The Truth About Metabolism Why “Fast Metabolism” Is a Myth | Dr Andy Galpin 5 Minute Phys

0:00 Welcome to another episode of 5-Minute

0:02 Physiology with Dr.

0:03 Andy Galpin.

0:05 You might be surprised [music] to hear

0:06 this, but there actually are many

0:07 scientifically validated ways to speed

0:09 up or boost your metabolism.

0:11 Unfortunately, very few of them will

0:13 actually help you lose any body fat.

0:16 Confused?

0:17 I don't blame you.

0:18 Most of the things I have personally heard in this

0:20 space are either outright lies or

0:23 completely exaggerated most of the time

0:25 to sell you a product.

0:26 It is true though, some people have an easier time

0:28 eating as much food as they want or

0:30 seemingly so and staying lean while

0:32 others have a far more difficult time

0:35 losing body fat or maintaining where

0:36 they're at.

0:37 So, that is a real phenomenon and it is

0:39 tied to your metabolism, but not in the

0:41 way you think.

0:43 Trust me, as someone who

0:44 has a PhD in human bioenergetics, I can

0:47 tell you clearly there is no such thing

0:49 as a fast or slow metabolism.

0:52 So, what's really going on here?

0:53 Let's really quickly unpack it and let you

0:55 walk away with some scientifically

0:57 supported ways to boost your metabolism.

1:00 Here's where things get complicated.

1:03 There are dozens of studies showing a

1:05 variety of products can increase your

1:07 metabolism.

1:07 What they're almost always

1:08 looking at is what's called your basal

1:10 or resting metabolic rate.

1:12 Now, this is the amount of energy you're

1:14 producing every minute or second.

1:16 And this can be elevated with countless

1:18 things.

1:19 Spicy food, cold water, cold

1:21 air, caffeine, green tea, stimulants,

1:23 thermogenics, sleep, acute exercise, and

1:27 so on and so forth.

1:28 These will take your

1:29 metabolic rate from at here

1:31 to here right now.

1:33 The problem is that may or may not

1:36 necessarily result in you losing any

1:37 more body fat because

1:39 the amount of change is small.

1:42 The transient time point, in other

1:44 words, how long it's elevated, tends to

1:45 be within minutes or hours at most.

1:48 And so, while you might eat some spicy food

1:50 and your basal metabolic rate might go

1:52 up five or 10 calories for 30 minutes,

1:56 that's pennies on what your entire body

1:59 is holding in terms of caloric load.

2:01 So, it's not going to make any functional

2:02 difference.

2:04 You also have an issue with sometimes we

2:06 result in a compensation mechanism in

2:08 which because you were elevated

2:09 slightly, your body will then match that

2:11 elevation with a down regulation to keep

2:13 your total net at the exact same level.

2:17 This is where marketing claims tend to

2:19 be confusing to the consumer because

2:20 they can say we ran a study, it was

2:23 third-party validated, double blind,

2:25 placebo controlled, all the buzzwords.

2:27 And they're right.

2:28 It did happen and

2:29 that thing did result in a statistically

2:31 significant increase in basal metabolic

2:33 rate, but was it clinically or practically

2:37 meaningful for what you care about, body fat?

2:41 Probably not.

2:43 Where this thing is real is the second

2:45 half of the equation.

2:45 That is, can I do

2:47 something that will permanently elevate

2:49 my basal metabolic rate?

2:50 Another way to think about this is,

2:51 can I be burning more calories just

2:53 sitting around doing nothing?

2:55 And can this caloric burn

2:57 be in an amount that is meaningful for

2:59 me so after several weeks or months I

3:02 will actually lose some physical weight?

3:05 The list here goes from dozens to just a

3:08 couple.

3:09 Some things to focus on, the biggest

3:11 impact you'll make here by far with a

3:13 lot of literature with meaningful

3:15 effects is sleep.

3:18 If you aren't sleeping great, you need

3:20 to look no further for elevating and

3:23 enhancing your metabolic rate or

3:24 boosting metabolism than correcting that

3:26 sleep issue.

3:27 Even if you're feeling

3:28 sleeping okay and you can go from that

3:30 to great sleep, that will have the

3:32 biggest impact of anything I'm about to

3:34 say.

3:35 After that, and I truly friends mean

3:37 way, way lower on the priority list, are

3:39 things like adding skeletal muscle.

3:41 For every pound of muscle you add, you

3:43 will burn a small number of calories per

3:45 day.

3:46 And that can add up to a lot over

3:48 years and months, but it's not going to

3:49 be the difference of you losing two or

3:51 three or 10 pounds of fat in a month or

3:53 something.

3:54 It's a very small amount.

3:56 Now, this game is all about stacking

3:57 lots of small wins over time for sure.

4:00 So, this great, I want you to add some

4:01 muscle, but I also don't want you to be

4:03 thinking just because you put on a few

4:04 pounds you're all of a sudden going to

4:05 lose all that extra body fat cuz that's

4:07 not likely to happen.

4:08 A couple of other

4:09 things to throw out here that have an

4:10 actual quality scientific evidence base

4:13 are one, eating more calories in

4:15 general, and two, any form of exercise.

4:19 Now, to make sure we're really clear

4:20 here, if you do something that gives you a

4:23 short rise in metabolic rate and you do

4:25 it frequently or consistently or

4:29 it leads to more energy expenditure

4:31 overall, then that will itself lead to more fat

4:34 loss.

4:35 But it wasn't the fact that that thing

4:37 boosted your metabolism that did it.

4:39 Here's a direct example.

4:40 Let's say you ate some spicy foods or ingested some

4:43 caffeine, took some green tea, or put

4:45 your face in cold water.

4:47 And that gave you more motivation to go

4:48 exercise.

4:50 So, you exercised harder or longer or

4:52 more frequently.

4:52 You did it more

4:53 consistently.

4:54 You had a better workout

4:55 or you felt better, so then you didn't

4:57 reach for more stimulants.

4:58 So, then you had a better night's sleep.

5:00 Or you made better nutrition choices.

5:02 It's the secondary or indirect effects

5:05 of those boosters that actually led to you taking

5:08 a better lifestyle action, which then

5:10 led to eventual fat loss.

5:12 So, if any of

5:13 you have ever tried something like that

5:14 or a product in that realm and said,

5:16 "Oh, no, it worked for me." it's

5:17 probably because it just helped you in

5:19 motivation, you actually felt better,

5:21 you went and then did something that was

5:24 the real cause of that change in energy

5:26 equation, which helped the body fat come

5:28 off.

5:30 From the chronic perspective,

5:32 our true ways there are fixing sleep,

5:34 making sure it's great, adding some

5:36 muscle, and then lastly, if you have any

5:38 other health performance anchor.

5:40 So, something really going wrong in your

5:42 physiology, a clinical disease or even

5:44 subclinical one, those things can put

5:46 constraints on your metabolism as well,

5:48 which might be causing problems.

5:49 In that case, you don't need to do anything

5:51 special except for resolve or otherwise

5:54 treat that issue and you should see your

5:57 basal metabolic rate rise back up.

5:59 If you like this stuff and you want to

6:01 learn way more about it, I would

6:02 encourage you to check out episode 11 of

6:05 my caught podcast called Perform with

6:07 Dr.

6:07 Andy Galpin, where I went through a

6:09 full deep dive, shared the exact

6:11 research, covered way more ground, other

6:13 topics, other protocols, and so you can

6:16 see all that available on YouTube and

6:17 anywhere else you get your podcast.

6:20 Thanks so much for checking out another

6:22 episode of five-ish minute physiology

6:25 and I'll see you next time.

6:26 If you enjoyed this and want to keep learning

6:27 more about human health and performance,

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6:47 field.

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6:52 I'll see you there.

6:54 Thank you for tuning

6:54 in to another episode of 5-Minute

6:56 Physiology with Dr.

6:58 Andy Galpin.