Okay, if you read a slogan like the headline, count on your sense of humor to burn more calories with a laugh. Laughing at it is probably the only way to lose weight with diets that promise to change your metabolism forever.
Typically, every year we find at least one diet that promises to change our metabolism so that we can be lean for life .

Could it be true?
It is certainly true that a diet can have an impact on our metabolism.
But generally this impact is negative when it comes to a weight loss diet .

Losing weight and raising your metabolism at the same time is a bit of a contradiction.
In this article we will try to understand why.

Because it is not possible to increase metabolism with a weight loss diet

When we talk about metabolism, we can roughly divide metabolism into two parts .
A basal metabolic rate , which is the energy the body needs at rest to keep it alive without counting any digestive processes.
And then all the calories we consume for every kind of daily activity that the body carries out in addition to keeping us alive: from the digestion of food to every type of physical activity. This process is called adaptive thermogenesis.

By combining adaptive thermogenesis with basal metabolism we will thus have the total metabolism of a person.

Now: adaptive thermogenesis is not the same for all individuals, even if they start from the same weight, the same percentage of lean and fat mass, the same age and gender.
This is because metabolism is a process that occurs at the single cell level. That he breathes a certain way and burns a certain way, and this behavior of his can change from person to person.

However, we are sure of one thing, and that is that when we lose weight, therefore in any condition in which we lose weight, our body will tend to conserve energy more easily than to dissipate it.

Conversely, our body will tend to dissipate more energy when we introduce not less, but more calories .
Therefore, every time we lose weight, there is a reduction in the body’s ability to burn energy both in terms of basal metabolism and in terms of adaptive thermogenesis.
Especially for adaptive thermogenesis, and not so much for basal metabolism. One thing that is never said. Everyone thinks that the basal metabolic rate is lower, but this, according to other studies, is lowered by a percentage ranging from 7 to 11% at the most.

This means that if I start from a basal metabolic rate of 1300 calories and then go on a diet, I can at most end my weight loss with a basal metabolic rate of 1150 calories or so.
But at the same time, my body will no longer burn the same calories as it did before for any kind of activity.
Therefore, a decrease in adaptive thermogenesis that varies from individual to individual is added to the drop in basal metabolism.

According to the scientists, it is this decline in adaptive thermogenesis, not basal metabolic rate, that determines the risk of gaining weight again.

Let’s say that at the beginning of the diet I burned 30 calories to go up a flight of stairs. At the end of the diet, I will burn 28 to go up that same flight of stairs. The variables that lead to this reduction in the body’s ability to burn calories do not all depend on my percentage of fat and lean mass.

Precisely because we have seen that it depends on the cells.

The adaptive thermogenesis therefore decreases, so we can say that, in conditions of weight loss, it is not only the basal metabolism, but in general the total metabolism that is lower.
So thinking of being able to raise your metabolism with a weight loss diet is scientifically impossible.

Furthermore, it is impossible that a diet can change our metabolism “forever”, even after having done it. Metabolism is a continuous regulation system. It is based, if we consider our total metabolism, as well as on baseline, also on our daily activities and on how much and how we eat.

If we change one of these items, we change our metabolism, which tries to adapt to a new situation.

Are we on a diet?
The metabolism will change with the diet, but always as long as the diet lasts and not in the same way during the diet. However, it always tends to create a situation in which to balance, otherwise we would gain weight or lose weight excessively.

This also tells us something else. That if we use any product on the market that allows us to raise the metabolism, for example a thermogenic or fat burner, in the end our body will always make sure to compensate for this metabolic boost over time.

Because it is not possible to increase metabolism forever

Our total metabolism therefore depends .

• From the daily diet (the fewer calories I introduce and the slower it slows down)
• from our body composition (the more fat I have and the less lean mass I have, the more the metabolism tends to conserve and not dissipate calories)
• from our hormones (people with hormone problems will have a change in metabolism)
• from our genetics and the behavior of our cells.
• from age.
• and finally the type of daily physical activity, called LAF (daily physical activity level).

Even if we managed to control one or more of these items, for example we did a lot of physical activity, our metabolism would never rise forever. This has been confirmed by studies of the hunter-gatherer tribes that still exist in the world.
Individuals are thin and non-fat and have fewer diseases than a so-called modern or western man. However, their total metabolism is the same as that of a sedentary person working in an office in New York.

How is this possible, if they are people who run, hunt and climb trees from morning to evening?

This is explained precisely by the metabolism’s ability to adapt to all kinds of conditions .
Do you do a lot of physical activity? At first you will burn a lot and lose weight, then your body will adapt to this physical activity.

Because it is not possible to increase metabolism forever

Can we do something to change our metabolism?
Yes, of course, often changing diet and activities but without deluding ourselves that we can become Superman for life.

We can make the metabolism faster by acting on these items, but always remembering that the metabolism will still tend to adapt to new changes.

In order for us to have a faster metabolism, we must, in summary.

• Vary and balance our diet .

  You must always do it: eat different foods, alternate, not always the pasta dish for lunch and meat for dinner, not always the same breakfast. Get proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals from different sources.

• Do not undernourish us .

  Both in the sense of eating too little and not getting all the nutrients. Undernutrition slows down the metabolism.

• Exercise by changing your training plan often.

  Unless you are a sportsman who specializes in something, if you do gym and other activities change your training program often.

• Having a low-stress lifestyle.

  Stress in fact increases the inflammatory state of the body. Which in turn has a negative impact on adaptive thermogenesis.

• Vary your calories every now and then.
  

  We eat more when we move more, or we alternate periods in which we eat more and periods in which we eat less.
  See also: how to raise your metabolism, driving it.