The Best Ways To Boost Your Metabolism for Improved Health

You’re starting to notice it.

You spend more time sitting down than moving your body. You overload on food at breakfast because you never know when you might be able to squeeze in your next meal. You’re not sleeping well.

Most days (re: every day), you feel slow and sluggish. Your metabolism has started to slow as you’ve aged and stopped taking such good care of yourself.

Are you doomed forever?

Learn the best ways to boost your metabolism and get back on track with a healthy lifestyle and improved health.

Table of Contents

Metabolism refers to the chemical — or metabolic — processes that happen as your body turns food into energy. This process combines both calories and oxygen which become responsible for regulating:

• Body temperature
• Energy level
• Weight and how easily we lose or gain it

Generally, your metabolism begins to slow down as you age. But slow metabolic rates can also be connected to other medical conditions.

A slow metabolism can cause many issues, including:

• Dry or cracked skin
• Weight gain
• Lethargy or fatigue
• An increase in sickness
• Sugar cravings
• Difficulty concentrating
• Feeling cold
• Difficulty losing weight
• Depression
• Menstrual issues
• Headaches
• Hair loss
• Brittle nails
• Decreased sex drive
• Slow pulse

If you’re looking to boost your metabolism, it may benefit you more than just helping to lose or control your weight. 



HealthierU uses a natural and holistic approach to help determine what might be going on with your body. Through Nutrition Response Testing, Dr. Sergi explores different problem areas and works to right the wrongs through a balanced diet, the use of supplements, and more. 

Although it’s not possible to “reset” your metabolism, there are many ways you can naturally increase your metabolic rate. Even though your metabolism and how fast it works is mostly determined by genetics, there are easy ways to boost metabolism by altering your:

• Workout routine
• Eating routine; and
• Sleep routine

A slow metabolism burns fewer calories than a fast metabolism, so if your metabolism is slow, you have more fat storage in your body making it more difficult to lose weight by simply eating less. 

Even though metabolism does play a part in weight gain, weight isn’t what metabolism is all about. Remember, slow metabolism is mostly due to older age and genetics, but a poor diet and inactivity can certainly play a role.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here.

Increasing your metabolism isn’t a quick fix. Instead, it’s a lifestyle change. You should begin incorporating a …

• Healthy diet
• Higher activity level; and
• Overall better health status

… to begin seeing a boost to your metabolism.

 

It could take months, but by incorporating these healthy habits into your daily life — eating a nutrient-dense diet, getting optimal sleep, and committing to a workout routine — you’ll begin to see long-lasting results.

You’re tired of feeling sluggish, being overweight, and living a sedentary lifestyle. We get it, eventually, you hit a breaking point and are willing to do what you can to turn things around. You believe a slow metabolism is an underlying cause of your problems, and you’re determined to increase it.

You know diet, sleep, and activity are key. But exactly how do you boost metabolism through these three principles?

No surprise here, drinking water and staying hydrated is one of the simplest ways to help increase your metabolism.

One study found that drinking water increases your metabolism by up to 25% for close to one hour after consuming it.

You do that math. If you drink a few cups of water every few hours, you can help keep your metabolism at a peak all day long.

We all know the importance of exercise when it comes to our health, but maybe not every exercise style is ideal for increasing your metabolism.



HIIT (high-intensity interval training) is a very beneficial way to exercise, and it has been shown to be the best for fat burning and should increase metabolism. It’s probable that HIIT increases your metabolic rate for hours after exercise and can shift your body to use fat for energy instead of carbohydrates.

What you eat and how much of it you eat is extremely important when it comes to if you’re gaining or losing weight, how your body looks, and how your body functions.

A diet high in protein could be beneficial for weight loss and metabolism if consumed correctly.

One study shows that a diet high in protein while containing a “normal” amount of carbohydrates and fats, can successfully improve metabolic parameters.

 

Another study showed how people who followed a higher protein diet burned more energy than those consuming less protein, helping to increase metabolic rates.

Muscle is key because having more muscle instead of fat could slightly increase your metabolic rate. To gain muscle, you have to do resistance training.

 

Research has shown that when a person has more muscle mass, their body tends to use their food for energy more effectively. This could play a role in a slight metabolic increase. 

Telling someone they need to sleep better is probably easier said than done. Most of us live busy lives — we have a lot going on and it’s not realistic to expect to be in bed by 8 p.m. or sleep a blissful eight uninterrupted hours a night.

However, it can be said that less sleep lowers your metabolic rate.

Why? It’s likely a safety mechanism your body puts in place to help conserve energy on those nights you sleep less.

What can you do to help ensure a regular good night’s sleep?

• Have magnesium, vitamin B12, vitamin D, and calcium in your diet.
• Eat more plant-based foods and fiber-rich foods.
• Avoid spicy foods and alcohol.
• Eat more complex carbohydrates.
• Take melatonin.
• Keep your sleep environment cool and dark.
• Avoid screens before bedtime.
  

We often hear not to drink too much coffee, but what exactly does that mean?

Drinking coffee has its benefits, like appetite control and improved metabolism.

Although consuming coffee in unideal amounts or with high sugar content can have negative effects, coffee is a low-calorie (about 2 calories per 240 ml) beverage that could be used as a replacement for soda, energy drinks, or juice.

One cup of coffee (240 ml) has about 95 mg of caffeine and caffeine may improve metabolism.

How so?

Caffeine stimulates the nervous system which signals fat cells and tells them to break down. Studies show that caffeine can increase your resting metabolic rate anywhere from 3-11% after consuming caffeine, likely caused by the increase in fat burning.

Similar to coffee, both green tea and oolong tea help convert some of the fat stored in your body into fatty acids. This could help increase fat burning which is related to increased metabolism.

Again, like coffee, green tea and oolong are low-calorie beverages, so they can also be beneficial for weight loss, which is also related to metabolism.

Teas may also help:

• Hydration
• Reduce inflammation
• Reduce blood pressure
• Reduce sugar intake
• Reduce cholesterol
  

Eating spicy foods alone isn’t going to do the trick. However, studies show that when combined with other metabolism-boosting strategies, adding some capsaicin into your diet over time can be beneficial.

Capsaicin, most commonly found in chili peppers, is a compound that can boost your metabolism, allowing those who consume chili peppers in acceptable doses to burn around 10 extra calories per meal.

This one is pretty basic.

Sitting burns fewer calories than moving around. It’s rather simple. When you spend hours sitting, you burn fewer calories, you’re inhibiting weight loss, and might really be gaining.

This is why staying active is key. We mentioned HIIT-style workouts as probably being most effective for increasing your metabolism, as well as resistance training, but simply moving around more is beneficial, too.

This could include:

• Taking the stairs instead of the elevator
• Sending emails while you walk on the treadmill
• Setting a timer and walking around your office each time it goes off
• Scheduling a daily walk
• Walking (or riding your bike) to nearby shops instead of driving
  

When it comes to managing your weight, calories are king. Eating too few calories and participating in “starvation diets” can actually slow the metabolism down because your body is trying to conserve what it has to give you energy.

Understand that calories and physical activity levels go hand-in-hand, so finding the balance between the two is key.

Eating at regular intervals throughout the day is also important for your body to properly use the food you’re giving it.

If you’re told to eat around 1600 calories a day and you eat 1,000 of them at breakfast, you’re going to be full early in the day and probably have a hard time eating just 600 calories more the remainder of the day.

Spacing your meals out throughout the day can:

• Help you to feel full, not stuffed
• Reduce inflammation
• Improve circadian rhythms
• Help with stress
• Improve gut health



You can try:

• Not skipping breakfast 
• Eating high-energy providing foods early in the day
• Planning to eat two to three meals a day
• Eating at timed intervals
  

Although there is no evidence that stress directly impacts your metabolism, stress is related to how your body functions in many ways.

Follow along here.

Stress affects hormone levels which can cause an overproduction of cortisol.

Cortisol helps regulate appetite — an overproduction throws this off.

An uncontrolled appetite affects eating patterns.

Poor eating patterns can affect sleep.

Stress and sleep are related, which helps us suggest that stress can alter metabolic rates.

Feeling stressed? Use these methods to manage it:

• Look into medication
• Exercise
• Reduce alcohol or caffeine intake
• Check-in with your diet
• Create to-do lists
• Set aside time for yourself
  

At HealthierU, we believe your diet is a driving force behind many of the body’s functions. If you have a poor diet, your body is likely not going to perform at its best.

That’s why we offer Nutrition Response Testing to help determine which foods either help or harm your specific problems.

If your resting metabolic rate is too low, changing your diet is one way you can help increase it.

Interested in learning more? We are eager to help. Contact us today to schedule a consultation and help get your metabolic rate back on track.