Boost Your Metabolism – Here's How!

Obesity and related diseases are increasingly on the rise. Metabolic health plays an important role here, as the metabolism not only burns energy but also ensures good blood sugar and appetite regulation.

Here you'll find out how to boost your metabolism and improve your metabolic health.

Boosting Your Metabolism – What Does That Mean?

In everyday language, "boosting your metabolism" generally refers to increasing energy expenditure. The aim is to make weight loss easier.

Technically speaking, however, this is not entirely accurate or is somewhat misleading. Because the metabolism is the result of an incredibly large number of biochemical processes in the body. These processes are constantly taking place, regardless of whether you are burning more or less energy.

To lose weight, it is on one hand helpful to increase energy expenditure. It is also important to improve certain aspects of metabolic health. We will look at both in more detail in the following sections.

Increasing Energy Expenditure

To understand how to increase energy expenditure, you first need to know how total energy expenditure is made up and how you can influence the individual factors.

Basal Metabolic Rate

When people talk about their metabolism "slowing down" and wanting to boost it, most are thinking about the basal metabolic rate. This is the energy expenditure at rest — in other words, the energy needed to keep the body alive.

The majority of this energy is consumed by organs such as the liver, kidneys, heart and brain. We have very little influence over how much energy these organs consume.

What we do have influence over, however, is muscle mass. Because muscles burn energy even at rest. Building muscle can therefore raise the basal metabolic rate.

Depending on muscle mass and activity level, the basal metabolic rate accounts for roughly 45–60% of total energy expenditure.

Thermic Effect of Food

Food not only provides energy — digesting and processing that energy also requires energy. As a general rule: the more we eat, the more energy is needed for digestion.

But what we eat also makes a difference. For protein, the thermic effect is around 20–30% of its energy content, for carbohydrates around 5–10%, and for fat around 3%.

Overall, the thermic effect of food accounts for around 10–15% of total energy expenditure.

NEAT

NEAT stands for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. This refers to energy expenditure that does not come from planned exercise. Rather, it includes everyday movements such as walking and doing housework. It also includes spontaneous movements we are largely unaware of. Examples include foot and hand movements while you're sitting at a computer concentrating on work.

Unfortunately, we have no influence over these spontaneous, unconscious movements. However, you can increase NEAT by incorporating more movement into your daily routine — for example, by taking the stairs instead of the lift.

For most people, NEAT accounts for around 15–20% of total energy expenditure.

Exercise

Exercise refers to planned physical activity — such as going to the gym or going for a run.

Exercise typically accounts for around 15–30% of total energy expenditure. This naturally depends on how much exercise you do. For athletes, exercise can account for 50% or more of total energy expenditure.

Improving Metabolic Health

When talking about metabolic health, the key concept is insulin sensitivity. This is a somewhat complex term, but it can be explained in straightforward terms.

You may know insulin as the blood-sugar-lowering hormone that people with diabetes inject to reduce their blood sugar levels. Insulin causes cells to absorb sugar from the blood, which lowers blood sugar levels.

Insulin sensitivity refers to how well these cells respond to insulin. Put simply: the higher the insulin sensitivity, the better the cells respond to insulin, and the healthier the metabolism.

In many conditions, we see the opposite: very low insulin sensitivity, also known as insulin resistance. The most well-known example of this is type 2 diabetes (so-called adult-onset diabetes).

It is no coincidence that people with type 2 diabetes are almost always overweight. Because insulin resistance causes the body to store more fat, making it very difficult to break down fat and therefore to lose weight.

Insulin resistance also tends to go hand in hand with leptin resistance.¹ Leptin is the body's primary satiety hormone. With leptin resistance, the brain becomes insensitive to leptin. In other words, appetite regulation is disrupted, making it easy to overeat and consequently gain weight.

Boosting Your Metabolism

We will now look at the most important measures for boosting your metabolism — that is, increasing energy expenditure and improving metabolic health.

Exercise

Exercise is incredibly effective when it comes to boosting your metabolism. On one hand, it burns energy directly. It also helps build muscle, which is why you should focus especially on strength training.

Muscles burn energy even at rest, thereby increasing the basal metabolic rate. But they also improve metabolic health by actively absorbing sugar from the blood, which raises insulin sensitivity and also helps regulate appetite better.²

Sleep

While we burn less energy during sleep than when we're awake and active, restful sleep still helps to boost the metabolism.

On one hand, you have more energy during the day when you're well rested. This increases NEAT and makes it easier to motivate yourself to exercise.³

On the other hand, sleep is enormously important for metabolic health.⁴ With enough sleep, blood sugar and appetite regulation function significantly better.⁵ So if you experience intense cravings after a sleepless night, that's no coincidence.

Diet

The right diet can also be very effective at boosting your metabolism.

A high protein intake is particularly helpful here. This is because protein has a higher thermic effect than fat and carbohydrates. Adequate protein is also essential for building and maintaining muscle.

The right diet also helps you keep your blood sugar stable. This has a positive effect on metabolic health and, in turn, on appetite regulation. Again, protein plays an important role here. But dietary fibre is also incredibly useful and important in this regard.⁶

Micronutrients

Micronutrients are the key players in metabolism — they are actively involved in the biochemical reactions of the metabolic process.

Here we highlight the most important ones:

• Chromium contributes to the normal metabolism of macronutrients and to the maintenance of normal blood sugar levels.⁷

• Choline contributes to normal lipid metabolism.⁸

• Zinc contributes to normal carbohydrate metabolism and normal fatty acid metabolism.⁹

• Vitamin B2 contributes to normal energy metabolism.¹⁰

• Vitamin B6 contributes to normal protein and glycogen metabolism and to normal energy metabolism.¹¹

In addition, there are further substances whose effects on metabolism are still being investigated:

• L-Carnitine is needed for the transport of fatty acids into the powerhouses of our cells (the mitochondria). There is evidence suggesting that L-Carnitine may improve metabolic health, i.e. increase insulin sensitivity.¹²

• Forskolin: Studies suggest that Forskolin may promote fat breakdown (lipolysis) and lower blood pressure.¹³ Obesity and insulin resistance are often associated with high blood pressure.

• Charantin (from bitter melon) may help to lower blood sugar levels.¹⁴

• EGCG (Epigallocatechin-3-gallate) is a powerful antioxidant found in green tea.¹⁵

• Caffeine (from green tea and coffee) is well known for its stimulating and performance-enhancing effects. There is also evidence suggesting that caffeine may promote fat breakdown (lipolysis).¹⁶

• Chlorogenic acid (from green coffee) appears to be able to slow the release of sugar (glucose) after a meal, preventing blood sugar from rising as sharply. Studies also suggest it may support the liver in breaking down fatty acids.¹⁷

The most important substances for metabolism, all in one: Stoffwechsel Komplex Daily by Viktilabs

The Stoffwechsel Komplex Daily by Viktilabs contains all of the substances mentioned above to optimally support your metabolism:

1. Acetyl-L-Carnitine

2. Choline

3. Green Tea Extract (with EGCG and Caffeine)

4. Green Coffee Extract (with Chlorogenic Acid and Caffeine)

5. Bitter Melon Extract (with Charantins)

6. Coleus forskohlii Extract (with Forskolin)

7. Zinc & Chromium

8. Vitamin B2 & B6

The Stoffwechsel Komplex Daily

• has a Clean Label – free from magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide, nanoparticles and artificial additives

• is vegan & allergen-free – free from gluten, lactose, soy and fructose

• has laboratory-tested quality – manufactured in Germany & the EU

• has sustainable, BPA-free packaging in amber glass

Click here for the Stoffwechsel Komplex Daily by Viktilabs.