Did I screw up my metabolism?

momma_hav

you have to remember that as you have added weights/strength training you will building/rebuilding your muscle mass. There will be times that you will basically exchanging fat pounds to muscle pounds. And don't base on weighing every day. Weigh-in with yourself once a week for "Official" counting. and use that for your guide 3-4 weeks at the same weight is a plateau. I can fluctuate as much as 1-2 pounds daily but over a weeks time it settles out.

Also, what is your water intake? Current thinking is to take your weight , divide by two and that is the number of ounces you should be drinking daily. Now the first few days you will need to pee like crazy (sorry to be crude but...) Soon, when your body realizes it will be getting enough water that slows back down to more normal trips to the bathroom. I had slowed down my loss to a less than half a pound a week for about 3 weeks, the nutritionist came to our group and talked about this. After two weeks drinking water on her recommendations, I lost 8 lbs in the next two weeks.

5'8" stated APr 1st 322 and now 280.

TheFitnessTutor

If you're not measuring your food with a scale then it's time to take it to the next level of seriousness. 20 bucks or so if you don't have one already. From decades of analysis and meta-analysis we know that the number one problem is mis accounting for our intake. When we first start out, anything works because it's a change. As your body adapts, tolerances get way tighter. A random, just kinda, well you know, etc., approach will yield limited results. But it's Yin and Yang. It takes the opposite of what it takes to gain weight. Gaining weight requires no attention or specific plan, no learning, no effort, etc.. Losing weight usually involves the opposite. Sux.

Chances are you haven't messed your metabolism up, but you probably have lowered your rate more than you'd like especially if you're just now starting to lift weights. It's the trade off for losing weight fast. Your body will try to adapt to match it's environment...equilibrium...it will try for outflow to match inflow. It doesn't want to burn any more fat than it has to. And by the way you're always burning fat.

You could be experiencing water weight fluctuations or other water based phenomena.
Your scale could suck. For some reason we think they are 100% accurate.
You could be due for a reefed....i.e. higher calories, high carb for a day or two to help with hormone levels.
And yes, 10 days is not a plateau

Cryptonomnomicon

If you're not measuring your food with a scale then it's time to take it to the next level of seriousness. 20 bucks or so if you don't have one already. From decades of analysis and meta-analysis we know that the number one problem is mis accounting for our intake. When we first start out, anything works because it's a change. As your body adapts, tolerances get way tighter. A random, just kinda, well you know, etc., approach will yield limited results. But it's Yin and Yang. It takes the opposite of what it takes to gain weight. Gaining weight requires no attention or specific plan, no learning, no effort, etc.. Losing weight usually involves the opposite. Sux.

Chances are you haven't messed your metabolism up, but you probably have lowered your rate more than you'd like especially if you're just now starting to lift weights. It's the trade off for losing weight fast. Your body will try to adapt to match it's environment...equilibrium...it will try for outflow to match inflow. It doesn't want to burn any more fat than it has to. And by the way you're always burning fat.

You could be experiencing water weight fluctuations or other water based phenomena.
Your scale could suck. For some reason we think they are 100% accurate.
You could be due for a reefed....i.e. higher calories, high carb for a day or two to help with hormone levels.
And yes, 10 days is not a plateau

QFT! All of this^

blag

If you're not measuring your food with a scale then it's time to take it to the next level of seriousness. 20 bucks or so if you don't have one already. From decades of analysis and meta-analysis we know that the number one problem is mis accounting for our intake. When we first start out, anything works because it's a change. As your body adapts, tolerances get way tighter. A random, just kinda, well you know, etc., approach will yield limited results. But it's Yin and Yang. It takes the opposite of what it takes to gain weight. Gaining weight requires no attention or specific plan, no learning, no effort, etc.. Losing weight usually involves the opposite. Sux.

Chances are you haven't messed your metabolism up, but you probably have lowered your rate more than you'd like especially if you're just now starting to lift weights. It's the trade off for losing weight fast. Your body will try to adapt to match it's environment...equilibrium...it will try for outflow to match inflow. It doesn't want to burn any more fat than it has to. And by the way you're always burning fat.

You could be experiencing water weight fluctuations or other water based phenomena.
Your scale could suck. For some reason we think they are 100% accurate.
You could be due for a reefed....i.e. higher calories, high carb for a day or two to help with hormone levels.
And yes, 10 days is not a plateau

Thanks! You're response makes a lot of sense to me.

Looks like I will be heading out and getting a food scale and some more Tupperware to help plan my daily meals out more accurately.

DawnieB1977

My guess is you've been eating far more than 1300-1500 calories. A plateau just means you've been eating at maintenance so for a male of your weight maintenance level would be a lot higher than 1500 calories a day which s why I think you've been eating more than you think. I weight 186 pounds and I'm the same height and my maintenance is around 2400 calories. Without seeing your diary it's hard to look for any inaccuracies. I would suggest looking at the link below to sort out any inaccurate logging.

It is in fact pretty difficult to muck up your metabolism it normally takes years of disordered eating or a metabolic condition to do this. As for your calorie goal you should be eating more than 1500 calories (which I think you have been anyway) eating too low calories means you will lose far to much muscle mass which is a thing you really don't want to happen. Have a look at the links Good luck

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=guide+to+sexypants&page=1#posts-18361594

Rubbish. I was eating 1200 calories a day for a year, then I joined MFP. I increased to 1500 and lost more. For my level of activity 1200 wasn't enough, and with all the strength training I was doing I obviously needed more calories to build some muscle. OP, sounds like you should increase your calories a bit.

10 days isn't that long though to worry about a plateau.

I did actually mess up my metabolism from years of eating 1200 calories a day or less, but it didn't take that long to improve it.

I lost 66lbs without weighing every little thing by the way.

_Zardoz_

My guess is you've been eating far more than 1300-1500 calories. A plateau just means you've been eating at maintenance so for a male of your weight maintenance level would be a lot higher than 1500 calories a day which s why I think you've been eating more than you think. I weight 186 pounds and I'm the same height and my maintenance is around 2400 calories. Without seeing your diary it's hard to look for any inaccuracies. I would suggest looking at the link below to sort out any inaccurate logging.

It is in fact pretty difficult to muck up your metabolism it normally takes years of disordered eating or a metabolic condition to do this. As for your calorie goal you should be eating more than 1500 calories (which I think you have been anyway) eating too low calories means you will lose far to much muscle mass which is a thing you really don't want to happen. Have a look at the links Good luck

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1175494-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants?hl=guide+to+sexypants&page=1#posts-18361594

Rubbish. I was eating 1200 calories a day for a year, then I joined MFP. I increased to 1500 and lost more. For my level of activity 1200 wasn't enough, and with all the strength training I was doing I obviously needed more calories to build some muscle. OP, sounds like you should increase your calories a bit.

10 days isn't that long though to worry about a plateau.

I did actually mess up my metabolism from years of eating 1200 calories a day or less, but it didn't take that long to improve it.

[bI lost 66lbs without weighing every little thing by the way.[/b]

SO how did you know that you screwed up your metabolism? Was it tested by a Doctor?

I think the telling thing is that you say you lost 66 pounds without weighing all your food. So you can fool yourself all you like but it is unlikely that you were eating 1200 calories for a year? If you weren't weighing and measuring your food for that year you actually have no real clue how much you were eating.

DawnieB1977

I have a lot of things that don't need weighing. I ate a lot of salad, with things like ham, which is in slices, or eggs, or mini tins of tuna. If you don't weigh salad - lettuce, cucumber etc, then even if you're out, the difference is maybe 2 calories.

I under ate for years, from when I was a teenager. I lost loads of weight at university from hardly eating and carried that on into my 20s, then I joined a gym but still didn't eat much. I got really thin. Then as soon as I moved in with my now husband, I ate normally, and gained weight. Lost it all for our wedding doing the same- just living off salads - gained it all back in pregnancy because I ate normally. Did it all again, got pregnant again, gained it all back!

Then after baby no.2 I did the same, then after a year joined MFP, read the forums, realised I didn't need to starve myself, so increased my calories, ate more protein, and did loads more strength training. My body shape changed and I was back to being as thin as I'd been in my early 20s, only eating much more, and with more muscle! I'm 36 now.

I am measuring more things now, but maybe it's because I eat different things. My third baby is 15 weeks old and I want to lose what I gained in pregnancy. I still don't weigh cucumber though!

_Terrapin_

When I say I guess it's not like I eat a a meal and just throw in whatever number I want...


As I stated earlier I divide portion weights. The chicken breast is a good example, 3 breasts in one package that weight 1 pound. So in theory that's 5.33 ounces per breast which is what I will enter. In reality one may be 7 ounces, one 4 and the other 5.



As far as measuring food on the run, how do most of you do it? I'm thinking most people don't keep a scale in their back pocket.

If I want some almonds and there are 10 ounces in a pack. I will eat about a third of the pack (visually) and log 3-4 onces of them.

This seems pretty accurate to me, but something isn't working so maybe not. I do log everything I put in my mouth, and I do plan to get a digital scale for my kitchen. Thanks for the advice.

The thing I don't get is that I've changed nothing in the way I log or the food I eat. It was working great loosing a few pounds per week. The last 10 days or so the only change is lifting weights a few days and I haven't been budging on the scale.


Thank you to the people leaving the helpful comments. Your the reason I decided to ask on these forums. The other comments, thanks for wasting space on my thread.

Water retention from the weight lifting is something to consider. Your diary you provided ie eggs and mushrooms for breakfast--if you log everything you put in your mouth did you use butter/EVOO/or anything else to make the eggs and mushrooms?

A plateau is about 3 weeks for me and listen to advice when someone says to increase your cals first then peel them back gradually. Also, my maintenance cals are about twice what you're taking in, we are the same height, and age(well close I think you may be 2 decades younger then me). I lift 1 or 2 days and run 3. So, review, up your calories, weigh your food, enjoy the weight loss, expect plateaus and continue on.

DeguelloTex

Hard to believe, but it IS possible to eat TOO FEW calories, to wit, this article I found at the Everyday Health site:

If you're like most people who want to lose weight, you want to lose it fast. So you may be tempted to make drastic changes in your diet to dramatically reduce the number of calories you consume. But what you may not know is that eating too few calories can actually backfire and sabotage your weight-loss efforts.

"It would make sense to stop eating [when you are trying to lose weight], but it actually works in the opposite way," says Kimberly Lummus, MS, RD, Texas Dietetic Association media representative and public relations coordinator at the Austin Dietetic Association in Austin, Texas.

Calories and Your Health

The most effective way to lose weight is to consume fewer calories than you expend, creating a calorie deficit. But if your calorie intake dips too low, says Lummus, your body could go into starvation mode. "Your body will start to store fat because it thinks it is not going to get anything," says Lummus. "You will be at a point where your body is kind of at a standstill."

Lummus says that when your body goes into starvation mode, your metabolism slows to a crawl, burning calories as slowly as possible to conserve its energy stores. This is why people who cut their calories too much may reach a plateau and stop losing weight.

Back to me: so eat what the app tells you... from my experience, it's pretty accurate in its calculations, as long as you tell it the truth.

Ms. Lummus is stealing money with that kind of "expertise."

If your body is "at a standstill," you're eating at maintenance. Metabolic slowing means your calories out are lower than you think, but it doesn't get low enough that eating more results in your burning more calories than extra you ate. It means you're burning 100-X rather than 100 and only if you are at a pretty small deficit will this, standing alone, result in a plateau. If you're at a larger deficit, it just means you'll lose marginally more slowly, but still faster than if you ate more.

laddyboy

MFP tells me I should be eating around 2100 calories to loose weight. I started, and continue to eat around 1300-1500 calories with a lot of lean protein and it have been working great for me.

Why do you eat 1300-1500 if the daily amount is 2100?

ETA
And how do you measure your food?

Great question...my guess is not eating enough.

MelodyandBarbells

When I say I guess it's not like I eat a a meal and just throw in whatever number I want...


As I stated earlier I divide portion weights. The chicken breast is a good example, 3 breasts in one package that weight 1 pound. So in theory that's 5.33 ounces per breast which is what I will enter. In reality one may be 7 ounces, one 4 and the other 5.



As far as measuring food on the run, how do most of you do it? I'm thinking most people don't keep a scale in their back pocket.

If I want some almonds and there are 10 ounces in a pack. I will eat about a third of the pack (visually) and log 3-4 onces of them.

This seems pretty accurate to me, but something isn't working so maybe not. I do log everything I put in my mouth, and I do plan to get a digital scale for my kitchen. Thanks for the advice.

I think I see what you're saying about not using a food scale, even though I still commend the fact that you're getting one. Basically if you're reading the weight on the chicken package, you may not have weighed it yourself but someone else already weighed it for you. For me, I don't cook the entire package at once, just grab a couple chunks and weigh it. But it's still the same thing because then I don't weigh each individual serving. So long as the number of servings adds up to the calories recorded in the entire batch (I live alone), I'm good. I never weigh single packaged snacks such as 200 calories of cashew nuts; I just scan and record the whole thing.

Weighing has been especially important for me in cases where I buy a huge batch of food but only want to cook or use a portion each time. That ranch dressing that's 18 times more calories than what I put it on, rice, oil, etc. Very easy to under guesstimate all these and eat many more calories than you think you are

All that said I think the most likely reason for your stall is the water retention described above due to a new routine

Love the MFP app screen grabs. Isn't the app great!