In the simplest of terms, a person’s metabolism is the rate at which calories are used up in order to sustain their bodily functions and, more broadly, life.

And so, to heavily butcher a famous Abraham Lincoln quote: “It is the eternal struggle between these two principles – metabolism and your waist line – throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle.”

This is to say, for those with a lightning fast metabolism – those lucky blighters that can inhale hot dogs, ice cream and mountains of cheesy nachos at will, yet nary gain an ounce – this chemical process is the stuff of smug gratification. For everyone else – who need only gaze at a glazed doughnut for their belt buckle to strain under the weight of their rampaging gut – a snail-paced metabolism is evil incarnate.

But a fact this latter group may not be aware of is that, although this metabolic lottery is somewhat genetic, it is not 100 per cent baked in. Yes, you truly can speed up your metabolism and, upon reading and heeding the first-class knowledge of our assembled experts – if you’re in the camp of doughnut gazers – we have a sneaky suspicion you will.

Caffeine at the ready, cayenne pepper steady, and go!

1. Pump Iron, Feel The (After)burn

Folk with a fast metabolism burn stacks of calories both in and out of the gym, and may require a hefty diet merely to maintain their weight; the poor lambs. The reverse is true for people with a slow-coach metabolism – less calories are burned, and thus consuming too many will see them gain weight. How to break the cycle? Make the weights room your very best friend, as gym gains can bring about a course-correction.

“The most effective way of speeding up your metabolism is increasing your muscle mass,” says Harry Aitken, master trainer at fitness specialists Auster. “Muscles require energy to function, and bigger muscles will burn more calories. Not only this, big weight training sessions put the body in a state of heightened calorie burn post-workout, often referred to as the ‘afterburn effect’.”