Does eating spicy food increase the body’s metabolic rate?

It’s been suggested that capsaicin-rich foods like cayenne pepper can help with weight loss by increasing the metabolic rate, possibly by stimulating adrenaline release and promoting thermogenesis.^[1] However, clinical trials on the topic do not consistently support this hypothesis, with a number of studies finding no effect of consuming capsaicin or chili peppers on daily energy expenditure.^[2] Some studies have found that capsaicin-containing supplements increase the number of calories burned after a single meal,^[3] but it’s not clear that this one-time increase in calorie burning is maintained over the long term. Furthermore, capsaicin supplementation does not seem to produce meaningful weight loss, suggesting that any effects on the metabolic rate are clinically insignificant.^[4]