Philip Pape: 0:01

If you're tired of feeling like you need to eat less and less just to avoid gaining weight and you see others who seem to be able to eat way more food while staying lean, this episode is for you. Today, I'm breaking down exactly how to increase your daily metabolism to burn 500 to 1,000 more calories every day, without endless cardio or anything extreme. You'll discover the four key factors that actually determine your metabolic rate and how to optimize each one for maximum but sustainable results. Whether you're deep in a fat loss phase or trying to maintain while eating more food, this episode will give you a specific list of things to do to add up to a thousand more calories to your daily metabolism. Welcome to Wits and Weights, the podcast that blends evidence and engineering to help you build smart, efficient systems to achieve your dream physique.

Philip Pape: 0:58

I'm your host, philip Pape. Picture this You're eating what feels like barely any food. Maybe that's 1,100 or 1,500 calories a day, depending on your metabolism. You're doing cardio several times a week, your energy is in the gutter and still the scale the fat will budge. Meanwhile, you see others eating 2,000, 2,500, even 3,000 calories, while maintaining a lean physique. Well, what if I told you there's a way to systematically increase your metabolism by 500 to 1,000 calories per day, not through endless cardio or restrictive dieting, but through strategic approaches that work with your body to increase what we call energy flux. That's exactly what I'm giving you in today's episode. I'll show you exactly where these calories come from and how to implement each strategy in a way that actually works for your lifestyle without feeling deprived anymore. Now, if you want to connect with other listeners who are applying these same approaches to their fitness journey, go ahead and join our free Facebook group. It's called Wits and Weights. Just search the Wits and Weights community on Facebook or use the link in my show notes, and it's a great place to ask questions, to get support from like-minded people who, most of whom, listen to the show as well. Share your wins, your progress, but also focus on building your best physique through the smart, efficient systems we talk about, like increasing your energy flux to burn more calories, and then you can eat more food, have more energy and get the fat loss and muscle gain that you're going for.

Philip Pape: 2:31

Speaking of other listeners, I always promise that if you submit a review, I will give you a shout out and read it on the show Now, if you've submitted a review in the past and you're like I still haven't heard it written. I might have inadvertently missed it, and so please shoot me an email or a message on Instagram and let me know. But just to share some of what we've received lately Sarah P she recently wrote that the podcast is quote real, diverse, relevant. I appreciate so much the information on this podcast. Philip seems like a real person who I can identify with. He talks like someone I can understand, who has a ton of knowledge in a field I'm trying to dive into. I love the diversity of information for men and women, bodybuilders and soccer moms. The episodes are to the point and enjoyable to listen to. Thank you so much for all you do to help us on our individual journeys. Thank you so much.

Philip Pape: 3:23

I love reviews like that that show that you're really absorbing and listening to the information and you get something out of every episode. Sdjvdas said quote love this pod Seriously. So informational Can't get enough. The host is a class act too. I really appreciate. You know can always take a compliment, so thank you. And Jason Z27 wrote quote definitely recommend. I've been trying to work out more, but it's difficult to know if you're doing it right, figuring out how to diet, what muscle groups to work, how to find the right balance with cardio, etc. This podcast clears up a lot of those questions to make sure you get as much as you can out of your health plan. So so good. I love those reviews. Thank you for sending them in.

Philip Pape: 4:05

The reviews offer what's called social proof. They help others find the show and have some trust that it's what they're looking for. It makes a huge difference than in growing the community, and so if you're a listener, if you love the show, if you haven't left a review yet, hey, my birthday was two days ago before this episode came out. On the 26th of October was my birthday. I'm 44. I'll come out right out and say it I'm 44. And my goal is to get one year younger for every year of age when it comes to my physical fitness. But the best gift you can give me for my birthday is just a review of the show. That's all I ask for, please. I mean, you don't have to give me a gift at all. Just reach out and say hi, that would be great too. But leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I'll give you a shout out. I'd be very, very grateful. Now, one of the reviews said we get to the point, so I better live up to that.

Philip Pape: 4:50

Let's get into today's topic. Here is what we are covering today. First, I want to go over the exact breakdown of where extra calories come from. When we talk about metabolism in general, I want to give a refresher of the components of metabolism and then how you can increase your metabolism in a sustainable way by up to a thousand calories a day, how to implement these strategies sustainably and then a little bonus approach at the end for those who might have been dieting for a long time. So stick around for that, all right.

Philip Pape: 5:23

I want to start with the overall theme here of increasing your metabolism, and some of you might be skeptical rightly so. You're like hey, philip, 500 to 1,000 calories is insane. That could be like double my current metabolism, or not double, but a huge jump to what I'm currently burning every day. But stick with me here because I'm going to break down objectively, scientifically, exactly where these numbers come from and give you a menu of options and you can kind of put them together. You don't necessarily have to do all the things, but it gives you some ideas to get started and make them work for you.

Philip Pape: 5:56

So first is strength training All right if you're not already lifting weights. That is the biggest low-hanging fruit in existence for your physical fitness for the rest of your life. In so many ways, well beyond calorie burning, even though that's the context for today, it is huge for your health, for your bone density, for your insulin sensitivity, for your function, for living a long, amazing life and, like I mentioned earlier, potentially turning back the clock as you age. I spoke to someone recently on his podcast. It was called On the Brink, john Brink. He's 84 years old and he's the oldest natural competitive bodybuilder on the planet, and he didn't get started until his, I think, late 70s. Bruce and Jan on Instagram they're in their 70s and they're kicking butt in the gym, showing that you can be strong and functional and completely defy aging.

Philip Pape: 6:49

Okay, I'm getting off track, but I think it's important. So let's talk about specifically calories. If you can add muscle just that alone let's say eight to 10 pounds of muscle over the next six to 12 months, which is totally achievable for both men and women you're going to burn an extra at least 50 calories per day at rest, and we know that because research shows that you can burn up to 9 calories per pound of muscle tissue on your body just from the tissue itself, let alone all the corollary ways that your body burns calories when you have more muscle. And again you might be thinking well, that's only 50 calories, right? But there findings from research that I want to add on to that, that people miss in this equation, and I've talked about them recently.

Philip Pape: 7:35

The adaptations in your heart and other organs from consistent training, from being an athlete, which you are, if you're a lifter, can actually contribute another 50 to 100 calories a day. Now some people might question the number, but I've seen it often anecdotally, and there does seem to be research that backs this up, if you add it all up. So, in summary, what I'm saying is, if you add muscle tissue, if you train like an athlete, if you're active, your organs increase in size as well. Your BMR will increase from multiple sources. You're more active in general. You are lifting weights. That burns calories. You add it all up and we're talking an extra 100 to 150 calories. So that's our first 100 to 150 calories. Just go out and lift weights and that is going to massively unlock so many other things. All right.

Philip Pape: 8:25

Second is non-exercise activity thermogenesis, or NEAT, and it's important to give you a refresher on these, even if you've heard it a million times, because somebody might be listening and saying I don't even know what that is. What are you talking about? Neat is the components of your metabolism where we can make the biggest impact, because it is all the non-exercise movement, such as walking, such as parking farther from the store, doing your chores, doing yard work, fidgeting, unconscious movement, really everything other than deliberate training or exercise. And we've seen that NEAT can by far have the biggest swing in your metabolic rate. For example, by increasing your daily steps by about 5,000, which sounds like a lot, but most people are super sedentary and getting only three or four so five gets you up to eight, nine, maybe 10,000 steps Stretch goal would be 12,000, but let's say eight to 10. That's about an extra up to an hour of walking spread throughout your day, and walking can be spread all over the place in all different ways.

Philip Pape: 9:30

Just doing that is going to burn an extra 200 to 300 calories. Now this is independent of your job, of how active you are in general. We definitely have seen a widespread between people who are sedentary, people who have a modesty, active jobs and like manual laborers of up to something like don't quote me on it, but I want to say it's almost a 2000 calorie difference on the extreme ends. But even if you were to shrink that by down to a quarter, we're still talking two 300 calories, right, just from your lifestyle. But deliberately walking every day in some way, excessively to you in an enjoyable way, is going to burn an extra 200, 300 calories. Right, we're not talking about intense exercise, we're not talking about running, it's just moving more throughout your day, getting off your butt, pacing around the house, doing all the things. And the beautiful thing about this is that is really sustainable. Right, you're not killing yourself with high intensity interval workouts or specific cardio sessions. You know, hopping on the treadmill, unless it's just to go walk on a treadmill. Or what I like is a standup desk with under-desk treadmill if that's a possibility for you. So that's our next 200 to 300 calories.

Philip Pape: 10:37

The third way we're going to add calories is optimizing your nutrition a bit, and one component of your metabolic rate is called TEF, the thermic effect of food, and there are a lot of people in the evidence-based space that are like eh, you know the extra calories burned from that really isn't worth discussing. I tend to disagree, because maintaining a higher protein intake and by higher I mean 0.7 to 1 grams per pound of your body weight, which is almost or more than double what most people are getting to start, and if you're eating more whole foods, with fiber, for example, you're going to burn more calories just from processing the food. You know it could amount to an extra 50 to 100 calories a day based on that shift. All right, so again, I give you I'm giving you ranges because we can be conservative and say maybe it's 25 to 50, maybe it is up to 100, depending on where you started and where you went. If you're eating a lot of ultra processedprocessed foods now a lot of fast food, quote-unquote junk food, whatever you want to call it chances are your body is not having to work very hard to digest it. If you switch to a lot of protein and whole foods and fiber things you have to chew harder foods, things you have to digest you are going to burn a bunch more calories just through digesting and processing that food, because protein requires 20% to 30% of its calories just for digestion, compared to, say, 5 to 10% for carbs and 0 to 3% for fats. So there's another funny thing If you are from the low carb, high fat camp in the past and now you're eating a more balanced diet with much higher protein and then some higher carbs, both of those are going to contribute to this metabolic bonus, just for eating different foods. So that's pretty cool, all right.

Philip Pape: 12:15

The fourth method here is what I call just active lifestyle enhancements, like light physical activity that you actually enjoy. Now you might say, well, this is part of NEAT, isn't it? But with NEAT we talked about specifically adding in walks. In this case, while it is part of NEAT, it's thinking of everything you do in your life, your daily life, and being more active in general. So this could be gardening, playing with your kids, recreational sports, yoga I don't care what it is, I bet, unless you're the type of person that's always out hiking, that's always out playing sports, which a lot of us are not.

Philip Pape: 12:52

We're kind of I'm not going to say stuck with desk jobs, but you sit around all day. You're tired. At the end of the day you just veg out, right, and then maybe the weekend you do some fun activities here or there. But can you think of a strategy where you every day are active, doing something, and if you have kids for example, fathers, mothers out there I mean especially the dads out there if you're not playing with your kids almost every day in some way, take advantage of that. It's such a wonderful bonding opportunity, it's so great for them. You know, get away from the devices and all that, just have fun, especially quick five-minute snacks, what we call. What did Brian Borstein call cardio snacks or exercise snacks. For example, running up and down the stairs a few times I mean silly things like that you can add another 50 to 100 calories to your day.

Jenny: 13:48

Hi, my name is Jenny and I just wanted to say a big thank you to Philip Pape of Wits and Weights for offering his free 50-minute nutritional assessment. During that time he gave me really good tools on how I can further my health and fitness goals. He asked really great questions and stayed true to his offer of no sales pitch. I have since applied these things and gotten really close to my health goals and my weight goals, and now I'm able to flip over and work on my strength and my muscle conditioning using a lot of the things he offers in his podcasts, and I just am very grateful for his positive inspiration and encouragement for all of our health. Thank you, Philip.

Philip Pape: 14:34

So, if we add it all up, strength training and the adaptations from strength training and the lifestyle of strength training add up to about 100 to 150 calories. Increased meat through walking is another 200 to 300 calories. Optimizing your nutrition, your protein, your fiber, whole foods another 50 to 100 calories. And having an active lifestyle 50 to 100 calories and that's maybe 400 to 600 calories per day. Right there, all right. Now here's the bonus strategy that can push this even higher.

Philip Pape: 15:01

For those who've been dieting for a long time and that's a lot of you If you've been in a prolonged calorie deficit and you may not even be in enough of a deficit to be losing weight anymore, you may just be below your set point for your current metabolic rate and just kind of under eating but not really losing weight. You could be in that situation. Your metabolism is probably adapted downward right. It's called metabolic adaptation and it's basically conserving resources because you're not eating enough. And if you can then recover out of that, if you could track your food, recover out of it, increase your calories to the point where you're now at your, you know, full, recovered, homeostatic maintenance calories, you don't have to use a reverse diet, right? You don't have to go into a building phase, although that can, in my opinion, you know, ramp it up even further. You can definitely add another, maybe 100 to 200 calories to your daily metabolism, and that's just like a starting point. Some of you may be more adapted than that. You know three, four, 500 calories, but if you've been dieting a lot, then 100 to 200 is a good estimate. If your thyroid has been slightly downregulated through being in a deficit, okay. So that brings our total potential increase to 500 to 800 calories per day.

Philip Pape: 16:12

And I would say there is one more thing that I totally forgot on my list, but it was what gets you to the thousand, and that is getting more and better quality sleep. Okay, so just improving your sleep would increase your metabolic rate, because a lack of sleep affects your hormones. It also affects things like visceral fat or visceral fat storage in the belly, but that's a separate topic. It downgrades your metabolic rate, downgrades your thyroid production, affects your cortisol, all the things, such that your body also conserves energy, and so getting more sleep is going to increase your metabolic rate. Notice that nowhere in that entire list that I mentioned cardio. In fact, for some of you, you're doing so much cardio that it's actually adding too much net stress to your body and that is actually causing you to burn fewer calories. You may be burning some calories from all the movements, but it is a small percentage of what you should be burning for that movement, because your body has adapted to compensate. So that gets you plenty of things to think about, of low-hanging fruit, where you may not be giving your body what it needs to fully thrive and be in this high energy flux state.

Philip Pape: 17:22

So how do we actually implement these in a way that's sustainable? All right, let's talk about strength training. Let's break it down Strength training if you can lift weights, if you can aim for three days a week to start and then eventually four or even five I like four or five for folks that are more in the intermediate to advanced phase of their training. Three days a week, full body, progressive loading with compound movements I'm talking squats, deadlifts, bench presses, rows the basics that build strength. Right, they build strength and by building strength they're going to build muscle as well. So don't think about it as two different concepts and you don't need anything fancy here, just consistent, progressive training that challenges you. That's lifting.

Philip Pape: 18:03

I've got tons of resources If you're like where do I start? How do I train? What program do I use? This is where you can jump on a call with me a 15 minute rapid nutrition assessment, and if you just want to talk training, I can get you started exactly where you need to go. You know, no charge. I don't charge for those calls. I also don't sell you on anything. I literally will suggest an app, I'll suggest a program, maybe even give you a guide or two that I have. If you're kind of newer to this and just send you on your way and if you're like, hey, I really love what you do and I need more support, that's when you'll reach back for more support. But I want to get you started. So reach out and you can use the link on my show notes to do that For neat.

Philip Pape: 18:38

For walking, first you have to know how many steps you're getting, so you should be tracking your current daily steps and almost any device now phone or wearable even very inexpensive wearables track steps just accurately enough. They're just fine. And if you can start this week and add a thousand steps a day this week, that's not very much at all. That's like a 10 minute walk, ideally after a meal. That's where I would place it if you have a choice, because that will help with blood sugar, insulin sensitivity, digestion and it just feels good Usually after you eat. It kind of helps settle down your stomach, gets the blood flowing and all that. But wherever you can add, it is what matters. So add a thousand steps this week and keep doing that each week until you consistently do it as a habit and reach your target, which I would aim for eight to 10,000, or, if you're bold, go for 12,000. All right, so this could be taking a 10-minute walk after meals, like I mentioned, or having walking meetings where you're pacing around on your Zoom calls, parking further away from stores, using the stairs.

Philip Pape: 19:42

When I go to any place with a parking lot. Now it's awesome because my goal is to park in the farthest spot I can possibly find, unless it's in like a massive Walmart or something where I have to walk. You know half a mile and there's a time constraint or something to my shopping. But you give yourself some time. I try to park far away. Guess what happens Nobody else is trying to get that spot. Your car is nice and safe. You get the steps. It's great, all right. So the key here is just making it feel effortless and natural and just part of what you do Not like.

Philip Pape: 20:06

Oh, I had to get a walk-in, or I feel like I'm forced to get a walk-in. All right, nutrition that's a whole separate topic that I cover many times on this podcast, but I would focus first on just hitting your protein target. Use a tracking app, and I'm going to, of course, suggest MacroFactor, because it's the only app that, once you track your food and weight, it can calculate your metabolism and if it knows your metabolism, it knows the targets it needs to give you for your calories and macros to get to whatever goal you have. But just start tracking, eat at maintenance and ensure that you're actually getting enough protein. People overestimate their intake big time. And then, after protein, I would shift toward more whole foods, with an emphasis on fiber, not being restrictive, but adding in the things that taste great, that satisfy your needs, that give you nutrition, that give you protein. We're talking lean meats, vegetables, fruits. I love fruit. If you can't think of what to eat for lunch and you haven't meal prepped, just think of a meat and a fruit, because to me that's super convenient. A meat maybe you've meal prepped it or maybe you've got some leftovers. If you don't, that's a good place to prep on the weekend, cook a whole casserole of chicken thighs, for example, and then fruit is usually just, you pull it right out of the fridge or right off the counter, the fridge or right off the counter. And that's why I suggest that as a very sustainable first step. And fruit people underestimate how nutritious it is. It's so tasty, it kind of covers your carbs and your fiber altogether. Sure, it has some calories, but it's so many fewer calories than you think given the volume, right, obviously, greens like broccoli are going to have almost no calories. But it's not all about calories, right, it's also about the fiber and the taste and you need some carbs and so on. So protein, then fiber, you know whole foods, and then you're still going to enjoy some of the foods you love anyway as part of that process. But now your body is going to be burning, you know, more like a furnace when it comes to digesting all of that food. And you're just optimizing your pattern slowly over time, all of that food, and you're just optimizing your pattern slowly over time. So that's for nutrition, for the active lifestyle.

Philip Pape: 22:13

Find something you really enjoy to do. Maybe it's throwing a frisbee with your kids, maybe it's doing some yard work. Let me tell you something my wife has taught me. Okay, I used to hate doing the lawn. We have a huge yard. Now it's like an acre and a half. We have a mowing tractor. I still, in the back of my head, think, oh, I have to mow the lawn. Now my wife loves it. She just loves being outside in general and doing anything outside, including yard work. She sometimes mows the lawn, so thank her for that. We have an equal opportunity household. I would say it's 50% of the time I mow the lawn, but she's taught me Now, granted, that's a lawn tractor.

Philip Pape: 22:42

So this is actually a terrible example. I just realized a lawn tractor. So this is actually a terrible example. I just realized. But after doing that, I'll go do some weed whacking, some cleanup of the weeds, you know anything to just use my hands.

Philip Pape: 22:57

Take pride in my house and I don't outsource any of that stuff. The only thing we outsource is plowing the driveway because it's like 300 feet long in the middle of winter in New England. I'm not going to do that when I've got to get to work, anyway. So I don't know if I'm like helping my case or hurting my case. Find a thing that you enjoy doing. Maybe you don't enjoy doing yard work, maybe you want to take a dance class, dance with the kids. Whatever, the goal is to move more without it feeling like exercise. Okay. So, hey guys, this is me being real. I'm not even going to edit any of that stuff out. Take with it what you will. All right. Now here's something that most people miss.

Philip Pape: 23:31

When it comes to enhancing your metabolism, it's not just about stacking up ways to burn calories. It's doing things that support your physical health, your function, your longevity, and allowing those things to then drive you to do the other things that also support that and create this compounding effect, not just a habit. Compounding effect like one thing leads to better outcomes over the long term. It's that one activity like lifting weights leads to wanting to move more, leads to wanting to eat better, leads to wanting to sleep more, and so on and so forth, and it starts to add up and create a compounding effect. I've mentioned the term upward spiraling from positive psychology. Once you do one positive thing, it leads to another, to another, to another, and they just start to stack on top of each other. Right?

Philip Pape: 24:21

So you think about, for example, when you build muscle, you're not just burning calories in the gym. You're also burning calories when you're at rest. You're also increasing your organ size. So that's even yet another way to think about the compounding effect is that there's a cascade even in your body. Your body's like okay, I see what you're doing here. You're active, you need to move heavy things, you need to load your body, I need to adapt. I as in like anthropomorphizing my own internal body's monologue. I need to optimize everything cognitively. You know the neural connections, the muscle tissue and the sarcomeres, the way I utilize nutrients and you become this like machine with a huge engine burning, burning lots of calories. And again, it's not just about that, but hey, take the bonus along for. And again, it's not just about that, but hey, take the bonus along for the ride for doing all these wonderful things that are great for you anyway.

Philip Pape: 25:13

Right, when you increase your neat, when you walk more, when you get up off the chair, you then improve your cardiovascular fitness. And, by the way, studies now have confirmed that the amount of cardio is more important than the type Meaning. If you just walk a lot and it's equivalent to running the same amount, you're pretty much going to get a similar cardiovascular improvement, with the exception of the optimal end of that. In other words, if you're trying to go at maximum VO2 and maximum conditioning and endurance sports, okay, you should probably add in training for those. But if you just want general fitness, that's like as good as it needs to be to thrive for the rest of your life and be sustainable. Walking can do it.

Philip Pape: 25:54

Believe it or not, now, many of us get into that. We're like okay, now what do I do? I'm going to throw on a rucksack, I'm going to go on an incline. Maybe I'm going to throw in some prowler pushes. Maybe I do want to do some sprinting, maybe I want to do this sport over here. And you start to get more athletic, anyway, hopefully.

Philip Pape: 26:08

Some of us, though don't Some of us just like to lift. We get off our butt, we walk around, we're just generally active. We do things outside, we do things with our hands, we go help somebody move into their new house and we're just a more active person. And then people are not having to take care of us when we're in our 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s In fact, we might be taking care of them because we can, because we're capable. So when you optimize all these things, other things improve when you optimize your nutrition. You improve your ability to train, to perform, to recover, and, yes, that includes potentially increasing your carbs. All right, I saved it for deep into the episode because then I know all the YouTube trolls will never hear it. All of these things create an upward spiral where each improvement enhances the other.

Philip Pape: 26:51

Now, the opposite of that would be crash diets, extreme exercise programs right, which are short, quick fixes, where you punish yourself, you berate yourself, you get a short-term result that you think is what you want and it ends up not being and it has no long-term impact whatsoever, makes you miserable and it trashes your mental state. That's not what we want. So the key to making all this work is sustainability. I think that is one of the most important terms that we use on this podcast and in this philosophy is getting it to work for you and it's part of your life. Don't try to implement everything at once right. Start with one thing. Maybe you increase your daily steps, maybe you start training right With a new training program and then, once that becomes ingrained, a habit, a system, you start to add other elements in right.

Philip Pape: 27:40

So not quick fixes, not extreme measures, but building and stacking a running, burning metabolism that also supports your goals long-term, and your body's incredibly adaptive. It's incredibly adaptive. So give it the stimulus, that positive stimulus that it needs. Give it to it consistently and it will respond and do the work for you. And then, guess what? You can eat more food. Hey, you're like what does this all mean? I can eat more food. Yes, absolutely All right.

Philip Pape: 28:07

So if today's episode resonated with you and you want to discuss these metabolism boosting strategies with other people who are implementing them, join our free Wits and Weights Facebook group super supportive community where we dive deeper into topics like this. We share our experiences. We help each other succeed. I do a bi-weekly live on fridays answering your questions. So much good stuff in there. Just search wits and weights on facebook or click the link in the show notes to join the group and I will approve you. Until next time, keep using your wits lifting those weights and remember your metabolism is dynamic and you can train it to work for you, not against you. Talk to you time here on the Wits and Weights Podcast.