what does "ruined metabolism" mean?

SezxyStef

The real world definition varies greatly to what is thrown around here.

In the context of My Fitness Pal, "ruined metabolism" is usually defined as the guilt someone feels after slashing their calories more than they can REALLY commit to doing then secretly eating extra portions and sneaking those cookies at midnight. Usually followed by recording workouts that are general in the ballpark of "1500 cals burned by doing 10 minutes of walking and hour of housekeeping." The final symptom of a "ruined metabolism" is creating a post on the general diet and weight loss help forum along the lines of "3 months no progress" that usually outlines the illusion of how perfect they stick to their diets and how accurate they are with calories in vs calories out. This of course is followed by helpful advice only to be answered with extreme butthurt from the poster until someone finally tells them they are in starvation mode and that they need to eat more and move less. This is the only acceptable answer to the person with the "ruined metabolism" so they no longer have to eat their cookies in the shadows at the midnight hour and can freely log the calories thus removing the guilt they feel.

Once you leave the MFP community and rejoin the real world then a ruined metabolism has a completely different meaning and is a real thing with real science yet completely different than what you would find in the MFP universe. So, OP, which definition were you looking for?

This...pretty much.

Showcase_Brodown

Most of the time, "ruined metabolism" is a boogey-man and meaningless term used to explain lack of weight loss progress.

I say most, because I suppose someone could have very little muscle mass left after severe dieting, plus additional slight decrease in BMR from adaptive thermogenesis.

However, this is nothing that can't be fixed, contrary to what the word "ruined" implies.

Most of the time, it's BS.