How Much Can You Actually Increase Your Metabolism With Diet?

There seems to be an endless list of ways you can increase your metabolism by eating certain foods. The question is, how much difference do those listed points actually make when it comes to achieving your fitness and weight loss goals? Sadly, not as much as we would like. Tim Church, M.D., M.P.H, Ph.D., professor of preventative medicine at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University weighed in on the subject. "That's because your metabolism largely comes down to two factors: your genetics and your size. If your mom and dad had slow metabolisms, you probably will, too. There's not much you can do to change that." That being said, the larger you are, the faster your metabolism works. Someone who is morbidly obese burns an enormous amount of calories every day in comparison to someone small. In fact, the smaller you are, the slower your metabolism is. In short, it takes less to fuel a smaller person. Still, while you can't exchange your metabolism for a better one, a few calories here and there do ad up over time. For instance, research shows that drinking two to four cups of green tea per day may raise your metabolism by 50 calories per day. It's a heck of a lot of tea - but about 5 lbs lost at the end of the year. So what is the trick? Well, exercise and strength training can help support a healthy metabolism. After all, pound per pound, muscle burns more calories than fat. Four calories, to be precise. A pound of fat burns two calories per day whereas a pound of muscle burns six. .