How To Increase Your Metabolism (Eat More, Lose More)

In this video I'm going to answer the question of whether or not you can speed up

your

metabolism

, for example, how many extra calories would you burn by drinking

more

water during the day? Muscle is metabolically active. Does that mean you build

more

muscle? Increase Your Metabolic Rate Drinking green tea is supposed to

increase

metabolism

, does it actually? And if so, how many extra calories do you burn? eating spicy food makes you sweat. Does that give you a metabolic boost? Speaking of sweating, the sauna

increase

s metabolism or exposure to the cold is better. it definitely burns calories but exactly how many thousands of people follow the reverse diet, does it work and does cardio slow down or speed up the metabolism?

I'm going to answer all of these questions in this video, but first so everyone is on the same page, let's quickly cover what metabolism actually is in a fitness context where the goal is to

lose

fat or build muscle. What we really mean by metabolism is metabolic rate or total energy expenditure. We want to know how many calories

your

body burns per day, so when we say someone has a fast metabolism, what we really mean is that your body burns a lot of calories, allowing you to eat more food and when you say someone has a slow metabolism we mean your body doesn't burn as many calories and you often have to diet. less food to see weight loss, but anyway, how different are people's metabolisms?

If we take two people of the same sex with the same height and body weight, could their metabolisms really be that different? Yes, it could be extremely individual metabolic rates, much more so. What many people don't even realize, just take a look at some of the findings from this massive 2022 study on daily energy expenditure and over 6,000 subjects from diverse backgrounds that was published in Science, one of the most reputed in the world. This figure compares body weight here. on the x axis with total energy expenditure or what Fitness people would call metabolism each of these blue and yellow dots represents a different person the blue dots are male the yellow dots are female if we choose a weight here in the middle in 80 kilos or 176 pounds, you can see that the person with the so-called slowest metabolism only burned around 1,1400 calories per day, while the person with the fastest metabolism burned a whopping 5,700 calories per day with exactly the same body weight, that is, the person with the slowest metabolism. metabolism would need to eat less than 1400 calories to

lose

weight, while the person with the fastest metabolism would lose weight by eating 5000 calories per day, so the burning question is: is there a way for the person with the so-called slow metabolism to speed up their metabolism?

The metabolism speeds up so they can eat more calories. This is an important question because if we eat more calories while dieting, we will not only get the satisfaction of having more food, but we will also feel less exhausted, perform better in the gym, and retain more. muscle, so it's worth finding out and I'm going to divide each strategy into one of three groups: it works, it might work, and it probably won't work to boost metabolism. Let's start with water. Does drinking more water increase metabolism? The answer is yes. Every glass of cold water you drink burns about eight calories, so every time you drink another glass of cold water you get an extra boost of eight calories.

Cold water provides a bigger boost than room temperature water because your body has to burn calories to warm up from the cold. water to body temperature now put the full calculation here on the screen if you're curious how you arrived at that eight calorie figure, but I'm still going to put water in the could work category, because although water loading sounds like a Decent strategy on paper. I'm not convinced that it really translates into substantially better fat loss in the long term. It's possible that the extra calories you burn by drinking more water can be offset;

For example, you might drink more water but then move unconsciously. around a little less so that the net impulse cancels out at least partially. I'm also not a fan of Force drinking water. If you overdo it with ultra-high water intakes in a short period of time, you can develop water intoxication or hyponatremia, which can be dangerous. Usually 8 to 12 glasses or about two to three liters per day is enough and most people can simply use their internal thur cues to guide their water intake, although it may help you feel fuller during meals. meals, so if it helps you maintain your daily intake. reducing caloric intake, drink, okay, so what about green tea?

A simple Google search returns over 40 million results for green tea and metabolism, some peaking as high as 8, but what does the science say? Well, this 2021 systematic review found that of the four studies looking at acute metabolic effects, three of the four found no effect, while one study found a 79-calorie increase in daily energy expenditure. Digging deeper into that study, however, there were only 10 subjects and it only lasted 24 hours, so I wouldn't draw any solid conclusions. Building on this, there are also at least two studies on green tea and long-term fat loss and both found no benefit, so while you may get a small metabolic boost from green tea, it doesn't seem to translate into a Greater long-term fat loss. and for that reason I put it in the probably doesn't work category, then there are spicy foods like this green curry chicken and rice dish, in this case the green curry gets its spiciness from ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chilies .

Chili peppers seem to be the most promising from a metabolic standpoint as they contain a compound called capsaicin which has a lot of research showing a thermogenic effect, for example this meta-analysis of nine studies from 2017 found that, on average, capsaicin increases the energy expenditure at 69 calories per day, but only in studies where the subject's BMI was greater than 25, so the overweight zone in this green chili dish is approximately 0.5 grams of chili, which will correspond to approximately two milligrams of capsaicin, extrapolating the meta-analytic data as generously as I would at best. a metabolic boost of about 20 calories, obviously this pales in comparison to the 700 calories of the food itself, but it might be enough to make capsaicin a reasonable candidate for supplementation, but I think the main reason the food spicy can be useful for losing weight is not that.

It might give a 20-calorie metabolic boost, but rather it may increase satiety and fullness. I think I eat more slowly and drink more water when I have a spicy meal and if that helps you eat fewer total calories during the day, that might help you drive. fat loss All in all I'm putting spicy food in the category that might work, so what about the sauna? If you sweat in the sauna, does this mean you are burning extra calories? According to this 1995 study from Japan, Sana increased oxygen consumption and heart rate. pace of 20 to 25 beats per minute, so for a 180-pound person this would translate to approximately 19 calories burned by sitting in the sauna for 10 minutes.

Compared to Harrison, you would burn about 14 calories just sitting in a normal room for 10 minutes, so we're looking at a difference of about five calories, that's a stick of gum, nothing worth talking about. Sonic falls into the probably doesn't work to boost metabolism category, obviously cold soaks and ice baths are having a moment on social media, but do they speed up your metabolism? Well, it appears that oxygen consumption increases when you sit in a cold bath and shiver, indicating a metabolic boost; However, the actual numbers are quite disappointing, if you sit up to your neck in an ice bath for 10 minutes, you burn about 28 calories again per day.

In comparison, you would burn 14 calories just sitting at room temperature, so you're looking at a boost of approximately 14 calories from the cold bath. Cold baths also fall into the probably don't work category, but what about muscle development? You've probably heard that muscle burns more calories than fat and this is true three times the amount at rest one pound of fat burns about two calories per day while one pound of muscle burns about six calories per day I did some quick calculations based ​​in my current body composition and it seems that if I sat all day my body fat would burn 24 calories and my body muscle would burn 480 calories, that's a difference of 456 calories, not bad at all, let's consider it as a For example, let's just say you are a relatively new lifter and over the course of the next five years you will gain 30 pounds of muscle if you burn 2,500 calories per day, before you would burn 2,680 calories per day now, after adding the new muscle, so 180 calorie difference is about four extra kiwis you could eat per day so far.

This is the biggest metabolic stimulant we've seen, so I'm going to put muscle building in the category that works. Well, what about the reverse diet? It has become very popular. In recent years, reverse dieting is exactly what the opposite of dieting sounds like, instead of decreasing calories, you gradually increase calories with the goal of rebuilding your metabolism. I'm now planning to do a full video on reverse dieting in the fall, so for now I'll just say that I'm a little skeptical about it. I've seen many cases where people have increased their caloric intake by several hundred calories while maintaining their body weight, but my main complaint with reverse dieting is that I just don't think it's necessary to go slow after a diet.

I think it makes much more sense to jump right into your new maintenance right away. Once you're at your new maintenance, you can more gradually increase your caloric intake from there, of course. At a certain point you will reach the upper limit of your dynamic maintenance range and at that point you will begin to gain weight now. If you're eager to learn more about reverse dieting, I'll link to an article by Eric Trexler below. or less aligns with my stance on the topic from now on I'm going to put reverse dieting in the could it work category and you can subscribe and stay tuned for my full video on it.

And what about the frequency of meals? Eat more meals throughout? The day keeps the metabolic furnace burning, it doesn't seem like it does. In this 2012 study, subjects spent three days in an isolated breathing chamber while eating three meals a day or 14 meals a day with the same total calories and found no difference in energy. expense there is also this meta-analysis from 2015 that groups 15 studies that also found no significant differences in fat mass when eating one to two, three to four or five more meals per day, although in this graph it seems that the greater frequency of meals was better than The result is being carried by a single study, this one from Ewell and colleagues, and the authors point out that once you remove that study from the analysis, the difference disappears, now you can interpret it however you want, but I personally am not convinced that a greater Meal frequency gives a significant boost to metabolism and I put it in the probably not working category.

So what about cardio? Cardio obviously burns calories, however, research shows that cardio also causes something called energy compensation, this means that when you burn more calories through cardiovascular exercise, your body subconsciously burns fewer calories through meat or meat. non-exercise activity, thermogenesis, this is the component of metabolism that includes activities other than exercise, for example, things like fidgeting and bobbing your head to music, for example, let's say on a normal day you fidget. y You spend 500 calories through meat, but today you decide to go for a 30-minute jog and the jog also burns 500 calories. What happens next is that your body will feel the jog and subconsciously move a little less.

Now you only burn 350 calories. meat, of course, you still get a net calorie burn by including jogging, but it offsets it to some extent. Now there are big individual differences in energy compensation, but on average, for every 100 calories you burn doing cardio, you'll actually only increase your daily intake. energy expenditure at 72 calories and that is why I prefer to use diet as the primary tool to establish a caloric deficit and use cardio as a secondary tool since with cardio you tend to get less calories for your money, even with energy compensation at Mind Cardio burns calories and, as such, belongsto the Works category.

The next thing I want to cover is weight vests. There is some interesting science behind this. The general idea is that if I weigh 160 pounds right now and start using a 20 pounder. weighted vest my body starts thinking that I weigh 180 pounds and burn calories like a 180 pound person would. Recent evidence has suggested the distance from a system of sensors in the body called a gravitastat that detects changes in the load on the bones if these sensors get the idea. The fact that you are now a heavier person will increase your caloric expenditure and decrease hunger levels.

My friend and natural professional bodybuilder Eric Salazar did a case study with exercise scientist James Krieger where he wore a 34-pound weight vest for 90 percent of his waking time. hours during a competition prep, he managed to reduce his body fat to an incredible five percent by tricking his body into thinking he was 34 pounds heavier than he really was, and compared to previous diets, he says he didn't have to suffer as much. . of the bad side effects of shredding, so I'm tempted to put the weighted vests in the "works" category because I think it probably does, however, I'll leave it in the "might work" category for now until I finally Let's have more research published.

There are two other less attractive but still very effective metabolic strategies that I would like to mention first. Avoid dieting with very low calories. The more aggressively you reduce it, the more your metabolic rate will decrease, so generally speaking, you should aim to lose between 0.5 and 1 percent of your body weight per week and the further you go beyond this zone, the more likely your weight will be. metabolismStarting a slow diet definitely works Secondly, you should try to do extra non-exercise activities where you can, this is where the weighted vest could be helpful, but there are other things you can do, like parking further away from the supermarket, taking the stairs on the elevator and regularly get up and stretch at your desk.

I call these small activities throughout the day meat smuggling and I would also put them in the works category, it is also worth keeping in mind that even if you implement some of these strategies and still have a relatively slower metabolism of course , you can still lose weight; In fact, research shows that metabolic rate is not as predictive of successful long-term weight loss, as many people think that people with faster metabolisms may not lose weight than people with slower metabolisms. can achieve weight loss and that the things most associated with successful long-term weight loss are being physically active, weighing yourself regularly, weight training, and making lifestyle changes.

Another thing that has helped thousands of people lose fat while tracking their metabolism is the Macro Factor App, if you don't know, I am a co-owner of Macro Factor and have been using it to guide my own fat loss journey on the one where I lost almost 30 pounds by completely trusting the app's algorithms. Macrofactor is very effective because it will update your diet based on your unique metabolism, whether faster or slower, all you have to do is lock in your weight and nutrition and the app will give you the ideal nutrition goals for your goal and There is a growing community of people online who share their own success stories using the app, other methods such as online calculators or smart watches can generate hundreds of calories per day and the macro factor is much more reliable because it responds to your individual weight changes exactly as a trainer would and then makes the appropriate decisions.

Adjustments based on your metabolism, specifically macrofactor, also has the easiest and fastest food logger on the market. We have performed comparison experiments to prove it. It has a super-fast barcode scanner and AI features that let you describe foods that are harder to record. For example, if you eat at a restaurant that doesn't have nutritional information, you can use the AI ​​description tool to record what you ate. We also greatly expanded our European foods database recently, something I know many of you have been waiting for. If you want to try the macro factor yourself, you can get a free two-week trial at the first link in the description box below or you can scan the QR code here next to my head, okay, that's it guys.

Don't forget to give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video, subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you all here in the next one.