Metabolism is often confused with the term metabolic rate in the health and fitness world. Metabolism includes all the chemical reactions that take place in our body which keep us alive and functioning, whereas the metabolic rate is the number of calories our body burns even when it is at rest.

Most people who seek out ways to lose weight know that improved metabolism can end their cycle of never-ending diets followed by weight gain. The higher your metabolism the more calories you burn and the easier it is to lose weight and avoid putting it on again. Having a high metabolism not just helps you lose weight but it makes you feel good about your body overall-you are more energetic both mentally and physically. However, the speed of metabolism depends on a variety of factors, including age, sex, body fat, muscle mass, activity level, and genetics. Men tend to burn more calories than women, even while resting. And for most people, metabolism slows steadily after the age of 40. Some estimates suggest that it actually slows down by 5 percent every decade after your 40th birthday.

Now, some people are blessed with a great metabolism. The other day I heard an interview where Anushka Sharma was saying that she works out to maintain her weight otherwise, she would end up losing weight as she has a very speedy metabolism. But most of us can only dream of such metabolism. Although a person has no control over the genetic aspects of their metabolism, there are some ways to help speed up the rate at which your body burns calories.

Boosting your metabolism is the holy grail to keep your weight maintained. The more you invest time in improving your metabolism, the bigger reward you get—in the form of effortless calorie burn. While we're all born with a certain metabolic level, there are things we can do to naturally to boost it.

1. Increase Protein In Every Meal

Our body burns much more calories digesting protein than it does digesting fats or carbohydrates. By maintaining a balanced diet and replacing some carbs with lean, protein-rich foods can boost metabolism at mealtime. But these proteins should be from good natural sources including fish, white meat chicken, tofu, nuts, beans, eggs, and low-fat dairy products.

The body needs protein to build and maintain muscle mass which is also an important factor for good metabolism. Studies have shown that people who eat more protein have a higher basal metabolic rate or the metabolic rate while resting.

Not just low carb and high protein diets but other diets that switch the body’s primary fuel source from sugar or carbohydrates to fats such as Keto diet also help improving metabolism. They tend to be higher in fats or proteins and lower in carbohydrates.

Eating food increases your metabolism for a few hours. This is called the thermic effect of food (TEF). Its caused by the extra calories required to digest, absorb and process the nutrients in your meal. Now, how does protein help increase metabolism?

Protein causes the largest rise in TEF. It increases the metabolic rate by 15–30%, compared to 5–10% for carbs and 0–3% for fats. (1)

Also eating protein has a greater satiety effect than carbs and fats, thus eating protein will not just increase the metabolism but because you feel full for longer you will not overeat. (2)

One small study found that people were likely to eat around 441 fewer calories per day when protein made up 30% of their diet. (3)

People who are obese generally have a higher metabolism that is why when they start making an effort to lose weight they shed a lot of weight easily in the initial stages.  As you lose weight the metabolism drops because of loss of body fat. Eating more protein can also reduce this drop in metabolism because it reduces muscle loss, which is a common side effect of dieting. (4)

According to “The Effects of High Protein Diets on Thermogenesis, Satiety and Weight Loss: A Critical Review,” published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, “there is convincing evidence that higher protein intake increases thermogenesis and satiety compared to diets of lower protein content.”

2. Lift Weights

As I have already mentioned above building muscle mass is an important factor in increasing metabolism because muscle is more metabolically active than fat which simply means that your body will require higher energy to preserve the muscle mass.Every pound of muscle uses about 6 calories a day just to sustain itself, while each pound of fat burns only 2 calories daily. (36)

Lifting weights will help build new muscles and retain the ones already present and this will help overcome the drop in metabolism due to weight loss. Also the resting metabolic rate of a person with more muscle mass will be higher, this means if you do strength training you will burn more calories even at rest.

In one study, 48 overweight women were placed on a diet of 800 calories per day, along with either no exercise, aerobic exercise or resistance training. After the diet, the women who did the resistance training maintained their muscle mass, metabolism, and strength. The others lost weight, but also lost muscle mass and experienced a decrease in metabolism (45).

After the age of 35, you lose .5% of muscle mass every year, and after age 60 it just gets worse. To prevent this muscle loss and to maintain the metabolism after your 40’s strength training is critical. Now, you don’t need to start with very heavy weights, you can begin by using light weights and gradually move up. If you just focus on cardio to lose weight, it has calorie-burning benefits but it does not help to maintain muscle mass in the middle-age.

3. Get Good Sleep

Science has long been aware of the fact that insufficient sleep leads to weight gain. Sleeping less than at least 6 hours can lead to overeating the wrong kind of foods including sugary and starchy things.

Research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania examined 36 healthy adults. Over 5 days, half the group was only allowed to sleep 4 hours a night; the other half got to sleep up to 10 hours at a time. The sleep-restricted group was active and awake for more hours of the day but their resting metabolisms slowed by about 50-60 calories a day.

Now, 50-60 calories adding up every day can make a huge difference. The sleep-restricted volunteers were also eating about 500 more calories each day (sleeping less leads to eating more), so the total calorie added were actually 550 calories a day, enough to make you gain a pound each week. Sleeping less has also been shown to boost the hunger hormone ghrelin and decrease the fullness hormone leptin (74). When a person gets too little sleep, the body releases a hormone, ghrelin, which can make a person feel hungry. It also releases less leptin, a hormone that helps a person feel full.

Getting enough sleep ensures that ghrelin and leptin hormones remain balanced. An adult should sleep at least 7-8 hours a day.

Also Read: Carb Cycling- What Is It and How It Helps To Lose Weight?

4. Drink Green Tea

Green tea has many health benefits. This drink is full of antioxidants and other healthy phytochemicals and it also has the benefit of slightly increasing the metabolism. But remember do not add sugar to sweeten it. Green tea has been shown to increase metabolism by 4–5%.(53)

Green tea helps convert some of the fat stored in the body to free fatty acids, which may increase fat burning by 10–17% (56).

Make green tea an alternative to sugary juices and it also helps maintain your daily water intake. Although the metabolic benefits of this tea are still controversial, 1–2 cups of green tea a day is definitely is a healthy option. Green tea gives the benefits of both caffeine and catechins which increase the metabolism for a couple of hours.

5. Drink Lots Of Water

Whether it is getting a slim waist or a flawless skin, water serves as an elixir. People who drink enough water are much more successful at losing weight. However, drinking water may also temporarily speed up your metabolism (18, 21). Studies show that drinking 0.5 litres of water increases resting metabolism by 10–30% for about an hour (22, 23).

You can further increase the calorie-burning effect by drinking cold water as our body uses energy to heat it up the cold water to body temperature (21, 24). Water also help fill you up, thus drinking a glass of water before eating can help eat less. Even fruits and veggies with high water content such as watermelon and cucumber can improve the metabolism.

One study of overweight adults found that those who drank half a litre of water before their meals lost 44% more weight than those who didn't (19).

Another  study found that adding 1.5 litres of water to the usual daily consumption of water reduced the average weight and body mass index in a group of overweight women aged 18–23.

Why does this happen? Our body needs water to process calories and release energy. If you are dehydrated this process slows down and so does your metabolism.

6. Eat Spicy Food

Capsaicin found in peppers is known to boost metabolism. (62, 63, 64)

One study found that consuming 5 grams of chilli peppers can boost your metabolism immediately by up to 20 percent, for about 30 minutes or so.

Eating peppers at an acceptable level can help you burn 10 extra calories per meal, over 6.5 years this will lead to one pound weight loss. This does not sound so promising, however clubbing this strategy with other methods to boost metabolism can definitely give better results. The problem is many people can't tolerate these spices at the doses required to have a significant effect.

If you are one of those who can easily tolerate spicy foods start adding a tablespoon of chopped red or green chilli pepper to your food and boost your metabolic rate. You can also cook with a spicy sauce if you don’t want to include peppers.

Also Read: Top 15 Weight Loss Myths

7. Drink Black Coffee

If you're a coffee lover, don’t give up on your favorite beverage yet. Taken it in moderation, one of coffee's benefits may be a short-term rise in your metabolic rate. Studies show that caffeine in coffee can boost metabolism by 3–11%. Like green tea, it also leads to fat burning (77, 78, 79).

However, this is more effective in lean people more. In one study, coffee increased fat burning by 29% for lean women, but only by 10% for obese women (80).

8. Use Coconut Oil And Ghee To Cook

Unlike other saturated fats, both ghee and coconut oil have high content of medium-chain fats which make them super healthy. Medium-chain fats can increase your metabolism more than the long-chain fats found in foods like butter (82).

A 2015 review which included 13 trials found out that MCT may result in negative energy balance and weight loss through increased energy expenditure. (1)

MCTs (Medium Chain Triglycerides) also help boost weight loss. Simply said, ghee or MCT makes your body spend more energy for the same work and creates energy in and energy out deficit which leads to weight loss.

The unique fatty acid profile of both ghee and coconut oil makes them a better option than other cooking fats.

9. Reduce Stress

Stress is another important factor which can screw up your metabolism. Stress directly affects your hormone levels and leads to higher cortisol production than usual. Cortisol is a hormone which regulates appetite.

A 2011 research found that abnormal cortisol level leads to an eating disorder which further leads to unhealthy eating patterns and damages our normal metabolism. Stress and the quality of sleep are two closely related factors which influence metabolism.

Also Read: 17 Foods To Reduce Bloating

10. Do HIIT

Just like strength training a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can rev up your metabolic rate. HIIT involves quick and very intense bursts of activity. Tabata training is one such form of HIIT that requires intense activity for just 4 minutes. If you struggle with time tabata could be the best workout for you.

HIIT can help you burn more fat by increasing the metabolic rate, even after the workout has finished (28). One study that examined overweight young men found that 12 weeks of HIIT exercise reduced fat mass by 2 kg and belly fat by 17% (35).

But doing HIIT every day is not recommended as it can be really taxing on your body. Incorporate HIIT into your fitness regime twice a week and do a mix of strength and HIIT workout, this will amp up your metabolism.

Fight a slow metabolism with these tips and let neither age nor weight loss slow down your metabolism any further. If this article was helpful please leave a comment.