Metabolism

Your metabolism is what it is. There are very few special snowflakes out there that have a fast or slow metabolism and you don't have the tools to change it. It's one of the biggest myths perpetuated in the diet community.

I’ve never commented on the whole “starvation mode” or “boosting metabolism” threads but here’s my 2cts.
Your body needs energy to keep functioning, think all bodily functions and systems; breathing, blood circulation, immune system, digestion, etc. The amount of energy your body needs depends on a lot of factors, such as your weight, height, age, sex, body fat percentage, diet composition, activity level, hormones, etc.

The body has mechanisms that allow it to better deal with a reduced energy availability. Thus, when on a caloric deficit there are hormonal responses that reduce the amount of energy you require. This is what a lot of people on MFP call “starvation mode”. A caloric deficit will likely make your energy requirements smaller, it will make your metabolism “slower” and slow down your weight loss. A lot of people claim that in order to prevent this you need rest days.

The problem, I think , Is that there is no way to estimate anything about those adaptations. What caloric deficit will cause them? In what time? How big will they be? How much time do you need to revert them? At what caloric level? I am highly skeptical of the claim that a rest day will boost your metabolism. Now, there are a lot of anecdotes of people that say that taking a time off their diet made them break plateaus. I am not saying that is impossible, just that we really can’t conclude that it is because of a metabolic response.

That being said, I do think that sensible rest days are not a bad idea. If rest days help you stay within your calorie goals, they make your life easier, or your weight loss more enjoyable; I say there is nothing wrong with trying it.

If you want to boost your metabolism you need to build muscle mass. Increasing muscle increases metabolism.

A lot of people will take a day off or do a cheat day/meal just to have a spike of calories to keep their body guessing. For some it can help prevent a plateau.

I've heard people say they take a day off diet sometimes to help boost their metabolism. What are your thoughts on this? Once I get into healthy eating habits I hate to stray from it though. I've noticed my weight loss is starting to slow down a bit so I'm just wondering if something like this would help. I promise I'm not looking for a way to cheat lol.

So, eating at maintenance for a day has to mean straying from healthy eating habits?