“As you age, your metabolism may decrease, but there is a very strong relationship with the muscle mass, and this is in our control,” Griebeler says. One is aging, which of course you can’t prevent, though you can maintain a speedy metabolism with a little work.

There are also some things that can slow down your metabolism. “For that reason, we call them metabolic surgery.” “These have been shown to increase your metabolism,” Spiegel says. In extreme cases, you can also consider bariatric or weight loss surgery to alter your metabolic rate. He says that there’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation on the best way to build muscle, but there are three ways to do it: increase exercise frequency, increase time spent exercising, or increase intensity.Īccording to Harvard Health Publishing, you can also speed up your metabolism by eating protein and drinking green tea, although the impact of both of these interventions is small.Īll in all, a healthy lifestyle is key to a healthy metabolism, Griebeler says. “You're burning calories in different ways: You're burning calories when you're doing the exercise, you're burning calories when you're recovering from exercise, and you're burning calories because you increase your metabolic rate.” “If you increase your muscle mass, you need more calories to feed those muscles so your basal metabolic rate will increase,” Griebeler says. Muscle uses more energy than fat does, even when you’re at rest, according to Rush University Medical Center. The best way to do it? By building muscle. You cannot overcome your genetic predisposition, but Griebeler says that you can absolutely speed up your metabolism. “We can control - it's important to say that,” Griebeler says.

Physical activity and your muscle mass, however, are within your power. “It is what it is - some people are fast burners, and some are slow burners,” he says. You cannot control your genes, for instance. Many of these factors are out of your control but not all of them. That said, the negative health consequences of smoking far outweigh any metabolic benefit.

Smoking Nicotine stimulates metabolism, leading to more calories burned.

Movement Any type of movement leads to more calories burned than being sedentary.

Genetics Your genes determine how much muscle mass your body will have.

Sex Men typically have faster metabolisms than women due to higher muscle mass.

Age Metabolism naturally slows as you age.“The more fat you carry, the slower your metabolism is generally,” Dr. There’s an opposite relationship between fat and metabolism. Muscle Mass Higher muscle mass translates to a faster metabolism.“If someone is more active, their metabolism is increased, and they would require more calories.”Īccording to the Cleveland Clinic, the speed of your metabolism can be affected by several factors: “The average person with minimal physical activity needs about 10 calories per pound of body weight to maintain their daily functions and remain the same weight,” says Felix Spiegel, MD, a bariatric surgeon with Memorial Hermann in Houston.

Griebeler says that the calories burned by daily living and doing things like sitting, eating, and breathing are referred to as nonexercise activity thermogenesis. The higher your BMR, the more calories you burn, even when at rest. This varies from person to person and isn’t steady over one’s lifetime either - it can decrease if you lose weight quickly or eat too few calories, which results in weight loss stalling. RELATED: Metabolism May Not Decline With AgeīMR refers to the minimum number of calories your body needs to survive when at rest and accounts for roughly 60 to 70 percent of your body’s overall energy needs, according to the Cleveland Clinic. There’s no turning your metabolism on or off. “Metabolism is the energy that's needed for our body to function - from breathing, to running, to exercise, everything,” says Marcio Griebeler, MD, an endocrinologist and obesity specialist with the Cleveland Clinic's endocrinology and metabolism institute in Avon, Ohio.Īnd it’s always at work, according to the Cleveland Clinic. You’ll often hear metabolism discussed in relation to weight and weight loss, but that’s not the only reason it’s important. In simpler terms, metabolism refers to everything in the body that has to do with energy conversion: blood circulation, body temperature control, muscle contraction, food digestion, nerve and brain function, and waste removal, according to MedlinePlus. These changes create the energy and materials that cells and organisms need to grow, reproduce, and stay healthy, and also help get rid of toxic substances. Metabolism refers to the chemical changes that take place within a cell or organism, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Ways to speed up metabolism