metabolism question

gibsy

I used to have a very fast metabolism as a teen and through my early 20s. It seems to lurched to a halt in the past few years, and this is probably at least in part because of my terrible habit of not eating lunch or just inadequately snacking in the afternoon, then feeling really starving by the time dinner rolls around. I suspect my body is often working in "starvation mode" even though I always end up eating around the right amount of calories, if not too many, each day.

My question is, if I do get better about spacing my meals consistently and maintaining steady blood sugar, is there much chance my metabolism might consider going back to it's former glory? I know this is something that naturally changes with age, but my habits must be playing a role as well.

mcarter99

We burn less as we age because we move less and have less lean mass. That's all. Change those and you 'fix' your problem.

wftiger

Starvation mode from skipping lunch? Yeah, umm, NO. Starvation mode only happens when you have less than 10% body fat and exercise like crazy with very few calories.

Everyone's metabolism slows as they get older. It is a fact of life. Exercise and muscle mass will up it not eating. People just use starvation mode as a reason to stuff a cupcake in their face. Do the research, if you eat once a day or 15 that will not speed up your metabolism. Pump some iron and watch your portions.

kierstin1976

My metabolism slowed down (I'm 36) and now it's moving fast again. I have to watch how much cardio I do. I eat several small meals a day.

dg09

Meal frequency is irrelevant. People wouldn't be getting ripped doing LeanGains if the only way to lose fat was to eat 6 meals a day.

It boils down to getting the right amount of calories in a day, be it in 7 meals or just 1. If you're having a problem with losing, it's probably an error in terms of calories consumed or how much calories you burn a day. Are you sure you're measuring your food properly? Do you know your maintenance calories?

gibsy

All I know is that I was stick thin until I turned 24, having never given one s**t about how many calories I was consuming, then suddenly I wasn't anymore.

Yeah sure, it's all about calories in vs. calories out, but it isn't entirely that simple.

And meal frequency may be irrelevant in terms of what calories do once they're in there, but it is NOT irrelevant to how hungry you are and how much your body is panicking because it thinks it isn't getting enough then wants you to binge at night because you didn't eat enough during the day. Eat a tiny breakfast and skip lunch? A gigantic, rich dinner goes down like a small salad and I'm still desperately hungry, and feel completely screwed up the next day and the day after that, and on and on until I've actually made a serious effort to balance out the frequency of my meals for a couple of days. OK yeah, the result is that more calories are probably consumed, but the point is that frequency matters. My body panics about extended periods of low blood sugar, whether or not that is called "starvation mode" it is a problem. I know I am more sensitive to this than most of my friends. I crash hard, I turn into a rage monster, it's not pretty.


And wftiger, No need to be condescending. You have no idea how much I despise cupcakes :laugh:

gibsy

For the record, I don't have a *problem* with measurements. Since I started paying attention to calories in, calories out, I've lost and then over a period of having lost interest in this and forgotten about it, I maintained. Meal frequency is always an issue, either way. My body panics about blood sugar at the drop of a hat. I suspect everything would balance out and be a lot easier if I was better at keeping my blood sugar steady.

MaddiJoseph

I think what this really comes down to is the person. Definitely up your excercise, but do what works for you. I don't get to the gym much, but I walk at least 5 times a week for 10-20 minute walks a few times those days totalling to 40 minutes. I also don't buy into the frequency of meals impacting it, but loading up because your starving doesn't do you any good either. I eat a few snacks during the day at work and a slightly big dinner with my non-dieting husband. So far it's worked for me, but every body is different and will handle things differently. Try it all and stick with what works! good luck!

pk6868

What do you mean you have to watch how much cardio you do?Just looking for some tips-- I am 44 and would like to see my metabolism increase. I workout 4 times/week. Most days I do 40-50 minutes of cardio (elliptical/bike/treadmill) and 3 days/week do about 15 minutes of strength training. I try to stick to about 1300-1500 calories per day. But I am at a standstill and have not lost any weight in over 3 weeks.

theycallmebubba

if i skip lunch and inadequately snack then I am pretty hungry at dinner too

gibsy

We burn less as we age because we move less and have less lean mass. That's all. Change those and you 'fix' your problem.

This sounds right, but it doesn't make sense in my case because as a teen the only exercise I ever got was walking 2 blocks to school and back. Once I moved out on my own, I started riding a bike as my primary means of transportation, and walking all over the place too.I put on muscle mass I'd never had before. My metabolism still slowed down. I still found I'd gain weight from foods that never seemed to make a difference before.

Anyways, I am new to this, just learning, and trying to understand how my body works. Thanks to those of you who are answering my questions without all the eye rolling.

Treesy72

When I was young and thin I worked in the weight loss industry. We were taught to think of our bodies and metabolism much like a wood furnace. It burns best and hottest when steadily fed all day in small amounts. If it has no fuel to burn then the fire goes out. Wrong or right, that's what the experts taught us.

gibsy

I'd just like to share this quote from WebMD which completely corroborates what I was asking when I started this thread.

__________


Of course, the diet advice we'd all love to hear is "Eat more and lose more weight!" But what really works is "Eat more often, and you'll lose more weight." Small, but frequent, meals help keep your metabolism in high gear, and that means you'll burn more calories overall.

****"When you put too many hours between meals, your metabolism actually slows down to compensate," says Kimball.

If you then eat a huge meal -- at the same time your metabolism is functioning as if you're starving -- your body wants to hold on to every calorie.

While this won't make much difference on an occasional basis, Kimball says, make it a way of life and it can get harder to lose or maintain weight.*****

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/make-most-your-metabolism?page=2
_______________

Everyone seems to fancy themselves an expert around here, but the evidence suggests that actually yes, meal freqency matters, and that yes in fact, I was right to think that my well over a decade long habit of going many many hours between meals and stubbornly ignoring my raging hunger and deep deep crashes before I actually eat is probably having an impact on my metabolism, and that yeah, working on that timing habit is probably going to help balance things out.

This isn't an excuse to "stuff a cupcake in my mouth." I, like pretty much everyone else here trying to figure out these concepts, am trying to understand my body so I can learn to work with it rather than against it. It's just really unhelpful for these "starvation mode is faaaake!!!!" crusaders to go around giving people false information and bad advice.

Again, thanks to everyone who shows up with patience and thoughtful suggestions. You guys are awesome.

DanaDark

We are growing in our teenage years and early twenties. The energy required to actually do that is quite large. That is why we typically have great metabolisms in our youth. Once you stop growing, that free lunch is GONE.

Usually, people still eat the same way as they did when they were growing, this means they eat many more calories than they actually need.

And skipping a meal won't bring starvation mode. That is brought on by eating way too few calories a day for a very long time.

ElizabethRoad

Well you've clearly got it all figured out for yourself, so I won't burden you with an answer. Why bother asking the question if you aren't going to listen? It's completely ridiculous to think your body is going to "panic" if you skip lunch.

dg09

Well you've clearly got it all figured out for yourself, so I won't burden you with an answer. Why bother asking the question if you aren't going to listen? It's completely ridiculous to think your body is going to "panic" if you skip lunch.

My thoughts exactly.

gibsy

Your first point is helpful, yeah, I hadn't thought of how much work your body is doing while it's growing. Totally makes sense!

But the second part? Well you're assuming I always made up those calories.... which I didn't. I gained my weight pretty much as soon as I did start making up those calories, but for many years I didn't consistently eat enough calories in a day at all, on top of poor spacing. So call it what you like, I am not attached to the term "starvation mode" but I do wish people would stop filling in the blanks and making grand expert statements about another person's history.

The only explanation that makes any sense at all for my appetite patterns is that my body is frequently panicking about whether or not I'll give it what it wants, sometimes I do, sometimes I give it more than it needs, sometimes I have dramatically undereaten. Not really on purpose, but that has been my pattern. My habit has been very unconcsiously yo-yo-like on a day by day basis for a long time. I don't care what you want to call this, it is having an impact on the kind of expectations my body is set up for. My nurse practitioner agrees, by the way. My dietician agrees. My naturopath agrees. I am not making this up in my head.

And further, if you're going to go ahead and challenege a legitimate source such as WebMD, which is citing legitimate studies, I'd like to know what your sources are.

dg09

And further, if you're going to go ahead and challenege a legitimate source such as WebMD, which is citing legitimate studies, I'd like to know what your sources are.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19943985?ordinalpos=&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.SmartSearch&log$=citationsensor

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/research-review/meal-frequency-and-energy-balance-research-review.html

Just a few off the top of my head.