3 Ways to Naturally Boost Metabolism
Many of us struggle to keep the metabolism up as we age. Some research suggests that our metabolism drops about 5% for every decade after 40. Why? We don’t know exactly. It could be a natural part of aging, or it could be due to our modern lifestyles - or both! More so, a lot of the men & women I work with have an even lower metabolism than expected. This means low energy and an awfully tough time managing their weight.
Fortunately, we do have some control over our metabolism! Here are 3 ways we can naturally boost our metabolism so that we can have more energy throughout the day, burn fat, and maintain a higher quality of life as we age.
Build Muscle to Burn More Calories
Strength training is one of the most effective ways to naturally boost your metabolism. Unlike cardio, which primarily burns calories during the workout, strength training helps build muscle, which increases your resting metabolic rate. This means you’ll burn more calories even when you’re not exercising!
How it works: Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest compared to other types of tissue, especially fat. This is why men tend to have an easier time losing weight than women - more muscle! By increasing your muscle mass, you raise the amount of energy your body uses to maintain those muscles. This results in a higher overall calorie burn throughout the day.
How to get started:
Lift Weights: Incorporate weightlifting exercises into your routine. Focus on full body workouts that work the major muscle groups with compound movements. Start with weights that are manageable and allow you to perform the movement correctly. As you become more proficient, you can increase weight until you are working at a good intensity.
Bodyweight Exercises: Push-ups, squats, lunges, and planks are excellent bodyweight exercises that can help build muscle. These can be done at home without any equipment and are usually more effective at higher rep ranges (20-50 reps). Add in different tempos to make them easier/harder.
Consistency is Key: Aim to include strength training exercises in your fitness routine at least 3 times per week. Consistency will lead to gradual muscle growth and a steady increase in metabolism.
One last point about building muscle - a lot of the most popular exercise programs out there (H.I.I.T., pilates, F45, etc.) will claim to build muscle, but they might actually be doing the opposite and tanking your metabolism. To build muscle efficiently, you need to have sufficient intensity (weight/difficulty), at the right number of reps & sets (usually 3-5 sets x 5-15 reps). You also need to be getting in enough calories and protein to build muscle. That’s why It’s best to follow a more individualized program!
Increase Calories From Whole, Natural Foods
If you’ve been dieting or cutting calories for a while and you’re not getting any results, that’s probably due to metabolic compensation. In the presence of limited calories, the body becomes more efficient at using energy and burns fewer calories. It's a survival mechanism that helps ensure the body has enough energy to perform essential functions, such as keeping the heart and lungs functioning.
I’ve worked with people that eat 1200-1300 calories per day, and still can’t lose weight. To reverse this effect, you need to “reverse diet” - slowly ramp up calories (about 100-200 calories per week) for 4-12 weeks. For women, the goal is somewhere between 1600-2000 calories per day and for men 2000-2600.
How it works: As long as you increase calories slowly, your body should adapt to the extra calories by going in to “anabolic” - or “building” - mode. This will help you start to build muscle, and most of the time you won’t gain any weight, despite the increase in calories. Just make sure the calories come from whole, natural foods and not processed or ultra-processed foods.
How to get started:
Find your expected “metabolic threshold”: This will vary person to person depending on a lot of factors, but all you have to do is look up “calorie calculator” online and input your information. For most women, this will be 1600-2000 calories, and for most men this will be 2000-2600 calories per day.
Figure out how many calories you’re currently eating: Easiest way to do this is to use an app like MyFitnessPal, or just the old pen & paper method.
Slowly increase calories: If you find that your calorie threshold doesn’t match what would be expected, you need to start slowly adding calories week to week. I would start at an extra 100-200 calories per day, each week, until you get your calories threshold up to where it’s supposed to be. This is equivalent to an extra 2-4oz of lean protein per day. And don’t worry - as long as you do this slowly and add quality calories to your diet, you shouldn’t gain any weight during this process!
Once you get your calories up, you will have more energy and flexibility to approach a weight loss phase or any other goals you have. To lose weight, you need to cut 500-1000 calories per day (1-2lbs per week weight loss). This is much easier to do if your metabolism burns 2000-2500 calories per day vs 1200-1500, which is what I see for a lot of women.
Get more non-exercise activity
Non-exercise activity is just like it sounds - any physical activity that isn’t planned exercise. This includes the steps you get throughout the day, any activities of daily living, etc. Since most of our day is spent not exercising, it makes sense that this type of activity would be contribute more to our calorie burn than exercise would.
How it works: Non-exercise activity makes up about 15% of total daily calorie expenditure. This is more 2-3x more than the effect of structured exercise on your metabolism. By increasing NEAT, you can have a much bigger impact on your resting metabolism.
How to get started:
Park further away and walk
Take the stairs
Add in an after-dinner walk each day
Start a hobby that is fun but keeps you moving
Give these things a try if you want to naturally boost your metabolism, but remember - long-term consistency trumps short-term intensity!
