Help! Anyone know a great diet/workout routine for improving Metabolism? Vitamins? Supplements?

mywinterbones
mywinterbones Posts: 4 Member
edited November 15 in Health and Weight Loss
I've been recently researching better ways to make my metabolism more active because lately with keeping a calorie count of a little over 1,000 but below 1,200 and working out 5 days a week with a calorie loss of about 365-372, isn't working out so well. I have my goals set to lose 2 lbs a week but I only lose about a pound or less. And if I had to estimate the amount of water I consume in a day, it would probably be around 5 or 6 cups, usually no less. (Currently 150.6 lbs, started at 158.0) What should I improve or focus on more importantly on a daily basis?

Replies

  • kenmiller75
    kenmiller75 Posts: 89 Member
    Green tea and cayenne pepper will speed things up. Drinking ice water will burn more calories because your body has to work harder to heat the water to 98 degrees. Try to drink at least 8 cups of water daily. You can also speed up your metabolism by eating your daily calories in 5-6 meals instead of 3 meals.
  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
    stop stop stop

    You're 150lb's, and you're eating at around 1,000-1,200 calories? This isn't good, you need to up your caloric intake slightly.

    2lb's a week at your weight is far too aggressive, you should be looking at 0.5-1lb loss per week.


  • htimpaired
    htimpaired Posts: 1,404 Member
    kenmiller75 wrote: »
    Green tea and cayenne pepper will speed things up. Drinking ice water will burn more calories because your body has to work harder to heat the water to 98 degrees. Try to drink at least 8 cups of water daily. You can also speed up your metabolism by eating your daily calories in 5-6 meals instead of 3 meals.

    I imagine added calories burned from drinking ice water would be negligable.
    Eat more than 1200 calories if you're exercising. Lift weights. Added muscle will burn more calories at rest than fat does.
  • Velum_cado
    Velum_cado Posts: 1,608 Member
    kenmiller75 wrote: »
    Green tea and cayenne pepper will speed things up. Drinking ice water will burn more calories because your body has to work harder to heat the water to 98 degrees. Try to drink at least 8 cups of water daily. You can also speed up your metabolism by eating your daily calories in 5-6 meals instead of 3 meals.

    Sources?
  • nuttynanners
    nuttynanners Posts: 249 Member
    I would recommend

    1) Seeing the doctor or an endocrinologist to have blood work done, just to ensure you have a healthy functioning metabolism
    2) Eating a little more, especially on days that you work out.
    3) Making sure to incorporate strength training in your workout regimen rather than just cardio (not sure what you currently do)
    4) Reading Jillian Michaels' "Master Your Metabolism" for some tips. She has a lot of factual information that she applies toward adjusting one's diet for optimum health. You have to take some of it with a grain of salt, because not everyone is going to be able to buy grass fed beef on the regular and throw out all their plastic-ware, etc., but she DOES supply a lot of valuable information, and she shares her own struggle with calorie intake and metabolism.
  • IsaackGMOON
    IsaackGMOON Posts: 3,358 Member
    edited April 2015
    htimpaired wrote: »
    kenmiller75 wrote: »
    Green tea and cayenne pepper will speed things up. Drinking ice water will burn more calories because your body has to work harder to heat the water to 98 degrees. Try to drink at least 8 cups of water daily. You can also speed up your metabolism by eating your daily calories in 5-6 meals instead of 3 meals.

    I imagine added calories burned from drinking ice water would be negligable.
    Eat more than 1200 calories if you're exercising. Lift weights. Added muscle will burn more calories at rest than fat does.

    It's not like she's going to build muscle in a caloric deficit? We're talking a few calories here, not a lot to make a significant change to weight loss.
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    kenmiller75 wrote: »
    Green tea and cayenne pepper will speed things up. Drinking ice water will burn more calories because your body has to work harder to heat the water to 98 degrees. Try to drink at least 8 cups of water daily. You can also speed up your metabolism by eating your daily calories in 5-6 meals instead of 3 meals.

    tumblr_mwwsz9s2nj1rziwwco1_500.gif

  • 999tigger
    999tigger Posts: 5,235 Member
    kenmiller75 wrote: »
    Green tea and cayenne pepper will speed things up. Drinking ice water will burn more calories because your body has to work harder to heat the water to 98 degrees. Try to drink at least 8 cups of water daily. You can also speed up your metabolism by eating your daily calories in 5-6 meals instead of 3 meals.

    Care to back all this up?
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    mywinterbones wrote: »
    I've been recently researching better ways to make my metabolism more active because lately with keeping a calorie count of a little over 1,000 but below 1,200 and working out 5 days a week with a calorie loss of about 365-372, isn't working out so well. I have my goals set to lose 2 lbs a week but I only lose about a pound or less. And if I had to estimate the amount of water I consume in a day, it would probably be around 5 or 6 cups, usually no less. (Currently 150.6 lbs, started at 158.0) What should I improve or focus on more importantly on a daily basis?

    Patience. A realistic and less aggressive goal. More accurate logging. You are probably eating more than you think. Don't rely on calories burnt, trackers usually overestimate. Don't focus too much on minutia or marginalia - like metabolism and water intake.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    What is your height?
    Do you weigh and measure your food and liquids?

    These things would be more relevant to your 'projected' weight loss than 'improving' your metabolism. You are 19 years old, so having metabolism issues would be unlikely. And unless you are extremely short, 1000-1200 calories is probably quite inappropriate for you (which you probably are not short since your profile states you want to go into modeling). On top of that, with only 30 lbs to lose (as per your profile), 2 lbs a week is too aggressive. You should be aiming for closer to 1 lbs a week.

    If after choosing an appropriate calorie goal and logging an accurate calorie intake you still feel you have issues with your metabolism, you should see a doctor. Don't look for supplements and whatnot to 'fix' your metabolism. See a doctor.
  • Abby2205
    Abby2205 Posts: 253 Member
    You may have set your goal to 2 lbs a week, but MFP won't set your goal calories below 1200. I don't know how tall you are, but I plugged in your age and current weight and 5'4" height into MFP and came up with 1800 calories to maintain current weight. 1200 calories would give a deficit of 600 calories per day, or average weight loss of a little over a pound a week. Aren't you losing about one pound per week? Congratulations, it's working.
  • Chrysalid2014
    Chrysalid2014 Posts: 1,038 Member
    There's a programme called the Fast Metabolism Diet by Haylie Pomroy, which claims you can lose up to 20 pounds in 28 days although judging by the forum I think most people lose more like ten pounds in 28 days. I haven't tried this myself yet.
  • angelexperiment
    angelexperiment Posts: 1,917 Member
    Definitely drink up to a gallon of water a day. Eat 5 meals a day every 3 hours. Cycle your calories and carbs. It is what I do it works for me. I do chris powells choose more lose more carb cycling. You probably need to eat more calories as well. Look up metabolism boosting exercise. Shredders. Jillian Michael fat blast metabolism dvd. Or slim in 6 burn it up or zumba.
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    If you're wanting to speed up your "metabolism" i don't have anything for you.

    BUT- it sounds like you want to burn more calories throughout the day. For this i'd suggest being more active; take a walk, park as far as you can from stores, hike, take the stairs, and just overall increase your daily activity NOT including your intentional exercise.

    good luck!
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    Abby2205 wrote: »
    You may have set your goal to 2 lbs a week, but MFP won't set your goal calories below 1200. I don't know how tall you are, but I plugged in your age and current weight and 5'4" height into MFP and came up with 1800 calories to maintain current weight. 1200 calories would give a deficit of 600 calories per day, or average weight loss of a little over a pound a week. Aren't you losing about one pound per week? Congratulations, it's working.

    Also, yes, this. MFP will never recommend less than 1,200. :)
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    angelexperiment wrote: »
    Definitely drink up to a gallon of water a day. Eat 5 meals a day every 3 hours. Cycle your calories and carbs. It is what I do it works for me. I do chris powells choose more lose more carb cycling. You probably need to eat more calories as well. Look up metabolism boosting exercise. Shredders. Jillian Michael fat blast metabolism dvd. Or slim in 6 burn it up or zumba.

    Still nope.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    The majority of the stuff in here is psuedoscience. Increasing meal frequency, cold water, green tea, carb cycling and pepper will not increase your metabolic rate at all. In fact very few things affect your metabolic rate. The one thing that will is adding more muscle but if you want to lose weight, then it will rarely happen.

    Eating foods high in protein can burn more calories as it has a greater thermal effect of food but for the most part we aren't talking large numbers (in some lchf studies the increase is 50 calories). Exercise, especially HIIT and weight training, can have a post workout effect and burn additional calories which leads to an increased tdee.

    But overall, you still need to balance the equation of calories in vs out. And generally a person with little to lose shouldn't have an aggressive goal like 2 lbs a week. I have seen people achieve better results with a smaller deficit but that could be due to a few factors such as: hormone regulation, better logging, increase burns during exercise as you will have more energy or other stuff. And yes its anecdotal but i have seen it happen a lot. Let me state though, in a controlled environment, like a metabolic ward study, larger deficit = bigger loss.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
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  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
    mywinterbones wrote: »
    I've been recently researching better ways to make my metabolism more active ?

    Researching how to make your metabolism more active or speed it up will only take you to folks selling snake oil. Instead research what your metabolism is and how it works. Start with Wikipedia for a "brief" overview. I think you will quickly realize the truth.
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