Is a 'high' metabolism a myth? Advice please!

laurenhollyjohnston1

I'm new here so I'm sorry if this post is stupid but I have just started MFP a week or so ago. I am 5'3 and 135lbs and according to the app should be eating 1200kcal per day to lose 1lb per week as someone with a sedendary lifestyle. I tracked for a while before I started trying to lose weight (looking to drop 20lbs) and was averaging around 4000kcal per day! I've always been told that I must have a 'good' metabolism, but is that really a thing? Going down to 1200 seems like an almost impossible drop and I feel as though I am starving. Though I was obviously gaining weight how I was eating before it was around a stone in a year so just over 1lb a month, I just feel like I'm constantly super hungry! I appreciate I'm only a week in so do I just need to suck it up or would it be reasonable to try and adjust something so I can eat more?

TavistockToad

Really? What were you eating that came to 4000 cals?

ilex70

Well if eating 4000 calories a day only gave you a gain of 1 pound, theoretically an extra 3500 calories a month, then cutting just 150 calories a day should reverse that, though it would be slow.

If you can eat more like 3,000 calories a day and still lose at a good clip then good for you.

4,000 X 30 = 120,000
3,000 X 30 = 90,000

So net negative 30,000...you were gaining so knock of 3,500...negative 26,500...so over 7 and half pounds a month if that works out.

ETA: Yes, do eat more. You can try calculating your TDEE and then just knock 20% off that if the 3,000 a day seems too crazy.

https://tdeecalculator.net/

rainbowbow

laurenhollyjohnston1 wrote: »

I'm new here so I'm sorry if this post is stupid but I have just started MFP a week or so ago. I am 5'3 and 135lbs and according to the app should be eating 1200kcal per day to lose 1lb per week as someone with a sedendary lifestyle. I tracked for a while before I started trying to lose weight (looking to drop 20lbs) and was averaging around 4000kcal per day! I've always been told that I must have a 'good' metabolism, but is that really a thing? Going down to 1200 seems like an almost impossible drop and I feel as though I am starving. Though I was obviously gaining weight how I was eating before it was around a stone in a year so just over 1lb a month, I just feel like I'm constantly super hungry! I appreciate I'm only a week in so do I just need to suck it up or would it be reasonable to try and adjust something so I can eat more?

You either weren't eating that much, not eating that much consistently, or you were living a very active lifestyle. I am also 5'4 and when i was at my heaviest weight of 136 i was probably eating 2500+ a day.

And to answer your question... there's not insane crazy metabolism like you're explaining unless you have something like graves disease or another disorder. And you would know.

laurenhollyjohnston1

Purely absolute rubbish. An example of a day would be 2 links 2 bacon 2 potato scone and 2 hash browns with 2 slices of toast and butter for breakfast with a can of coke, a large mcdonalds chicken selects meal for lunch, with a large coke and a takeaway for dinner (say for instance salt and chilli chips, chicken balls and spring rolls) and maybe another litre of full fat fizzy juice. Along with snacks so probably 3 pieces of fruit, a bar of chocolate or 2 and 2 packets of crisps. Thats on an average day. We were in the process of moving house and didnt have a cooker for a while, thats why I started eating that way, but just became a habit!

kshama2001

With only 20 pounds to lose, set your weekly weight loss goal to 0.5 pound per week and enjoy those extra calories.

Also change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings so we can help with any logging issues. What's the time period during which you were eating 4,000 calories per day?

rainbowbow

laurenhollyjohnston1 wrote: »

Purely absolute rubbish. An example of a day would be 2 links 2 bacon 2 potato scone and 2 hash browns with 2 slices of toast and butter for breakfast with a can of coke, a large mcdonalds chicken selects meal for lunch, with a large coke and a takeaway for dinner (say for instance salt and chilli chips, chicken balls and spring rolls) and maybe another litre of full fat fizzy juice. Along with snacks so probably 3 pieces of fruit, a bar of chocolate or 2 and 2 packets of crisps. Thats on an average day. We were in the process of moving house and didnt have a cooker for a while, thats why I started eating that way, but just became a habit!

ahuh, and how long were you eating that way for?

Kimo159

I would advise against a huge deficit. 1200 calories is pretty low...why not start with something like 1750 calories a day and see how your body reacts to that. Eat at a certain level for a couple weeks and weigh yourself. If you're losing too fast, up your calories, if you're losing too slow reduce them.

laurenhollyjohnston1

Its really easy to eat that 4000 calories a day if you're eating junk! I've probably ate like that since May of 2015?

NEOHgirl

Kimo159 wrote: »

I would advise against a huge deficit. 1200 calories is pretty low...why not start with something like 1750 calories a day and see how your body reacts to that. Eat at a certain level for a couple weeks and weigh yourself. If you're losing too fast, up your calories, if you're losing too slow reduce them.

^^THIS!

Buff_Man

I'm on 1500 a day so by comparison doesn't sound too drastic. But if you're on 4K then you will feel starved. Cut calories slowly try 500/day and go from there

Verdenal

laurenhollyjohnston1 wrote: »

Its really easy to eat that 4000 calories a day if you're eating junk! I've probably ate like that since May of 2015?

If you eat large quantities of any food high in carbs, fats or sugars, it's very easy for the calories to mount.

The deficit you choose depends on how quickly you want to lose weight. As you are reluctant to go down to 1200, try something higher. The key is to track your food, monitor you weight, and make adjustments. You can't be passive about it and expect an online calculator to tell you what to do. Bear in mind that losing weight usually involves some hunger.

lemurcat12

If you were really eating 4000/day (I admit I suspect you are overestimating) and gaining 1 lb/month, then your TDEE is around 3875, and in theory you could eat 2875 and lose 2 lb/week.

I'd try one of two things:

(1) eat 2000 calories for a few weeks (maybe 4) and see what your results are. If you are losing huge amounts, increase calories based on your TDEE estimated based on those results to aim for no more than 1 lb/week.

(2) start cutting down gradually or if you have changed your diet eat to satisfy your hunger but make sure to log carefully. You will likely eat less and also be able to get a baseline.

There's certainly no need to eat 1200.

Carlos_421

Villae81 wrote: »

rainbowbow wrote: »

laurenhollyjohnston1 wrote: »

Purely absolute rubbish. An example of a day would be 2 links 2 bacon 2 potato scone and 2 hash browns with 2 slices of toast and butter for breakfast with a can of coke, a large mcdonalds chicken selects meal for lunch, with a large coke and a takeaway for dinner (say for instance salt and chilli chips, chicken balls and spring rolls) and maybe another litre of full fat fizzy juice. Along with snacks so probably 3 pieces of fruit, a bar of chocolate or 2 and 2 packets of crisps. Thats on an average day. We were in the process of moving house and didnt have a cooker for a while, thats why I started eating that way, but just became a habit!

ahuh, and how long were you eating that way for?

That's how normal people eat use to eat waay more than that (besides mickey ds I don't eat them) til I got my biometrics done a couple years back then I had to slow down

How about letting dialogue continue without trying to insert arguments where there are none?

She's not directing anything at you nor is she being confrontational. There's no reason for all the "you're wrong, look at me" stuff.

Francl27

You're probably overestimating the calories you were eating. Either that or there's some kind of diminishing return when you eat too much and at some point calories stop counting (which I don't believe, lol. Would be nice though).

I get it though. When I checked the math and it said that I was eating 2400 calories to maintain my 210 pounds, I couldn't believe it either... I was sure that I was eating way more than that. But I only remember the bad days.. I'm sure there were days I wasn't eating that much, or I would have been 300 pounds, not 213. But it's still VERY odd.

But I agree that it's very odd. I basically used MFP set on 1 pound a week when I started then switched to TDEE-20% and lost faster than I should have, so I'm guessing that I did have a good metabolism. Emphasis on 'did' because now that I'm maintaining, using the same calculator, I'm maintaining 100 calories UNDER what I should.

So my advice - just use a TDEE calculator and use a 20% deficit.

stealthq

lemurcat12 wrote: »

If you were really eating 4000/day (I admit I suspect you are overestimating) and gaining 1 lb/month, then your TDEE is around 3875, and in theory you could eat 2875 and lose 2 lb/week.

I'd try one of two things:

(1) eat 2000 calories for a few weeks (maybe 4) and see what your results are. If you are losing huge amounts, increase calories based on your TDEE estimated based on those results to aim for no more than 1 lb/week.

(2) start cutting down gradually or if you have changed your diet eat to satisfy your hunger but make sure to log carefully. You will likely eat less and also be able to get a baseline.

There's certainly no need to eat 1200.

Sounds like a sensible approach to me.

Just for reference, I'm 5' 3" and have a desk job. Seriously, I was about as sedentary as you can get. I lost from 142lbs to 117lbs at a rate of 1lb/wk and ate 1500 cals most of the time. Eventually, I did need to drop to 1300 cals in order to keep the rate of loss at 0.5lb/wk.

There should not be any need to drop to 1200 cals.

cbelc2

I think everyone has a different metabolic rate depending on age, gender, activity level, disease process. Work on the things you can control, like activity, diet, taking any prescribed meds correctly, not smoking, seeing your doctor.....

_Waffle_

laurenhollyjohnston1 wrote: »

Its really easy to eat that 4000 calories a day if you're eating junk! I've probably ate like that since May of 2015?

And you gained weight on this diet? Lost weight? Stayed the same? If all of this is true then just dropping a few extra things here and there will fix your problem.

It is a good idea to track for at least a few months to get a real picture of what you're eating calorie wise so you're not just guessing.

kimny72

OP, if you were really eating 4000 cals every day and only weigh 135, then you don't have to drop all the way down to 1200. Is sedentary accurate?

Someone mentioned this up thread - I would start with 2000 cals, do this for 3-4 weeks and see what happens. If you start losing weight, then stay with those calories. If you don't, then reduce a little more until you find the right spot.

Also keep in mind you are already at a healthy weight, so half a lb per week is a more realistic goal. When you are already light, it is slow going getting lighter in a healthy manner.

msf74

What matters is results over time not where you may fall within generic estimates.

If you were barely gaining weight on 4,000 cals per day then personally I don't see any reason why you can't begin at around 3,250 cals per day and see how you go for a month.

If you are losing weight too quickly then up cals or if there is little to no weight loss then reduce cals.

It makes more sense to eat the highest amount you can while still losing at a reasonable rate than going to the lowest level possible which leaves you cranky and nowhere to go if weight loss begins to stall.

jammer1963

You look pretty young so I'd say even if you were somewhat active but had a higher metabolism, you could eat a lot and still not pack on weight. In high school, I weight 128 pounds and I ate whatever I wanted and as much as I wanted and never gained weight. It wasn't until I turned 30 that I started putting on the pounds. It was like someone turned off the fat burning switch in my body. I didn't get heavy, but I did see my weight increase. Add 30 years and I'm still not heavy. I'm 53, 5'8 and weight 171. I would like to lose about 6 more pounds but the weight is stubbornly hanging on. So to answer your question, I believe in a high metabolism.