6 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Metabolism (a Little Bit)
Key takeaways:
Your metabolism is how your body turns food into energy.
For the most part, you can’t change your body’s daily energy needs.
And you can’t change most of the things that affect your daily metabolism — like your age, sex, and body structure.
There are some changes you can make that may give your metabolism a tiny boost, like exercising or changing your eating habits.
Table of contents
Your metabolism is your body’s process of turning food into energy. In other words, it’s how your body uses calories for fuel.
You’ve probably heard about tricks to “boost” your metabolism so that your body uses more energy every day. By doing this, the idea is that you won’t store as many leftover calories as fat.
But here’s the truth: There’s not a lot you can do to change your metabolism.
Let’s take a look at why this is and what you can do to optimize your metabolism — or at least the small part you can influence.
How does metabolism work?
Your metabolism is all of the ways your body turns calories into fuel (energy).
This includes many different, complex chemical reactions. Here’s the general idea:
You consume energy in the form of calories from food and drinks.
Your body turns these calories into energy that you can use.
Your body uses this energy as needed, and then it stores the extra as fat.
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The amount of energy you use every day — your “energy expenditure” — depends on three things.
Your baseline energy needs
This is the energy your body needs to function normally, even when you’re asleep or resting. It’s sometimes called your “basal metabolic rate” (BMR). It accounts for between 60% to 80% of all the energy your body uses every day.
Put another way, your body uses almost all of the calories you eat to fuel these basic functions, like:
Breathing
Circulating blood
Digesting food
Building and repairing cells and tissues
Nourishing your brain
There’s not much you can do to really change your BMR (more on this below).
The energy you need to digest food
This is the energy your body needs to break down food. It’s also known as the “thermic effect” of food. And it accounts for about 10% of your daily energy use. Just like BMR, there’s not a lot you can do to change this.
The energy you need for movement
The energy you need for physical movement includes small movements like typing or fidgeting as well as larger movements like walking or exercise. Movement usually accounts for about 20% of your daily energy use. This is the energy use that you have the most control over.
What factors affect your metabolism?
Many factors affect your metabolism. Some you can change, like the temperature of your environment, your eating habits and physical movement, certain vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and whether you exercise and use caffeine or nicotine.
And there are links between your metabolism and things you can’t control, like your:
Overall body size (large or small)
Amount of lean muscle
Current growth (if you’re still growing, like during childhood)
Sex assigned at birth
Genetics (DNA)
Overall physical health
But metabolism is still a bit of a mystery. Scientists continue to learn how these factors affect metabolism — especially since people with the same body size, body composition, and gender can have totally different metabolic rates.
How to give your metabolism a boost
You can only boost a small part of your metabolism. Remember, up to 80% of your body’s daily energy needs are fixed. And most of the factors that affect your daily metabolism (BMR) can’t be changed — like your age, sex, and general body structure.
But you may be able to make changes in the other 20% and give your metabolism a slight boost. Here are six ways to try.
1. Get more daily movement
Even though physical movement only makes up about 20% of your daily metabolic needs, increasing your daily activity may lead to small changes in your metabolism.
But keep in mind — this small change probably only happens while you’re actually moving. And it doesn’t last very long afterward. In other words, exercising in the morning won’t lead to an all-day metabolism boost.
2. Add strenuous exercise to your life
Moderate-intensity to high-intensity exercise may give your metabolism a small boost, especially during and after your workout.
Moderate-intensity exercise is any activity that gets your heart rate up a little bit, like brisk walking, bicycling, or pickleball. High-intensity exercises get your heart pumping even more — like when you’re playing basketball or tennis or jogging.
3. Build lean muscle
Lean muscle uses up more energy, even when you’re resting. Increasing your lean muscle mass may have a small, positive effect on your BMR.
But in reality, you’d have to add a lot of muscle to make much of a difference in your metabolism. Your muscles don’t actually burn many calories when you’re resting.
4. Stay away from crash diets
Fast weight-loss diets (crash diets) can signal to your body that you’re starving, which can actually slow metabolism. So you’re better off sticking to the basics of a healthy diet.
5. Have your biggest meals in the morning
There’s some evidence that eating bigger meals earlier in the day — instead of in the evening — can boost the thermic effect of food (the energy it takes your body to digest what you eat).
6. Eat larger, regular meals
Eat regular meals. Eating larger, less-frequent meals might also boost the thermic effect of food.
Is metabolism linked to weight?
Yes and no. If you regularly consume more energy (calories) than your body uses every day, your body will store the extra energy as fat. But in reality, weight is much more complex than just “energy in” and “energy out.”
Many different factors determine your weight — not just your metabolism. And when it comes to calories, there’s good evidence that the type of calories you eat are even more important than the amount.
Can food choices affect your metabolism?
Yes, though the effect is probably pretty small.
Your body has to use energy to digest food. And some foods require more energy to digest than others. Foods that take more energy to digest can temporarily boost your metabolism. This includes:
Low-fat, plant-based meals
Spicy foods
Can getting enough sleep boost your metabolism?
No. Getting enough sleep at night is good for your mental and physical health, but it won’t boost your metabolism.
A lack of sleep (sleep deprivation) can affect you in other ways, though — including causing an increased appetite. And getting too little or too much sleep can also affect your body weight.
The bottom line
Your metabolism is how your body turns calories into energy. Your body uses most of this energy for day-to-day activities, like breathing, circulation, and brain function.
There’s not really much you can do to change the bulk of your daily energy needs. But exercising, building lean muscle, and eating nutritious foods are all ways you may be able to give your metabolism a small boost. And at the same time, these things are good for your overall health.
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References
Better Health Channel. (2023). Metabolism.
Bo, S., et al. (2015). Is the timing of caloric intake associated with the variation in diet-induced thermogenesis and in the metabolic pattern? A randomized cross-over study. International Journal of Obesity.
Calcagno, M., et al. (2019). The thermic effect of food: A review. Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. (n.d.). Examples of moderate and vigorous physical activity.
Levine, J. (2005). Measurement of energy expenditure. Public Health Nutrition.
Manini, T. (2010). Energy expenditure and aging. Aging Research Reviews.
MedlinePlus. (2022). Can you boost your metabolism?
MedlinePlus. (2022). Metabolism.
O’Connor, A. (2018). The key to weight loss is diet quality, not quantity, a new study finds. The New York Times.
