Stuck in a mysterious situation -

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  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    When I figure your BMR I get about 1600 calories which is the very least you should be eating. If you've been eating low cal for a long time you probably would gain an insignificant amount by upping your calories but once you body realizes that you aren't going to restrict so much again it will even out. Unless you've had it tested you don't know you have a slow metabolism. There are actually very very few people that have that condition. For most it's a reason to explain why the norms don't fit for them. The special snowflake syndrome.

    Weigh, measure, record everything you eat. Don't guess! Feed your body the calories that it needs and quit asking a chiropractor for nutritional information.

    I had a body composition test done that told me all of these numbers. My BMR is 1420. So, thanks.

    A body composition test with calipers does not give you your BMR. Sorry.
  • Jmchao
    Jmchao Posts: 27 Member
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    My advice is to see an endocrinologist and ask him about your thyroid levels. It isn't as if he'll tie you down and force you to take his advice, but it's entirely possible it could make a big difference.

    I recommend this. Several of your symptoms point to a possible thyroid issue.

    Even with them being normal? Would it be worth having it tested again?

    If only your TSH was done, and it was "normal" at 1.8, that's not a full picture of what is going on. Here's my story:

    I went to the doctor complaining of chills that I could not get rid of. I would sleep in flannel pajamas, with a fleece jacket on, wool socks, under 3 comforters with a heating pad under my back and STILL feel cold. I would wake up long enough to make it to the bathroom, then to the couch, where I would then sleep for another 3 hours. I gained 30 pounds in 6 months. I had a then 3-year old daughter and knew I couldn't keep like that. I went to my doctor. My TSH was 2.8. Technically, that's "normal". However, she also ran my Free T3 and Free T4 and my T4 was virtually 0...and if you compared my TSH to the levels that had been drawn a couple of years earlier, they had more than doubled, which meant that while still "normal", they were trending upwards because my gland was working harder to create more T4. I was started on meds and within weeks, felt SO MUCH BETTER!!

    So, if your doctor is simply going off of TSH, that's not enough. Ask to SEE your lab values and ask to make sure ALL TSH tests were completed. It's very possible that the TSH is "normal", but other stuff is not.
  • fleecysheets
    fleecysheets Posts: 1
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    Hi, congrats on your weight loss progress so far. I suggest you look up BioLayne's video log on "metabolic damage" on youtube. VERRYYY insightful for a lot of women. This person did his PhD in protein synthesis and is a well known competitor (Layne Norton), and I am confident this will help you on your progress.

    Our body seeks to be at homeostasis. Any extra than what your body requires for your body to function will be stored as fat. However, when you put the body under a lot of stress by not fuelling it properly with food for the amount of exercise you are doing, it puts stress on body and it wants to retain as many calories as possible (all of this is explained in his video). Therefore, it will take a lot more work to burn off fat under these stressful conditions than when you are eating to fuel this process. You have a certain number of "cards" you can play to challenge your body (ie. upping cardio or decreasing food intake). When you play all these cards at once it makes it near impossible to lose the weight and you damage your metabolism so much that when you stop doing these exercises or increase food intake you will gain a bunch of weight back until your body finds a metabolic balance.
    Like someone else said, it is very important to log your calories (more importantly, your macronutrients). When your body knows that it is getting a reliable source of fuel (ie. it knows it will get approximately x number of grams of carbs, x g fat, x g protein) it is far more likely to use up some of these calories during exercise, and build muscle with a reliable protein source. The extra weight you are gaining is probably from the fact that you're not used to eating as much as you normally are and your body has to adjust its metabolism to reach homeostasis by overcompensating fat storage and then balancing out once homeostasis is met.

    When I first stated counting macros I struggled to eat 1,100 calories a day just because all the fibre and protein i needed (I don't eat meat) were not sufficient before I started so I would get full quickly and I would stay up late to stuff myself with 500-600 calories at night so that I could finish them. Now that I have been counting for almost 2 months, my metabolism has sped up and I am hungry a lot. I have also lost 4 pounds (I'm trying to do it very slowly). When I begin to plateau, I will slowly start adding more cardio into my workout to shock my body anytime I plateau.

    I hope this helps.
  • ChaseAlder
    ChaseAlder Posts: 804 Member
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    Could you be pregnant? I know this seems like an obvious/silly question, but hey, it's worth asking.
  • ChaseAlder
    ChaseAlder Posts: 804 Member
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    Could you be pregnant? I know this seems like an obvious/silly question, but hey, it's worth asking.

    Oops, sorry, just noticed someone above me already asked!
  • ereck44
    ereck44 Posts: 1,170 Member
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    When I figure your BMR I get about 1600 calories which is the very least you should be eating. If you've been eating low cal for a long time you probably would gain an insignificant amount by upping your calories but once you body realizes that you aren't going to restrict so much again it will even out. Unless you've had it tested you don't know you have a slow metabolism. There are actually very very few people that have that condition. For most it's a reason to explain why the norms don't fit for them. The special snowflake syndrome.

    Weigh, measure, record everything you eat. Don't guess! Feed your body the calories that it needs and quit asking a chiropractor for nutritional information.


    I agree. At 1430 calories I couldn't, lose at all. Tried for a month, then increased to 1760, then started losing again. You might be at a plateau, which is your body's way of protecting itself.

    Try increasing you calories at least for a month and see if that makes a difference. Good luck! :-)
  • PikaKnight
    PikaKnight Posts: 34,971 Member
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    Go vegan, I bet it will help. Try for 30 days and see what happens :) I went vegan April 3rd, 2013 and have lost 12lbs with the assistance of dietary habits being changed and increased exercise. Also, a colon cleanse would be my suggestion to get things moving again. And I also agree about assessing the enzyme situation. Have you ever tried the master cleanse? Keep up the great work! :)

    Wow...this is such bad advice. Please don't listen to this. first of all, your body cleanses itself. If it doesn't, go see the doctor NOW. Also, unless you "want" to go vegan to try it, that's cool. But assuming that going vegan is some kind of miracle/automatic weight loss plan is just wrong. There are overweight vegans too.
  • PepperWorm
    PepperWorm Posts: 1,206
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    - Is that the burn your HRM claims you burn? If you go by MFP totals, you may be burning a whole lot less.

    - Log accurately, all the time, always. Do you have a food scale? If not, invest in one and MEASURE YOUR FOOD.

    I have IBS. I get similar symptoms. I take a fiber supplement with water once a day. Careful of some though...they can make you SUPER constipated if you aren't careful.

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