster your metabolism, the more calories you burn, the easier it is to lose weight, and the more energetic you’re likely to feel.

Your metabolic rate is influenced by four main factors:

1. Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) – This is the number of calories you burn while resting. Your RMR is essentially the minimum number of calories needed to keep your body alive and functioning.

   
   

2. Thermic Effect of Food (TEF) – This refers to how many calories you burn through digesting and absorbing food. TEF usually accounts for 10% of daily calories burned.

   
   

3. Exercise – This is the number of calories you burn through physical activity.

   
   

4. Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) – This includes the calories burned doing non-exercise activities, such as standing, moving around, hoovering, and other household chores.

   
   

Other factors that influence metabolism include age, gender, height, muscle mass, and hormonal factors. Metabolism naturally slows down with age for various reasons, including reduced activity levels, muscle loss, and the ageing of internal body processes. The good news is that by making certain lifestyle changes, it’s possible to boost your metabolism and subsequently improve your quality of life and longevity.

9 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism

Overall, research has shown that being less active and losing muscle mass have the greatest effect on your metabolism. For this reason, becoming more active and building muscle are among the most beneficial ways to boost your metabolism.

1. Consider Taking Up Strength Training

Over time, we lose muscle mass due to a process called sarcopenia. A reduction in muscle mass can slow down your metabolism because muscle uses significantly more energy at rest than fat. Sarcopenia usually begins around the age of 50. After this, it’s estimated that a person’s muscle mass decreases by around 1-2%, and muscle strength at a rate of 1.5-5% each year. Research shows that by the age of 80, people have around 30% less muscle than when they were 20.

Strength training offers the usual benefits of exercise, including improved cardiovascular health, but brings an added bonus of building and preserving muscle mass. Research has shown that over time, this can boost metabolism and increase the number of calories you burn throughout the day. For example, a study of 15 people aged 61-77 found that strength training three times a week for six months increased resting metabolic rate (RMR) by 6.8%.

Another plus is that strength training can help retain muscle and metabolism speed during weight loss, where metabolism usually drops. A study, which followed overweight women on a weight loss programme, found that those who did strength training throughout retained their muscle mass, metabolism speed, and strength alongside losing weight. Meanwhile, others lost muscle mass and experienced a drop in metabolism.

2. Increase Your Daily Activity Levels

Your daily activity levels have a significant impact on your metabolism. Research shows that, together, exercise and non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) make up roughly 10-30% of daily calories burned. For very active people, this number can stretch as high as 50%.

Incorporating more exercise into your daily routine can make a significant difference in helping to prevent a drop in your metabolism. A daily brisk walk is accessible to everyone. Consider running, cycling, swimming, yoga, Pilates, or dance as alternatives.

3. Eat a High Protein Diet

Eating temporarily increases metabolism because the body requires energy to digest food and absorb nutrients. This is known as the thermic effect of food (TEF).

Protein causes the largest rise in TEF, increasing metabolic rate by 15-30%, compared with 5-10% for carbohydrates, and 0-3% for fats. Interestingly, studies have found that consuming 25-30% of your calories from protein can help you burn an extra 80-100 calories per day.

Research has also shown that eating protein can help keep you feeling full and prevent overeating. Examples of high-protein foods include eggs, yoghurt, seafood, soya, chicken, tofu, beans, and pulses.

4. Fix Your Sleep Schedule

Research shows that a lack of sleep can slow down your metabolism, but a good night’s sleep can reverse this effect. Aim for 8 hours of sleep at regular times. Sleep is needed for various hormonal and metabolic processes, and sleep deprivation has been shown to cause abnormalities in the metabolic process.

Poor sleep can also lead to muscle loss, which slows down your resting metabolic rate (RMR). While further research is needed, mounting evidence suggests that sleep and misaligned circadian rhythms contribute to the development of metabolic disorders, heart disease, and cancer.

Getting a good night’s sleep can also help prevent overeating. This is because a lack of sleep not only impacts energy levels but also increases levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin, while decreasing the fullness hormone, leptin.

5. Make an Effort to Drink More Cold Water

Research has suggested that drinking water can temporarily speed up your metabolism. For example, a study found that drinking 0.5 litres of water increased resting metabolic rate by around 10-30% for up to an hour. For best results, it’s recommended that you drink cold water. This is because the body uses extra energy to heat the water to body temperature.

Another benefit of drinking water is that it helps fill you up. Various studies have shown that drinking water half an hour before eating can help prevent overeating. For example, a study of overweight adults found that those who drank half a litre of water before eating lost 44% more weight than those who didn’t. If possible, use a home water distiller or a water filtration system when using your tap water to filter out impurities and heavy metals.

6. Try Drinking More Green Tea or Oolong Tea

If you often enjoy a warm cup of tea, you’ll be pleased to know that your habit could help speed up your metabolism. Green tea and oolong tea (traditional Chinese tea) have been shown to increase metabolism speed by around 4-5%. These teas help convert some of the fat stored in our bodies into free fatty acids, which can increase fat burning by around 10-17%. Plus, since green and oolong tea are so low in calories, they can also be handy for weight loss and maintenance.

7. Introduce More Spicy Foods into Your Diet

Peppers contain capsaicin, a substance known to boost metabolism. However, due to its strong taste, most people can’t tolerate eating it at the dose required for it to have a significant effect. A study of capsaicin (eaten at normal doses) suggests that eating peppers would still burn around 10 additional calories each meal. While the effect of adding spices to your food may be quite small, incorporating more over time can lead to small advantages when combined with other metabolism-boosting strategies.

8. Stand Instead of Sitting

Aside from incorporating exercise into your daily routine, there are other small, beneficial lifestyle changes you can make. For example, you could start making a conscious effort to spend more of your day standing up. While small changes like these may not seem significant, research suggests that an afternoon of standing up at work can burn an extra 174 calories compared to sitting down. If you have a desk job, consider buying a standing desk. Equally, if you commute to work by train, why not stand up for some of the journey?

9. Start Your Day with a Coffee

Various studies have shown that caffeine in coffee can boost metabolism by 3-11% and promote fat burning. Caffeine’s effect on metabolism may also contribute to successful weight loss and maintenance.

According to experts, up to 400mg of caffeine (around four to five cups) a day appears to be a safe amount for most healthy adults. However, to avoid disrupted sleep, it’s recommended not to drink coffee less than six hours before bedtime.

Final Thoughts

While it’s natural for metabolism to slow down with age, there are things you can do to help counteract this. The benefits of making simple lifestyle changes like taking up strength training, becoming more active, and improving your sleeping habits can not only boost your metabolism but also help in other areas of your life, too.