Speeding up your Metabolism Through Exercise?

kls13la

Let me see if I can articulate what I want to ask…sorry so long.

I started my weight loss on May 24 at 5’6” and 146 lbs. This is the first time I’ve ever counted calories, and I was basically completely sedentary when I started. (Desk job, no exercise outside of the everyday walking I do from living in the city.) My goal was to lose 15-20 pounds.

MFP recommended 1200 calories a day, which after about one day I figured out was way too low for me. So, I upped to 1400 pretty much immediately and tried to eat that plus at least some of my exercise calories every day. I also started exercising six days a week. The first month I did a combination of Couch to 5K and 30 Day Shred. As far as my eating initially, typically I had one day where I blasted out of my calories (oops) in the 2500 range, maybe one day around 1300 (I’m not typically very hungry on days I don’t exercise), and the remainder of the days from 1400-1800. In other words, I eat when I am hungry. If I’m really hungry, I eat more. If I’m not, I don’t. But I do try to eat above my BMR.

At the end of June, I started Insanity. Pretty quickly I realized I needed more food, so I upped my calories to 1500, and again ate back at least some, if not all, of my exercise calories. Again, it varies depending on my hunger during the day, but a typical week is 1500-1900 per day with one day exceeding my calorie goals. I’ve never felt like I was starving myself. In fact, it’s been amazing for me to realize how much you can eat on 1500 calories! I’ve been feeling really good. And believe me, I don't like feeling sick, so I listen closely to what my body tells me!

Throughout, I’ve lost a little over a pound a week. Now I’m down to 131 lbs, and pretty close to goal. My BMR is 1345 and sedentary TDEE for me to maintain is 1614. (I’m not quite ready to hit maintenance yet, but I am wanting to slow down this train.)

Here is my question:

Over the past couple days, I’ve been getting the same feeling I did at the end of June that I need to eat more food. So, I’ve upped my calories again to 1600 plus exercise calories. Presumably that should be basically eating at maintenance plus my exercise calories, right? (For now, I like logging my exercise calories and just eating them back as opposed to using one of the activity type formulas. For the record, TDEE maintenance at moderately active for me is 2085, which aligns up with a daily burn of 400 calories.)

I’m curious about why this is happening, though. Obviously the Insanity workouts have gotten longer in Month 2, but I’m not burning an insane amount of calories – typically around 400 is what my HRM is telling me. And truth be told, I’m getting bored with Insanity, so the last few days I’ve taken a break from it. Sunday and today I did a level of Ripped in 30 and yesterday I ran 3 ½ miles, and this really started hitting me yesterday. I could see if I was burning a huge amount of calories, but burning 200-400 is no different than what I was doing back when I started in May. (I do have an HRM.) If anything, I’ve lost some steam and am burning fewer calories than I did when I first started all this with so much gusto.

So, my question is, why, after six weeks of fairly consistent eating where I was feeling perfectly fine am I so hungry all of a sudden? Have I kick started my metabolism with the exercise after years of being so lazy? Is that possible? Will it continue? Has anyone else had to increase your calories as you've gone along? Sorry if this is a dumb question, but it seems so counterintuitive to me to be upping my calories like this, especially when I feel like 1500 calories isn't a particularly small amount to eat daily.

jfan175

When I was doing P90X, I bonked a few times. One high carb meal would seem to put me back on track. Are you getting enough sleep? That can throw things off also.

kls13la

When I was doing P90X, I bonked a few times. One high carb meal would seem to put me back on track. Are you getting enough sleep? That can throw things off also.

Yeah, my sleep has been fine. Really nothing has changed except that my body is clearly telling me to eat more.