How can you boost your metabolic rate and burn more calories?

The scientific term for how quickly you burn calories is your metabolic rate. And the total amount of calories that you burn on any given day is called your energy expenditure. Most of the energy is used to keep your body alive. Unfortunately, there is no magic pill for burning calories or losing weight. But there are few things that almost everyone can benefit from.

1. Include good quality protein in your diet

When you eat, you burn some calories simply because your body uses energy during digestion. Scientists call this the thermic effect of food (TEF), and it makes up around 10% of your energy expenditure. Around 20-30% of the energy in protein is used up during digestion. For carbohydrates, this is between 5- 10%, and for fat, it is up to 3%.

2. Nourish your gut microbiome

The microbes that live in your gut play an important role in how you process the food that you eat. Researchers recently showed that there are 15 microbes that are linked with having a higher risk of more fat around the belly.

3. Swap processed food for whole foods

The structure of these foods - low in fiber and high-quality protein - is simpler and this means that your body can easily absorb the fat and sugar they contain.

4. Get your caffeine fix

The caffeine in green tea and coffee can slightly increase your energy expenditure, promote weight loss and reduce body fat.

5. Go to bed earlier

Even if you struggle to sleep the recommended 8 hours, going to bed earlier helps prevent unhealthy blood sugar spikes after eating the following morning. This means that you are less likely to feel hungry again shortly after.

6. Exercise

There are some studies that suggest resistance training and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) can increase your metabolic rate and help you burn more calories. Beyond exercise like running or gym classes, there is the “non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT)” and encompasses all of the movements that your body makes outside of eating and sleeping.

7. Don’t lose weight too fast

Researchers have shown that losing weight fast leads to a greater reduction in metabolic rate than more gradual weight loss. Furthermore, your metabolic rate can stay lower for years, meaning that even if you do lose weight, you would have to eat significantly less in the long-term to maintain that new weight.