How to raise your metabolism?

kukspuks

Ok lets say you burn 700 calories at the gym, but misjudge your portion sizes at home, so you get an extra 100 calories per meal. That's 300 extra calories per day for seven days. So, 2,100 calories a week. Now, you burn 4,900 calories at the gym per week. This is good, you're at a calorie deficit at this point. However, what are you eating? How often are you eating? How strenuous is your workout?

Science says people generally have similar metabolic rates, so unless your whole family is a medical anomaly, then you're missing something. Also, science says people notoriously underestimate the amount they eat. Are you logging everything that goes into your mouth? Do you use a food scale?
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Conversely, you might be overestimating. When I started tracking my food, I realized that I was only getting 400-800 calories total a day. I didn't realize that. I ate one meal a day and worked out, but I wasn't losing anything. I kept thinking it was that I was eating too much, because the meal a day I ate wasn't healthy, so I'd try to be a little more healthy, but I still wasn't losing anything. It took me coming here and logging everything to realize that I wasn't eating enough. I talked to my doctor about it, and I realized that I really was putting myself into starvation mode and my body was holding on to what I had for dear life--which actually made me gain weight and keep it on. SO, I am living proof that eating less calories can actually cause weight gain instead of loss. So, maybe you're eating too little, your whole family might be, and mistakenly thinking you're eating enough/too much. It's so crazy, but true. I started trying to up my calorie intake and all of a sudden, my waist size is going down. I guess look at how you're tracking. People's ideas about how they eat can be so completely different from reality. Take a look at it. Eating less can really slow your metabolism down a lot, I think.

I've heard that too. My BFF has that way of dieting and I keep trying to get her to be more healthy, not only eat 500 calories a day. She did lose weight but it was only water. Her fat was being stored up to keep her alive. Perhaps we ARE eating too little. Thanks for the advice though.

kukspuks

You can either change sex, get younger, or exercise.

In your case, getting younger wouldn't work anyway.

Are you saying men poop more? O.o

No. As has already been indicated, defacation and metabolic rate are not in any logical manner connected.

Men have a higher metabolic rate than women. That's why they can eat more and stay lean.

I think IS is suggesting you look at your exercise routine. When you say you spend 2 hours exercising, what do you do? That doesn't sound like a very productive use of time?

I wasn't being that helpful, this early on a Sunday. I only read the first post.

Rude.... :P

geebusuk

What calorie deficit are you working at?

How do you work out calories burnt from exercise?

Of course, as ever, it'd be useful we could see your diary.

not sure if adding some of these to your diet would help...?

In the majority of cases the difference is so small to be irrelevant, from what I've seen. However that wouldn't sell magazines/get views on websites.