what do you guys think of metabolism "reset"

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Replies

  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    The biggest reasons for weight loss plateau is not stalled or reduced metabolism, it is incorrect estimation of calories in or calories out or some combination of the two.

    My recommendation is to reduce calories further or to exercise more or mix of the two.

    It can take years of eating under BMR to enter "starvation mode" or a point where you slow your metabolism to a point where reduction in calories does not make up for eating less calories and or exercising more.

    If you want to make sure you start to lose more weight then keep eating same food and increase activity levels
    i would agree with you but my bmr is 1650 and i'm eating 1550 calories per day. and 60% of the week i'm short on my calories by 100 or 200

    Are you weighing everything that you eat? Measuring things like olive oil, condiments, sauces? Portion sizes are usually not correct on packages. Bacon is usually 2 slices instead of the three listed, oatmeal isn't a full cup, crackers are usually a few less than listed, etc... These can add up to hundreds of calories a day easily.

    Edit to add: Are you double checking everything you enter in the database? I tried to enter some frozen meatballs I ate the other day and of the 7 (exact same brand and type) listed only 1 was entered correctly. The others were half the calories or twice the serving size.
  • peopletalk
    peopletalk Posts: 519 Member
    The biggest reasons for weight loss plateau is not stalled or reduced metabolism, it is incorrect estimation of calories in or calories out or some combination of the two.

    My recommendation is to reduce calories further or to exercise more or mix of the two.

    It can take years of eating under BMR to enter "starvation mode" or a point where you slow your metabolism to a point where reduction in calories does not make up for eating less calories and or exercising more.

    If you want to make sure you start to lose more weight then keep eating same food and increase activity levels
    i would agree with you but my bmr is 1650 and i'm eating 1550 calories per day. and 60% of the week i'm short on my calories by 100 or 200

    Are you weighing everything that you eat? Measuring things like olive oil, condiments, sauces? Portion sizes are usually not correct on packages. Bacon is usually 2 slices instead of the three listed, oatmeal isn't a full cup, crackers are usually a few less than listed, etc... These can add up to hundreds of calories a day easily.

    Edit to add: Are you double checking everything you enter in the database? I tried to enter some frozen meatballs I ate the other day and of the 7 (exact same brand and type) listed only 1 was entered correctly. The others were half the calories or twice the serving size.

    i hate to say it but most my meals consist of pre packaged foods because of my routine. so i go by their calories.
    and i make sure my sodium stays down so i don't think it's that.

    i eat avocados and drink V8 shots and have small yogurts and my breakfast consists of rye bread and cream cheese/or light peanut butter with sugar free jam
    my lunches at work are rye bread and 2 slices of cheddar cheese.

    i don't have a food scale, but i'm certain i'm not going over, especially 500 calories a day :/
  • lithezebra
    lithezebra Posts: 3,670 Member
    Personally I wish I had found this article a lot earlier in my fat loss journey

    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-full-diet-break.html

    That article is awesome. Thanks for the link!
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    How long have you been dieting for? I may have missed if but I don't think that question has been asked and it is very relevant to your question.

    ETA: are the intake numbers you gave gross or net?
    2 months now.

    You really do not need a reset or diet break at this stage with the amount of weight you have to lose - your metabolism should be ticking along just fine. How accurately are you logging your food - are you weighing all non-liquid items and measure/weighing liquid items?

    ETA: its probably water weight fluctuations - give it a few more weeks and reassess.
    i always log everything, except for the occasional binge drinking once every SECOND saturday. but i constitute that as a cheat day and stick to light beer.
    other than that, i have my calories 100 less than my bmr to makeup for in case i slip up on ANY little thing.

    my TDEE is 2000 (without exercise) so i have my calories at 1550

    my calories for the last 2 months was 1700 but it stopped working so thats why last week i switched it to 1500

    I would give it a few more weeks to let the water weight settle down.
  • peopletalk
    peopletalk Posts: 519 Member
    I would give it a few more weeks to let the water weight settle down.
    thank you :)
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,526 Member
    The biggest reasons for weight loss plateau is not stalled or reduced metabolism, it is incorrect estimation of calories in or calories out or some combination of the two.

    My recommendation is to reduce calories further or to exercise more or mix of the two.

    It can take years of eating under BMR to enter "starvation mode" or a point where you slow your metabolism to a point where reduction in calories does not make up for eating less calories and or exercising more.

    If you want to make sure you start to lose more weight then keep eating same food and increase activity levels

    What if you are very active (5-6 days a week of moderate to vigorous exercise--run 12-15 miles per week and try to lift or circuit a couple of times) and also moderately active in non exercise lifestyle (teacher on feet a lot), and already eating pretty low (less than 1500 cals gross and I measure and weigh my foods), but I still am gaining very slowly? Can't exercise more, and eating less would be difficult. So . . . . .??? Something is wrong here.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    I think this gets way overblown. I read about one study where they were studying how different things affected the metabolism of dieters. Dieting always results in at least a small reduction. In the study, the range they found was between 4% and 10%. In others words, the people whose diet and exercise regimen worked the best at keeping their metabolism up while dieting still had a 4% reduction; the people whose metabolism dropped the most had a 10% reduction. I have seen this study "quoted" by some to say that your metabolism will drop two and a half times as much if you don't do X versus Y. That is a half truth. That 6% difference could be a make or break for some people but for most of us it would just help some if we could figure out what worked for us (the article about the study was unclear about that).
  • peopletalk
    peopletalk Posts: 519 Member
    this thread is like 2 months old. i just wan't to say (since i'm the OP) that within 2 more months, i have lost another 8lbs by taking my calories from 1750 to 1550.
    my calories were too high for my lifestyle. with lowering it to 1550 i have consistently lost since making this thread.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    this thread is like 2 months old. i just wan't to say (since i'm the OP) that within 2 more months, i have lost another 8lbs by taking my calories from 1750 to 1550.
    my calories were too high for my lifestyle. with lowering it to 1550 i have consistently lost since making this thread.

    Congratulations - looks like you found your sweet spot. 1lb a week is a good steady loss.
  • 55in13
    55in13 Posts: 1,091 Member
    this thread is like 2 months old. i just wan't to say (since i'm the OP) that within 2 more months, i have lost another 8lbs by taking my calories from 1750 to 1550.
    my calories were too high for my lifestyle. with lowering it to 1550 i have consistently lost since making this thread.

    You just made the point I was meaning to - since the amount of additional calorie burn you might get from increasing metabolism is probably 6% or less, it is often simpler to just reduce calories by more than that.
  • tigerblue
    tigerblue Posts: 1,526 Member
    this thread is like 2 months old. i just wan't to say (since i'm the OP) that within 2 more months, i have lost another 8lbs by taking my calories from 1750 to 1550.
    my calories were too high for my lifestyle. with lowering it to 1550 i have consistently lost since making this thread.

    Thx for filling in the rest of the story.

    There are so many metabolism reset threads out there and what I really want to know is how did it work out in the end.
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
    I don't know what to think of metabolism reset. I think that it can help if you have been dieting for a long time and have been losing weight but suddenly stop losing weight. However, if you just started trying to lose weight and are not losing weight it is more than likely that you are eating too much. Also, before you up calories you should be sure that it's not simply that you have not taken into account that you have a lower TDEE due to being smaller.

    If all that checks out, I'd say go ahead and eat at maintenance for a couple weeks and then get back at it.
  • mistesh
    mistesh Posts: 243 Member
    How about a regular meal pattern's effects on one's metabolism?

    http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/81/1/16.long
  • peopletalk
    peopletalk Posts: 519 Member
    thanks guys! i don't even know how this thread was bumped again haha.
    i will say that maybe one or two days on the weekend, i eat at maintenance (2000 calories) and i still have consistently lost a lb a week. i think it helps with my body not getting used to routine, and it also helps keep me sane.
  • mareeee1234
    mareeee1234 Posts: 674 Member
    an 8 week metabolism reset (eating tdee for 8 weeks) in combination with stronglifts saved my life :heart:

    Now I eat at deficit of my tdee, still lift, with a little caridio ...seeing results :laugh:
  • Bettyeditor
    Bettyeditor Posts: 327 Member
    This has been my fat loss strategy:

    Eat slightly below your maintenance. When weight loss stalls, have a high carb "refeed" day and jump right back in. If this doesn't help, then decrease calorie goal by a hundred or two.

    Wash, rinse, repeat.

    Sounds reasonable. Just for clarification, how much do you mean by "slightly below" maintenance? 100-200 calories? 10%?

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