Slow Metabolism

deb2boogie

I am 58 and my metabolism must be at 0! I did successfully loose 10 lbs last year but after a foot injury that had me in a boot for 8 wks, I have gained them all back Now it seems harder than ever to get them back off. I zumba 3x's a week and do an ab class 1x weekly. My fitness pal has me at 1200 calories and I just starting using it again.

Any suggestions to help speed that metabolism up again? Some of my friends say it's fate, you get older, you get bigger...I refuse to believe that!!!

futuremanda

If you weren't counting calories the whole time, then probably you were just consuming more calories than you imagine. Your metabolism is likely just fine.

If you're only trying to lose 10-12 lbs though, probably you want to tell MFP that you want to lose 0.5 lb per week, or 1 lb at most. 2 lbs is too aggressive for you.

Otherwise, just stick to the calorie target MFP gives you. And if you don't already have a kitchen scale to weigh all your solid foods, get one! Weight is much more accurate for solids, and will make a big difference.

stevesample76

Whatever you do don't ever go below 1200. If you have yo-yo dieted in the past as most of us have, then there is a very real possibility that you have metabolic damage.

You are absolutely correct in refusing to believe that you just have to deal with it. The process can be slow and daunting but you absolutely can repair it. I have seen women in my fitness group that came in eating 1200 a day and feeling full all the time to eating upwards of 2000 a day and still cutting fat.

My recommendation to you would be to sit at 1200 a day for a couple weeks and be sure that you are weighing and accounting for every single thing that you eat. You may also need to tweak your macros a bit.

Then slowly you will start to increase your calories a bit at a time and over time things will correct themselves.

I hope this helps and I would be happy to talk about this forever but I don't want to write a book here. Let me know if you have any more questions I can help with.

farfromthetree

try some weight training on the days you don't do zumba. I feel like that helped speed up my metabolism.

Need2Exerc1se

farfromthetree wrote: »

try some weight training on the days you don't do zumba. I feel like that helped speed up my metabolism.

I agree with this. If you don't like or have access to weights, then resistance bands or body weight exercises are also fine. As we get older (I am also 50+ yo woman) women especially tend to lose bone density and muscle mass. Resistance training prevents both, and the more muscle you have the faster your metabolic rate.