am i slowing down my metabolism?

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jaci232
jaci232 Posts: 48 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hi!
so from january 2010 - july 2010 i'd been eating around 1300 calories a day (i'm only about 5'1'' or 5'2''), and i was consistently losing weight each week. i hit a plateau in june/early july so i bumped up my calories to about 1500 a day (not incl exercise cals) from july '10 til last week. it didn't really do anything for my plateau..didn't gain, didn't lose. so as of last week i decided to go back to 1300 and "confuse" my body. well, it worked! i've dropped about 3 pounds in the last week!!!

am i eating enough calories though?? i'm worried that i may slow down my metabolism by not eating enough calories. i can't seem to lose weight unless i dip down to 1200 or 1300 calories a day, though. thoughts?

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  • abyt42
    abyt42 Posts: 1,358 Member
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    I'm 5'5" and my daily allotment according to mfp is 1200 (based, of course, on my goals.) So, hopefully, there's nothing dangerous about eating at that level....
  • balfonso
    balfonso Posts: 370 Member
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    I'm around the same height as you and eat that much most days and I'm still dropping. :smile:
  • sajar_06
    sajar_06 Posts: 173 Member
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    Hey, 1200 calories is the minimum do not go under if you can help it. I am 5 foot tall and I did not eat my exercise calories either and hit plateaus three time during the weight loss process. That will happen just keep mixing things up and maybe up the cardio only to burn the fat and not build muscle. The body has to recalculate itself during weight loss process. Hang in there. God Bless, brenda
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
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    It looks like you have what, 15 pounds, to lose? What you did is 'zig zagging calories' but for longer periods. You may need to do that regularly in order to lose those last few pounds. Your body really doesn't want to let go of them, so you need to reassure your metabolism that it will get enough fuel (it's really all about hormone production). If you continue to eat at 1500+ and then drop down to 1300 for a bit, you might be able to lose the weight without slowing your metabolism significantly.
  • raymj61
    raymj61 Posts: 142
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    I haven't actually plateau'd yet but I have that same thing going on and the wt loss has slowed down some. I think some of it may be that as we get closer to what should be our natural weight, the pounds are gonna come off a little slower. But this is good to know because if I do ever totally hit a wall, I may try mixing it up as you did
  • canstey
    canstey Posts: 118
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    hi!
    so from january 2010 - july 2010 i'd been eating around 1300 calories a day (i'm only about 5'1'' or 5'2''), and i was consistently losing weight each week. i hit a plateau in june/early july so i bumped up my calories to about 1500 a day (not incl exercise cals) from july '10 til last week. it didn't really do anything for my plateau..didn't gain, didn't lose. so as of last week i decided to go back to 1300 and "confuse" my body. well, it worked! i've dropped about 3 pounds in the last week!!!

    am i eating enough calories though?? i'm worried that i may slow down my metabolism by not eating enough calories. i can't seem to lose weight unless i dip down to 1200 or 1300 calories a day, though. thoughts?

    Yes you are "slowing" your metabolism down but not in the way you think. It is normal for you to need fewer calories to maintain your lifestyle as you lose weight or in reverse, you need more calories per day to maintain your lifestyle the more weight you have because you are moving more weight around and your organs have to work a little harder.

    From your post it sounds like you have been on a relatively fixed calories-in diet of 1300 per day, plus or minus. With the amount of weight you have already lost, your weight loss will slow down due to a lower BMR+lifestyle caloric need if you don't use additional exercise (and not eat all the calories) to maintain the same daily deficit as when you started. You may also not be able to maintain the same deficit as when you started without feeling extra hungry all the time because you have less fat reserves to draw from to make up the daily deficit.

    It seems reasonable that your weight loss after the plateau may have been coincedental to your calorie shifting. Maybe you changed how much exercise you were doing such that your Total Daily Energy Expenditure was what changed during that time?

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