Broken Metabolism? Is this real?
Tsirah
Posts: 7 Member
So.. I was doing some research after hearing the term "broken metabolism" and realized that, I may not have exactly been eating enough in general. Is this really possible to get? I have been stuck at the same number for months and I kept thinking maybe I was not eating enough but I was rarely feeling hungry and when I was I would eat just enough that I was satisfied. I have been working out daily and this seemed like one heck of a plateau, I have never had one last this long. If this is the case then I really feel like a newb and I need to figure out a daily meal plan. Is there anyone who could shed some light on this " broken metabolism" business? Or perhaps share some of their meal plans to give me some ideas? I am apparently supposed to be close to 1971 calories per day. I was not keeping track of my calories because my Doctor didn't seem to think I needed to, and I am embarrassed to say I may not have been even achieving 1200 most days.
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Start keeping track of your calories for a week or two before you so anything else.....
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This sounds exactly like starvation mode, and it absolutely is not a thing in this case. Adaptive thermogenesis takes a long time to really have an effect on metabolism.
I'd say you aren't losing because you aren't tracking your calories and are eating well more than 1200. Start now.7 -
Without tracking, you don't really know. People, generally speaking, are very bad at guessing their calorie intake. If you aren't losing, you are eating more than you realize. Log everything for a while. Use a food scale for everything that can be weighed (most accurate). You will be surprised. I've never heard the term "broken metabolism" before. It doesn't work that way. If you are seriously undereating for an extended period of time your metabolism will adapt to the lower intake, but it doesn't break. Depending on your stats (age, height, weight, activity level) 1200 is unlikely to create this adaptation.1
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Well... broken metabolism isn't a medical diagnosis. The closest thing I can think of is hypothyroidism, which can be detected by your doctor with a blood test (thyroid panel). Eating more will definitely not cause weight loss. Weigh all solid foods, measure all liquids, and track calories precisely. Usually when people don't lose it is because they are eating more calories than they think they are.
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So.. I was doing some research after hearing the term "broken metabolism" and realized that, I may not have exactly been eating enough in general. Is this really possible to get? I have been stuck at the same number for months and I kept thinking maybe I was not eating enough but I was rarely feeling hungry and when I was I would eat just enough that I was satisfied. I have been working out daily and this seemed like one heck of a plateau, I have never had one last this long. If this is the case then I really feel like a newb and I need to figure out a daily meal plan. Is there anyone who could shed some light on this " broken metabolism" business? Or perhaps share some of their meal plans to give me some ideas? I am apparently supposed to be close to 1971 calories per day. I was not keeping track of my calories because my Doctor didn't seem to think I needed to, and I am embarrassed to say I may not have been even achieving 1200 most days.
I have a "broken" metabolism, but it isn't due to not eating enough. I have an actual medical condition that affects my metabolism and ability to lose weight. Unless you have something like that, your metabolism isn't broken and more likely, you aren't being honest with your tracking.0 -
I was not keeping track of my calories because my Doctor didn't seem to think I needed to, and I am embarrassed to say I may not have been even achieving 1200 most days.
If you haven't been keeping track of your calories then how do you know you haven't been achieving 1200? It's probably the opposite - if you've plateaued then you're likely eating at maintenance level.3 -
You said you aren't tracking calories, you are probably ratting a lot more than 1200 calories every day. Track EVERYTHING you consume in MFP for 6 weeks before you stay worrying about anything.2
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Start keeping track of your calories for a week or two before you so anything else.....
100% this.
I've been logging on and off for a long time. I'm pretty good at estimating calories in a meal (and confirming with logging). I still constantly surprise myself when I log later in the day with an idea of what I think my calorie intake was and what it turns out to actually be. And I'm not eating loads of high calorie foods. It's not even willful, it is just that those little things add up quickly.
It's very, very easy to underestimate food.0 -
I was not tracking at all, my doctor was not concerned about it and told me it was not necessary. I have been quite busy with some added responsibilities with my job and found that often times, I became so focused that I would end up skipping meals. I do agree that tracking should be something that I do from here on out.1 -
No, it's not real. If you have a stable weight, you are eating at maintenance. If you need to lose weight and can do it without counting calories, that's great, but if you are trying to lose weight and aren't losing weight, tracking will get you on the right eh, track. You can't possibly know how many calories you are really eating unless you track, but you can be completely certain that you are eating more than 1200 on average.2
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Actually I said 1200 calories because I went back to a few days last week and thought through some of the meals I did have and calculated them up a few hours ago before writing this post.0
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Log, log, log. You'll be surprised how easy it is to rack up 1200 calories. Sure, your veggies might only be 30cal, but that tbsp of olive oil you used to cook them in? 119 calories. you might be thinking a chicken drumstick is 140 cal, but the one you got might have a smaller bone and secretly be 180.
Really, it's so easy to screw up 1200. Log everything for a day, measure out and weigh out everything exactly, and see how much your diet changes.0 -
You are correct, I was not weighing my food.0
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I do think eating too little affects how many calories you burn. If only from a decrease in fidgeting and deeper/longer rests. Personally I get pretty lethargic on 1200 calorie days. The problem is that once you lose the fidgeting habit, I'm not so sure that just eating more will get your typical calorie burns back to where you were before you began the diet. Wearing a fitbit for a while gave me some good information, plus a little motivation.0
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The daily mail have a report today that states doctors have found out people UNDERESTIMATE their calorie intake by more than 50% so those claiming 2000cal are actually eating more than 3k....they "forget" snacks and highly underestimate meals outside of the home. If you aren't weighing and logging chances are you're forgetting and underestimating0
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I was not tracking at all, my doctor was not concerned about it and told me it was not necessary. I have been quite busy with some added responsibilities with my job and found that often times, I became so focused that I would end up skipping meals. I do agree that tracking should be something that I do from here on out.
Sounds like a plan! Give it a try for several weeks and see how it works.
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So.. I was doing some research after hearing the term "broken metabolism" and realized that, I may not have exactly been eating enough in general. Is this really possible to get? I have been stuck at the same number for months and I kept thinking maybe I was not eating enough but I was rarely feeling hungry and when I was I would eat just enough that I was satisfied. I have been working out daily and this seemed like one heck of a plateau, I have never had one last this long. If this is the case then I really feel like a newb and I need to figure out a daily meal plan. Is there anyone who could shed some light on this " broken metabolism" business? Or perhaps share some of their meal plans to give me some ideas? I am apparently supposed to be close to 1971 calories per day. I was not keeping track of my calories because my Doctor didn't seem to think I needed to, and I am embarrassed to say I may not have been even achieving 1200 most days.
If you're not losing weight, you're not undereating.
Here's a great article on "broken metabolism" (starvation mode): http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/2 -
I was not tracking at all, my doctor was not concerned about it and told me it was not necessary. I have been quite busy with some added responsibilities with my job and found that often times, I became so focused that I would end up skipping meals. I do agree that tracking should be something that I do from here on out.
There is a great little food scale on Amazon called "Ozeri" - I love it. It's really simple to use, all electronic (battery operated). It's between 10-15 bucks. Really, really helps with portion control.
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minniemoo1972 wrote: »The daily mail have a report today that states doctors have found out people UNDERESTIMATE their calorie intake by more than 50% so those claiming 2000 cal are actually eating more than 3k....they "forget" snacks and highly underestimate meals outside of the home. If you aren't weighing and logging chances are you're forgetting and underestimating
Here's the Daily Mail article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3729060/Why-dieters-denial-People-underestimate-eat-50.html
And the study: http://38r8om2xjhhl25mw24492dir.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/16-07-12-Counting-Calories-Final.pdf
... we conclude that:
1. National surveys are under-estimating our true calorie intake. There are two main reasons why we believe this is the case:- The reported level of calorie consumption is too low to sustain our current weight even if we were only doing the minimum possible level of physical activity. In other words, if we were consuming this few calories, we would be losing weight as a nation, not gaining it.
- The studies using Doubly Labelled Water, the gold standard for measuring energy expenditure, indicate that as a population we are consuming 30% to 50% more calories than the levels reported in official statistics (see Figure 1).
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Along those lines, who has a link to the British video of the woman who thought her metabolism was broken but the double labeled water test showed she was just eating more than she thought and her metabolism was fine?1
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"Broken metabolism" is a term that companies use who want to sell you some product or system that is supposed to jump start your metabolism or something. Your metabolism never stops, or you'd be dead. You just have to start weighing everything you eat and logging everything.3
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