How do I go about fixing my metabolism?

snixxit

I really think I've messed up my metabolism. I've gone about losing weight in unhealthy ways and set myself for failure by eating 400-800 calories and then being so hungry after a couple weeks that I give up and binge eat for a week or two and then go back and it's just this awful cycle. It's been going on for a couple years. I did this because whenever I see someone losing weight in a healthy way, it seems like it takes forever and I'm a very impatient person. But since it's been years and it's obviously not working out, I'm willing to really try this time.

I'm scared to see the numbers go up really fast on the scale after I switch to eating more, so I was thinking, would it be alright is I just ate 1000 calories a day to start off with for the first week or so? And then raised it by 100 calories at a time until I got to a reasonable intake? Or would it be better to get it over with and just start right away at my recommended intake? Should I be doing anything else to get it back to somewhat normal as soon as possible?

If it helps, I'm female, 5'4 & 143 lbs (As of today. It ranges from about 142-147)

SKME2013

Hi, I sympathise with your feelings as patience is not one of my virtues! I am not a doctor, so I can not comment on how easily one can mess up one's metabolism.

When it comes to weightloss though, I believe losing slower is better than rushing it.

First thing I would do is to calculate my TDEE and BMR. Here is a link that might be helpful:

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/how-many-calories-on-a-non-fast-day/

If you are staying within your BMI (the amount of calories your body needs as a minimum to purely exist) and your TDEE ( which is your daily energy expenditure) you should lose weight. The closer you eat to your TDEE the longer it will take you to lose weight. If you go over your TDEE you will gain weight. Keep in mind though, these calculations are approximations.

I know there are a thousand ways of losing weight and everyone swears by their own "diets". I personally was very successful in losing 8kg in 12 weeks by following the 5:2 fasting, mixing it up with 4:3 ( 3 days fasting and 4 days eating within my TDEE) and occassionally switching to ADF (alternate day fasting).

What I like about the fasting method is that a) it does not cost you any money, so no buying of sliming products and b) you eat relatively normally on your non fast days.

Here is a link to the fast diet website that gives you tons of information (no need to buy the book as there is all the information on the website):

http://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/

The other thing that really helped me is to a) log ALL of my food on myfitnesspal and if in doubt over-estimate my intake. If I can, I weigh the food. The reason is that it helped me to realise how easy it is to over-eat and to under-estimate those little innocent looking cookies... b) I started to have a closer look at what I was eating, not only the quantity and I started to cut out as many empty calories as possible. I.e. No more Coke for me... No more sugar in my coffee, inf fact I am a tea and water total now. Boring...but it helps.

I also started to cut out as much processed food as I possible could without going bonkers. I am eating ten times more veggies these days as I ever did. The beauty about eating veggies is that they fill you up and they do not have that many calories. Now there is a limit for me re the amount of veggies that I can swallow, therefore I started to make myself a veggie breakfast smoothie. I am "hiding" 400g of spinach in a cup of blueberries (makes it sweeter) and blend the whole thing with 250ml of unsweetened Almond milk. (30 cal). Sometimes I throw some left over brussel sprouts or asparagus in the mix. This way I know I get all my micro nutrients and believe it or not, it actually tastes quite nicely.

I also upped my exercise. Personally, I strongly believe that the amount of food and calories control the weight and exercise is for fitness. One needs to do tons of exercise to lose a pound of weight, but you "only" need to under-eat by 3500 cal per week to lose a pound on the scale.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you the best of success and patience!

Stef.

SezxyStef

I doubt you broke your metabolism.

Enter your goals for weight loss which I suggets at 1/2lb - 1lb a week and eat the calories MFP suggests. Weight and measure your food to ensure accurate logging.

The weight will come off.