5 More Factors That Affect Your Metabolism

Recently I shared a short post briefly outlining five factors affecting our metabolism and, as discussed, there are more than just those five factors. Again, some are within our control, others are not. Here are five more factors:

Hormones. Hormones control many of the body’s chemical processes including metabolism. Regular exercise increases the body’s most important hormones and changes your body composition to more lean mass. The most influential hormone is called thyroxin, which regulates BMR. It is produced by the thyroid and increased levels lead to increased BMR.

Psychological state. Being “on edge” or nervous can increase our metabolism, as can anxiety and stress.

Weather. We burn more calories in the cold because we shiver which is the contraction and relaxation of muscle cells. When we are hot we burn energy through sweating.

Body Temperature. The hotter our core temperature, the faster we burn energy. A one degree increase can lead to a 10% increase in BMR.


Prescription and non-prescription drugs. Nicotine and caffeine are the most common drugs which can increase the metabolic rate, although the results are slight. There are also many pharmaceutical drugs that can increase or decrease your metabolism. (In a future article I will discuss the different classes of drugs and their effect on metabolism.)

As you can see, metabolism is a many factored mystery and any estimates of BMR that you get via the internet or any other source are exactly that, estimates.

As I have mentioned previously, when trying to lose weight, the goal is to increase our metabolism. I will examine how to increase your metabolism in future articles.