Your questions, hypotheses, and curiosities?

Options
1356713

Replies

  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    Is it true that people can have a 'slow metabolism' even if they don't have an obvious metabolic disease? Or is that just kind of an excuse?

    I haven't seen the research myself, but Lyle MacDonald was discussing on a recent podcast about the observation that individuals seem to vary in the degree to which their caloric burn adjusts to calorie deficit or calorie surplus. With some people when they are in calorie deficit you will see a pretty dramatic drop in leptin which will make it harder to lose increase hunger, whereas other people do not have nearly as much of a drop (and they tend to lose weight more easily). Similarly, some people in calorie surplus will naturally start burning more calories throughout the day through fidgeting, being active, etc, while others you don't see this same effect. The same people who get the quick drop in leptin also are less likely to naturally ramp up activity, and vice versa. This might partially explain why some people have a hard time gaining weight and lose it very quickly, while others put weight on easily and struggle to lose any.

    I wonder if this would be the case regardless of starting body fat levels or if it only occurs when you go above or below a certain range.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    I wonder about the inches associated with water weight versus fat loss/muscle. We know fat is denser than muscle, but is water denser or less dense than fat? If you lose 5 lbs of fat but retain an extra 5 lbs of water, will you be smaller, bigger, or redistributed?
  • marissafit06
    marissafit06 Posts: 1,996 Member
    Options
    Giving yourself extra calories for a normal amount of walking (10,000 steps) doesn't make a lot of sense.
    For the longest time, my goal was 10,000 steps. I'm not sure that's "normal" but, regardless, it's been worth about .75 pounds a week for me over the last year. More when I was heavier, less now, but not insignificant.

    Interesting. Are you doing more intense workouts in addition to the walking?

    This brings up another question that I have wondered about. Do different individuals have different set-points for activity?

    I am very active again now, but really I am just back to what was normal for me before I had health problems which forced me to be sedentary. The amount of exercise that seems to be sufficient for most people to maintain weight loss is not NEARLY enough for me. Some of this is due to metabolic illness in my case, but there seems to be more to it than that.
    I'm lifting weights, but the way I understand it, that's basically rounding error as far as TDEE calories go.

    There are those who say that walking speed doesn't matter, but probably 7,500 of those steps were from walking about 4.5 miles at 13:30 pace. Other than that and the lifting, I was pretty sedentary.

    I've bumped up my target and am now walking 14K+ steps and it's made a noticeable difference in what I've lost, but it's a very, very short sample time, so I'm not jumping to any conclusions.

    It really depends on how active you were to begin with. Someone who was only walking 1-3K steps per day would get significant balance from bumping that up to 10K. I think the tricky thing with Fitbit and MFP food intake estimates is that most people aren't going to calculate a baseline before they start the process of losing weight.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    Giving yourself extra calories for a normal amount of walking (10,000 steps) doesn't make a lot of sense.
    For the longest time, my goal was 10,000 steps. I'm not sure that's "normal" but, regardless, it's been worth about .75 pounds a week for me over the last year. More when I was heavier, less now, but not insignificant.

    Interesting. Are you doing more intense workouts in addition to the walking?

    This brings up another question that I have wondered about. Do different individuals have different set-points for activity?

    I am very active again now, but really I am just back to what was normal for me before I had health problems which forced me to be sedentary. The amount of exercise that seems to be sufficient for most people to maintain weight loss is not NEARLY enough for me. Some of this is due to metabolic illness in my case, but there seems to be more to it than that.
    I'm lifting weights, but the way I understand it, that's basically rounding error as far as TDEE calories go.

    There are those who say that walking speed doesn't matter, but probably 7,500 of those steps were from walking about 4.5 miles at 13:30 pace. Other than that and the lifting, I was pretty sedentary.

    I've bumped up my target and am now walking 14K+ steps and it's made a noticeable difference in what I've lost, but it's a very, very short sample time, so I'm not jumping to any conclusions.

    It really depends on how active you were to begin with. Someone who was only walking 1-3K steps per day would get significant balance from bumping that up to 10K. I think the tricky thing with Fitbit and MFP food intake estimates is that most people aren't going to calculate a baseline before they start the process of losing weight.

    Yeah I wonder to what degree the calorie burns may become more overestimated over time as your body becomes adapted to the movement.
  • jengilligan04
    jengilligan04 Posts: 8 Member
    Options
    I have a question, I had a gastric sleeve and started walking 1.5 miles a day at a very brisk pace 3,5 miles per hour, I have lost a total to date ( 5 months after surgery) and am down 104.2lbs! I've hit a plateau, and don't seem to be losing anymore weight! I walk 7-9 times a week, some nice days I walk outside, cold or rainy days on treadmill. What can I do to start losing weight again?? Should I start to being with weights or bands, or should I just use my body weight. And what type of exercises should I incorporate??
  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Options
    I wonder about the inches associated with water weight versus fat loss/muscle. We know fat is denser than muscle, but is water denser or less dense than fat? If you lose 5 lbs of fat but retain an extra 5 lbs of water, will you be smaller, bigger, or redistributed?

    I've just come out of a month long stall, a lot of which was attributable to water retention (with a bit of eating close to maintenance thrown in at the end :p). I did my measurements at one point and they were the same. I've actually noticed in the past week or so that I feel squishier, guessing because my cells aren't pumped up with water. Sooooo, maybe if you're holding on to water your measurements won't really change?
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
    Options
    Tubbs216 wrote: »
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    I wanna know why I can't just get hungry like regular people. Instead I go from fine to hangry and sick.
    Blood sugar issues? My sister is hypoglycemic and gets sick and faint if she doesn't eat regularly.

    I always figured it was but I recently had my fasting blood sugar tested for the first time (and I couldn't get in until 11am so that was like 15 hours of fasting) and everything was perfect. So now it's a mystery.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    Tubbs216 wrote: »
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    I wanna know why I can't just get hungry like regular people. Instead I go from fine to hangry and sick.
    Blood sugar issues? My sister is hypoglycemic and gets sick and faint if she doesn't eat regularly.

    I always figured it was but I recently had my fasting blood sugar tested for the first time (and I couldn't get in until 11am so that was like 15 hours of fasting) and everything was perfect. So now it's a mystery.

    Well, I have insulin resistance but my fasting glucose and A1C have always been fine. Not to suggest you have any issues, but they won't always show on that test.

  • Nony_Mouse
    Nony_Mouse Posts: 5,646 Member
    Options
    Oh, just did my measurements and yep, everything is down a bit :D.
  • wnlbutterfly
    wnlbutterfly Posts: 35 Member
    edited April 2015
    Options
    ...
  • Camo_xxx
    Camo_xxx Posts: 1,082 Member
    Options
    I wonder about the one variable that we can't measure that is metabolism. We know things like the older we get the slower it goes and that we can rev it up...but as far as I know it is still not measurable. It's the wild card in the equation in my opinion.

    You should do some research as your assumptions are not accurate.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    Nony_Mouse wrote: »
    Oh, just did my measurements and yep, everything is down a bit :D.

    First off, nice! I speculate there are patterns to it. I think if I am retaining due to muscle repair I see those inches up, waist and hips seems to go up with hormonal shifts, not sure about a pattern with extra sodium or carbs.
  • DeguelloTex
    DeguelloTex Posts: 6,652 Member
    Options
    Giving yourself extra calories for a normal amount of walking (10,000 steps) doesn't make a lot of sense.
    For the longest time, my goal was 10,000 steps. I'm not sure that's "normal" but, regardless, it's been worth about .75 pounds a week for me over the last year. More when I was heavier, less now, but not insignificant.

    Interesting. Are you doing more intense workouts in addition to the walking?

    This brings up another question that I have wondered about. Do different individuals have different set-points for activity?

    I am very active again now, but really I am just back to what was normal for me before I had health problems which forced me to be sedentary. The amount of exercise that seems to be sufficient for most people to maintain weight loss is not NEARLY enough for me. Some of this is due to metabolic illness in my case, but there seems to be more to it than that.
    I'm lifting weights, but the way I understand it, that's basically rounding error as far as TDEE calories go.

    There are those who say that walking speed doesn't matter, but probably 7,500 of those steps were from walking about 4.5 miles at 13:30 pace. Other than that and the lifting, I was pretty sedentary.

    I've bumped up my target and am now walking 14K+ steps and it's made a noticeable difference in what I've lost, but it's a very, very short sample time, so I'm not jumping to any conclusions.

    It really depends on how active you were to begin with. Someone who was only walking 1-3K steps per day would get significant balance from bumping that up to 10K. I think the tricky thing with Fitbit and MFP food intake estimates is that most people aren't going to calculate a baseline before they start the process of losing weight.

    Yeah I wonder to what degree the calorie burns may become more overestimated over time as your body becomes adapted to the movement.
    My UP24's estimate of calorie burns -- passive and active -- seems to have gotten pretty close to my actual burns, as reflected in weight loss versus intake. Even assuming perfect logging and ideal loss of weight per 3500 calories of deficit, it's overestimating my 173 calories a day, on average. On an estimated burn of 23,103 a week or 3300 a day, that's not bad at all.

    Obviously, that's something I'd have to take into account if I were relying solely on the UP24, but I think it definitely has me in the ballpark. I'll be interested to see how it tracks once I go into maintenance and then a surplus.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
    Options
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    Tubbs216 wrote: »
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    I wanna know why I can't just get hungry like regular people. Instead I go from fine to hangry and sick.
    Blood sugar issues? My sister is hypoglycemic and gets sick and faint if she doesn't eat regularly.

    I always figured it was but I recently had my fasting blood sugar tested for the first time (and I couldn't get in until 11am so that was like 15 hours of fasting) and everything was perfect. So now it's a mystery.

    Well, I have insulin resistance but my fasting glucose and A1C have always been fine. Not to suggest you have any issues, but they won't always show on that test.

    Interesting to know - maybe I will ask a doctor one of these days..thank you!
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    Tubbs216 wrote: »
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    I wanna know why I can't just get hungry like regular people. Instead I go from fine to hangry and sick.
    Blood sugar issues? My sister is hypoglycemic and gets sick and faint if she doesn't eat regularly.

    I always figured it was but I recently had my fasting blood sugar tested for the first time (and I couldn't get in until 11am so that was like 15 hours of fasting) and everything was perfect. So now it's a mystery.

    Well, I have insulin resistance but my fasting glucose and A1C have always been fine. Not to suggest you have any issues, but they won't always show on that test.

    Interesting to know - maybe I will ask a doctor one of these days..thank you!

    Yeah it is something I really pay attention to because I had multiple signs of insulin resistance for at least 10 years and repeatedly broached the topic with my doctors but because my blood sugar wasn't high they always disregarded my concerns. The thing about IR is that if you are producing a ton of insulin you may not have elevated sugars. The doctor who finally diagnosed was a reproductive endocrinologist, and she measured several hormone levels including insulin at a particular point in my cycle.
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    One of my takeaways is not to assume your primary doctor knows this stuff, if you have signs of metabolic dysfunction see an endocrinologist.
  • Keliandra
    Keliandra Posts: 170 Member
    Options
    [/quote]I was 35.89. I'm going to be a special snowflake who maintains his loss.

    [/quote]

    Go special snowflake! lol o:)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,892 Member
    Options
    I was 35.89. I'm going to be a special snowflake who maintains his loss.

    We are sooo gonna kill it!

    (Mind you Canadian snowflake vs Texas snowflake.... I don't know: you may need to find a better paradigm....)
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
    Options
    One of my takeaways is not to assume your primary doctor knows this stuff, if you have signs of metabolic dysfunction see an endocrinologist.

    I don't even have a primary doctor lol...one of these days maybe...
  • girlviernes
    girlviernes Posts: 2,402 Member
    Options
    sofaking6 wrote: »
    One of my takeaways is not to assume your primary doctor knows this stuff, if you have signs of metabolic dysfunction see an endocrinologist.

    I don't even have a primary doctor lol...one of these days maybe...

    Well at any rate, it is a good thing your blood work so far has come back looking good! :)