Does lowering your calories effect metoboloism long term?

CamillaEdwards

Does lowering your calories effect metabolism long term? say if I cut out an extra 500 calories per day for around 2 months to loose an extra 1lb a week. After I want to stop loosing this much, can I slowly increase my daily calorie intake back to the original amount without putting weight on? Thank you!

Yi5hedr3

Yes - SLOWLY!!!

siluridae

Of course it does, but that has to do with losing weight.
Usually, the less you weigh, the less you can consume. So the calories you need to maintain your weight become lower and lower, unless you exercise to raise your TDEE or put on some serious muscle mass compared to before.

Sued0nim

marginal lower

losing 8-10lbs in 2 months is going to drop your tdee by about 40 cals - easily adjusted for by moving more - not even worth worrying about

building muscle will increase it

Sued0nim

you know what happens, a lot

people cut - and even if not low carbing they naturally lower carbs - they lose water weight - they stop cutting and go back to normal, increase carbs and the water weight comes back and they panic - what they need to do is hold tight for a few weeks - it will stabilise it always does

until it doesn't and then you know the calorie level before your last increase was your maintenance

riffraff2112

not significantly. Used to be one of those 'health myths', that yo-yo dieting and weight loss screws up your metabolism..it just isn't true, at least not in the way it was hyped. The thousands of people who have successfully maintained here will all agree, we still are able to consume very near our initial TDEE. For me after losing 45lbs, I am eating about 150 cals less than my initial target.

rileysowner

Not so much your metabolism, but very low calorie diets (VLCD) do mess with hormones long term, that is for a least a year, making a person have to battle harder to maintain and more likely to gain back the weight. The study was done using a VLCD of 500-550 calories a day for 10 weeks, and the hormone changes and appetite increase lasted even a year later when the final portion of the study was done. How long those changes continued I do not know, but it does point to VLCD being a bad idea even for a limited time unless needed due to weight loss necessary for say life saving surgery and the like. I added this because it sounded from your original post that you wanted to increase your deficit, and I want to make sure you don't think going very low calorie is an option without potential effects beyond hormonal.

Liftng4Lis

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/another-look-at-metabolic-damage.html#more-9313

CamillaEdwards

rileysowner wrote: »

Not so much your metabolism, but very low calorie diets (VLCD) do mess with hormones long term, that is for a least a year, making a person have to battle harder to maintain and more likely to gain back the weight. The study was done using a VLCD of 500-550 calories a day for 10 weeks, and the hormone changes and appetite increase lasted even a year later when the final portion of the study was done. How long those changes continued I do not know, but it does point to VLCD being a bad idea even for a limited time unless needed due to weight loss necessary for say life saving surgery and the like. I added this because it sounded from your original post that you wanted to increase your deficit, and I want to make sure you don't think going very low calorie is an option without potential effects beyond hormonal.

Can I just say a huge thank you for this because it is very relevant and you have taken time to investigate my previous posts - which I appreciate.

Thank you for your help and I have taken this on board.

Camilla

MKEgal

CamillaEdwards wrote:

Does lowering your calories effect metabolism long term?

No, it does not cause metabolism at all.
It can change (affect) the rate slightly.
If you're severely starving yourself, then yes, it will cause long-term damage & take months if not years to fix.
But as you lose weight you will need fewer calories to run your body.


.

if I cut out an extra 500 calories per day for around 2 months to loose (sic) an extra 1lb a week.
After I want to stop loosing (sic) this much, can I slowly increase my daily calorie intake back to the original
amount without putting weight on?

No. As you lose weight you'll need fewer calories to maintain that weight.
If you go back to eating how much you used to eat, you'll go back to weighing how much you used to weigh.


This calculator from the Baylor College of Medicine will tell you not only your BMI at any weight, but how many
calories & how many servings of various foods to eat to maintain that weight.
It also shows the effect exercise may have.
https://www.bcm.edu/cnrc-apps/healthyeatingcalculator/eatingCal.html


Using myself as an example... at my current weight, when inactive, I'd need 1380 cal to maintain.
When I lose another 50 lb (getting just into the top end of a healthy BMI range), I'll need 1152.

If I were moderately active about an hour a day, those calories would go to 2204 & 1907.

MKEgal

BTW...
Is your profile picture current?
Because your face, neck, & upper arms already look very thin.
Yet your ticker says you want to lose another 40 pounds?!

Please use that BCM.edu calculator to see if your current weight is in the healthy range, and if your goal weight would be.
(ETA: a healthy BMI range is 18.5 - 24.9.)
If you're already at a healthy weight, perhaps you would be better served (health-wise) to focus on weight training,
so you'll get strong & look awesome.

.