Could My Metabolism Be Broken?
RoadieKill104
Posts: 21 Member
Hey guys and gals!
So I have a concern:
I have been struggling to get on the right track with my fitness for a bit now. I've been experimenting with my diet and exercise regimen's, and I'm beginning to get worried that I may have done some damage, or am at least at risk of damaging something.
Stats: 27 y/o male, 128 lbs, 5' 9"
I work a desk job and do 30 minute HIIT sessions 5 x per week. (INSANITY: MAX 30) I really enjoy HIIT, as I've never really been a fan of lifting.
I'm happy being a small guy, but lately I feel very sensitive to anything but whole foods. i.e. if I do have a couple slices of pizza, ice cream occasionally, etc. I feel like I feel it immediately on the scale and around my stomach.
At this point I feel like I'm basically MAINTAINING on ~1800 calories per day. I get that I'm a small guy but I feel like this seems low? Even for a desk job worker, I feel like being a man, and working out 5 x a week should drive my maintenance up a bit.
Just as a side note I have lost about 30 lbs over the past 10-11 months, but I'm just starting to get concerned that I may be losing weight and eating in the wrong ways.
Any thoughts?
So I have a concern:
I have been struggling to get on the right track with my fitness for a bit now. I've been experimenting with my diet and exercise regimen's, and I'm beginning to get worried that I may have done some damage, or am at least at risk of damaging something.
Stats: 27 y/o male, 128 lbs, 5' 9"
I work a desk job and do 30 minute HIIT sessions 5 x per week. (INSANITY: MAX 30) I really enjoy HIIT, as I've never really been a fan of lifting.
I'm happy being a small guy, but lately I feel very sensitive to anything but whole foods. i.e. if I do have a couple slices of pizza, ice cream occasionally, etc. I feel like I feel it immediately on the scale and around my stomach.
At this point I feel like I'm basically MAINTAINING on ~1800 calories per day. I get that I'm a small guy but I feel like this seems low? Even for a desk job worker, I feel like being a man, and working out 5 x a week should drive my maintenance up a bit.
Just as a side note I have lost about 30 lbs over the past 10-11 months, but I'm just starting to get concerned that I may be losing weight and eating in the wrong ways.
Any thoughts?
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Replies
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Another side note: I tend to be feeling cold all the time, with appetite all messed up as well. I never really feel hungry anymore, as I do tend to worry about being in that dreaded "starvation mode" as it were, ironically enough.
As I'm writing this I'm scaring myself, currently nomming on an apple and some low fat string cheese, need help!
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You are underweight. The reason you are maintaining on so few calories is because your lean mass is low. You may not be a fan of lifting, but it's essentially what you need at this point.
Also, the stomach thing is just because you don't eat those foods often. Sounds like you don't eat much dietary fat, so you might want to look into adding more.0 -
A lot of what you've posted throws up giant red flags, OP. You have some very disordered thinking regarding food. You might want to make a doctor's appointment or talk to a counselor about potential eating disorders, and how to avoid going in that direction. Nip it in the bud now, while it's easier.
Regarding the rest of what you said, rest assured that there is no such thing as "starvation mode." You only have to look at victims of starvation or severe anorexia to see that. Think about it logically...if your body has the ability to stop losing weight when you don't eat enough, then why do people die of starvation? Why do you see skeletal runway models? It just doesn't make sense, and science does not support it. What it does support is a very negligible slowdown of metabolism when you eat a very low calorie diet for a period of time. This slowdown is not enough to create a serious impact or to stop you from losing weight. You are welcome to Google "starvation mode myth" yourself if you would like to see the studies with your own eyes instead of taking my word for it.
One other thing: Some of what you mention could potentially be caused by a thyroid disfunction. Part of the reason I encourage you to speak to your doctor is to have your thyroid tested. It can cause loss of appetite, weight gain or loss, and feelings of being cold, as well as unusual hair loss (like, the ends of your eyebrows), among other things.
Good luck! I know it's difficult to sort all this stuff out, but it's very important that you make sure you don't have a medical issue, and that you make sure you're on track to developing a healthy relationship with food.-3 -
It sounds like you could have some food intolerances.
As for your metabolism, it could be that you have very low lean body mass for your size, as muscle to fat ratio plays a role in metabolism. Meaning, if your body fat is 15%, your body will need fewer calories than if you were at 9% body fat at the same weight. Also, feeling cold is not uncommon for people with low muscle and fat, it's something I struggle with too and I'm similar in size to you.-1 -
You might want to visit the doctor. Feeling cold all the time could be a result of low lean mass or possibly a thyroid disorder.
I think you might need a doctor to evaluate whether or not you might have a body dysmorphic disorder or perhaps an eating disorder as well.0 -
Broken, likely no unless you caused thyroid problems by having some long periods badly undereating.
Lower than you would like to allow eating more food? Who doesn't!
But if your body has lowered it's daily burn, and metabolism somewhat, it's because it's doing exactly what it needs to in order to preserve calories for the basic metabolism functions that must be done.
The body will adapt and find a way.
It just sucks for eating level and getting improvements from exercise - because body isn't going to what to make improvements that require even more energy it's already slowed down burning.
HIIT by the way, if done correctly, is as close as you can get to lifting doing cardio, when you don't want to do the lifting.
But guess what, just like lifting, if you can really do it right and overload the system, you should NOT do it again the next day using the same muscles.
You are allowing NO time to rest for recovery and repair. 5 x weekly is wrong method for it.
But then again, despite the fad name being given to that program - isn't HIIT, so don't worry about it. I'm doubting as intense as they keep it, you are able to go anaerobic. They claim intervals upside down. Well, the only reason you can do the hard part in an interval hard, is because there is a long enough rest.
If there is no decent rest and longer hard time, you can mentally push all you want, you aren't doing it as hard as you could otherwise.
Eventually that just leads to mediocre workouts that are just a plain stress on the body, but not hard enough to cause improvements from the workout.
In other words - wasted time and effort basically if you don't allow rest. Are you at least following the guidelines, some of those programs are not supposed to be done daily, or they alternate easy with hard, just like intervals themselves do to allow benefit from them.
You are underweight, so cold isn't surprising. Not that short though.
If curious what you could be burning as maintenance, based on bodyfat % estimate, use the spreadsheet on my profile page.
Stay on Simple Setup and Progress tabs only. Look over sample data in yellow cells before deleting it all. Enter your own data.
That program would be high cardio in the activity calc.
You can also see how just 30 min does or does not drive up average maintenance. And what you'd need to do to get eating level where you'd like it with more cardio perhaps.0 -
It could be that your HIIT isn't quite as high intensity as you think. Given your size and weight, 1800 is near what you should expect to be your maintenance level.-1
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RoadieKill104 wrote: »Hey guys and gals!
So I have a concern:
I have been struggling to get on the right track with my fitness for a bit now. I've been experimenting with my diet and exercise regimen's, and I'm beginning to get worried that I may have done some damage, or am at least at risk of damaging something.
Stats: 27 y/o male, 128 lbs, 5' 9"
I work a desk job and do 30 minute HIIT sessions 5 x per week. (INSANITY: MAX 30) I really enjoy HIIT, as I've never really been a fan of lifting.
I'm happy being a small guy, but lately I feel very sensitive to anything but whole foods. i.e. if I do have a couple slices of pizza, ice cream occasionally, etc. I feel like I feel it immediately on the scale and around my stomach.
At this point I feel like I'm basically MAINTAINING on ~1800 calories per day. I get that I'm a small guy but I feel like this seems low? Even for a desk job worker, I feel like being a man, and working out 5 x a week should drive my maintenance up a bit.
Just as a side note I have lost about 30 lbs over the past 10-11 months, but I'm just starting to get concerned that I may be losing weight and eating in the wrong ways.
Any thoughts?
You are five pounds heavier than me, and 5" taller than me. You are pretty underweight for your height. You should be around 140-150 for a small frame, and 150-170 if you have a larger frame.
I'm seconding talking to a doctor in regards to your 30lb loss over the past year. You were a good weight for your height before; why the huge drop? If you are experiencing any disordered thoughts about eating (especially since you referenced "feeling" a few slices of pizza immediately being reflected on the scale), it's important you get help now.
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ForecasterJason wrote: »It sounds like you could have some food intolerances.
As for your metabolism, it could be that you have very low lean body mass for your size, as muscle to fat ratio plays a role in metabolism. Meaning, if your body fat is 15%, your body will need fewer calories than if you were at 9% body fat at the same weight. Also, feeling cold is not uncommon for people with low muscle and fat, it's something I struggle with too and I'm similar in size to you.
Huh? A person that is 15% bf will need less calories than if he was 9%
You repeated what he said actually, which is correct if weight stays the same.
It's just a little difference anyway, since muscle is not the biggest metabolic burner in the body by a long shot. 6 cal/lb/day by most estimates.
Even if a 200 lb person person lost that amount of BF, 15 to 9, and weight stayed the same implying muscle mass went up, by that 12 lbs, that's only 72 extra calories a day in resting state. That ain't much. Using it all at same intensity though in a workout, that's another matter. For that hour or whatever workout anyway.-1 -
Much appreciated feeback all! I guess it just seems low, but like everyone says, listen to your body I suppose. I do enjoy being a smaller individual. I think it's the psychological aspect of seeing everyone being able to eat more at their respective sizes/ builds. I guess the mental hump is: if you want to be at a certain size then you can't be envious of say larger person who can and needs to eat more.
I am trying to clean up my diet, and I'm sure I am now becoming sensitive to the high sodium and fat content of the bad foods out there, I suppose that is to be expected when you start to eat cleaner.
I am fond of the fact that I can readily cut calories and alter my diet to make my body so certain things, and maybe learning how to harness food and exercise to do the things that I want my body to do will make me feel better.
I'll keep experimenting and trying different things. It's refreshing to hear advice and have the reassurance though that my maintenance sounds about right. I guess when you really break it down 30 mins a day and sitting at a desk isn't a hugely active lifestyle after all haha.
Thanks a lot everyone, and please add any other advice you seem relevant! I'm always looking to learn
and to all the smaller dudes out there: any similar experiences to mine?
Thanks!!!!0 -
Did you purposely lose 30 pounds?0
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ForecasterJason wrote: »...if your body fat is 15%, your body will need fewer calories than if you were at 9% body fat...Huh? A person that is 15% bf will need less calories than if he was 9%
One of these is exactly like the other.0 -
And yes and no. At 158 I felt a bit flabby and out of shape. I started exercising and dieting to try and lean out and kind of ended up down at 128 through my old job (outside all day construction) and exercise. Ever since I've been happier with being able to move better, but now the struggles with food/maintaining. Absolutely terrified to gain the weight back because I feel like I'm adding bad weight, again mental hump I suppose. Just to me weight increase = bad. Probably because I've never purposely gained.0
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Talking to your doctor is a good idea. That seems like a lot of cardio to me. You said you don't like lifting, but it doesn't necessarily have to be super heavy lifting. Maybe you'd enjoy just doing moderate lifting, there's plenty of good programs for people new to lifting.0
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You seem very thin. I imagine you have lost all your muscles from shrinking yourself so skinny. What about eating more and lifting weights? Gaining the muscle back. That's what burns calories, and it'll let you eat more. But the reality is that a small vehicle (you included) takes less gas.0
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SnuggleSmacks wrote: »A lot of what you've posted throws up giant red flags, OP. You have some very disordered thinking regarding food. You might want to make a doctor's appointment or talk to a counselor about potential eating disorders, and how to avoid going in that direction. Nip it in the bud now, while it's easier.
Regarding the rest of what you said, rest assured that there is no such thing as "starvation mode." You only have to look at victims of starvation or severe anorexia to see that. Think about it logically...if your body has the ability to stop losing weight when you don't eat enough, then why do people die of starvation? Why do you see skeletal runway models? It just doesn't make sense, and science does not support it. What it does support is a very negligible slowdown of metabolism when you eat a very low calorie diet for a period of time. This slowdown is not enough to create a serious impact or to stop you from losing weight. You are welcome to Google "starvation mode myth" yourself if you would like to see the studies with your own eyes instead of taking my word for it.
One other thing: Some of what you mention could potentially be caused by a thyroid disfunction. Part of the reason I encourage you to speak to your doctor is to have your thyroid tested. It can cause loss of appetite, weight gain or loss, and feelings of being cold, as well as unusual hair loss (like, the ends of your eyebrows), among other things.
Good luck! I know it's difficult to sort all this stuff out, but it's very important that you make sure you don't have a medical issue, and that you make sure you're on track to developing a healthy relationship with food.
I don't have knowledge of thyroid dysfunction issues, but I agree with the rest.0 -
No offence OP, but men aren't supposed to be skinny and scrawny -11
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Broken metabolism. <lol>
No.
Just ... No.
Added bonus: Starvation mode, as you think of it, does not exist.0 -
christinev297 wrote: »No offence OP, but men aren't supposed to be skinny and scrawny
No offense ... but blondes are supposed to be bimbos.
No offense ... but women are supposed to remain barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.
No offense ... but "no offense" doesn't exactly excuse the offense, does it?
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You are only just about within the healthy weight range
If you want to maintain on more calories you will need to build some musculature ..which would entail a higher scale weight but you can bulk and cut until happy
I would visit the doctor just to check you are completely healthy though as you are very close to underweight and you post some red flags that makes minds then to possible ed issues
Be healthy0 -
Thanks again everyone!
Basically what I'm getting out of all this is that im probay fine, and that my body at least is appearing to function the way it's supposed to at this weight, for better or for worse.
Moral of the story: if I get bigger my maintenance will be higher. It makes sense academically, I guess I was just comparing myself to "the average man" too much when reading about maintenance levels being much higher than mine (for reasons stated above) and starting to freak out over it I suppose.
New question haha : is it possible to kind of bulk and gain lbm while staying semi lean? I don't like the idea of packing on weight with the whole to yo bulk cut routines, as I understand they simply involve cycles of eating lots and lifting to just basically gain weight, followed by basically cutting the way I already have and shrinking down? (Genery speaking of course, and I know I'm not tuly "cutting)
Thoughts or suggestions?0 -
christinev297 wrote: »No offence OP, but men aren't supposed to be skinny and scrawny
Body policing isn't cool.0 -
missiontofitness wrote: »christinev297 wrote: »No offence OP, but men aren't supposed to be skinny and scrawny
Body policing isn't cool.
Agreed; not cool at all.0 -
christinev297 wrote: »No offence OP, but men aren't supposed to be skinny and scrawny
Ah, but it is offensive.0 -
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As a female at 5'8, I wouldn't want to be 128lbs. As a male, you should be weighing more. My husband at 5'5 weighed 140lbs when I met him but he was very solid...
My concern for you wouldn't be that you are scrawny but unhealthy... That is all
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This discussion has been closed.
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