How to know if your metabolism is slowing?

mburgess458

I didn't want to hijack another thread with my question so I'll start a new one. Jemhh posted the following wonderful link:

http://strengthunbound.com/metabolism-a-practical-guide-for-dieters/

The author mentions that feeling cold all of the time is a sign that your metabolism has slowed. That makes perfect sense to me. Of course it's hard to say for sure why you're feeling colder this time of year....I am feeling much colder than I was in December but it's also much colder outside. I'm feeling colder than I was last winter also.

Does anyone know of a way to determine (or at least form an informed guess) whether or not you have slowed your metabolism? Maybe tracking body temperatures or something?

I ask because I'm wondering if I would be better served by taking a little time off of eating at a deficit. I have consistently been eating at a deficit since late July, so "only" about 7 months. I think there are folks on this board who have been eating at a deficit for a year or more. I have been losing a lb a week the whole time (yes there have been fluctuations but losses have been more or less steady). I may have been at a surplus a few days in there, but not many. My weight loss hasn't really slowed down lately, but I have definitely been more careful/conservative lately in order to keep the losses coming at a pound a week....things like I used to log all of my exercise and eat back most if not all of those calories but over time I have started logging only 1/2 of my exercise (thinking the calorie burn was overestimated) and eating back more like 1/2 of those calories. I have lowered my calorie goals a couple of times in response to weighing less.

I would like to lose another 10-15 lbs but I'm not in a rush so I'd like to be conservative and do things that will be the best in the long run. I'm also thinking that at some point I should change my goal to be 0.5 lbs a week since I'm getting closer to my goal. Thoughts?

dscottz247

If you are still losing 1lb a week you are still fine. You may even have a week or so where you do not lose that much, it is just part of the process. Now if your calories are very low and you stop losing weight then you may have to change things up. You want to keep your calories relatively high. If you have 3-4 weeks at a sticking point you can try to do a mini reverse diet. Add 15-30 carbs a week for a few weeks adjust to that and then go back to cutting your cals.

If you still are eating high calories though you can just make your deficit a little larger once you get to a sticking point (only change if no loss after two weeks or so). Lower your carbs by 15-20 let it run its course and move on from there.