This blog post has been authored by Stand Out Online Member Heather Hammerstedt MD, Wholist: Lifestyle Coaching and Consulting
It’s tempting to think of your metabolism as an internal speedometer… or maybe like a hamster running on a wheel.
The faster it goes, the faster you burn calories and fat, right? Unfortunately, that’s not how it works.
In reality, your metabolism is a complex biochemical process that your body uses to convert what you eat and drink into energy.
Metabolism happens at its most basic level in your cells. That’s where the calories in everything you eat and drink are combined with oxygen. This process releases the energy your body needs to function.
What affects your metabolic rate?
As you might expect, the foods you eat can have a pretty big impact on how your body functions.
Some foods are easier to digest than others, others keep you feeling full longer, and others help build and repair muscle! Some can even cause rapid blood sugar swings that affect how your body stores fat.
Foods that boost your metabolism.
Protein-rich foods: Eating foods high in protein (meat, eggs, fish, legumes, tofu, etc.) rev up your metabolism because it takes your body more energy to digest them.
This is called the thermic effect of food – different foods require more energy than others. Fun fact: Protein can boost your metabolism by 15% to 30%, carbs can boost it 5% to 10%, and fats between 0% to 3%.
A bonus with protein is that if you’re losing weight, it helps you hold onto more of your muscle, which also can help you keep your metabolism humming along.
Legumes: On top of containing plenty of plant-based protein, legumes (lentils, black beans, kidney beans, etc.) also contain resistant starch. That’s a form of fiber your body can’t digest.
Resistant starch can help improve your metabolism because it helps stabilize blood sugar and improve insulin sensitivity, both of which are key in fat storage.
Coffee and tea: The amount of caffeine in an average cup of coffee (around 100 mg) appears to boost your metabolism by up to 11% for up to 2 hours.
Also, studies suggest the antioxidants and catechins in green tea (especially green tea extract) appear to rev up your metabolism by 3% to 4% (and as much as 8%), over the course of a 24-hour period.
Ginger: One study found that adding a heaped teaspoon (2 grams) of ginger powder to hot water and drinking it after breakfast raised metabolism – people burned about 43 extra calories AND they didn’t feel as hungry for the next three hours.
Apple cider vinegar: In mice studies, apple cider vinegar was found to promote the production of an enzyme called AMPK, which lowers the rate of fat storage and boosts the rate of fat burning.
(Tip: try combining ginger and 1-2 tbsp of organic unfiltered apple cider vinegar in hot water for a refreshing morning drink.)
Water: Drinking 2 cups of cold water temporarily boosts your metabolism by as much 30% for up to 40 minutes after you drink it. Much of the increase has to do with how hard your body works to warm up the water.
Chili peppers: Add some red pepper to your dinner to fire up your metabolism! Many studies have investigated supplements containing capsaicinoids, which is the component that gives chili peppers their “heat.”
You can get some of the same benefits from food by adding the spicy peppers to your recipes. Yum!
Throw them into some chili with black beans and ground turkey for a 1-2-3 metabolic punch.
It’s important to know that none of these foods will suddenly make your body burn hundreds of extra calories a day… but it’s pretty surprising how quickly layering in small, consistent changes can rev your daily burn!
Dr Heather Hammerstedt is an emergency medicine physician with a specialized board certification in lifestyle medicine, as well as additional certifications and trainings in integrative nutrition, health coaching, medical acupuncture, Ayurveda, public and global health. She has 15years of clinical experience and 16 years coaching experience, having gone to get her health coaching certificate during medical school when she realized the HUGE hole in our medical education around food and mindfulness and exercise. At this point, she’s put in 1000s of hours of deep diving into food and weight and mindset to put together a (kick a**) lifestyle transformation blueprint to get women to longterm health without products or BS, with real food and lifelong SKILLS for sustainable health futures… with a side effect of weight wellness. Her days are spent in Idaho skiing and rafting and playing outside with her two little crazy boys, two furry chocolate dog children, a very entertaining husband.