How to increase my metabolism?

bump

Apparently spicy foods boost it as well as green tea?

oh and i quoted to say i agree, your not eating enough

My stats: 5'3, 186 lbs.

Back about a year ago, I had a really bad case of TMJ for about 4 months in which I could barely move my jaw, so my diet consisted only of soup everyday probably eating less than 500 calories a day. I went from 186 to 150 in about 4 months. Well... since then I've gained it all back and my body seems to be resistant to any kind of weight loss. It's never been this hard before, prior to the whole jaw issue, I was steadily losing 2 lbs per week (I went from 220 to 186). Now, I can't even lose 0.1 lbs! I think that my metabolism was completely disappeared since then!

I exercise 5-6 days a week for at least 60 mins (2 days of steps aerobics, 2 days of kickboxing, 1 day of zumba, and 1 day elliptical) and at least 30 mins strength training 3-4x a week. I've been at this for 3 weeks even though I just started logging my calories this week. I eat on average 1200 - 1400 calories a day.

Any advice would help!

You know the phrase jack of all trades, master of none.

You have such a full workout routine, you can't get the full benefit from any workout.

Any workout is only as beneficial as the load you can put on your body, and recovery/rest you allow the body to actually make itself stronger from the load.

Wanna increase metabolism, make your muscle stronger so it burns more calories all day long during all activities.
But massive cardio on massive deficit (unless you are correctly eating back exercise calories to feed that workout somewhat but you aren't) really just burns up muscle.
And your strength training probably can't be as intense as it could/should/would be if given rest to get stronger.

Not doubting you could be pushing yourself, but not as hard as you could be if your body actually had time to recover and build stronger.

At this point, you might as well just hop on the treadmill for 2 hrs a day and walk 3.5 mph. because that's about all you really are going to get out of your workouts.

Oh, you'll get some initial gain in strength and endurance and performance, but it'll taper off very fast compared to allowing recovery.

Also, your body has nothing to improve itself with, because for the level of activity you are doing, you are undereating, so beyond some initial improvement, any more is going to be difficult to eak out of a body hard pressed to find the nutrients and energy for just the basic metabolism first.

So forget about increasing metabolism on your current eating level and exercise level. You are actually headed down the road of slowing it down really well - you have the perfect combo to do so.

Use the Search button above and use the words "plateau" and "stall" and find out where you are headed. Read the advice of those that have been there before and what their solution was.

Perhaps I am not eating enough, however, MFP has set my caloric intake to be about 1200, and I eat about 1300-1400 a day. When I was training with a personal trainer, he had me eating about 1400 calories a day even though I was working out about 5x a week, and he never mentioned eating exercise calories back and I was losing 2 lbs a week consistently. After looking through the forums, it seems like there is no consensus about eating exercise calories back...

Your eating the same amount of calories as me (and I'm losing weight); are you spreading them out throughout the day? Before I started on this journey, I was eating three 'mostly' healthy meals a day and still gained weight, and so got chatting with a friend that is a bit of a fitness freak, and she suggested I try eating five times a day... if you fuel your body with smaller meals, more often, it kicks your metabolism into gear... so now I have around 1200-1400 a day (mixing it up to see what works) over breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner... and have lost 22lbs in ten weeks.. only a suggestion but worth a shot, right?

1. do not under-eat, your body needs FUEL, calories = fuel. not enough calories = body reading a low fuel sign and will stop burning them as fast = slower weight loss

2. effective and correct exercise plan. every person needs a different type of diet and exercise plan for losing weight. i took a genetic test to find out my personal plan. msg for info on that if ur curious.

3. i take a glucose health pill, which ive heard can help boost metabolism.

4. make sure you eat several smaller meals each day to get your calories, not all at one or two meals.

Perhaps I am not eating enough, however, MFP has set my caloric intake to be about 1200, and I eat about 1300-1400 a day. When I was training with a personal trainer, he had me eating about 1400 calories a day even though I was working out about 5x a week, and he never mentioned eating exercise calories back and I was losing 2 lbs a week consistently. After looking through the forums, it seems like there is no consensus about eating exercise calories back...

No, you got it to set at 1200.

You selected an activity level, probably Sedentary, whether that applies or not, you probably don't know, most don't.
It would have meant logging your normal eating level when you maintained weight. That was obviously maintenance for that level of activity, which may have been nothing extra at that time.

You then selected a weight loss goal, 1lb is recommended, did you take that, or probably the 2lbs because everyone wants to lose fast.

That subtracted 1000 calories off the calculated activity level calories.

So in essence, by your choices - you made it 1200.

There is consensus by those that understand how MFP is working compared to what your trainer was foolishly doing. He should have stuck with the fitness side of the equation, not diet side.

MFP figures out non-exercise daily maintenance level of calories, then takes a deficit.
Your daily goal to eat, with no exercise, would create maybe a healthy deficit.
You do exercise now, you really just raised your daily maintenance level of calories, but deficit was already taken - so eat those calories back to keep the deficit the same.

Other methods figure out a daily figure that includes planned exercise, and then takes a deficit.

If you do the exercise, the end result is the same. If you don't, MFP still has the deficit. The other methods, you better remember if you skip a planned workout, you skip some calories.

But MFP, you log it, you are given credit for it, your daily goal goes up - because it works by you eating that back.

Frankly, if you used MFP estimate for calorie burn for all that exercise, you'd be protecting yourself from eating too little.
But your workouts are still to intense and frequent to actually allow your body to recovery.

But please do it for 4-6 months, and come back asking for help, after you stalled 2-4 weeks in, at that point aggravated you wasted 3-5 months with no progress.

Just speaking matter-of-factly because you can read all the forum responses of where this is headed.

increase metabolism........add muscle mass. That's about your only option.

My stats: 5'3, 186 lbs.

Back about a year ago, I had a really bad case of TMJ for about 4 months in which I could barely move my jaw, so my diet consisted only of soup everyday probably eating less than 500 calories a day. I went from 186 to 150 in about 4 months. Well... since then I've gained it all back and my body seems to be resistant to any kind of weight loss. It's never been this hard before, prior to the whole jaw issue, I was steadily losing 2 lbs per week (I went from 220 to 186). Now, I can't even lose 0.1 lbs! I think that my metabolism was completely disappeared since then!

I exercise 5-6 days a week for at least 60 mins (2 days of steps aerobics, 2 days of kickboxing, 1 day of zumba, and 1 day elliptical) and at least 30 mins strength training 3-4x a week. I've been at this for 3 weeks even though I just started logging my calories this week. I eat on average 1200 - 1400 calories a day.

Any advice would help!

You know the phrase jack of all trades, master of none.

You have such a full workout routine, you can't get the full benefit from any workout.

Any workout is only as beneficial as the load you can put on your body, and recovery/rest you allow the body to actually make itself stronger from the load.

Wanna increase metabolism, make your muscle stronger so it burns more calories all day long during all activities.
But massive cardio on massive deficit (unless you are correctly eating back exercise calories to feed that workout somewhat but you aren't) really just burns up muscle.
And your strength training probably can't be as intense as it could/should/would be if given rest to get stronger.

Not doubting you could be pushing yourself, but not as hard as you could be if your body actually had time to recover and build stronger.

At this point, you might as well just hop on the treadmill for 2 hrs a day and walk 3.5 mph. because that's about all you really are going to get out of your workouts.

Oh, you'll get some initial gain in strength and endurance and performance, but it'll taper off very fast compared to allowing recovery.

Also, your body has nothing to improve itself with, because for the level of activity you are doing, you are undereating, so beyond some initial improvement, any more is going to be difficult to eak out of a body hard pressed to find the nutrients and energy for just the basic metabolism first.

So forget about increasing metabolism on your current eating level and exercise level. You are actually headed down the road of slowing it down really well - you have the perfect combo to do so.

Use the Search button above and use the words "plateau" and "stall" and find out where you are headed. Read the advice of those that have been there before and what their solution was.

(sorry I forgot to quote the post I was referring to )

Thanks for all the replies and advice while i try to navigate through MFP and trying to lose weight healthily. I also found a really good thread relating to eating back your exercise calories if anyone is interested:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/173853-an-objective-look-at-eating-exercise-calories

From what I get out of it, there are many different variables with weight loss, especially for a person who is obese -- I have a BMI of 32 which would fall under this category. From what I take from it, obese folks can handle a much larger deficit than a person who is close to normal weight. But I do agree that I need to give my body time to rest and heal and eat back some of my exercise calories and work for a deficit of 500-700 calories per day.

Here's the other thing to keep in mind regarding your smart choice.

Your BMR is over-estimated right now - unless you somehow managed to keep the same ratio of LBM / Fat that the study participants already at healthy weight had in the study that gave the formula for BMR estimate.

So that is one of the saves that automatically happens - you think you are undercutting your BMR perhaps badly, but in reality you are not.

So you are in range to select 2lb loss safely. If you don't spend 8 hrs sitting at work, and then 4hrs sitting at home each night, do not select sedentary, select Lightly Active. And then walk longer from parking, take stairs, ect. All great daily fat-burning activity.

Regarding calorie eat back, trust MFP estimates and eat them all back for exercises that have pace included, walking 4mph, ect, as long as you didn't include an incline that they don't know about.
But eat back half for any that are totally up to your ability to make it as intense as you want, but the description of that workout is generic - circuit training or such.

bump

increase calories a couple days per week

You're not eating enough and exercising like crazy, why should the body give up fat? It wants to live.

yes

looks like theres actually a lot of studies these days saying it really doesnt make a difference one way or the other because the TEF is still the same. good catch guys, ill stop feeling bad when i have a lazy day and dont make multiple meals like i thought i should. the studies i looked at said you can lose weight either way effectively as long as the intake is correct and you can stick to it. sweet news to my ears.......lots of meals = more work

Not more work if they are donuts!

Oh said that.