Metabolism
Let’s be clear from the start.
Increasing metabolism for fat loss is very over-rated.
Making you believe that you can turn your body into a “fat burning furnace” (sound familiar?) is a great way to prepare the way for selling pills, workout plans that “trigger the releasing of fat burning hormones”, or diet plans that steer you away from what matters most (calories), and how to truly prepare yourself to burn more calories than you eat.
That being said, you can increase your metabolism, but…
Pills will only work mildly and temporarily. Quit taking them and you end up worse than before. Worse: most turn out being health hazards, even if the FDA approves them at first. The FDA has been known to change its mind.
Exercise will always release fat burning hormones (there is only one: adrenaline).
Increasing metabolism for fat loss comes from providing your cells with the nutrients they need to function better, and develop stronger new cells when muscles develop (exercise) or when a cell dies and is replaced (cellular life cycle).
Optimal exercise isn’t only about how much adrenaline is released (it counts, but only for peripheral lipolysis). Choosing the right exercise should also be based on muscle type (whether you have an enduring or strong profile). It should also be based on the exercise you enjoy most (usually correlated with your muscle type but also personal taste).
Too many of us “hit the gym” or simply start running without giving muscle type the proper consideration. We hate what we are doing, but temporary motivation causes us to take a full year membership at the local gym. When the motivation runs out, we quit, or simply forget to go.
Exercise develops muscle cells, which increases your metabolism. This is true. But when you quit, the muscle cells die off and your metabolism returns to normal (it only rose a couple hundred calories a day in the first place). Exercise is part of the plan, but much less so than the dieting strategy that will also increase your metabolism (nutrients), curb hunger (fiber, water, slow sugar), and make you start losing weight (calories and restoring both lipolysis and sensitivity to insulin).
The nutrients include vitamins, trace elements, essential amino acids and fatty acids, water (most people are dehydrated) and oxygen (most people are asphyxiated). Ok nutrient isn’t always the most adapted term.
This is what a balanced diet means: making all those available, knowing that some can be stored or synthesized by the body while others need to be in your daily diet, or as close to daily as possible.
In the end, increasing metabolism is a small part of the fat loss strategy (it helps speed things up), but it is in part a positive side effect that naturally comes from focusing on more important things. The effect of exercise will be much stronger and long lasting when you are ready for it and have chosen the right type.