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

Here is a brief summary of the key points from the transcript: The video discusses different strategies for boosting metabolism and categorizes them as either likely to work, might work, or probably doesn't work. Key points: - Drinking cold water can provide a small metabolic boost (about 8 calories per glass), but likely not enough to substantially impact fat loss. Categorized as "might work". - Green tea may provide a minor boost, but evidence is limited. Categorized as "probably doesn't work". - Spicy foods containing capsaicin may boost metabolism slightly due to their thermogenic effect. Categorized as "might work". - Saunas and cold baths don't provide a meaningful metabolic boost. Both categorized as "probably doesn't work". - Building muscle can increase resting metabolic rate. Categorized as "it works". - Reverse dieting might help rebuild metabolism after dieting but more evidence is needed. Categorized as "might work". - Meal frequency does not impact metabolism or fat loss. Categorized as "probably doesn't work". - Cardio provides a metabolic boost but some calories are offset due to compensation effects. Categorized as "it works". - Weighted vests might boost metabolism by increasing loading but more research is needed. Categorized as "might work". - Slow dieting and increasing non-exercise activity can also boost metabolism. Both categorized as "it works".

In this video I'm going to be answering 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 throughout the day? Muscle is metabolically active. Does that mean that building more muscle will increase your metabolic rate? Drinking green tea is supposed to boost metabolism. Does it actually? And if so, how many extra calories does it burn? Eating spicy food makes you sweat. Does that give a metabolic boost? Speaking of sweating, does sauna increase metabolism or is cold exposure better? Shivering definitely burns calories. But exactly how many thousands of people follow reverse dieting? Does it work? And does cardio slow metabolism down or speed it up? Im going to answer all these questions in this video. But first to get everyone on the same page, lets quickly cover what metabolism actually is in a fitness context where the goal is to either 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 that someone has a fast metabolism, what we really mean is that their body burns a lot of calories, allowing them to eat more food. And when we say someone has a slow metabolism, we mean their body doesn't burn as many calories and they often have to diet on less food to see weight loss. But how different are people's metabolisms anyway? If we took two people of the same sex at the same height and the same body weight, could their metabolisms actually be all that different? Yes, they could be. Metabolic rates are extremely individual, much more so than many people even realize. Just take a look at some of the findings from this massive 2022 study on daily energy expenditure on over 6000 subjects from diverse backgrounds that was published in Science, one of the world's most reputable journals. This figure compares body weight here on the x axis with total energy expenditure, or what fitness people would call metabolism. Each one of these blue and yellow dots represents a different person. Blue dots are male, yellow dots are female. If we pick a weight here in the middle at 80 kilos or 176 pounds, you can see that the person with the so called slowest metabolism only burned about 1400 calories per day, while the person with the fastest metabolism burned a whopping 5700 calories per day at the exact same body weight. That means the person with the slowest metabolism would need to eat under 1400 calories to lose weight. The person with the fastest metabolism would lose weight eating 5000 calories per day. So then the burning question is, is there a way for the person with the so called slow metabolism to speed their metabolism up so they get to eat more calories. This is an important question because if we get to eat more calories while dieting well not only get the satisfaction of having more food, we may also feel less depleted, perform better in the gym and retain more muscle. So it's worth figuring out and I'm gonna break each strategy into one of three groups. It works. It might work, and it probably doesn't work. For boosting metabolism. Let's start with water. Does drinking more water increase metabolism? The answer is yes, a little. Each glass of cold water you drink burns about eight calories. So every time you drink another glass of cold water, you get an extra eight calorie boost. Cold water gives a bigger boost than room temperature water because your body has to burn calories to heat the cold water up to body temperature. Put the full calculation up here on the screen if you're curious how I came to that eight calorie figure, but I'm still going to put water in the might work category. That's because even though water loading sounds like a decent strategy on paper, I'm not convinced it would actually translate to substantially better fat loss over the long term. It's possible that the extra calories you burn from drinking more water could be compensated for. For example, you could drink more water, but then subconsciously move around a little less so that the net boost cancels out, at least partially. I'm also not a fan of forced drinking water. If you overdo it with ultra high water intakes, within a short time frame, you can develop water intoxication or hyponatremia, which can be dangerous. So generally speaking, eight to twelve glasses, or about two to three liters per day, is plenty. And most people can simply use their internal thirst signals to guide their intake. Water can help you feel more full at meals though, so if it does help you keep your daily caloric intake down, drink away. Alright then, what about green tea? The simple Google search returns over 40 million results for green tea and metabolism, some boasting up to an 8% spike. 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 into that study deeper, however, there were only ten subjects and it only lasted 24 hours, so I wouldn't draw any strong conclusions from it. Also, there are 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 to more fat loss over the long term. And for that reason, I'm putting it in the probably doesn't work category. Then there's spicy food like this bowl of green curry chicken and rice. In this case, green curry gets its heat from ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chili peppers. Chili peppers seem to be the most promising from a metabolic standpoint, since they contain a compound called capsaicin, which has plenty of research showing a thermogenic effect. For example, this 2017 meta analysis of nine studies found that on average, capsaicin increased energy expenditure by 69 calories per day, but only in the studies where the subjects bmi was over 25. So in the overweight zone in this bowl of green chili, theres about 0.5 grams of chili pepper, which would correspond to about two milligrams of capsaicin. Extrapolating out the meta analytic data most generously, that would give me at best a roughly 20 calorie metabolic boost. Obviously, this pales in comparison to the 700 calories in the meal itself, but it could be enough to make capsaicin a reasonable candidate for supplementation. Still, I think the main reason that spicy food can be helpful for weight loss is not that it might give a 20 calorie metabolic boost, but rather that it can increase satiety and fullness. I find I eat more slowly and drink more water when I have a spicy meal. And if that helps you eat less total calories for the day, that could be helping drive fat loss. All things considered, I'm putting spicy food in the might work category. Alright, so what about sauna? You sweat in the sauna. Does this mean you're burning extra calories? Well, according to this 1995 study from Japan, sauna did increase oxygen consumption and heart rate by 20 to 25 beats per minute. So for 180 pound person, this would translate to about 19 calories burned from sitting in the sauna for ten minutes. For comparison, you'd burn about 14 calories just sitting in a normal room for ten minutes. So you're looking at about a five calorie difference. That's one stick of gum, nothing worth talking about. Sauna goes in the probably doesn't work category for boosting metabolism. Obviously cold plunges and ice baths are having a moment on social media, but do they boost your metabolism? Well, it looks like oxygen consumption does increase when you sit in a cold bath and you do shiver, which indicates a metabolic boost. However, the actual numbers are pretty underwhelming. If you sit neck deep in an ice bath for ten minutes, you burn about 28 calories. Again, for comparison, burn 14 calories just sitting at room temperature. So youre looking at about a 14 calorie boost from the cold bath. Cold baths are also going in the probably doesnt work category. But what about building muscle? Youve likely heard that muscle burns more calories than fat and this is true three times the amount. In fact, 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 math based on my current body composition and it looks like if I just sat down all day, the fat on my body would burn 24 calories and the muscle on my body would burn 480 calories. Thats a 456 calorie difference. Not bad at all. Lets consider you as an example. Lets just say youre a relatively new lifter and over the course of the next five years, you put on 30 pounds of muscle. If you burn 2500 calories per day before youd burn 2680 calories per day now after adding the new muscle. So a 180 calorie difference, that's about four extra kiwis you could eat per day. So far, this is the biggest metabolic booster we've seen. And so I'm going to put building muscle in the it works category. Okay, so what about reverse dieting? This has become very popular over the last few years. Reverse dieting is exactly what it sounds like, the reverse of dieting. Instead of decreasing calories, you gradually increase calories with the goal of rebuilding your metabolism. Now, I'm planning on doing a full video on reverse dieting in the fall. So for now, I'll just say that I'm a bit skeptical of it. For sure. I have seen plenty of cases where people have increased their caloric intake by several hundred calories while maintaining their body weight. But my main gripe with reverse dieting is that I just don't think it's necessary to go slowly after a diet. I think it makes much more sense to go straight to your new maintenance right away. Then once you're at your new maintenance, you can more gradually increase your caloric intake from there. Of course, at a certain point you'll reach the upper limit of your dynamic maintenance range and at that point you'll start gaining weight. Now, if you're eager to learn more about reverse dieting, I'll link an article by Eric Trexler down below. That more or less lines up with my stance on the topic. As of now, I'm gonna put reverse dieting in the might work category, and you can subscribe and stay tuned for my full video on it. Okay, so what about meal frequency? Does eating more meals throughout the day keep the metabolic furnace burning? It doesn't seem to, no. This 2012 study had subjects spend three days in an isolated respiration chamber while eating either three meals per day or 14 meals per day with the same total calories, and found no difference in energy expenditure. There's also this 2015 meta analysis pooling 15 studies which also found no significant difference in fat mass from eating one to two, three to four, or five plus meals per day. Even though from this graph it does look like the higher meal frequency was better. That result is being dragged up by a single study, this one from Iweo and colleagues and the authors. Note that once you remove that study from the analysis, the difference goes away. Now, you can interpret that as you wish, but I'm personally not convinced that a higher meal frequency gives a meaningful boost in metabolism. And I'm putting meal frequency in the probably doesn't work category. Okay, 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 cardio, your body subconsciously burns less calories through meat or non exercise activity. Thermogenesis. This is the component of metabolism that includes activities other than exercise. So stuff like fidgeting and bobbing your head to music, for example. Let's say on a normal day, you fidget and shuffle away 500 calories through meat. But today you decide to go for a 30 minutes jog, and the jog also burns 500 calories. What happens next is that your body will sense the jog and subconsciously move around a little less. Now, you only burn 350 calories through neat. Of course, you still get a net caloric burn from including the jog, but it is offset to some degree. Now, there are large individual differences in energy compensation, but on average, for every 100 calories you burn by doing cardio, you'll only actually increase your daily energy expenditure by 72 calories. And this is why I prefer to use diet as the main tool for establishing a caloric deficit and use cardio as a secondary tool, because with cardio, you do tend to get less caloric. Bang for your buck. Still, even with energy compensation in mind, cardio does burn calories, and as such, it belongs in the it works category. The next thing I want to touch on is weighted vests. There's some cool science behind this. The general idea is if I weigh 160 pounds right now and I start wearing a 20 pound weighted vest, my body starts to think that I weigh 180 pounds and burns calories like a 180 pound person would. Recent evidence has suggested the existence of a system of sensors in the body called the gravita stat, which senses changes in loading on the bones. If these sensors get the idea that you're now a heavier person, it'll increase your caloric expenditure and decrease hunger levels. My friend and natural pro bodybuilder Eric Salazar did a case study with exercise scientist James Krieger where he wore a 34 pound weighted vest for 90% of his waking hours. During a competition prep, he got down to an incredibly shredded 5% body fat by sort of tricking his body into thinking he was 34 pounds heavier than he really was. And in comparison to past diets, he says he didn't have to suffer as many of the bad side effects of getting shredded. So I'm tempted to put weighted vests in the it works category because I think it probably does. However, I'm gonna leave it under the might work category for now until we get more published research. Lastly, there are two other less sexy, but still very effective metabolic strategies that I'd like to mention. First, avoid dieting on very low calories. The more aggressively you cut, the more your metabolic rate decreases. So, generally speaking, you should aim to lose about 0.5% to 1% of your body weight per week. And the more you go above this zone, the more likely it is that your metabolism will start tanking. Slow dieting definitely works. Second, you should try to smuggle in extra non exercise activity where you can. This is where the weighted vest might be helpful, but there are other things you can do, like park further from the grocery store, take the stairs over the elevator, and regularly stand up and stretch at your desk. I call these little activities throughout the day neat smuggling, and I'd also put it in the it works category. Its also worth keeping in mind that even if you implement some of these strategies and you still have a relatively slower metabolism, you can of course, still lose weight. In fact, research shows that metabolic rate isnt nearly as predictive of successful long term weight loss as many people think. People with faster metabolisms can fail to lose weight, and people with slower metabolisms can succeed to lose weight. And the things more reliably associated with successful long term weight loss are being physically active, regularly weighing yourself, weight training, and making lifestyle changes. Another thing that's been helping thousands of people lose fat while keeping track of their metabolism is the macro factor app. If you aren't aware, I'm a part owner of macro Factor and I've been using it to guide my own fat loss journey where I've lost almost 30 pounds. Relying entirely on the app's algorithms. Macro factor is so effective because it'll update your diet based on your unique metabolism, whether that's faster or slower. All you have to do is lock your weight and your nutrition, and the app will give you the ideal nutrition targets for your goal. And there's a growing community of people online sharing their own success stories from using the app. Other methods, like online calculators or smartwatches can be off by hundreds of calories per day, and macro factor is much more reliable because it responds to your individual weight changes exactly like a coach would, and then makes the appropriate adjustments based on your metabolism. Specifically, macro factor also has the easiest and fastest food logger on the market. We've done comparison experiments to test this. It has a super fast barcode scanner and AI features that allow you to describe meals that are more difficult to log. For example, if you eat out at a restaurant that doesn't have the nutritional info, you can use the AI describe tool to log what you ate. We also massively expanded our european food database recently, which I know a lot of you guys have been waiting for. So if you'd like to try out macro factor for 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 over here next to my head. All right, that's it for this one, guys. Don't forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video. Subscribe if you haven't already, and I'll see you guys all here in the next one.