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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0 The podcast Chasing Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores the medical science behind some of life\u2019s mysteries big and small. You can listen to episodes here<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n (CNN)\u2014 <\/strong>Think speeding up your metabolism is key to losing weight? Metabolism has grown into one of the biggest buzzwords in the wellness industry \u2014 a tricky code that, if deciphered, is believed to unlock the secrets of weight loss<\/a> and overall health.\n <\/p>\n \n Despite the term\u2019s ubiquity, one scientist says many people don\u2019t understand much of how this basic bodily process works.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThey think it has something to do with how much food we can eat without gaining weight or something like that,\u201d Dr. Kevin Hall told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta recently on his podcast, Chasing Life.\n <\/p>\n \n Hall wants to elevate metabolism for different reasons. \u201cMetabolism is just this incredible biochemical process that basically turns the food that we eat and the oxygen that we breathe into essentially \u2026 everything we are and everything we do,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n A leading nutrition and metabolism scientist, Hall is well-known for his research on contestants<\/a> from the reality show \u201cThe Biggest Loser\u201d that helped explain what set participants who kept the weight off apart from those who gained it back.\n <\/p>\n \n He spent more than two decades at the National Institutes of Health. His later work on ultraprocessed foods<\/a> investigated its link to obesity, including one study<\/a> that demonstrated it actively caused participants to overeat.\n <\/p>\n \n Hall announced his early retirement and exit from NIH in April, citing censorship<\/a> of how his research findings were communicated. He\u2019s now coauthor of the new book \u201cFood Intelligence<\/a>: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us\u201d alongside journalist Julia Belluz.\n <\/p>\n \n Metabolism and weight loss enter conversations arm in arm, but this, according to Hall, can be reductive.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI just find it incredibly frustrating sometimes that this idea of metabolism, this really beautiful physiological process that is so fundamental to life, is kind of talked about as, \u2018Oh well, if you take this supplement, you can boost your metabolism and lose weight,\u2019\u201d he explained to Gupta.\n <\/p>\n \n You can listen to the full episode here<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n \n Is a faster or higher metabolism really the highway to weight loss? Hall is here to set the record straight, highlighting three misconceptions about metabolism that show there is more to it than meets the eye.\n <\/p>\n \n One common belief is that a slower metabolism results in a higher body weight. But mostly, Hall said, the opposite is true.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cGenerally, larger people have faster metabolisms than smaller people,\u201d he told Gupta.\n <\/p>\n \n Hall attributed the pervasiveness of this myth to the way researchers designed early metabolism studies. Scientists initially tried to match up participants\u2019 caloric intake to their weight, but they didn\u2019t account for the fact that these calorie counts were self-reported.\n <\/p>\n \n It turned out that those with obesity often underreported the number of calories they ate to a larger degree than their leaner counterparts. This, Hall said, \u201cled people to a conclusion that, well, if they\u2019re eating less calories and they\u2019re maintaining their weight, then they must be burning less calories. And maybe the reason why they have obesity is because they have slow metabolisms.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Modern technology now allows researchers to rely on data, not participants\u2019 own reports. \u201cWhen we actually directly measure people\u2019s metabolisms, people with obesity have higher metabolic rates on average than people who are lean,\u201d Hall noted.\n <\/p>\n \n But the myth that we should be boosting metabolism to treat obesity has stubbornly persisted \u2014 and has at times led to deadly consequences. When Stanford University researchers discovered that the chemical compound 2,4-dinitrophenol, or DNP, increased metabolism levels in the 1930s, they enthusiastically promoted it as a safe and effective tool for treating obesity.\n <\/p>\n \n While DNP did boost metabolism, it also led to side effects<\/a> that included blindness and death, causing federal drug regulators to quickly withdraw it from the market.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMaybe,\u201d Hall suggested, \u201cit shouldn\u2019t be too much of a surprise later to realize that with something so fundamentally important to life as metabolism, you can\u2019t just turn it up and turn it down with a pharmaceutical drug and not expect some pretty severe side effects, including death.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Like weight, age might not affect metabolism as much as you may assume.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt turns out that until you get to very advanced ages, we\u2019re talking 70s and 80s, it looks like our metabolic rate is roughly constant,\u201d Hall said.\n <\/p>\n \n There are, of course, changes in the aging body that can impact metabolic rates.\n <\/p>\n \n People \u201cpast the age of 30 or so,\u201d Hall said, are \u201ctending to lose muscle mass or tending to lose lean mass, and they\u2019re tending to gain fat mass. And that alone is anticipated to result in a lower metabolism.\u201d That\u2019s because lean muscle burns more calories than fat.\n <\/p>\n \n But it\u2019s these age-related changes \u2014 that are not inevitable \u2014 and not age itself, that influence one\u2019s metabolism.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cOnce you get rid of that effect \u2026 it doesn\u2019t seem like there\u2019s a fundamental aging effect to slow metabolism as, as we get older,\u201d Hall concluded.\n <\/p>\n \n A couple ways to combat the loss of lean muscle mass as you age is by engaging in twice-a-week strength training<\/a> and getting enough protein in your diet<\/a> (but no need to go overboard).\n <\/p>\n \n Another pillar of metabolism mythology is the idea that a slow metabolism is the enemy of continued weight loss. Interventions such as dieting are believed to slow metabolism to the point that you can\u2019t lose any additional weight.\n <\/p>\n \n But keeping your metabolism from slowing down isn\u2019t the key to sustained weight loss, Hall said. In fact, it\u2019s just the opposite.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe people who are most successful at losing weight and keeping it off are the ones who sport the slowest metabolisms or the greatest reductions in metabolism,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like stretching a spring, right?\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The more intensely someone diets or exercises, the more weight they\u2019ll lose and the more their metabolism will slow down, he explained in his book.\n <\/p>\n \n Hall\u2019s research showed that a slower metabolism \u201cdidn\u2019t seem to determine anyone\u2019s ability to lose weight or keep it off in the short or long run.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n By uncoupling metabolism from the weight loss conversation, Hall said he hopes everyone can appreciate the phenomenon for what it really is.\n <\/p>\n \n Misinformation about metabolism \u201chas really distracted people, I think, from the real beauty of what this is,\u201d he told Gupta.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s harnessing the continuous flow of matter and energy in our food and in our breath and powering every cell in our body, as well as the bodies and cells of practically every organism that we have ever encountered,\u201d Hall said. \u201cIt\u2019s a fundamental component of life, and it\u2019s just incredibly fascinating.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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