How can I reboot my metabolism?

trysha1231

Hello!
I think I have stalled my metabolism by eating too few calories and jumping straight into being too strict! I started about 3 weeks ago 'cleansing' myself with and all protein/liquid diet for the first two days then the next three days all soft and lean proteins, plus lots of water, well as exercising everyday. I lost about four pounds this first week, which I am sure was a lot of water. The next two weeks I have been staying within my 1200 calorie diet, eating mainly lean proteins with some complex carbs thrown in and some veggies, lots of water again as well as exercising everyday. No weight would come off, and it would even fluctuate UP and down! Ugh.
Looking back at my food log, I think I made the mistake of not eating enough, basically not eating back my exercise calories and in the process I think I have 'broken' my metabolism. I am frustrated!
I would love to hear any suggestions anyone has on the best way to 'reboot' myself and get back on track to weight loss!
Thank you!!

Altruista75

I believe I'm suffering from the same issue and would love to hear feedback regarding this as well!! Trust me, I know your frustration on this!!!

Queenbee412

I am having the same issues. I started reading "Master Your Metabolism". I am determined to win!

Drendren

Give a listen to these guys--> http://www.fat2fitradio.com/2012/02/fat-2-fit-139-breaking-those-nasty-weight-loss-plateaus/
They have very healthy and practical advice.

cindy4mica

Eat more! Have a "cheat" day. I *swear* it works. If my weigh-loss becomes stagnant, I just eat whatever I want for a couple of days and I start to lose again. It's a win-win situation!

shaycat

Eat more! Have a "cheat" day. I *swear* it works. If my weigh-loss becomes stagnant, I just eat whatever I want for a couple of days and I start to lose again. It's a win-win situation!

I tried this. I gained weight.
I try sticking to low calories ( not that low but within my goal) I still dont lose.

howeclectic

Its extremely unlikely that your metabolism is the cause. There are SOOO many factors that can be in play. If you just started exercise, you can be just converting fat to muscle. New exercise routines can also cause muscles to retain more water as well. Also.. as a woman, as your monthly cycle progresses your body will release and hold on to water making your weight fluctuate throughout the month. Beyond these things, its also a good idea to make sure you are properly measuring your food. I use a scale and measure everything i eat. Even doing this.. i've had 2-3 week periods where the numbers didin't move. I didn't change anything i was doing and just kept the routine up. Eventually the weight just started falling off without me changing a thing. Sometimes our bodies just need to readjust after losses and it seems to come in spurts.

mallory3411

Eat more! Have a "cheat" day. I *swear* it works. If my weigh-loss becomes stagnant, I just eat whatever I want for a couple of days and I start to lose again. It's a win-win situation!

I tried this. I gained weight.
I try sticking to low calories ( not that low but within my goal) I still dont lose.

You say you gained weight... was that the next day? Don't weigh everyday... weight changes daily and hourly. Weigh once a week.

Spike days work for me as well. Eat at your maintance calories for a few weeks and than restart. Eat at your BMR, not below. If you don't eat enough you mess up your body.

You can't "reboot" your metabolism... you aren't a computer. You can slowly fix it but it takes time and may cause weight gain at the start.

Sl1ghtly

Restart.

Balanced diet, mild deficit, excersize. It's really not difficult. Unless you make it difficult by overloading the system with various cleanses, detoxes, miracle cures, magic pills, food phobias, etc.etc...

michael300891

There are some things you can eat that boost metabolism - not necessarily "reboot" but I would recommend eating as much as possible to fire your metabolism up:

Green tea - By far the most scientifically backed product to boost metabolism - you can buy 300 capsules for like £10!
Chilli
Caffeine
L-Carnitine??? - Not sure about this one but ive heard its good and contained in a lot of fat burners
Protein - You burn around 30% of the calories breaking this down before it can be used.

Also little things cause your metabolism to ramp up: Eat regularly not massive meals, eat plenty of protein uhhh..
Oh yeh, bit difficult but try and eat a lot of your daily water from ice... Studies have shown that you get a 10% increase in calorie burn and obviously an increase in metabolism by eating all your daily water from ice.... (dont try all haha). - It functions in a similar way that being cold increases BMR via thermogenesis through muscle contractions (shivering) - Your body needs to heat the water up to core temperature

Hope this Helps.

EDIT - How did I fail to mention my main point: EXERCISE IS THE BEST WAY TO INCREASE METABOLISM BY FAR

taso42

CTRL-ALT-DELETE

michael300891

Restart.

Balanced diet, mild deficit, excersize. It's really not difficult. Unless you make it difficult by overloading the system with various cleanses, detoxes, miracle cures, magic pills, food phobias, etc.etc...

This is also true in reflection to my previous comment, but green tea, chilli and cafeine are definate winners, as I said, not to sure about L-carnitine.

susanswan

Hi,
I'm not an expert on anything, but what I do know is you are NOW doing the right thing. What's done is done. Start fresh now. Eat your allotted calories and eat at least half or most of your exercise calories PERIOD. I think you already understand that part. So bite the bullet, and do that for sure.

Next is your exercise. Whatever is your exercise be sure to do it every day. Even if it is just a 30 minute walk some days. EXERCISE DAILY.

Your food content is the big controversy. You have to do what feels right to you. My 2 cents? I am all about whole foods. They fuel your body. Cut out as much "junk" food as you can (junk is preservatives, refined carbs, empty calories, salt, sugar, chemicals). Read labels. If your food doesn't contain ingredients that you can buy at the store to make the product yourself, don't buy it and DON'T EAT it. Your body will function and run more smoothly if you eat REAL food. In the past few months I've gone to 80% fresh veggies and fruit. I eat them raw, steamed, or frozen. Salt and sugar are your enemies here. They cause a cascade of chemical reactions in your body that only hold onto fluids (your weight loss enemy!)

Also be sure to drink enough WATER. My advice, which is my own opinion is to NOT drink chemically sweetened drinks. I like stevia as it is a natural product that doesn't cause an insulin spike.

These are just things that have worked for me. And my latest gold mine in the diet and health department was reading EAT TO LIVE by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. you can check out his website to see if it makes any sense to you. www.drfuhrman.com. I am all about healthy eating and this is what works for me. I have chosen it as a lifestyle choice. I totally believe in feeding my body what it wants. It is surprising that eating the most nutritious food is the most satisfying to my body. Such as the more junk food I eat, the more I want. And 1 cookie or 100 cookies will not satisfy me.

My background is I have had hypothyroid disease since age 19 (I'm 54 today). I've always been heavy, 205 was my heaviest. Always was a slave to sugar and junk food. Always hated and never exercised. Today I am 136.6 pounds and wear a size 4. I came late to learning how to take care of myself, but even this old gal can do it and so can you. The number one secret is NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER GIVE UP in searching for what WORKS FOR YOU. This worked for me, you may not like it, approve of it, or want to do it. THe program that will work for you is one that you can follow.

Best of luck to you!
Susan

erijencas

I had the same problem. 2.5 months without a single pound lost and actually gained a couple pounds then I put some strength training into my routine a couple times a week and started eating more frequently throughout the day staying at or slightly above my calorie allowance including the calories earned from exercise and the weight started to come off again. I like food so I really don't concentrate on the type of foods i eat. it almost feels like I am eating all the time. i also threw in a cheat day once per week where I would significantly exceed my calorie allowance. 4 weeks in a row now with weight loss greater than 1 pound.

sssygirl

Eat 6 small meals..about every 2-3 hrs. Make sure you eat enough protein, carbs and fats.

Also lift weights.

Add in spices like cayenne and cinnamon to your foods.

jackpotclown

CTRL-ALT-DELETE

I actually said that out loud before opening the topic ~~~~~hilarious

aiyana1228

Without seeing your diary its hard to be specific. Here are a couple of thoughts. I don't think you can mess up your metabolism that fast. I thnk that happens from long term bad eating. I am going to guess that its something else. I went through about a month platuea so I feel your pain. Here are some things to keep in mind as you work though this. Its what helped for me.

1. Are you measuring things or just eyeballing them. At least for a while you should try to weight and measure everything. If I log 1/4 cup of a food and its actually 1/2 Cup that all adds up.
2. Are you acurately counting excercise? HRM=acurate, MFP DB=not always accurate. If you like me count on this I assume that I am burning less than it gives me.
3. Are you eating healthy real food vs stuff in boxes. I truely believe that the preservatives in foods cause you to retain excess weight. The less packages stuff I eat the better I am able to loose.
Are you drinking all of your water? pop=issue above. If I stay to one diet pop a day things are better.
Are you eating adequate whole grains (fiber) so you don't need that liquid clean myself out stuff?
I have a friend who is a professional nutritionist that works at one of the local hospitals. Here are some things that she has advised me. She said to try to even your daily food out throughout the day. Try to eat something and get some movement multipple times per day. The actual medical research really does say it is better for peak performance of our body to keep our sugar levels level throughout the day. (I tend to eat a good breakfast and a small lunch to give myself a lot of calories for dinner and she fussed at me for this). She also said 1200 calorie minimum per day but she did not advise eating back all of the excercise calories. ( I started working to my daily goal knowing if I go a bit over I am OK but not eating when I was not hungry to get those calories in.)
If your not doing some weight training with cardio that is supposed to really help your body burn calories. We started doing 30 day shred and another core kind of workout at work 3 times per week and that may have also made a difference.
I adjusteed some of this and started losing a half a pound a week and last week it went back up to a pound.

SassyCalyGirl

CTRL-ALT-DELETE

I actually said that out loud before opening the topic ~~~~~hilarious

Ditto!

ashnm88

Eat more! Have a "cheat" day. I *swear* it works. If my weigh-loss becomes stagnant, I just eat whatever I want for a couple of days and I start to lose again. It's a win-win situation!

I've thrown in a cheat day here and there and it works, but I'm not strict on everything I have. This is my lifestyle change and if I want for example some chips, I'll have some. Moderations is key for everything, watch portions and get plenty of exercise and water!

ashnm88

Eat 6 small meals..about every 2-3 hrs. Make sure you eat enough protein, carbs and fats.

Also lift weights.

Add in spices like cayenne and cinnamon to your foods.

I do the small meals a day. For as long as I can remember. Strength training is good. I get that on the machines at Curves with a bit of cardio. Then I do high intensity on my elliptical as well. Keep it mixed up.

karisma81

If you are close to your ideal weight (which from your picture, it seems like you are), weight loss happens much more slowly. At 1200 calories, MY predicted weight loss is 0.3 pounds a week!

Be patient. Keep building up your fitness and throw some strength training in there, keep eating healthy. Take your measurements with a measuring tape (I got one at Walmart for $3) and if your waist size hasn't changed in a couple of months, then switch things up with High Intensity Interval Training or Lifting Heavy. This is my plan for myself.

trysha1231

Thank you all so much for your information. And CNTL-ALT DELETE had me LOL for real.

I have been measuring my food with a scale and with measuring tools this last week. I drink about 64 oz of water, and I only drink water and or coffee.
I have beed staying away from processed foods (I cheated last night and had some pizza!) and have stuck with making all my own meals, ground turkey, quinoa, eggs etc as well as 1% milk with Syntrex protein to up my protein intake each day. Today and tomorrow I am going to 'go easy' on myself and not be so strict, then jump back to work on Monday with a new eating plan that will include some more complex carbs and still more lean protein.
The good news is, that even though the scale has not moved I can see a slight difference in my body and some muscle tone, so I am hoping that I have increased my muscle and that is a part of the scale not moving.
Just FYI - I am a former weight loss surgery patient, I was once 268 lbs, at one time I was down to 125, and maintained between 130-138 for the last five years. It has been this past year that my weight has creeped up on me and I am very scared of going back to how big I was. I want to make sure I change for life and stay healthy for my family.

jetscreaminagain

CTRL-ALT-DELETE

I actually said that out loud before opening the topic ~~~~~hilarious

I was thinking push the on button and hold it for a while. Sure, it takes longer, but you want it to really work, right?

stormieweather

Weight loss doesn't happen in a nice straight line, ie: every Tuesday before weigh in, 1 pound goes poof!

How do I know this? I learned it the hard way. I spent 8 months jumping from one calorie goal to another, changing workouts, eliminating this food or that one, all to no real avail. What I finally figured out is this...my body ain't special. It works like all the other ones, and if I'm 100% sure I'm eating at a deficit, there WILL be a weight loss. See, our bodies HAVE to have XXXX calories to function and if we don't give them that much, they will take it from our fat. Eventually. My body (and a lot of other bodies) lags behind the deficit. So lets say I "should" have lost 1 pound one week, based on my deficit, and 1 pound the next week and 1 pound the week after. My body holds on as long as possible before utilizing the fat, so this loss I "should" have is not reflected on the scale. 2-3 weeks later, the scale FINALLY drops and it drops the whole 2-3 pounds. This is called a "whoosh". http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
So now, I stick to the plan. I weigh and measure and log everything and do not have unbridled cheat days (I have rare days I eat at maintenence, which is good enough for me). And I wait for the scale to catch up. And it always does. I do not undereat either, this isn't a race, it's a marathon. Pace yourself and create good habits that will help you maintain the right weight when you get there.

Patience, patience and patience. :flowerforyou:

cowgirlslikeus86

I lost 10 lbs the first week then gained 3 back for 2 weeks. I had to mess around with my calories befor I found out that just adding 50 calories daily plus eating my exercise calories back was my magic#

I have done two Very Low Calorie Diets(VLCD's) and have a slight metabolisim issue too. Don't worry. Just try something different for 2 weeks and if it doesn't work try something else. Put your scale away for that duration and only weigh once a week. My sister(Who is doing this with me) had the same plateau issue. I told her to up her calories from 1200 to 1500 and it made a huge differance for her.