Everything You Know About Metabolism Is Wrong

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you’ve heard of metabolism, you’ve probably heard endless tips and tricks to boost it, from working out to drinking green tea. The idea is that a slow metabolism leads to weight gain, and speeding it up makes it easier to shed pounds. But what if we told you that metabolic rate doesn't really have anything to do with why so many of us in the developed world are heavy? This episode, nutrition scientist Kevin Hall and science journalist Julia Belluz join us to debunk metabolic myths, starting with what actually happened behind the scenes on the reality TV show The Biggest Loser. Can you really mess up your metabolism by gaining and losing weight, or reset it with morning tonics and exercise? Are those of us who weigh more than we want cursed with a slow metabolism, while those of us who seem to be able to eat whatever we want without gaining weight are just lucky to have a speedy one? And what do World War I explosives and Froot Loops have to do with figuring this all out? Listen in this episode, as we debunk some metabolism myths! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're a human being in most of the world, you've probably heard some version of this.
0:08.8	If you ever wake up unmotivated with low energy and you think your metabolism is slow,
0:15.4	here are some ways that can help you focus on your lean body mass.
0:20.2	The more muscle tissue you have, the faster your metabolism
0:24.3	is going to be. You want to focus on movement and the best thing anybody can do is walk 10,000 steps
0:31.6	per day to boost up that metabolism. Like I said, you've undoubtedly heard this type of thing before, that your metabolism
0:38.8	affects how energetic you're feeling and how much you weigh, and that there are steps you can
0:42.9	take to tweak how fast or slow it is. And this episode, we are bringing you the one true secret
0:49.2	of boosting your metabolism. Just kidding, we are not that kind of show. This is, in fact, Gastropod, the podcast
0:56.6	that looks at food through the lens of science and history. I'm Nicola Twilly. And I'm Cynthia Graber.
1:01.0	This episode, we're setting out to discover the science behind the hype. What is metabolism?
1:06.3	Is speeding it up or slowing it down the main thing that affects whether you retain a few
1:10.3	extra pounds or not.
1:11.2	Can you boost it by exercising or drinking green tea like the YouTube influencers say? Or what does
1:18.1	regulate how fast or slow it is? And why does everyone, all those online influencers like the
1:24.0	chiropractor from Dallas who started the show, why do they all get everything about metabolism wrong?
1:29.4	Just a quick note, as you'll have already heard, this episode will be talking about weight loss as we explore the science of metabolism.
1:36.6	So if that's something you'd prefer not to listen to, this would be the time to turn us off and come back in two weeks.
1:42.8	This episode was supported in part by
1:44.5	the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for the public understanding of science, technology, and economics,
1:48.7	as well as the Burroughs Welcome Fund for our coverage of biomedical research. Gastropod is part
1:53.1	of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with Eater.
	...

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