Extremely low metabolism

rosebette

This might just be another whine, but I am becoming frustrated with the curse of a very low metabolism. I'm 56, 5'1.5", around 120 lbs. I'm what might be called moderately active, and I've been using a FitBit HR, which because it's measuring my heartrate throughout the day, is basically calculating my TDEE. I have a really low metabolism, and unless I do a killer kickboxing class and do a 45 minute walk later in the day, I'm lucky if I burn over 1500 a day, and I can't do that every day -- I'm 56 years old, fit, but I can physcially handle only a couple days a week like that without being really sore. I'm an instructor at a big college, where I put in around 5000 steps just walking around campus, climbing stairs, and dragging a huge roller bag. At night, I take a 20-30 minute walk to get the balance of my 10,000 steps in. Yesterday, for instance, a typical work day, I used only 1493 calories. Today, my day off, I did a fitness class during which I did some low impact aerobics (around 20 minutes), weights (20) stretching and abs (20). For the rest of the day, I had some meetings, appointments, etc., around town. My total calories for the day --1316. With a "burn" like that, it's basically impossible to lose, so I made a decision a few weeks back to be in maintenance, but 1300 calories is a pretty low maintenance. Right now, I have MFP set to give me a base of 1000 and use the fitbit sync with negative adjustment to figure out my exercise calories so I have at least some deficit. I know BMR and TDEE are also based on age, size, and weight, and I can't do much about those three at this point. By the way, I had a shoulder injury for a while and am just getting back into lifting, so I do wonder if I lost so much muscle mass because I had stopped lifting that it significantly lowered my BMR.

socalprincess1

I feel for you. Your loss in muscle could have exacerbated your situation. I'm not sure what else I can say to help, other than to share my stats with you for comparison, as I too wear my Fitbit Charge HR daily.

I'm 34, female, and weigh 155, bf about 29%. On a day when I was almost completely sedentary, meaning I literally sat at my desk at work all day and only walked around when I had to...and did no exercise, and my steps total was 3,207, I burned 1716 calories according to my Fitbit. While it is higher than your numbers, it still seems low to me. So the plan is to increase weights and continue building more and more muscle. And it will go up over time. For what it's worth, I'm going to get my RMR tested on Saturday, and I'll know just how accurate this Fitbit estimate is!

kshama2001

I don't have a fitbit so am not up on these things, so am curious as to how you calculated that your BMR is low? This example for a woman younger and taller than you has her BMR at 1,346. I'm off to bed, otherwise I would do the math for your stats myself.

http://www.fitnesshealth101.com/fitness/weight-loss/bmr

BMR Example

Subject: Female, 30 years of age, 5' 6" tall (167.6 cm), 120 pounds (54.5 kilos)

Women BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)

Calculated BMR: 655 + 522 + 310 - 141 = 1,346 calories/day

conqueringsquidlette

Those standard equations don't cover things like PCOS / thyroid conditions, though.... I'm not sure how accurate they really are. I would like to see more data on their accuracy if anybody has them.

(For example, there's this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18678372)

Which isn't to say that I think they're useless by any means. I just wonder how much individual tweaking is required person to person (even without metabolic disorders).

mccindy72

I think you might be expecting too much of yourself, to be honest. You don't mention if you've been to the doctor and had any bloodwork done to confirm that you have normal thyroid levels, iron level, etc. First thing to do would be a physical to ensure you are in normal health.
If you are, you also need to accept that you are in your 50s and fairly active, and doing what you can. I'm 42,5'7", 123 lbs, and with an hour and fifteen minutes of cardio per day, plus my 10,000 steps, I can make it to 2,000 calories. Otherwise I am around 1700 calories, and I'm 6 inches taller than you. I'm not seeing a high HR burn in your day anywhere, other than the kickboxing class, which isn't every day. So it's going to be difficult to hit a very high number of calories for a TDEE for you.

nvmomketo

I agree you might want to check your thyroid. When mine was low it definitely slowed my metabolism down. Even my body temperature stayed low and rarely exceeded 97F - very slow.

rosebette

You're already at a normal BMI. How much weight are you trying to lose? I'm a bit confused because you say you've decided to go into maintenance, but then you've set your calories extra low so you can have a deficit.

I have set to the lower range to account for going off plan on the week-end. Even off-plan, I'm just doing one cheat meal at a restaurant. I figure the lower calories during the week will make up for it. My original hope was to get to 112-115; I got to 118 for a couple of weeks, but couldn't maintain there, and that was when I was still lifting.

rosebette

nvsmomketo wrote: »

I agree you might want to check your thyroid. When mine was low it definitely slowed my metabolism down. Even my body temperature stayed low and rarely exceeded 97F - very slow.

My temp is around that. When I had a temp of 99.5 this spring with flu, I was very sick. I'm always cold (except in the real heat of summer) and my hands now turn blue or numb in air-conditioned rooms. I had bloodwork with thyroid done in Jan., though, and I tested normal.

mccindy72

rosebette wrote: »

nvsmomketo wrote: »

I agree you might want to check your thyroid. When mine was low it definitely slowed my metabolism down. Even my body temperature stayed low and rarely exceeded 97F - very slow.

My temp is around that. When I had a temp of 99.5 this spring with flu, I was very sick. I'm always cold (except in the real heat of summer) and my hands now turn blue or numb in air-conditioned rooms. I had bloodwork with thyroid done in Jan., though, and I tested normal.

Yep, my normal body temperature is 97 degrees, and my thyroid always tests normal. 99 is a couple of degrees of fever for me. I wear sweatshirts when it's in the 70s.

rosebette

socalprincess1 wrote: »

I feel for you. Your loss in muscle could have exacerbated your situation. I'm not sure what else I can say to help, other than to share my stats with you for comparison, as I too wear my Fitbit Charge HR daily.

I'm 34, female, and weigh 155, bf about 29%. On a day when I was almost completely sedentary, meaning I literally sat at my desk at work all day and only walked around when I had to...and did no exercise, and my steps total was 3,207, I burned 1716 calories according to my Fitbit. While it is higher than your numbers, it still seems low to me. So the plan is to increase weights and continue building more and more muscle. And it will go up over time. For what it's worth, I'm going to get my RMR tested on Saturday, and I'll know just how accurate this Fitbit estimate is!

1716 sitting around all day is pretty good. I have to do a decent workout or walk about 3 miles to get that number by the end of the day. I had a travel day a couple months back where I was sitting all day (on a bus tour), where my burn was 999.

nvmomketo

Yes! A high fever was in the 99's. Did they test you thoroughly and not just the TSH?

My TSH tested normal (ish) for years. I've found that the free T4 and especially the free T3 are much better tests to look at - they are the available hormones in the body. It seems people usually feel their best when FT4 and FT3 are both in the 50 to 75% range of your lab's normal reference range. This isn't true for all, but it is for most.

TSH should generally be close to a 1 (like a 1.2) regardless of the normal range.

For example, when my TSH was very high, my FT3 was in the bottom 10% of normal. When we got my TSH to normal range (2.5) it was at the bottom 15% of normal and I felt about the same. once I got my FT3 to 60%, the change was amazing.

This is just what I have learned to be true for me and a majority of thyroid patients I have talked with. It may not be true for all.

Best wishes.

Liftng4Lis

I feel you. On days where I decide to "couch it" and be lazy, my maintenance is going to be around 1500. If I choose a deficit, It's 1200 with very little extra, so I need to get myself moving. It just is what it is.

CarlydogsMom

rosebette wrote: »

unless I do a killer kickboxing class and do a 45 minute walk later in the day, I'm lucky if I burn over 1500 a day, and I can't do that every day -- /// By the way, I had a shoulder injury for a while and am just getting back into lifting, so I do wonder if I lost so much muscle mass because I had stopped lifting that it significantly lowered my BMR.

I actually don't think your overall calorie tally is all that significantly lower than someone else your size/age. You say you're just getting back into lifting--I think if you seriously work on developing more muscle mass, you may find you can build up your maintenance calorie total. What sort of lifting do you do? If you're not doing a progressively heavier structured lifting program (preferably with free weights or dumbbells), you may want to look into that. It won't raise your maintenance level by VERY much, but over time, you may find you can handle more calories/food than if you did not put on some additional muscle. Plus, we in our 50's (me too!) can definitely benefit from building up those muscles!

Sandcastles61

Hi there... I am 54, 5' and hit my goal weight of 120 a month ago. I have worked my way back to 1300 or so calories a day as I entered maintenance and have been within a pound or so of 120 all month. I will continue to work my calories up but even MFP tells me to only expect 1340?? Hope not!

I also have a significant shoulder injury dating back 35 years and a bulged lumbar disc that prevent me from lifting. When I decided to hit the weight loss train back in December I met with my doctor. He told me being the other side of menopause and due to my height, my metabolism had likely dropped 75 to 100 calories a day. This has been reiterated a number of times in different threads by the sage and very wise long term expert posters here. I have also seen them say leg muscles far outweigh upper body strength for weight loss and general health. I am sure they will correct me if I am incorrect on that but I remember being thrilled reading it

Because of my personal limitations I started swimming a modified breast stroke to protect my shoulder. I usually get in between 1 to 1.5 hours in the pool twice a week, manage 8500 to13,000 steps a day in my every day life. The swimming has leaned me down amazingly!! I have genetically muscular legs (primarily my calves), but even my thighs have thinned and I am developing amazingly defined muscles in my thighs and arms as well.

My doctor initially put me on a 1000 diet to get the weight off...(I fully admit I was a complete slug!) Macros were to be no less than 100 g protein a day, 30-35% good fats and let carbs fall where they will. He said there was some evidence menopause can make us slightly more insulin resistant, suggesting the benefits of a moderately lower carb intake. We initially chose118 as my goal weight, but when I was down about 20 of my 30 pound goal he said he couldn't see me there. When I hit 120 he told me to stop losing, and just focus on some strength and resistance, Keep up walking and biking.

Soooo, are you trying to lose?? What would be your goal weight?? I was110 all through my 20's and was told by a doctor back then that was too thin for my body style. Babies took care of that and I was comfortable in the120's for many many years, then it creeped to the130's and last year I packed on a whopping 10pounds due to the dang metabolism drop, no change in food intake or activity.

Maybe strive to eat at maintenance (or what you currently think is your maintenance) and up your calories by 50 a day a week or two at a time until you actually start to gain and retain it a couple weeks.... Then reduce that calorie number by enough to buy your deficiet to lose a half pound a week since you have very few if any to lose.

Anyways... I am definitely no expert, just my experience. Good luck with your goals

rosebette

CarlydogsMom wrote: »

rosebette wrote: »

unless I do a killer kickboxing class and do a 45 minute walk later in the day, I'm lucky if I burn over 1500 a day, and I can't do that every day -- /// By the way, I had a shoulder injury for a while and am just getting back into lifting, so I do wonder if I lost so much muscle mass because I had stopped lifting that it significantly lowered my BMR.

I actually don't think your overall calorie tally is all that significantly lower than someone else your size/age. You say you're just getting back into lifting--I think if you seriously work on developing more muscle mass, you may find you can build up your maintenance calorie total. What sort of lifting do you do? If you're not doing a progressively heavier structured lifting program (preferably with free weights or dumbbells), you may want to look into that. It won't raise your maintenance level by VERY much, but over time, you may find you can handle more calories/food than if you did not put on some additional muscle. Plus, we in our 50's (me too!) can definitely benefit from building up those muscles!

I was doing progressive lifting up through the fall, but fell off in October due to the injury. I've been through about 3 months of physical therapy and am now doing a class twice a week with light weights (3 to 5 lbs.). I'm able to use only 3 lbs. on the left shoulder still. I can lift heavier with biceps and triceps but still not up to where I was.

yirara

How does your device decide when you're in which heart rate zone? Is it only based on your age and gender? If so the calculations might be way off as the standart calculation 220-age doesn't work for many women, and as such, your fitbit might under- or overestimate your burn by quite a lot. Just an example: I'm 41, which means my maximum heartrate should be around 179 per minute. In fact it's more like 205. If I move my heartrate goes up more than the fitbit predicts, and thus my burn results would probably be much higher than in reality.

dmitriy0851

Look into reverse dieting pretty much it's something you do to reset and INCREASE your metabolism! And it's very very very easy!

Orphia

Are you sure you've got a slow metabolism?

Have you done a doubly-labelled water test?

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10191216/the-most-important-thing-you-can-do-to-lose-weight

You're half way to your goal and only want to lose another 6 lbs, so of course it's going to be slow going... you should only be aiming to lose half a pound a week at the very most.

BTW, you look wonderful!

psuLemon

Do you have any medical conditions or have you gone through menopause? If yes, then it's possible you will have to play around with your macronutrients (essentially, less carbs more fats/protein).

Statistically speaking, most people do not have a slow metabolism and generally the biggest problem with weight loss is consistently and accurately tracking calories. Doing a quick look at your diary, you could probably work a little on both. I saw some more generic entries (eggs, bacon, banana <--- this one especially because the average banana I eat is "medium" and it has about 110-120 calories and yours was 60 calories). So my question is, do you weigh you foods with a food scale? Unfortunately, with very little to lose, these small inaccuracies can cause you to hit maintenance instead of a deficit. And having only a few lbs to lose, you have very little room for error.

editorgrrl

rosebette wrote: »

I'm 56, 5'1.5", around 120 lbs. I'm what might be called moderately active, and I've been using a FitBit HR, which because it's measuring my heartrate throughout the day, is basically calculating my TDEE. I have a really low metabolism

Right now, I have MFP set to give me a base of 1000 and use the fitbit sync with negative adjustment to figure out my exercise calories so I have at least some deficit.

I'm 47, 5'2" and have Hashimoto's (autoimmune thyroid disease), and I lost the weight and have maintained for more than a year by a.) learning to log everything I eat and drink accurately and honestly, and b.) trusting my Fitbit. (I have a Charge HR.)

Your Fitbit burn is TDEE. Do not set a custom goal when using a Fitbit. Connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/fitbit

Set your goal to .5 lb. for every 25 lbs. you're overweight: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/change_goals_guided

Enable negative calorie adjustments: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Ignore your Fitbit calorie goal and follow MFP's, eating back your adjustments. No need to log any step-based activity—your Fitbit is tracking it for you. Log non-step exercise (like swimming or biking) either in Fitbit or in MFP—never both. Exercise logged in MFP overwrites your Fitbit burn during that time.

You can learn more in the Fitbit Users group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/1290-fitbit-users

princessbride42

My grandma is 4 foot 11 and maintains a healthy weight. She was explaining to me once that she can only eat like tea and toast for breakfast, half a sandwich for lunch, etc. It's lame for her but she's figured out how to sustain a healthy weight with her small body. Makes me glad I'm a few inches taller...

auddii

rosebette wrote: »

nvsmomketo wrote: »

I agree you might want to check your thyroid. When mine was low it definitely slowed my metabolism down. Even my body temperature stayed low and rarely exceeded 97F - very slow.

My temp is around that. When I had a temp of 99.5 this spring with flu, I was very sick. I'm always cold (except in the real heat of summer) and my hands now turn blue or numb in air-conditioned rooms. I had bloodwork with thyroid done in Jan., though, and I tested normal.

This is me as well. While I thought I had a slow metabolism for people my size, it turns out that I just wasn't moving really at all (my fitbit told me that). I like food, and I'm much more likely to stick to my calorie goal if I can eat a decent amount of food, so I try to get moving. A lot. When it's not the middle of summer and exceedingly hot out, I walk a mile to and from work, I go for a 2 mile walk at lunch, plus I get to the gym for lifting and cardio. Even the simple walks allow me so much more food, and it doesn't really feel like exercise. Cardio definitely feels like a workout, but again, I can eat so much more than if I just sat on the couch.

rosebette

psulemon wrote: »

Do you have any medical conditions or have you gone through menopause? If yes, then it's possible you will have to play around with your macronutrients (essentially, less carbs more fats/protein).

Statistically speaking, most people do not have a slow metabolism and generally the biggest problem with weight loss is consistently and accurately tracking calories. Doing a quick look at your diary, you could probably work a little on both. I saw some more generic entries (eggs, bacon, banana <--- this one especially because the average banana I eat is "medium" and it has about 110-120 calories and yours was 60 calories). So my question is, do you weigh you foods with a food scale? Unfortunately, with very little to lose, these small inaccuracies can cause you to hit maintenance instead of a deficit. And having only a few lbs to lose, you have very little room for error.

Actually, I do weigh everything on a food scale. By the way, the 60 calorie banana was only half a banana. I shared with my son at breakfast. I am aware of how little room I have for error. The metabolism concern is because of what I'm seeing on the fitbit, which by the way, I have sync'd to MFP. I also don't eat what the fitbit shows, but the MFP adjustment, although I admit that I often go over because it's hard to stay under 1200 calories.

Regarding heartrate, I think it's pretty accurate. The days I kickbox, it does get up to around 135, which is what would be 80% for someone of my age. I must admit it takes a lot, though, to get my heartrate going. A walk up a hill might get it to 100. By the way, I also have low blood pressure (110/60 is normal, but it can be as low as 90/40). I wonder if it's because I have been someone who is moderately active on a daily basis (I've done the 10,000 step thing for years), so maybe my rate doesn't go to high levels that a "couch potato" would.

Kalikel

Every older woman I've ever heard discussing weight loss discussed how much harder it is after menopause and many if them discuss the weight redistribution.

One of the many joys of aging. They were right. It really isn't for wusses!

arb037

As someone mentioned above "reverse dieting" could possibly work for you. If you have been in a calorie deficit for a couple months or extended periods of time, your metabolism has slowed down to adjust to the new energy intake. Our bodies metabolism is very adaptive, and tries to maintane itself once. Can try reverse dieting to get it back to a " normal" level for someone of your stats. Only other way is to cut even more calories or increase exercise output ie more cardio/ calories burned.
We just dont want to get below our BMR in calories for any length of time.

editorgrrl

Kalikel wrote: »

Every older woman I've ever heard discussing weight loss discussed how much harder it is after menopause and many if them discuss the weight redistribution.

MFP has a menopause group: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/506-near-or-post-menopausal-group

kyrannosaurus

If you are weighing everything why are you logging everything in cups, tablespoons, pieces instead of the actual weight of the item? This makes no sense to me. If you are weighing it, why not log the weight?

msf74

I don't mean to be insensitive here but your choices are:

• suck it up or
• do more exercise

It's pretty unfair but given your height, age and current weight your TDEE (rather than metabolism) is going to be low. That's just the way it is given your have less mass to move around than most people.

I suggest making peace with your situation.

Annie_01

Kalikel wrote: »

Every older woman I've ever heard discussing weight loss discussed how much harder it is after menopause and many if them discuss the weight redistribution.

One of the many joys of aging. They were right. It really isn't for wusses!

I keep hearing this also. I am 62 and honestly...I don't find it that difficult to lose weight.

After reading your post...and this thread...I did a little experiment. I use my current stats and plugged in each decade starting 20 y/o up to 70 years of age. While maintenance calories did decline it was at a much smaller decrease than I expected.

Female...5'6"...190lbs...Lightly Active

Age 20...2267 cals
Age 30...2198
Age 40...2129
Age 50...2061
Age 60...1992
Age 70...1923

I found it interesting that from age 20 to 70 it only decreased 344 calories. While that seems a lot it is a relatively small decline over the course of 50 years.

In my opinion only...we more advanced citizens really shouldn't have that much more difficulty losing weight...maybe just a small bit slower.

snowflakesav

I think a check on your thyroid is in order.
Then monitor your sleep...if you are not averaging over 7 hours a night then you aren't giving your cells a chance to repair themselves. I am constantly amazed the effect rest has on my weight and everything else.

I would not necessarily classify what you are reporting as a slow metabolism based on your weight, moderate to light activity (10k steps is moderate) and you have been restricting for a while.

If you have been on low carb....there is some opinion that it can be stressful over the long haul. (As evidenced by all the threads on plateaus)

rosebette

kyrannosaurus wrote: »

If you are weighing everything why are you logging everything in cups, tablespoons, pieces instead of the actual weight of the item? This makes no sense to me. If you are weighing it, why not log the weight?

I weigh meats, but use cups for things like yogurt, rice, etc.