metabolism wrecked?

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karenalgar
karenalgar Posts: 10
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys and girls
I fear I've wrecked my metabolism from doing years of stupid fad diets, quick fix starvation diets... And now I'm wanting to eat healthy and exercise daily I'm just putting weight on!
I'm extra carb sensitive, I stick to eating 1200 calories daily, I try and keep carbs to one meal a day I.e 2 slices of brown toast or 1 potato for dinner. I plan my meals in the morning to make sure I'm making up 1200 calories a day. I also jog daily (5-7 days a week) I usually burn between 400-700 calories a day.
I'm 5'7"
33 year old Female
175lbs
Medium frame

What am I doing wrong?!?! Have I ruined my metabolism for good? Can it be corrected?

Karen
X
P.S I don't normally pay attention to the net calories, I sort of have the mind set that I don't want to eat what I've just burnt off daily. Not sure if this is correct.
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Replies

  • imblondewhatsyourexcuse
    imblondewhatsyourexcuse Posts: 35
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    everyone is just going to tell you to eat more, just a warning.
  • karenalgar
    karenalgar Posts: 10
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    Eat more to lose weight?
  • JakeBrownVB
    JakeBrownVB Posts: 399 Member
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    you only eat 1200 and burn 700!! holy chit your only on 500 cals a day!! seriously ur gonna destroy urself.

    You need to up your calories for sure, stop thinking of matabolism and think of muscle. on 500 calories your gonna have absolutely no strength or muscle left in a few months and once that happens you will start getting worse.

    The less muscle you have the less calories your gonna be able to eat as muscle burns sooo many calories and the weaker and less toned your gonna get.

    you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat
  • RoughDiamondUK
    RoughDiamondUK Posts: 151 Member
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    I'm shorter than you, weigh less than you, am sedentary... and my calories to lose 1/2 a pound a week are 1400 a day. I'd guess that you need 1500 a day, minimum... change the settings on MFP to lose a pound or 1/2 a pound a week.
  • JakeBrownVB
    JakeBrownVB Posts: 399 Member
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    Eat more to lose weight?

    Loosing weight is not the same as becoming a sexier thinner you. A women at 110 lbs looks like chit in comparison to a women who is 130lbs with the same bf%
  • scottaworley
    scottaworley Posts: 871 Member
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    you only eat 1200 and burn 700!! holy chit your only on 500 cals a day!! seriously ur gonna destroy urself.

    You need to up your calories for sure, stop thinking of matabolism and think of muscle. on 500 calories your gonna have absolutely no strength or muscle left in a few months and once that happens you will start getting worse.

    The less muscle you have the less calories your gonna be able to eat as muscle burns sooo many calories and the weaker and less toned your gonna get.

    you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

    Basically this. You don't have to stop the cardio, but definitely eat your calories back. When you eat at an extreme deficit your body does not function correctly and you will not lose weight.
    Eat more to lose.
  • karenalgar
    karenalgar Posts: 10
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    Totally new to this and not sure how it all works eating v burning.. Net calories.... Not knowing is quite dangerous I guess which is why I'm asking. Gotta learn somehow hey x
  • karenalgar
    karenalgar Posts: 10
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    So you all think I should up my calorie intake to 1400/1500 and eat my calories I've burnt? Sorry if I seem a bit dim but how does weight loss come into it if there is no deficit in weekly calories?
    X
  • Phrick
    Phrick Posts: 2,765 Member
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    So you all think I should up my calorie intake to 1400/1500 and eat my calories I've burnt? Sorry if I seem a bit dim but how does weight loss come into it if there is no deficit in weekly calories?
    X

    MFP builds in the deficit BEFORE taking into account any additional exercise you do. You could stop jogging completely, eat the NET calories MFP gives you, and you'd still lose.
  • amylouize2012
    amylouize2012 Posts: 268 Member
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    you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

    Hi there, might be a bit of a dumb question but what is skinny fat?
  • karenalgar
    karenalgar Posts: 10
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    you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

    Hi there, might be a bit of a dumb question but what is skinny fat?

    Skinny but baggy untoned skin/body? X
  • vet272
    vet272 Posts: 183
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    you only eat 1200 and burn 700!! holy chit your only on 500 cals a day!! seriously ur gonna destroy urself.

    You need to up your calories for sure, stop thinking of matabolism and think of muscle. on 500 calories your gonna have absolutely no strength or muscle left in a few months and once that happens you will start getting worse.

    The less muscle you have the less calories your gonna be able to eat as muscle burns sooo many calories and the weaker and less toned your gonna get.

    you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

    Basically this. You don't have to stop the cardio, but definitely eat your calories back. When you eat at an extreme deficit your body does not function correctly and you will not lose weight.
    Eat more to lose.

    This ^^^^
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    P.S I don't normally pay attention to the net calories, I sort of have the mind set that I don't want to eat what I've just burnt off daily. Not sure if this is correct.

    so you eat 1200 cals and exercise off about 500? if you have done this for a prolonged period of time then yes, you may well have damaged your metabolism, but you can fix it!
  • scottaworley
    scottaworley Posts: 871 Member
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    So you all think I should up my calorie intake to 1400/1500 and eat my calories I've burnt? Sorry if I seem a bit dim but how does weight loss come into it if there is no deficit in weekly calories?
    X

    http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/
    This will approximate how many calories your body burns in a day. Everyone that I've known and seen is still at a deficit when eating 2000 calories per day.
  • hya89
    hya89 Posts: 19 Member
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    I don't pretend to have much experience with this, but this thread

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again

    links to several article written by people who know what they're talking about and it could answer your question.
  • JakeBrownVB
    JakeBrownVB Posts: 399 Member
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    you need to stop doing cardio.. increase cals to 1400-1500 and lift heavy.. if not.. I will look out for your thread asking why your skinny fat

    Hi there, might be a bit of a dumb question but what is skinny fat?

    Heya,, skinny fat is what a lot of women get who only do cardio and dont focus/care on muscle because they think it makes them look "bulky" or "manly" or some other nonsense. Ever see women who are small as hell but still complain they are fat or have small bellys that hang out or big thighs? thats the kind of women who have destroyed muscles,, can only eat 1000 calories a day and are usually tired/weak/grumpy.

    Each pound of muscle takes 20-30 calories to maintain, fat takes only 5 calories and so women who dont have any muscle then start asking why they gain weight on so few calories...

    just though of a good analogy.. take a bag,, fill it with cusions.. fill another bag with rocks.. the bag with rocks is gonna be heavier but more compact. The bag of cusions is gonna be squishy and bulgy and soft, same with your body. if you have muscle.. you may weigh more but your gonna be more toned, lean and better looking. Weight does not translate to appearance or appeal
  • clarkehn
    clarkehn Posts: 24 Member
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    Look up Layne Norton's videos on youtube. He has a Vlog on this subject.
  • phatguerilla
    phatguerilla Posts: 188 Member
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    Eat more to lose weight?

    Yes, I'm a six foot male and tried to lose weight on 2000 calories a day while 93kg, and I would even eat back any cardio calories but I wasn't loosing weight. I moved my calories up to 2400, dropped cardio at the same time because I was feeling worn down, and I've gone down to 90kg since. It does seem counterintuitative but too big a calorie deficit is as bad or worse than being on a calorie surplus.
  • GymRatGirl13
    GymRatGirl13 Posts: 157 Member
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    Layne Norton videos on Youtuve helped me recover from damaged metabolism after a few years of figure competion training that had me doing 2 hours of cardio a day, plus lifting 6 days a week for 1-2 hours at a time. At that time, I was 9% bf, 125 pounds at 5'7". I was eating and around 100 g of carbs and 1200 calories a day, but buring about what you are...if not more on some days. After a year of repairing myself, I now weight 145, but am only one size bigger in jeans. I lift 4 days a week and mountain bike on my non-lifting days (or do HIIT 2 days a week during the winter) and I am eating 2500 calories a day on average. I'm never hungry, I always have enough energy to get through my days and workouts, and if I want to lean out a little bit, I simply drop 100-200 calories a day and start losing right away.

    How do you fix yourself? Increase calories by 100-200 a day every 1-2 weeks. In addition to adding calories...add complex carbs as well. Start with 10 more a day and increase weekly. Start lifitng heavy right away and make it your priority. If you are doing an hour of cardio a day, reduce it to 45 minutes for 2 weeks, then 30 minutes, then 20, then 15, then stop all together and just lift 5 days a week. When you get to this point...let your body heal through time and nutritious food. Throw your scale and mirror away and remind yourself that you are INVESTING in yourself for the rest of your life and you will survive feeling a bit chubby for six months or so, while your body adapts. When it does adapt, the weight will fall off, but you will be eating closer to 2500 calories and over 200 carbs a day. Yes...it is worth it! Good luck!
  • mmaurizi
    mmaurizi Posts: 8 Member
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    Try not to over complicate things when you are starting out, thats my motto anyway.

    My 2 tips would be...

    1. Drink plenty of water - I work on about 2-2.5l per day - around 4 pints (UK) and I drink at least 2 cups of Green Tea.

    Drinking water tells your body it's going to get plenty so it will let go of the stored water it is holding. This is why if you start doing this you will see a motivating initial weight loss happen. It will also get your metabolism started - you will read that drinking ice cold water as soon as you wake up is a good way to do this. Personally, cold water is all I can take but still better than not having any..

    2. Eat you calories that your body requires to function correctly. This would be the full amount of calories required to do what you do including exercise less 20-25%. Use the figures from here and it should tell you what you need to consume daily - eat this fully...

    Also consider that you need to eat enough food so your body knows that the next intake is coming. Again, it stops your body storing it for later use when you are not feeding it. Therefore eat smaller portions and more frequently. This in my mind has 2 benefits, your body knows that it can use the energy you have just given it and you never feel hungry because eating little and often is better than 1 massive meal and 2 smaller meals. As your body is constantly working to process the energy then it helps keep your metabolism up.

    You need to understand what your nutrition and calorie needs are. MFP reduces your calorie intake to lose up to 2lbs per week, which is about as much as you want to for permanent weight loss. Clearly this depends on your starting weight and you may see more extreme losses at the outset and if you are exercising correctly etc and eating properly.

    Where you start exceeding your calorie deficit then you risk your body hanging onto energy - stores as fat.. You could even lose muscle and gain fat and think you are staying the same. You need to lose fat and maintain muscle. Protein is important for muscle. Again it is possible to lose fat and build muscle - therefore seeing the scales not moving as you expect but at the outset you should see them move.

    As you get the basics right, you can then start to look at your food intake/nutrition intake. Try and eat clean (i.e. veg/meat/fruit - not processed or sauces etc) - if you eat clean and eat your full calorie intake, I guarantee you will not be hungry.

    One person I would recommend you google is Matt Lovell. He is/was the nutritionist for the England Rugby team and is a well respected person when it comes down to nutrition. I am trying to adopt some of the things he talks about. 1kg of asparagus has same carbs as a pitta bread - which fills you most? It's this kind of thinking that will help you keep full because you can eat more if it's the right things.

    Hope that helps.

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