Keeping Metabolism Up

madisonrmartinez
madisonrmartinez Posts: 19 Member
edited November 21 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!
I've been looking into introducing "refeed days" into my weight loss routine about once every two weeks because I want to keep my metabolism up and I don't want to kill it on a constant caloric deficit. Is that smart? Is it not? Does anyone else have some tips on how not to murder my metabolism? I work out almost every day and I honestly haven't had a "cheat day" since I started about 2 months ago. I've been very successful (two shirt sizes down, one pant size down, 15lbs down), but I want to make sure that I stay consistent with my weight loss and do this in the healthiest, most sustainable way possible. I'm also kind of bummed because MFP cut my calories from 1700 to 1420 today. By the way, I'm 5'9, 20 years old, female, and 243.2lbs currently (in case that comes in handy).

Replies

  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    It takes months and months of undereating to noticeably impact your metabolism.

    I know some dieters take a week or two every 3 months and eat at maintenance, though that might help more due to needing a psychological break.

    Why did mfp subtract 300 calories? What did you change?
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    It takes months and months of undereating to noticeably impact your metabolism.

    I know some dieters take a week or two every 3 months and eat at maintenance, though that might help more due to needing a psychological break.

    Why did mfp subtract 300 calories? What did you change?

    She went down 15 pounds and probably set a more aggressive weight loss/week goal.
  • ugofatcat
    ugofatcat Posts: 385 Member
    Don't worry, you won't murder your metabolism unless you die. Your body takes energy to live, for your heart to beat and to breathe. The more you move, the more energy you use, so you will have a higher metabolism. A pound of muscle burns (6 calories/hour I think) more then a pound of fat (2 calories/hour), so weight training will help build muscle and this will increase your metabolism. However it takes many months of consistently lifting at a high level to build muscle.

    Eating does increase your metabolism, but only marginally. In general, for every 100 calories you eat, your metabolism will increase by 1 to 1.1 calories/hour for four to five hours before dropping back to baseline. (If you want this source, let me know, it will take some time to track down the study).
  • madisonrmartinez
    madisonrmartinez Posts: 19 Member
    kimny72 wrote: »
    It takes months and months of undereating to noticeably impact your metabolism.

    I know some dieters take a week or two every 3 months and eat at maintenance, though that might help more due to needing a psychological break.

    Why did mfp subtract 300 calories? What did you change?

    I lost 15 pounds but did not change any of my goals... I don't really know why it took off 300 calories so suddenly.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    madisonrmartinez wrote: »
    kimny72 wrote: »
    It takes months and months of undereating to noticeably impact your metabolism.

    I know some dieters take a week or two every 3 months and eat at maintenance, though that might help more due to needing a psychological break.

    Why did mfp subtract 300 calories? What did you change?

    I lost 15 pounds but did not change any of my goals... I don't really know why it took off 300 calories so suddenly.

    Double check your setup to make sure something didn't reset when you updated your weight, because 15 lbs shouldn't have changed your calories that much!
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    The way to keep your metabolism up is through exercise not by eating more.
  • rmgnow
    rmgnow Posts: 375 Member
    edited September 2017
    If I were you I wouldn't worry about the metabolism thing.
    Count calories. The numbers are much less squirrelly.

    Btw you're on a pretty aggressive plan
    I'm 6'2 185lbs and I lose close to 1lb a week on 1800cals per day.

    What does working out do? It gives you even more calories to eat
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    Refeed days can be very beneficial to long term compliance and make cutting easier to tolerate. They can also help with hunger levels. The thing to remember is that a refeed, isn't a free for all. It's only going up to maintenance or barely above.
  • emcclure013
    emcclure013 Posts: 231 Member
    Double check your setup. I'm in a similar situation to you (5'10'' female - started at 265 down to 245 set at sedentary) and it only lowered by calories by about 60 per day - 300 seems pretty drastic.
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