How do You Increase Your Metabolism?

MKEgal wrote: »

I think my diet is good to go (2000 calories - 50% protein/30% carbs/20% fat). I drink lots of water, too. I am 6 feet tall, and I weigh 270 lbs...
I used to weigh 185 and had around 10-12% body fat. I am trying to get back there.

That's an extremely low body fat %, so is not a realistic goal.

A lower carb & higher protein diet has been shown to help with weight loss. See studies here.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/MKEgal/view/2014-08-09-high-protein-diet-685553

Here's a table which explains the healthy ranges for macronutrients:
http://www.iom.edu/Global/News Announcements/~/media/C5CD2DD7840544979A549EC47E56A02B.ashx
Neither your protein nor carbs are in a healthy range.

page 1, carbs, 45 - 65% of calories (4 cal per gram)
page 2, fat, 20 - 35% of calories (9 cal per gram)
page 4, protein, 10 - 35% of calories (4 cal per gram)

So for 2000 cal, at 45 / 20 / 35:
carbs 900 cal = 225 g
fat 400 cal = 44 g
protein 700 cal = 175 g

But at 6', a healthy weight range would be 140 - 180, based on BMI.
http://www.shapeup.org/bmi/bmi6.pdf

If you want to weigh 180, eat 1800 cal. 2000 cal will keep you at 200 lb.
And ignore exercise or "net" calories. They're a bonus toward weight loss, but just eat at your goal of 1800 cal / day.


To lose weight, you might have to do double that amount, so 1 hour of moderate treadmilling or elliptical.

There's so much wrong here.

1) 10% BF for a MALE is not unhealthy. For a woman, yes. Totally unhealthy. For a man that's actually just fine. The absolute minimum safe BF% would be around 5%

2) Just because a study demonstrates a finding, does not mean the theory has been proven to be true. It just means that the data support the theory. No theory can be said to be proven because new data can always be reported on, new measurement methods, new discoveries overall.
So you have read every single article you list? You have ensured that the study utilized reasonable samples sizes (i.e. fairly large) to ensure that measurement error is reduced? Or that the studies utilize a good representative sample so that it can be generalized to the larger population as a whole?
And you've ensured that each study was conducted for a reasonable amount of time?
And that these studies have been replicated by other authors to ensure that the findings are not a one-time fluke? E.g. one study published findings that autism was related to vaccines, yet no other study was able to replicate the findings. If none of these studies have yet been replicated, or at least if no other studies are creating experiments with very similar methods and results, then you cannot say that there is good evidence to support your theory yet. There is possibly some, but that does not, again, make the thejory proven/true.

3) BMI is outdated. A man or woman can be very muscular and be above their recommended BMI while being at a healthy fat %.
Also, it is not advised to set up macronutrients from percentages, but instead to use grams based off of lean body mass or total mass. So based on 191lbs LBM:

Protein: 1g/LBM or higher if desired/if produces better resutls = 191g protein.
Fat: 0.3g/LBM as an absolute minimum, or 60g. Ideally .3g per total weight is a better number to use. So 81g. Anywhere between these two numbers would be fine as a minimum.
Carbs: Remaining calories.

4) No. So much no on your calorie goal methods. If he wants to weigh 180lbs, then he needs to calculate his estimated maintenance needs and then deduct up to 20% from that. Based on his weight and sex, he can probably eat at least 2500-3000 calories to lose weight.
2000 calories will NOT be his maintenance. If this were the case, then 1660 would be my maintenance. I net 1900 calories to lose weight.

5) If OP is using NEAT approach, then he needs to eat his exercise calories back. If he is using TDEE then exercise calories are already included and he does not need to eat exercise cals back. Both of these numbers are entirely different and totally different methods. To say black and white that no one needs to eat back exercise calories is setting up many people on this website for under-eating.

6) He does not need to exercise to lose weight. Meaning he doesn't need to double his time spent on cardio. I do 5 minutes of cardio as a warm up only. I sometimes take the entire week off from lifting. I still lose weight.