Any success stories deal with lowered metabolism?

SeptemberFeyre

I keep reading and seeing on YouTube how cutting calories can really make your metabolism slow down to where when you reach maintenance it's hard to stay at maintenance. Anyone deal with this who was moderate in their weight loss efforts and lost about 1 to 1 1/2 pound a week?

Thanks!

shadow2soul

I haven’t had any issues with it (at least not that I know of). I maintain slightly higher than most calculators tell me I should. I kept my deficit to no more than 1% body weight loss per week for the majority of my weight loss and lowered to 0.5-1lb per week when I was closer to my goal (last 15lbs). I also had days where I ate at maintenance throughout my weight loss. Things like Holidays and birthdays I would eat at whatever my estimated maintenance was for my weight at the time.

Do I maintain on the same number of calories I did at 260lbs? No. Smaller body doesn’t need as much fuel to maintain.

Have I had any issues maintaining? A few. None of which means there is anything wrong with my metabolism. It’s simple I switched to maintenance, tried not tracking, and ate to much. Then I tried a birth control pill that made my hunger sky high and I overate despite tracking. I still have managed to keep the majority of my weight off and I am still a healthy weight.

sijomial

I like many others found that my initial maintenance calories at goal weight after a while weren't actually enough to maintain. After a couple of months I had to raise my daily goal - no special intervention required, just living my normal life.
I initially lost about 23lbs in about 18 weeks.

This article is a good read and debunks a lot of the myths you might find on YouTube.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/metabolic-damage/

39flavours

I would also be interested to know how to raise my metabolism. My bathroom scales tell me my basal metabolic rate is too low and should be 300 cals higher a day. I am working out five times a week for an hour with a mixture of cardio and weights and trying to stay active but it hasn't budged since I started four weeks ago. I guess it's a very slow process to raise it at all.

Screen shot of scale readings.

ceiswyn

I was immoderate in my weight loss, and nothing whatsoever has happened to my metabolism as a result.

solieco1

Interesting read n the topic

https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/metabolic-damage/#content

edited: Just noticed that @sijomial referenced the same article - oops

cwolfman13

SeptemberFeyre wrote: »

I keep reading and seeing on YouTube how cutting calories can really make your metabolism slow down to where when you reach maintenance it's hard to stay at maintenance. Anyone deal with this who was moderate in their weight loss efforts and lost about 1 to 1 1/2 pound a week?

Thanks!

Stop watching YouTube...

I lost 40 Lbs...my metabolism didn't get damaged and is just fine.

39flavours wrote: »

I would also be interested to know how to raise my metabolism. My bathroom scales tell me my basal metabolic rate is too low and should be 300 cals higher a day. I am working out five times a week for an hour with a mixture of cardio and weights and trying to stay active but it hasn't budged since I started four weeks ago. I guess it's a very slow process to raise it at all.

Screen shot of scale readings.

A bathroom scale cannot tell you with any kind of accuracy what your BMR is. Your bathroom scale can tell you with pretty good accuracy how much you weigh.

39flavours

cwolfman13 wrote: »

SeptemberFeyre wrote: »

I keep reading and seeing on YouTube how cutting calories can really make your metabolism slow down to where when you reach maintenance it's hard to stay at maintenance. Anyone deal with this who was moderate in their weight loss efforts and lost about 1 to 1 1/2 pound a week?

Thanks!

Stop watching YouTube...

I lost 40 Lbs...my metabolism didn't get damaged and is just fine.

39flavours wrote: »

I would also be interested to know how to raise my metabolism. My bathroom scales tell me my basal metabolic rate is too low and should be 300 cals higher a day. I am working out five times a week for an hour with a mixture of cardio and weights and trying to stay active but it hasn't budged since I started four weeks ago. I guess it's a very slow process to raise it at all.

Screen shot of scale readings.

A bathroom scale cannot tell you with any kind of accuracy what your BMR is. Your bathroom scale can tell you with pretty good accuracy how much you weigh.

Ok, how did you test your metabolism to know that is it fine? I've looked at the Harris formula but it states it's only an estimate and can vary a lot from the number given depending on different factors. I guess the only way to know is by seeing how much you can eat and burn and still maintain?

cwolfman13

39flavours wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

SeptemberFeyre wrote: »

I keep reading and seeing on YouTube how cutting calories can really make your metabolism slow down to where when you reach maintenance it's hard to stay at maintenance. Anyone deal with this who was moderate in their weight loss efforts and lost about 1 to 1 1/2 pound a week?

Thanks!

Stop watching YouTube...

I lost 40 Lbs...my metabolism didn't get damaged and is just fine.

39flavours wrote: »

I would also be interested to know how to raise my metabolism. My bathroom scales tell me my basal metabolic rate is too low and should be 300 cals higher a day. I am working out five times a week for an hour with a mixture of cardio and weights and trying to stay active but it hasn't budged since I started four weeks ago. I guess it's a very slow process to raise it at all.

Screen shot of scale readings.

A bathroom scale cannot tell you with any kind of accuracy what your BMR is. Your bathroom scale can tell you with pretty good accuracy how much you weigh.

Ok, how did you test your metabolism to know that is it fine? I've looked at the Harris formula but it states it's only an estimate and can vary a lot from the number given depending on different factors. I guess the only way to know is by seeing how much you can eat and burn and still maintain?

You would have to go to a lab for metabolic testing...the test runs around $100-$200. I've never done it as I see little point in it. BMR isn't maintenance...my estimated BMR is around 1800 calories...my TDEE (maintenance calories) are a range of about 2800-3000 calories. Most people's metabolism is just fine outside of medical conditions which you would already know about.

39flavours

cwolfman13 wrote: »

39flavours wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

SeptemberFeyre wrote: »

I keep reading and seeing on YouTube how cutting calories can really make your metabolism slow down to where when you reach maintenance it's hard to stay at maintenance. Anyone deal with this who was moderate in their weight loss efforts and lost about 1 to 1 1/2 pound a week?

Thanks!

Stop watching YouTube...

I lost 40 Lbs...my metabolism didn't get damaged and is just fine.

39flavours wrote: »

I would also be interested to know how to raise my metabolism. My bathroom scales tell me my basal metabolic rate is too low and should be 300 cals higher a day. I am working out five times a week for an hour with a mixture of cardio and weights and trying to stay active but it hasn't budged since I started four weeks ago. I guess it's a very slow process to raise it at all.

Screen shot of scale readings.

A bathroom scale cannot tell you with any kind of accuracy what your BMR is. Your bathroom scale can tell you with pretty good accuracy how much you weigh.

Ok, how did you test your metabolism to know that is it fine? I've looked at the Harris formula but it states it's only an estimate and can vary a lot from the number given depending on different factors. I guess the only way to know is by seeing how much you can eat and burn and still maintain?

You would have to go to a lab for metabolic testing...the test runs around $100-$200. I've never done it as I see little point in it. BMR isn't maintenance...my estimated BMR is around 1800 calories...my TDEE (maintenance calories) are a range of about 2800-3000 calories. Most people's metabolism is just fine outside of medical conditions which you would already know about.

So do you think a person can change their bmr or do you think you're just stuck with what you have but can raise your TDEE instead? So that's exercise and increased muscle then?

estherdragonbat

Did you read the link? If you lose weight, your BMR goes down because it requires fewer calories to maintain a smaller body. If you gain, it goes up because it requires more calories to maintain a larger body. That's not a damaged metabolism; that's a normal one.

39flavours

estherdragonbat wrote: »

Did you read the link? If you lose weight, your BMR goes down because it requires fewer calories to maintain a smaller body. If you gain, it goes up because it requires more calories to maintain a larger body. That's not a damaged metabolism; that's a normal one.

I'm not sure if that's directed at me or op?

If it's me then thank you but that's not really the question I'm asking. Although, I did read it after you prompted me but didn't read it at first as I am not really asking about metabolic slowdown so didn't think it was going to be an article geared towards my interests.
I have never studied my BMR before so I have no figures to go by here but I don't think my metabolism has slowed recently as I'm overweight by 40 lbs and have only been restricting calories for the last month after gaining weight over three years.
This isn't a 'why am I not losing weight' thing, because I am. Although I'm on a high deficit and have lost only three pounds since starting, but that's fine. All I really was asking was how do I increase my fat burning potential as I was concerned that my BMR was too low.
The article suggests not having a big deficit so that you avoid some symptoms of the starvation response (not starvation mode, different thing) however I don't recognise any of the things listed as being part of the starvation response as being any of my experience.
I guess I'll just carry on as normal and ignore BMR as it doesn't seem a very easy thing to pin down! My only concern now though after reading the article is that if my BMR is actually already low (who knows? ) then how much lower will it be when I'm 40 lbs lighter?!

Tacklewasher

You really can't do much to impact your BMR. Losing weight lowers it, but that's about it.
You can impact your NEAT and your TDEE.
Improve your NEAT by doing simple things like parking further away, taking stairs instead of an elevator etc.
Improve your TDEE by exercising more.

If you are logging carefully and not losing as expected, then drop 100 cals a day and see what the impact is. But it's kinda doubtful your BMR is outside of the normal range and more common for the logging to not be accurate.

sijomial

@39flavours

Finding your post a bit confusing - you seem to be thinking that a reducing BMR and a reducing metabolic rate are two different things but they are two ways to say the same thing.

Why do you think your scales are giving you any better estimates than just using any old BMR estimating formula such as the one this site uses?

Yes your calorie needs will be lower when you are 40lbs lower unless you increase the things you can influence as mentioned by Tacklewasher.

Increased muscle does indeed increase your BMR as it takes very slightly more calories to maintain, but the effect is tiny. Using those muscles (activity and exercise) on the other hand can be a very significant contributor to your TDEE.

39flavours

Tacklewasher wrote: »

You really can't do much to impact your BMR. Losing weight lowers it, but that's about it.
You can impact your NEAT and your TDEE.
Improve your NEAT by doing simple things like parking further away, taking stairs instead of an elevator etc.
Improve your TDEE by exercising more.

If you are logging carefully and not losing as expected, then drop 100 cals a day and see what the impact is. But it's kinda doubtful your BMR is outside of the normal range and more common for the logging to not be accurate.

Thanks for the advice x I'm logging very precisely, even weighing my egg whites as I separate them! My only area that the logging might be a bit off is when I batch cook and then box up the portions as it's virtually impossible to make sure each portion of chicken casserole has exactly the same number of chunks of chicken or pieces of carrot! But I figure that it balances out in the end. I'm not going to drop 100 cals as suggested just yet though as that would put me on under 1200 so I'm gonna continue with my 1 hour gym time 5 days + a week and trying to get in 10,000 steps a day. The weight is coming off, just super slowly.

SeptemberFeyre

Thank you to those who answered my question. I would love to know more about others experiences.

SeptemberFeyre

This article is a good read and debunks a lot of the myths you might find on YouTube.
https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/metabolic-damage/

[/quote]

One other thing. Anyone know who wrote this? All I could find was someone named Jay toward the bottom of the article. I feel skeptical if it isn't written by a doctor, dietician, backed by peer reviewed research, etc.

Thanks!

39flavours

@sijomial

Finding your post a bit confusing - you seem to be thinking that a reducing BMR and a reducing metabolic rate are two different things but they are two ways to say the same thing.

I'm not sure what I said that confused you, I have looked at my post but am scratching my head a bit. As I understand it BMR is the energy your body needs to stay alive with no physical activity e.g. comatose. If someone were to ask me to define a 'reducing metabolic rate' then I guess I would say it's the amount of energy your body uses per day becoming less over a period of time.


Why do you think your scales are giving you any better estimates than just using any old BMR estimating formula such as the one this site uses?

Again I'm not sure what gave you the impression that I thought this, finding out your bmr just seems to be a stab in the dark as far as I can tell! My question was regarding how to speed up a metabolism as I want my body to be efficient.

Yes your calorie needs will be lower when you are 40lbs lower unless you increase the things you can influence as mentioned by Tacklewasher.

Yes I know, I'm already putting effort into this but my calorie needs already seem to be low and I haven't lost much weight yet, I'm borderline obese. It is coming off, I just want to find out how to support my body to make sure it's optimal.

Increased muscle does indeed increase your BMR as it takes very slightly more calories to maintain, but the effect is tiny. Using those muscles (activity and exercise) on the other hand can be a very significant contributor to your TDEE.

As I understand it, you can't really build muscle in a deficit but I am strength training most days in order to preserve it as much as possible. I'm also doing a lot of carpentry this month so am being physical every day. Am I right in thinking 1lb of extra muscle = 50 calories extra a day?

39flavours

SeptemberFeyre wrote: »

Thank you to those who answered my question. I would love to know more about others experiences.

So sorry, I totally derailed your post! I hope you find what you're looking for!

Also, don't forget Dr Seuss is also a doctor!

sijomial

@39flavours

"As I understand it, you can't really build muscle in a deficit but I am strength training most days in order to preserve it as much as possible. I'm also doing a lot of carpentry this month so am being physical every day. Am I right in thinking 1lb of extra muscle = 50 calories extra a day? "

Can't build muscle in a deficit is an exaggeration (like most absolute statements). Unlikely to build a significant amount is more realistic, especially when female and having a high deficit. There's a lot of personal variables.

50 cals a day is miles off for muscle maintenance. About 6cals/lb of muscle at rest per day.
But while losing weight this is offset by fat needing 2cals/lb per day to be maintained - that's part of why a smaller person has a lower BMR than a larger person.

rheddmobile

Starvation mode isn't nearly as much of a thing as it's made out to be.

I lost rapidly - 3.5 lbs a week at first, gradually tapering off over a 125 lb weight loss which took a year and a half - and have maintained a normal BMI for about a year now. My metabolism doesn't seem to be damaged. However, I don't recommend losing as rapidly as I did (it wasn't intentional), considering I did suffer some hair loss and fatigue.

For what it's worth, the national weight loss registry which studies long term maintainers has found that regular exercise is one thing most of them have in common.