Fixing a screwed metabolism?

psuLemon

I'm talking weight loss. I need to get my metabolism moving again. I'm not looking for all of those little tips which may or may not actually make any difference in 'speeding up' my metabolism like caffeine, green tea, frequent meal timing etc.

Well reapiring your metabolism requires you to increase lean muscle mass so you would eat at your maintenance calories or even a slight surplus. This allows for muscle to grow which will also help you burn more body fat so you end up doing body recomp. If you want to lose weight than a deficit is required. And when you have a deficit you cant increase lean muscle mass. So like i said, you can either increase your metabolism and cut body fat or lose weight and burn calories through exercise. So if you definitley want weight loss we need to figure out your bmr and tdee and then create a small deficit (.5 lbs per week ). But in general i tend to see people under eating in these situations.

heybales

While I do not have the answer, I can say that I am in the same boat as you. I run regularly, about 30 miles a week at the moment and I've run 3 marathons over the last couple of years. I also go to the gym regularly and do weights and cardio.
I gained about 10 pounds in the last few months and just started to count my calories to see what I'm doing wrong. After all, everything is a simple math equation, right? calories in, calories burned.

I can say that I have not altered my diet and it appears that I regularly eat 1200 (net)) a day. I believe my metabolism is a bit screwy as well.

Please read and discover yourself too, before you do harm.

This
I don't know if this thread is much help, but ...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/174065-starvation-mode-is-real-and-ugly

And this
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux

Because eating 1200 with exercise (no comment as to you eating exercise calories back, so I'm guessing not) means you are in the same boat or worse, because that is a lot of exercise.

daydreamernyc

Please read and discover yourself too, before you do harm.

This
I don't know if this thread is much help, but ...
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/174065-starvation-mode-is-real-and-ugly

And this
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux

Because eating 1200 with exercise (no comment as to you eating exercise calories back, so I'm guessing not) means you are in the same boat or worse, because that is a lot of exercise.

Thank you for the response. How do you know if you are in starvation mode?

ps - i do eat exercise calories back.

heybales

Thank you for the response. How do you know if you are in starvation mode?

ps - i do eat exercise calories back.

Good to know.

So only possible issues would be:
Accuracy of BMR which maintenance and goal calories is based on.
Accuracy of maintenance calories based on activity level selected.
Accuracy of calories burned in exercise.

If all those possible inaccuracies were stacked on the wrong side to cause an unsafe deficit or too low goal, you'd probably see the same effects commented on in those links.
And you could test some of those effects too, just in case you never had a bing day for instance, to discover if you upped the weight more than the food you even ate.

Outside of the effects, you can have a BMR test done. I've noticed that many companies that do the VO2max tests or stress tests, will also do a much cheaper BMR type test. That way they can use most of the equipment, but because you just lay there, much cheaper usually.

And then if the result of that is way off the normal bell curve ranges suggested by sites, worth investigating more.

If you have none of those effects, then those inaccuracies are probably stacked on the right side so you actually aren't in the deficit it might appear to be.

daydreamernyc

Thank you for the response. How do you know if you are in starvation mode?

ps - i do eat exercise calories back.

Good to know.

So only possible issues would be:
Accuracy of BMR which maintenance and goal calories is based on.
Accuracy of maintenance calories based on activity level selected.
Accuracy of calories burned in exercise.

If all those possible inaccuracies were stacked on the wrong side to cause an unsafe deficit or too low goal, you'd probably see the same effects commented on in those links.
And you could test some of those effects too, just in case you never had a bing day for instance, to discover if you upped the weight more than the food you even ate.

Outside of the effects, you can have a BMR test done. I've noticed that many companies that do the VO2max tests or stress tests, will also do a much cheaper BMR type test. That way they can use most of the equipment, but because you just lay there, much cheaper usually.

And then if the result of that is way off the normal bell curve ranges suggested by sites, worth investigating more.

If you have none of those effects, then those inaccuracies are probably stacked on the right side so you actually aren't in the deficit it might appear to be.

Thank you so much, this is really helpful!

NitaCB

While I do not have the answer, I can say that I am in the same boat as you. I run regularly, about 30 miles a week at the moment and I've run 3 marathons over the last couple of years. I also go to the gym regularly and do weights and cardio.
I gained about 10 pounds in the last few months and just started to count my calories to see what I'm doing wrong. After all, everything is a simple math equation, right? calories in, calories burned.

I can say that I have not altered my diet and it appears that I regularly eat 1200 (net)) a day. I believe my metabolism is a bit screwy as well.

I had blood work done about 2 months back so I know my thyroid is fine. I'd be interested to learn what you discover.

So do you mean to say that you have yours set to 1200 and eat all of your exercise calories? Do you have a HRM or Garmin to measure accurately how much you burn while running? I've just got mine so I'm glad to finally have an accurate number to be working with. You probably need to increase your goal. My goal is set at 1350 at the moment, but if this isn't working I may try upping it slightly. Apparently (according to the experts and not from my own unsuccessful experiences!) you need a smaller deficit if you don't have a lot to lose. More like 300 or so.

But like you, I never would have expected that eating at a deficit and doing the running that I do would result in a gain. I thought at the least you'd just stay the same. Alas no...

heybales

Do you have a HRM or Garmin to measure accurately how much you burn while running? I've just got mine so I'm glad to finally have an accurate number to be working with.

Which Garmin did you end up getting?

lilsassymom

bump

NitaCB

Do you have a HRM or Garmin to measure accurately how much you burn while running? I've just got mine so I'm glad to finally have an accurate number to be working with.

Which Garmin did you end up getting?

I got the Forerunner 405CX. It only just arrived a few days ago, so I'm still learning my way around it. But I'm really loving having the accurate numbers to work with, and it totally brings out my inner running geek!

heybales

I got the Forerunner 405CX. It only just arrived a few days ago, so I'm still learning my way around it. But I'm really loving having the accurate numbers to work with, and it totally brings out my inner running geek!

I was curious about Garmins fix to the x05 series to really base calorie burn on the HR, and not weight/pace. My 305 does it that way, so not nearly as accurate.

Anyway, the 405 and 310 can have accuracy problems if you pick the wrong activity level, so really readup on how that is to be set.

A great utility that I like more than Garmin's stuff is SportTracks 3
http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/

Upload the Garmin workout. Totally configurable for what you want to see, and record extra info if desired.
It can then sync up to several sites if there is a desire to share workouts, and it's open API so some cool add-ons available.

katehojo37

You should try www.choosemyplate.gov. start worrying about healthy eating instead of counting calories. I learned that we need our calories to sustain energy, so cutting the calories you might be missing out on important vitamins and nutrients!

ZombieSlayer

It may have been said but, if it has, it bears repeating.

If you've been under eating for a long time, even by a small amount, you may gain weight before you start losing... and this is healthy.

Get your body back on an even, healthy keel... then think about body composition (not weight loss).