Who coined the phrase "resetting the metabolism"?

__Di__

Who was it that started the notion of resetting the metabolism, anybody know?

Also, how long has that idea been in place?

__Di__

Nobody know? :sad:

almc170

Have you tried Google?

__Di__

Have you tried Google?

Yes, but I can't find anything on who first used the phrase :frown:

saschka7

That's an interesting question...honestly, I don't know but I would imagine Dr. Oz is responsible for a lot of the attention it gets, although the concept was probably around before that.

I'm no nutritionist, scientist or doctor, but I always thought the idea of 'resetting metabolism' to be a lot of bunk. A person's metabolism adjust and adapts accordingly (and at times may be underperforming in cases of metabolic disorders) but there is no 'reset' option per se. The human body is not an appliance.

cwolfman13

That's an interesting question...honestly, I don't know but I would imagine Dr. Oz is responsible for a lot of the attention it gets, although the concept was probably around before that.

I'm no nutritionist, scientist or doctor, but I always thought the idea of 'resetting metabolism' to be a lot of bunk. A person's metabolism adjust and adapts accordingly (and at times may be underperforming in cases of metabolic disorders) but there is no 'reset' option per se. The human body is not an appliance.

Just as your metabolism adapts down to some degree when you're dieting, it adapts back up when you start eating more. I would argue that the adaption back up is essentially a reset and I think that's what most people talk about when they talk about "resetting" the metabolism.

__Di__

That's an interesting question...honestly, I don't know but I would imagine Dr. Oz is responsible for a lot of the attention it gets, although the concept was probably around before that.

I'm no nutritionist, scientist or doctor, but I always thought the idea of 'resetting metabolism' to be a lot of bunk. A person's metabolism adjust and adapts accordingly (and at times may be underperforming in cases of metabolic disorders) but there is no 'reset' option per se. The human body is not an appliance.

Dr Oz. Yes that sounds definitely possible.

I too, think it is a lot of bunk.

"The human body is not an appliance" :laugh: I like it !!

55in13

Al Gore :bigsmile:

(not sure if you will get the joke in the UK or not)

__Di__

Al Gore :bigsmile:

(not sure if you will get the joke in the UK or not)

No, I don't get it :sad:

Will I understand if I google "resetting the metabolism and Al Gore"? :laugh:

55in13

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/g/goreinternet.htm

He got lampooned for that statement for years. It became a running joke that he invented everything.

neandermagnon

That, plus jump start the metabolism.

Honestly the phrase "jump start the metabolism" makes me think of someone attaching jump leads to a dead person and firing up their car and making the dead person come back to life again.

Resetting the metabolism is less graphic... more like after someone drops dead, they have a reset button that you can push, like you do if your computer freezes or something....

neandermagnon

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/g/goreinternet.htm

He got lampooned for that statement for years. It became a running joke that he invented everything.

LOL

__Di__

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/g/goreinternet.htm

He got lampooned for that statement for years. It became a running joke that he invented everything.

Ahhhhh BAHAHAHA!!!

Wouldn't that be funny if he really had coined the phrase too though :laugh:

__Di__

That, plus jump start the metabolism.

Honestly the phrase "jump start the metabolism" makes me think of someone attaching jump leads to a dead person and firing up their car and making the dead person come back to life again.

Resetting the metabolism is less graphic... more like after someone drops dead, they have a reset button that you can push, like you do if your computer freezes or something....

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

stop it, my belly is hurting LOL

saschka7

That's an interesting question...honestly, I don't know but I would imagine Dr. Oz is responsible for a lot of the attention it gets, although the concept was probably around before that.

I'm no nutritionist, scientist or doctor, but I always thought the idea of 'resetting metabolism' to be a lot of bunk. A person's metabolism adjust and adapts accordingly (and at times may be underperforming in cases of metabolic disorders) but there is no 'reset' option per se. The human body is not an appliance.

Just as your metabolism adapts down to some degree when you're dieting, it adapts back up when you start eating more. I would argue that the adaption back up is essentially a reset and I think that's what most people talk about when they talk about "resetting" the metabolism.

I do agree with the general gist of what you're saying: I just think that using the word "reset" instead of "improve" or even "optimize" is misleading.

You can definitely improve your metabolism and do things to make it work optimally, but to talk of a "reset" implies that there is some optimal state of metabolism that everyone is inherently born with and I do not believe it's true (feel free to prove me wrong if I am: I am no doctor). Metabolism fluctuates throughout our lives (or days/weeks/year..whatever).

I don't know....the phrase "resetting metabolism" makes it sound as if there is an ideal, quantifiable and measurable state of metabolism (like a perfect credit score being 850 or having a systolic blood pressure number of 140+ being considered to be high blood pressure..,or something like that). Everyone's activity level etc is different.

Also, in the instantaneous, immediate gratification world we live in, most of us are familiar with "resetting" something and know that it just takes a moment or two (or three or 10 minutes). Using that term in relation to metabolism is not such a quick process--whenever I come across that term, I am a little suspicious of a quick and easy weight loss pitch.

stroutman81

I don't think you'll find the origin. I believe I've even seen it mentioned directly in some academic papers. And it definitely gets tossed around in in the bodybuilding and physique competitor circles. But there is some merit to the concept. Of course it's not as many people assume... that their metabolism is broken and they can magically do something akin to pushing a button (by eating a few food types or a certain number of calories) and fix the problem.

But there's no way of denying the fact that the body downregulates on a number of complex levels (leptin, thyroid, autonomic nervous system, spontaneous physical activity, etc) in response to energy shortages and there are certain things you can do to reverse that process. Unfortunately, a lot of those things are only temporary fixes and the only true way of permanently erasing the adaptations is to gain the weight back.

That being said, there's also this concept of stress overload, or whatever you want to call it. I've had many clients come to me... mostly pretty small women with neurotic tendencies - endlessly stressing over everything, dieting "hard" without break, raising children, slogging away on the treadmill far too much, lifting weights, etc. Call it the meat grinder approach to life and training if you will. We're not really sure what's all happening under the hood, but it definitely has a lot to do with cortisol and what happens downstream of it (not that cortisol is bad). But water storage ramps up and often times, this weight gain or fat-loss-masking tricks people into believing they're metabolism is botched and in need of a reset. The funny thing is, if you ramp calories up toward maintenance for a while and remove some of the stress you've been hammering your body with, a "reset" if you will, your body tends to let go of the water storage and starts doing what it's supposed to.

I'm sure there's some interplay with this latter concept and the whole resetting concept you speak of

michellekicks

I don't think you'll find the origin. I believe I've even seen it mentioned directly in some academic papers. And it definitely gets tossed around in in the bodybuilding and physique competitor circles. But there is some merit to the concept. Of course it's not as many people assume... that their metabolism is broken and they can magically do something akin to pushing a button (by eating a few food types or a certain number of calories) and fix the problem.

But there's no way of denying the fact that the body downregulates on a number of complex levels (leptin, thyroid, autonomic nervous system, spontaneous physical activity, etc) in response to energy shortages and there are certain things you can do to reverse that process. Unfortunately, a lot of those things are only temporary fixes and the only true way of permanently erasing the adaptations is to gain the weight back.

That being said, there's also this concept of stress overload, or whatever you want to call it. I've had many clients come to me... mostly pretty small women with neurotic tendencies - endlessly stressing over everything, dieting "hard" without break, raising children, slogging away on the treadmill far too much, lifting weights, etc. Call it the meat grinder approach to life and training if you will. We're not really sure what's all happening under the hood, but it definitely has a lot to do with cortisol and what happens downstream of it (not that cortisol is bad). But water storage ramps up and often times, this weight gain or fat-loss-masking tricks people into believing they're metabolism is botched and in need of a reset. The funny thing is, if you ramp calories up toward maintenance for a while and remove some of the stress you've been hammering your body with, a "reset" if you will, your body tends to let go of the water storage and starts doing what it's supposed to.

I'm sure there's some interplay with this latter concept and the whole resetting concept you speak of

The best place to ask where the term was coined is Kiki and Lucia in the Eat More to Weigh Less group... I think that's where it came from on MFP... and the idea is to eat at your expected maintenance for 6-8 weeks or more to a) give your body a break from low-calorie dieting, and b) increase your metabolic capacity.

The idea of increasing your metabolic capacity is discussed by Layne Norton in some of his most recent vlogs on metabolic adaptation/damage:

Vlog9 Metabolic Damage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk
Vlog15 Metabolic Damage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY1DsZMNfNw
Vlog16 Metabolic Damage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY1DsZMNfNw

Dr. Norton recommends adding a couple of grams of carbs/day per week over a VERY long period of time. The EM2WL ladies advocate jumping right in with both feet, usually resulting in initial weight gain. Whether or not this is more or less effective, though, I don't know.

BTW, I love your posts and your site.

stroutman81

Thanks!

And I wasn't aware of that group, so yeah, there's probably some corners of this forum that talk about it a lot. But the concept has definitely been around a lot longer than MFP. I'd imagine people started first talking about the concept when we discovered leptin in the 90s.

As for Layne, I saw his video series. I also enjoyed Lyle McDonald's rebuttal to them, although he threw in a lot of unnecessary drama at the subject.

SideSteel

I also enjoyed Lyle McDonald's rebuttal to them, although he threw in a lot of unnecessary drama at the subject.

I'm LOLing. Because Lyle and his antics....

SoViLicious

Have you tried Google?

Yeah i heard of this Google

ELVISDEAN

some dumbs...because there aint no such thang...lift weights eat tons of carbs get at least 2500 to 3000 calories a day and u wont have to reset ****

Elvis

ldrosophila

Quick search on pubmed couldnt find anything. It's a good question though.

stroutman81

I also enjoyed Lyle McDonald's rebuttal to them, although he threw in a lot of unnecessary drama at the subject.

I'm LOLing. Because Lyle and his antics....

Yeah, he's more troll than helpful anymore, which is unfortunate. Bound to happen I suppose when you've been around as long as he has and you've written as much as he has. You just get bored. And either find different ways to reach people, find a new field of interest (which his seemed to have been porn for a short stint), or you go off the deep end with trollism, lol.

stroutman81

some dumbs...because there aint no such thang...lift weights eat tons of carbs get at least 2500 to 3000 calories a day and u wont have to reset ****

Elvis

Gotta love absolutism.

ninerbuff

Jack LaLaine who else?

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

cicisiam

Whatever your beliefs may be. Jullian Michaels has a great book on positive eating "Master Your Metabolism" Easy read, and found at your local Library. Very informative if you are interested in making the most of your nutritional intake. :flowerforyou: Good luck in your research.

stroutman81

There's research. There are textbooks that are based on the research. Then there are books written by people who are simply putting their own interpretation of the research into some sort of marketed informational piece.

Of the latter, a celebrity trainer would not rank high on my list of quality interpreters.

Just my 2 cents.

ninerbuff

There's research. There are textbooks that are based on the research. Then there are books written by people who are simply putting their own interpretation of the research into some sort of marketed informational piece.

Of the latter, a celebrity trainer would not rank high on my list of quality interpreters.

Just my 2 cents.

THIS. That's why there are so many approaches to weight loss and why the industry is banking on it.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition