Slow Digestion? Experts Share Simple Tips to Speed Up Your Metabolism

One online wellness guru has claimed that there are ways to manipulate your metabolism so that it can do far more for you while you do far less.

Your metabolism is the way your body uses calories from food and drinks to produce energy so that you can live and move with vigor, and your basal metabolic rate is the number of calories your body needs to stay alive and maintain all of its basic functions.

Newsweek consulted a physician, a dietician, and a nutritionist to find out whether the coach's tips can actually work.

Gerald Hall, a transformation coach whose expertise spans weight loss and fitness, shared his top tips on how you can speed up your metabolism in a video on TikTok. Hall starts his video by saying that our metabolism isn't really what many people assume it to be. A whopping 70 percent of the calories we burn every day comes from our basal metabolic rate, the coach says, which goes against the common belief that our metabolism is just how quickly we tend to digest food.

Due to this, a speedy metabolism is not actually activated through rigorous exercise with a sprinkling of good genes to boot, but something that can be cultivated through careful lifestyle change.

Hall puts building muscle mass forward as a failsafe way to boost your basal metabolic rate. He also encourages gentle and regular exercise like walking and the regular consumption of protein-rich foods. So, that's a transformation coach's verdict on how the average metabolism can be sped up to burn calories while its host body is in a resting state—but what do the experts think?

Do Build More Muscle Mass

Memphis-based weight loss physician Dr. Leigh Daigle told Newsweek that building muscle mass really does hold the key to building or maintaining a fast metabolism.

The more muscle mass a person has, the more calories they burn throughout the day, but we begin to lose muscle mass as we age.

"It is possible to increase your basal metabolic rate and burn more calories at rest but involve building muscle in your body," Daigle said. "This can be done with your own body weight or with equipment. Muscle takes time to build, so being patient and consistent will pay off.

"It's also important to maintain muscle mass as we age, not only to help maintain a healthy weight but also to keep us strong, prevent falls, improve balance and protect joints," she added.

Registered dietician Nicole Holovach also backed the transformation coach up, noting that we lose an average of 5 percent of our muscle mass each decade from the age of 40, which in turn leads to a slower metabolism and easier weight gain.

Do Eat More Protein-Rich Foods

Holovach told Newsweek that eating more protein really is an effective way to boost your metabolism because it can help you build and preserve muscle.

"A high protein intake has been shown to significantly boost metabolism and increase the number of calories you burn in and of itself," she said.

Do Exercise More

Nutritionist and fitness coach Kirk Anderson seconds both Holovach and Daigle when it comes to focusing on building muscle mass and eating protein to do so. But he added that Hall's point about walking more is really crucial when it comes to boosting your metabolism.

"Go for a walk after eating. This helps with blood sugar management because walking is aerobic, making your body burn through glucose at a moderate pace without needing to produce additional glucose," Anderson told Newsweek.

Newsweek reached out to @GHallFitness via TikTok for comment.

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