Metabolism "reset"?
ditsyblond17
Posts: 155 Member
Hi everyone. A little back story, I've starved myself on numerous occasions. Then, I would binge because my body was literally starving.
I'm 26, 330lb and a female (5'7) I am curious about my current way of eating. I'm eating 6 meals a day, 1,800 calories total. I'm sedentary.
My question is this...
Is it better for me to find my maintenance calorie number (I'm hoping it's way higher than 1,800- but I think it's very, very low due to starving myself) by adding maybe 200 calories each week until I find that I neither gain nor lose that week?
Or....
Should I continue on 1,800 calories and lose weight until I hit a plateau, and then bump up My calories to my "estimated" calorie maintenance level? Then, go right back to 1,800 or whatever I feel comfortable doing?
The problem is, I'm worried I don't know exactly where my metabolism "set point" is. If I am burning 1,000 calories a day because I have starved myself and depleted all my muscle, eating 800 calories extra a day would make me GAIN weight. Which is why, to me, before dieting, I need to figure out what my body wants me to do! Is this right? Can someone enlighten me??
Thank you so much for reading
I'm 26, 330lb and a female (5'7) I am curious about my current way of eating. I'm eating 6 meals a day, 1,800 calories total. I'm sedentary.
My question is this...
Is it better for me to find my maintenance calorie number (I'm hoping it's way higher than 1,800- but I think it's very, very low due to starving myself) by adding maybe 200 calories each week until I find that I neither gain nor lose that week?
Or....
Should I continue on 1,800 calories and lose weight until I hit a plateau, and then bump up My calories to my "estimated" calorie maintenance level? Then, go right back to 1,800 or whatever I feel comfortable doing?
The problem is, I'm worried I don't know exactly where my metabolism "set point" is. If I am burning 1,000 calories a day because I have starved myself and depleted all my muscle, eating 800 calories extra a day would make me GAIN weight. Which is why, to me, before dieting, I need to figure out what my body wants me to do! Is this right? Can someone enlighten me??
Thank you so much for reading
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Replies
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Your maintenance, according to several calculator should be around 2700, assuming no exercise. Here's what I would do. I would put your numbers into MFP's calculators and set your goal at 1-1.5 pounds per week. Eat to those calories for 3-4 weeks and gauge your weight loss from there. If you are on target to your goal then continue. If not then you can adjust.0
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First of all there is no resetting your metabolism..
Next you have not hit a stall yet (If I understand that you anticipating a stall...
)... You are way over thinking this and unless you have medical reasons, or you have taken a blood metabolic panel test and it came back with issues, you metabolism is not damaged.. this test checks for a variety of things.. and if you are concerned get one done...
Eat what MFP gave you to loose weight... try that for 4 weeks.. make sure you:
1) Get a food scale and weigh and log all of your food
2) Do not over estimate any exercise calorie burns and eat too many of them back...
IF you hit the stall... re check your calories in and calories out, you may be eating more than you think...0 -
Over what kind of timeline have you "starved yourself"?
Seriously, I think you're overthinking this whole thing. You could undoubtedly lose weight eating more than 1800 calories a day, so I would just eat what MFP set your calorie goal at until you stop losing weight, and then assess from there.0 -
I started a few pounds less than you are and so far have lost 108 lb. (I am your same height but 30 years older). Here is what I did (am doing): Plug your numbers into MFP and let it calculate your calories. I did 1 lb. a week but you can go up to 2 lb. for now. Eat to the numbers that MFP gives you. If you are able to exercise, do it and eat back about 50% of the additional calories you earn. Rinse and repeat.
MFP will adjust for you as you lose weight. If you do any kind of custom settings, it will remind you to recalculate every 10 lb. lost. Relax and let the program figure things out for you. Your only job is to weigh, measure, and log as accurately as possible.- I started with 1900 calories daily
- I now am at 1760 calories daily
- I have averaged 1.5 lb. a week over the last 16 months. It is more than I set MFP to lose because I tend to underestimate my calorie burn, but I am OK with that because I set my weekly weight loss goal low so I can have wiggle room.
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To "reset" your metabolism, all you really need to do is to exercise. Given your current weight, it seems like you have bigger concerns than what your metabolism is. You should have no problem at all losing weight at 1800 calories, or even a little higher.0
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ditsyblond17 wrote: »The problem is, I'm worried I don't know exactly where my metabolism "set point" is. If I am burning 1,000 calories a day because I have starved myself and depleted all my muscle, eating 800 calories extra a day would make me GAIN weight. Which is why, to me, before dieting, I need to figure out what my body wants me to do! Is this right? Can someone enlighten me??
Thank you so much for reading
You can find your maintenance when eating at a deficit.
Stay with 1800 and sedentary (or net, by eating back exercise calories), lose 2 lb/week, that means you are probably around 2800 maintenance. Lose 1.5 lb/week, then more like 2550. Lose 1 lb/week on average, 2300.
No reason to assume your maintenance is especially messed up in advance. Quite likely it's not.0 -
Thank you all, yes Timothy. I have bigger "fish to fry" pun intended. However, I also have syndrome X (metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance) so actually my metabolism COULD inevitably be more than 15% affected as someone above pointed out.
So, I appreciate what everyone is saying. You all made perfect sense. I guess I will just keep to what I'm doing, and if I see a stall, will do something to go from there. The thing is, I didn't WANT to start at 1,800 when it's obvious I can eat more and still lose. I'm only starting at 1,800 because I assume through my bad choices of STARVING myself all dag every day for about a year then bingeing sporadically, that I've just about done all I can to mess this up.
Muscles have everything to do with calorie burning. And in a catabolic state, I nay have lost lots of muscle mass. But I realize thanks to you fine people, this shouldn't be a main concern for now. I will just gauge everything and try to keep it to 2lb a week. Thank you All!!0 -
I started a few pounds less than you are and so far have lost 108 lb. (I am your same height but 30 years older). Here is what I did (am doing): Plug your numbers into MFP and let it calculate your calories. I did 1 lb. a week but you can go up to 2 lb. for now. Eat to the numbers that MFP gives you. If you are able to exercise, do it and eat back about 50% of the additional calories you earn. Rinse and repeat.
MFP will adjust for you as you lose weight. If you do any kind of custom settings, it will remind you to recalculate every 10 lb. lost. Relax and let the program figure things out for you. Your only job is to weigh, measure, and log as accurately as possible.- I started with 1900 calories daily
- I now am at 1760 calories daily
- I have averaged 1.5 lb. a week over the last 16 months. It is more than I set MFP to lose because I tend to underestimate my calorie burn, but I am OK with that because I set my weekly weight loss goal low so I can have wiggle room.
And, I Just wanted to say congrulations to you!!! What an amazing accomplishment. It makes me feel, I too, can reach such an impressive goal! You should feel so proud:)
Thank you for sharing your advice!0 -
Have you had a medical doctor diagnose you with metabolic syndrome or insulin resistance? If not I wouldn't take what you read on the internet to heart.
There is no real reason to force yourself to eat 6 meals unless that works for you. I find that I function best on 2 or 3.
At the end of the day the best diet is one that you can maintain and one that will get you to your goal.
If you are going to be tracking calories you must be accurate, or your goals will most likely be compromised. That means buying a food scale and unfortunately weighing everything. It sucks, it's time consuming, but obviously our eyeballs and our stomachs aren't working for us.0 -
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Metabolic rate declines the most about 15% which i personally believe isn't much, others disagree and say it's significant.
So no need to "reset" your metabolism, doesn't work that way. Just eat food, notice your results and make adjustments. Don't make it more complicated than that.
How significant the metabolic rate decline is feels depends on how hungry you end up and what you have to give up because of it. For me 15% of what my TDEE should be, if you believe the calculators, is over 300 calories a day. Boom gone. I'm starting 300 in the hole just because I've done, wait for it, what I was supposed to. That is, lose weight. By the time you take away another 20% to achieve weight loss I get a whopping 1900 calories to eat. That'd be fantastic if I was a 130lb woman but I'm a 5'11" 230lbs man. Basically by the time I'm done eating the essentials (to hit protein and fat macro) I have nothing left over for anything remotely discretionary. It's total crap.
This!!!!! Right on. This was the purpose for me posting this. Diets DONT WORK. That is the problem. Counting calories is great, but not if your body thinks you're too hungry to survive. I know my metabolism is lowered because of years of dieting.
And yes, an M.D. (several) has diagnosed me with Insulin resistance.0 -
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ditsyblond17 wrote: »Metabolic rate declines the most about 15% which i personally believe isn't much, others disagree and say it's significant.
So no need to "reset" your metabolism, doesn't work that way. Just eat food, notice your results and make adjustments. Don't make it more complicated than that.
How significant the metabolic rate decline is feels depends on how hungry you end up and what you have to give up because of it. For me 15% of what my TDEE should be, if you believe the calculators, is over 300 calories a day. Boom gone. I'm starting 300 in the hole just because I've done, wait for it, what I was supposed to. That is, lose weight. By the time you take away another 20% to achieve weight loss I get a whopping 1900 calories to eat. That'd be fantastic if I was a 130lb woman but I'm a 5'11" 230lbs man. Basically by the time I'm done eating the essentials (to hit protein and fat macro) I have nothing left over for anything remotely discretionary. It's total crap.
This!!!!! Right on. This was the purpose for me posting this. Diets DONT WORK. That is the problem. Counting calories is great, but not if your body thinks you're too hungry to survive. I know my metabolism is lowered because of years of dieting.
And yes, an M.D. (several) has diagnosed me with Insulin resistance.
I thought I screwed up my metabolism through decades of dieting too (and adding in menopause) but all I really needed was a change in macros. I do better with adding more protein and fat and lowering carbs. I also am T2 diabetic so there is that metabolic issue to consider. Once I changed my macros to 35% each protein and carbs and 30% fat I have had a (comparatively) easy time losing. I found one of my old Weight Watchers diaries and calculated my macros from that. I was eating about 10% fat, 15% protein, and 75% carbs. I also was hungry all of the time.
This is my experience, everyone has to figure out what will work best for them.
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ditsyblond17 wrote: »Metabolic rate declines the most about 15% which i personally believe isn't much, others disagree and say it's significant.
So no need to "reset" your metabolism, doesn't work that way. Just eat food, notice your results and make adjustments. Don't make it more complicated than that.
How significant the metabolic rate decline is feels depends on how hungry you end up and what you have to give up because of it. For me 15% of what my TDEE should be, if you believe the calculators, is over 300 calories a day. Boom gone. I'm starting 300 in the hole just because I've done, wait for it, what I was supposed to. That is, lose weight. By the time you take away another 20% to achieve weight loss I get a whopping 1900 calories to eat. That'd be fantastic if I was a 130lb woman but I'm a 5'11" 230lbs man. Basically by the time I'm done eating the essentials (to hit protein and fat macro) I have nothing left over for anything remotely discretionary. It's total crap.
This!!!!! Right on. This was the purpose for me posting this. Diets DONT WORK. That is the problem. Counting calories is great, but not if your body thinks you're too hungry to survive. I know my metabolism is lowered because of years of dieting.
And yes, an M.D. (several) has diagnosed me with Insulin resistance.
As earlnabby said, you may just want to play with your macros. Keep close track of what you are eating, when you are hungry, and try changing it up. I found that balancing my macros--eating protein and fat at every meal--and not snacking between meals and making sure I had LOTS of veggies for volume were what worked for me, but other people have success with other things. (Balancing macros or decreasing carbs is often helpful, especially if you have insulin issues.)
You don't have to be hungry, and since you know that's been a problem for you in the past it's a reason not to go down too low.
Contrary to BFDeal, my experience has been that I've been able to eat more as the process has gone on (I've lost 95 lbs and am basically at maintenance), because I got increasingly active as I lost.0 -
I'm curious about this as well. Is it a blood test or....? I've yo yo'd for years, have my thyroid checked at every physical and is always normal.ditsyblond17 wrote: »Metabolic rate declines the most about 15% which i personally believe isn't much, others disagree and say it's significant.
So no need to "reset" your metabolism, doesn't work that way. Just eat food, notice your results and make adjustments. Don't make it more complicated than that.
How significant the metabolic rate decline is feels depends on how hungry you end up and what you have to give up because of it. For me 15% of what my TDEE should be, if you believe the calculators, is over 300 calories a day. Boom gone. I'm starting 300 in the hole just because I've done, wait for it, what I was supposed to. That is, lose weight. By the time you take away another 20% to achieve weight loss I get a whopping 1900 calories to eat. That'd be fantastic if I was a 130lb woman but I'm a 5'11" 230lbs man. Basically by the time I'm done eating the essentials (to hit protein and fat macro) I have nothing left over for anything remotely discretionary. It's total crap.
This!!!!! Right on. This was the purpose for me posting this. Diets DONT WORK. That is the problem. Counting calories is great, but not if your body thinks you're too hungry to survive. I know my metabolism is lowered because of years of dieting.
And yes, an M.D. (several) has diagnosed me with Insulin resistance.
I'm curious, how do you KNOW your metabolism is lowered?
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When people talk about metabolism reset, they are more likely referring to metabolic efficiency. Do a Google search with that term and there is some good information and studies out there on how best to accommodate metabolic efficiency at different points in weight loss, maint, or bulking.0
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TTimothyFish wrote: »To "reset" your metabolism, all you really need to do is to exercise. Given your current weight, it seems like you have bigger concerns than what your metabolism is. You should have no problem at all losing weight at 1800 calories, or even a little higher.
That was rude.
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Okay, thank you all so much! I appreciate the people who genuinely want to help those in need- like myself. I am feeling better knowing the WORST case scenario is 15% LOST. and yes, I have hypothyroidism as well. Doesn't that affect it more?
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When people talk about metabolism reset, they are more likely referring to metabolic efficiency. Do a Google search with that term and there is some good information and studies out there on how best to accommodate metabolic efficiency at different points in weight loss, maint, or bulking.
Will do, thanks!
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Go with 1800 push through. Pushing through will make you seriously reevaluate your food choices - you will think about what you can eat to stay satiated for longer, like eggs and tuna for breakfast and brocoli instead of potatoes.
You will be constantly hungry for a month, and you won't be able to "afford" most tasty foods but it gets better after a while.0 -
Well maybe 1800 is a bit low, try 2200 for a week so that you don't feel too miserable and tempted to quit.0
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Are you being treated for the hypothyroid? If so and if your levels are normal, it shouldn't. It may affect it a little bit (edited to add - if your levels are still off, it may have a bit of an effect), but it shouldn't make too much of a difference where you're at. If what you're doing is working for you, just keep doing it!ditsyblond17 wrote: »and yes, I have hypothyroidism as well. Doesn't that affect it more? If you do want to boost your metabolism, the best thing you can do is exercise. Strength training is great for that and there are a lot of resources online for bodyweight exercises (no equipment needed!) but even just adding a little extra walking will help. 0 -
I think you should be eating more than 1,800. Go with what MFP calculates. Slower is better. Don't lose the forest because you're obsessing over the trees.0
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If you are insulin resistant look into Paleo or low carb or low carb high fat. Highly recommended for those with metabolic issues and lots of support in those groups.0
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