Stop Guessing: What Can I Do to Speed Up My Metabolism and Keep It There

You've probably seen that person. The one who eats three slices of pizza, follows it up with a brownie, and never seems to change. It’s easy to blame "bad luck" or "slow genetics," but the reality is that your metabolic rate isn't a fixed number carved into your DNA at birth. It’s more like a thermostat. Sometimes it gets stuck on a low setting because of how we live, eat, and move. If you’re asking what can I do to speed up my metabolism, you’re likely tired of feeling sluggish or seeing the scale refuse to budge despite your best efforts.

Metabolism is basically just the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. Even when you’re scrolling through your phone or sleeping, your body needs energy for things like breathing, circulating blood, and repairing cells. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). Most people think they can just drink a "fat-burning" tea and fix everything. Honestly? That’s total nonsense.

Real metabolic change happens through a combination of physiological shifts. You have to convince your body that it’s safe to burn energy rather than store it. This involves managing hormones like insulin and cortisol, building tissue that demands more fuel, and making sure you aren't accidentally putting your system into a "starvation" stall.

The Muscle Myth and the Truth About Resting Burn

People talk about muscle like it’s a magic wand. It kind of is, but not for the reasons you think. A pound of muscle doesn't burn 50 calories a day while you're sitting on the couch; it’s more like 6 to 10 calories. That sounds small. However, compared to fat, which burns about 2 calories per pound, it’s a massive upgrade.

When you focus on resistance training, you aren't just burning calories during the workout. You're creating "micro-trauma" in the muscle fibers. Your body has to work overtime for the next 24 to 48 hours to repair that damage. This is the "afterburn" effect, formally known as Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC).

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If you want to know what can I do to speed up my metabolism, start lifting heavy things. You don't need to become a bodybuilder. Just stop doing endless hours of steady-state cardio. Overdoing the treadmill can actually backfire. Research from the University of Illinois has shown that excessive aerobic exercise without strength training can lead to muscle loss, which eventually slows your resting metabolic rate. You end up a smaller, but "softer," version of yourself with a metabolism that requires fewer calories to maintain.

Think of muscle as a high-maintenance tenant. It demands food just to exist. The more of it you have, the higher your "rent" (your daily calorie requirement) becomes.

Why Protein is Your Metabolic Secret Weapon

Eating actually speeds up your metabolism for a few hours. It’s called the Thermic Effect of Food (TEF). But not all calories are created equal here.

Protein takes way more energy to digest than fats or carbs. About 20% to 30% of the calories in protein are burned just during the digestion process. Compare that to carbohydrates (5% to 10%) or fats (0% to 3%). If you eat 100 calories of chicken breast, your body only "nets" about 70 to 75 calories. If you eat 100 calories of butter, you're netting almost all of it.

Dr. Donald Layman, a leading researcher in protein metabolism, has frequently pointed out that many people don't get enough protein at breakfast. This is a mistake. By hitting 30 grams of protein in the morning, you're effectively "turning on" your metabolic engine early in the day. It also helps stabilize blood sugar, preventing the insulin spikes that signal your body to store fat rather than burn it.

The NEAT Factor: The Movement You’re Ignoring

We focus so much on the hour we spend at the gym. But what about the other 23 hours?

There’s a concept called Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT). This includes everything from pacing while you're on a call to fidgeting, gardening, or taking the stairs. For some people, NEAT can account for a difference of up to 2,000 calories burned per day.

If you sit at a desk for eight hours, your metabolism basically goes into "sleep mode." Enzymes that help break down fat, like lipoprotein lipase, drop significantly.

• Stand up every 30 minutes. Even for 60 seconds.
• Park farther away. It’s a cliché because it works.
• Fidget. Studies show that restless people tend to be leaner.
• Walk while you talk. If you’re on a mobile phone, there is zero reason to be sitting down.

I’ve seen people transform their bodies just by increasing their daily step count from 3,000 to 10,000 without even touching a barbell. It’s about keeping the internal fire simmering instead of letting it go cold between workouts.

Hydration and the Temperature Trick

Water is essential for metabolic reactions. If you’re even slightly dehydrated, your metabolism slows down. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that drinking about 17 ounces (500 ml) of water increased metabolic rate by 30% for about an hour.

There's also a small benefit to drinking ice-cold water. Your body has to spend energy to heat that water up to internal body temperature. Is it going to make you lose 10 pounds in a week? No. But it’s another log on the fire.

Sleep: The Metabolism Killer Nobody Takes Seriously

If you aren't sleeping, you aren't burning. Period.

Lack of sleep wreaks havoc on your hormones. It spikes cortisol (the stress hormone) and ghrelin (the hunger hormone) while tanking leptin (the fullness hormone). When you’re sleep-deprived, your body becomes "metabolically groggy." A study from the University of Chicago found that after just four days of bad sleep, the body’s ability to use insulin properly dropped by 30%.

When insulin sensitivity drops, your body struggles to process fats from the bloodstream, and it starts storing them instead. Plus, when you're tired, you're less likely to move (lowering NEAT) and more likely to crave high-sugar, high-fat foods for a quick energy hit.

What Can I Do to Speed Up My Metabolism Through Timing?

There's a lot of debate about "starvation mode." Some people say it’s a myth; others say it’s the reason they can’t lose weight. The truth is somewhere in the middle. It’s called Adaptive Thermogenesis.

When you cut calories too low for too long, your body thinks there is a famine. It gets really efficient at using energy, which is the exact opposite of what you want. This is why people who follow "crash diets" often gain all the weight back plus more. Their metabolism hasn't recovered, but their eating habits have.

To avoid this, you should consider "diet breaks" or "refeed days" where you eat at maintenance calories for a day or two. This signals to your thyroid and leptin levels that everything is fine and it's okay to keep burning fuel at a high rate.

The Spicy Food Effect

You’ve probably heard that eating chili peppers can boost your metabolism. It’s true, but the effect is temporary. Capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers hot, can increase your metabolic rate and promote fat oxidation.

It’s not a miracle cure. Eating a spicy taco won’t offset a sedentary lifestyle. However, adding heat to your meals can slightly increase satiety and give your calorie burn a minor nudge. Every little bit counts when you’re looking at the total picture.

Mitochondrial Health: The Engine Room

Deep inside your cells are mitochondria. These are the literal furnaces where oxygen and food are turned into energy. If your mitochondria are "leaky" or inefficient, your metabolism will suffer.

How do you improve mitochondrial health?

1. Cold Exposure: Cold showers or ice baths trigger "brown fat" activation. Unlike regular white fat, brown fat is packed with mitochondria and burns energy to generate heat.
2. Intermittent Fasting: Giving your body a break from digestion allows for "autophagy," a process where your cells clean out damaged components, including old mitochondria.
3. CoQ10 and Magnesium: These nutrients are vital for the chemical reactions that happen inside your cellular furnaces.

Real-World Action Steps

Knowing what can I do to speed up my metabolism is useless without a plan. You don't need to do everything at once. Start by picking one or two habits and layering them.

• Prioritize 1g of protein per pound of goal body weight. This is the single most effective dietary change you can make. It protects your muscle and keeps you full.
• Switch to a 3-day full-body lifting routine. Forget the "bicep days." Focus on squats, deadlifts, presses, and rows. These movements involve the most muscle mass and create the biggest metabolic disturbance.
• Walk 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day, regardless of your workout. Use a tracker. Don't guess. You'll be surprised how little you actually move if you have an office job.
• Stop eating 3 hours before bed. This allows your insulin levels to drop and your body to focus on repair and fat oxidation during sleep rather than digesting a late-night snack.
• Drink 16oz of water as soon as you wake up. It jumpstarts your system after a night of dehydration.

Metabolism isn't a static thing. It's a dynamic, living system that responds to the demands you place on it. If you treat your body like an economy in a recession—cutting spending (calories) and reducing activity—it will respond by slowing down. If you treat it like a booming engine—providing high-quality fuel (protein), building infrastructure (muscle), and keeping things moving—it will burn bright and fast.

The goal isn't just to "lose weight." The goal is to build a body that is metabolically flexible and resilient. That means you can handle the occasional indulgent meal without it sticking to your ribs forever. It takes time to shift your set point, but once you do, maintaining your progress becomes significantly easier.

Focus on the long game. Stop looking for the "one weird trick" and start looking at your daily habits. Your metabolism is a reflection of your lifestyle. Change the lifestyle, and the metabolism will follow. There's no secret—just biology.

Invest in your muscle, eat your protein, move your body outside of the gym, and give your system the rest it needs to function. That’s the only way to get lasting results.