Low Metabolic Rate - Anyone?

mistyloveslife wrote: »

After being plateaued for 5 weeks, increasing activity considerably and journaling every morsel, I opted to have my metabolic rate tested at the suggestion of my family doctor. He did routine blood work (all normal aside from being slight anemic). Upon testing I've learned a few things that I've never really seen much mention on here in the "Help I've Plateaued" posts.

I have been on a strict clean eating diet. I consume1100-1400 calories per day. Never more than 1400 and I'm usually in the middle of the range I set. I've logged every bite. After 3 weeks of clean eating I lost 15 pounds. Which was insane. It tells you how much I ate prior to starting. Once I finished 3 weeks the scale never moved again. The last loss was 5 weeks ago and it was around a pound in a week. It goes up a half pound down a half pound etc. I'm stuck. 3 weeks ago I incorporated zumba 4 times a week. Walking more, hiking and I've even attended a couple weight training classes. Scale never moved. No change in my clothes. Nothing.

This morning I went for the metabolic testing. It incorporates your lifestyle, activity and you breathe into this little machine for 10 minutes. My maintenance calorie goal came back at 1350. This means I do nothing and I maintain my weight at 1350 calories a day. In efforts to lose 1/2 to a pound per week, it suggested I consume less than 1000 calories per day. The wellness coach did not encourage that. She simply told me to eat more protein, substitute 2 meals with replacement shakes and up the weight lifting. Muscle needs more calories than fat to exist. So it will be super slow. It will take time. I need to be patient and build muscle. Continue my lifestyle changes and keep on trucking....

Anyone care to share their experiences with this?

Starting Weight 200.2
Current Weight 184.4
Goal Weight 145ish

Was the 1350 your maintenance or your BMR? BMR makes sense...BMR is the calories you burn doing nothing but existing. I would assume you do more than nothing. You're also going to burn calories going about your day to day activities and exercise.

I think you're confusing BMR or RMR with maintenance...BMR or RMR aren't maintenance calories. 1300-1400 calories BMR is pretty on par with the average female.

I have a BMR of around 1800...I lose about 1 Lb per week eating 2300-2500 calories because my actual maintenance with my day to day activities and exercise is around 2800-3000...well beyond my BMR.

That's your BMR - if you were doing nothing but lying in day all day. You have to add activity calories to that to get your TDEE (what you really burn in a day). And that's even if those tests are accurate (I really have no idea)... it does seem kinda low (but you're not giving your stats).

How did you measure your calorie intake anyway? If you're not weighing your food, you're probably eating more than you think.

mistyloveslife wrote: »

After being plateaued for 5 weeks, increasing activity considerably and journaling every morsel, I opted to have my metabolic rate tested at the suggestion of my family doctor. He did routine blood work (all normal aside from being slight anemic). Upon testing I've learned a few things that I've never really seen much mention on here in the "Help I've Plateaued" posts.

I have been on a strict clean eating diet. I consume1100-1400 calories per day. Never more than 1400 and I'm usually in the middle of the range I set. I've logged every bite. After 3 weeks of clean eating I lost 15 pounds. Which was insane. It tells you how much I ate prior to starting. Once I finished 3 weeks the scale never moved again. The last loss was 5 weeks ago and it was around a pound in a week. It goes up a half pound down a half pound etc. I'm stuck. 3 weeks ago I incorporated zumba 4 times a week. Walking more, hiking and I've even attended a couple weight training classes. Scale never moved. No change in my clothes. Nothing.

This morning I went for the metabolic testing. It incorporates your lifestyle, activity and you breathe into this little machine for 10 minutes. My maintenance calorie goal came back at 1350. This means I do nothing and I maintain my weight at 1350 calories a day. In efforts to lose 1/2 to a pound per week, it suggested I consume less than 1000 calories per day. The wellness coach did not encourage that. She simply told me to eat more protein, substitute 2 meals with replacement shakes and up the weight lifting. Muscle needs more calories than fat to exist. So it will be super slow. It will take time. I need to be patient and build muscle. Continue my lifestyle changes and keep on trucking....

Anyone care to share their experiences with this?

Starting Weight 200.2
Current Weight 184.4
Goal Weight 145ish

A few things to unpack in here:

1. You did not lose 15 pounds of fat in three weeks. Most of that was likely water. I am surprised this was not addressed by your doctor or wellness coach in your metabolic testing.
2. You have not mentioned whether you weighed your food. Logging means you've tracked it, but if you didn't weigh it, you could be tracking the wrong number. If it's food you eat consistently, you may be compounding a small error into a bigger one.
3. "Clean eating" doesn't really mean anything with respect to weight loss.
4. Incorporating more cardio-based exercise increases stress hormones in your body, resulting in more water retention. You could still be burning more fat, while holding onto some water or just the fluctuations masking what's going on.
5. How tall are you? How old are you? It seems, at 184 pounds, that 1350 calories per day seems low. Now, given the exercise you state you are doing, you should be burning well over 2000 calories per day. (I assumed your height and 5'6" and age at 35 - you can always give us the real numbers).
6. Remember, the 1350 you got was at rest. Did your tester tell you that this was your sedentary level? Or your RMR (resting metabolic rate)? It's an important distinction. You are clearly not at rest for your normal activity, so eating 1000 calories per day doesn't make any sense at all.


To lose 1/2 pound per week, you should at least:

1. Start weighing everything. And logging, but weighing is far more important.
2. Stick with an existing activity level for awhile - whatever you are comfortable doing - without overdoing it. Don't make excessive changes or increases while chasing a scale number. I'm not saying to not be as active as you want to be; what I am saying is be consistent enough to establish a baseline for data. That should take at least 4-8 weeks. You need this to able to accurately filter out fluctuation "noise" so that you can make decisions based on the real data.


You may really have a slower metabolism than most, but your numbers suggest a pretty big outlier (without knowing your height and weight, I'm not sure about that). According this article (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4535334/) the percent error in RMR in women can be up to 30%. Your variation in RMR level looks to be at the high end of the range (based on my assumptions of you age and height), which tells me that the number is possible for you. You may have it a little bit tougher than most. But not a lot tougher.

Having said that, you are talking about 200 calories or so difference between you and average (depending the accuracy of my assumption). You may have to overcome that, but it shouldn't stop you.

First, be clear on your logging (and weighing - have I said that enough?). And second, take enough time to collect enough data. You've already shown that you can lose weight. Don't make any rash decisions or changes in the short term because you'll be making decisions based on something less than fact. Sorry to say that fat loss is not quick, easily masked by short-term fluctuations, and hard to measure because of those two things. The process works; you just have to find where your sweet spot is. I'll bet it's closer than you think.

[Edited for really poor grammar....probably a few more corrections coming - hopefully you get the point].

mistyloveslife wrote: »

First let me say this. I weigh everything with a digital scale. This isn't my first rodeo with dieting/lifestyle change. By clean eating I mean I am eating less processed foods. I did this because I have rheumatoid arthritis and I am trying to combat the disease without medication. The medications were affecting my liver and have terrible side effects. Clean eating helped with this.

This test she did took into account that I get in 7K steps per day and have a sedentary job. She said my RMR is 1350 calories per day. That based on my lifestyle, this is all my body needs to maintain my current weight.

I am still new to this side of things so bear with me. This is why I'm here. To learn and understand this better.

According to what she told me, I would need to eat less than 1086 calories per day to lose less than a pound per week. She said if I wanted to lose a pound per week I would need to eat less than 1000 calories. Her suggestion of meal replacement shakes was simply to manage calorie intake and help me get in more protein to build muscle. It's easy with my work schedule and I honestly like them.

I should note that I broke my foot a few years ago in a Spartan OCR/mud run that required 2 major surgeries. I was non weight bearing for a combined 7 months and had 6 months of physical therapy. I've spent the majority of the last few years sitting. Literally losing muscle and gaining weight. I gained 45 pounds!

What you are describing is not RMR. RMR is the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day, only doing a minimal amount of activity (like walking to the bathroom). It would not take into account 7k steps. It sounds like what you want is TDEE, total daily energy expenditure. This calculation takes into account all of your activity. I would be willing to bet money that your TDEE is considerably more than 1350.

However, the good news is that you don't actually have to calculate all these things. Just put your stats into MFP and set it for 1 lb. of weight loss per week. It will do the calculations for you.

While I have not had testing done, a friend (an older woman) had testing done and came back with similar results - what seemed like a shockingly slow metabolism meaning less than 1000 calories to lose moderately. She had testing done at same time my mom did, and their results were 100s of calories apart despite similar stats. Ignore this accusatory advice arguing your professional medical testing/advice must be wrong and that instead, generalized assumptions about weight/height/age calculatiosn generated from online tools are more accurate. Listen to your team and see if scale moves. Good luck! It sucks, but at least you have a plan of attack!

I hope that verbally was not the only way you were given the info from the test.

Look at the printout you should have received.
It should be very clear - low number is RMR, high number is estimated TDEE (sounds like without workouts included if 7K steps was it).

Neither is correct for starting figure for what you eat to deficit of. Because neither is really close to total activity.

If you have step value, is that because you sync MFP with activity tracker?

7K steps is NOT Sedentary by MFP definition (no definition actually). That's actually leaving Lightly Active and entering Active level, depending on how much distance to those steps.
Sedentary job doesn't mean sedentary lifestyle as you demonstrate.

That's BMR x 1.4 or 1.6 for TDEE level if walking is it.

Any workouts you haven't mentioned?

With RH, body already under stress, diet is a stress too, to some level, more potential to your body.
Control the stresses you can, keep them minimal for the ones you can't control.

mistyloveslife wrote: »

After being plateaued for 5 weeks, increasing activity considerably and journaling every morsel, I opted to have my metabolic rate tested at the suggestion of my family doctor. He did routine blood work (all normal aside from being slight anemic). Upon testing I've learned a few things that I've never really seen much mention on here in the "Help I've Plateaued" posts.

I have been on a strict clean eating diet. I consume1100-1400 calories per day. Never more than 1400 and I'm usually in the middle of the range I set. I've logged every bite. After 3 weeks of clean eating I lost 15 pounds. Which was insane. It tells you how much I ate prior to starting. Once I finished 3 weeks the scale never moved again. The last loss was 5 weeks ago and it was around a pound in a week. It goes up a half pound down a half pound etc. I'm stuck. 3 weeks ago I incorporated zumba 4 times a week. Walking more, hiking and I've even attended a couple weight training classes. Scale never moved. No change in my clothes. Nothing.

This morning I went for the metabolic testing. It incorporates your lifestyle, activity and you breathe into this little machine for 10 minutes. My maintenance calorie goal came back at 1350. This means I do nothing and I maintain my weight at 1350 calories a day. In efforts to lose 1/2 to a pound per week, it suggested I consume less than 1000 calories per day. The wellness coach did not encourage that. She simply told me to eat more protein, substitute 2 meals with replacement shakes and up the weight lifting. Muscle needs more calories than fat to exist. So it will be super slow. It will take time. I need to be patient and build muscle. Continue my lifestyle changes and keep on trucking....

Anyone care to share their experiences with this?

Starting Weight 200.2
Current Weight 184.4
Goal Weight 145ish

Metabolic testing carries a massive degree of error and you need multiple reading in conjunction with a second reviewer verifying your caloric intake and output (I do this for a living for regulatory submissions). The "Bodpod" and other marketing gimmicks are about as accurate as the handheld bodyfat analyzers, but it's bad marketing to adertise that 20% error.

What matters is consistency and developing long term habits. You aren't in any sort of plateau because these don't exist. Much of what you lost was water weight and now you're adjusting to this. The rate of bodyfat loss will diminish as you get closer to your goal - this is to be expected.

So what did MFP give you for your caloric budget? You didn't get that < 1000 kcal budget from here.

Do you plan on replacing 2 meals a day with shakes for the rest of your life? This practice leads to yo yo weight gain and you'll learn nothing. I do not recommend this as a long term strategy.

mistyloveslife wrote: »

First let me say this. I weigh everything with a digital scale. This isn't my first rodeo with dieting/lifestyle change. By clean eating I mean I am eating less processed foods. I did this because I have rheumatoid arthritis and I am trying to combat the disease without medication. The medications were affecting my liver and have terrible side effects. Clean eating helped with this.

This test she did took into account that I get in 7K steps per day and have a sedentary job. She said my RMR is 1350 calories per day. That based on my lifestyle, this is all my body needs to maintain my current weight.

I am still new to this side of things so bear with me. This is why I'm here. To learn and understand this better.

According to what she told me, I would need to eat less than 1086 calories per day to lose less than a pound per week. She said if I wanted to lose a pound per week I would need to eat less than 1000 calories. Her suggestion of meal replacement shakes was simply to manage calorie intake and help me get in more protein to build muscle. It's easy with my work schedule and I honestly like them.

I should note that I broke my foot a few years ago in a Spartan OCR/mud run that required 2 major surgeries. I was non weight bearing for a combined 7 months and had 6 months of physical therapy. I've spent the majority of the last few years sitting. Literally losing muscle and gaining weight. I gained 45 pounds!

To repeat, your RMR does NOT include your lifestyle. RMR is a real thing with a real meaning. It literally stands for Resting Metabolic Rate. If this "professional" told you your RMR includes your daily activity, it would be like a doctor telling you that being diabetic means you have too much salt in your blood. So the person who gave you your test results was embarrassingly uneducated about the information they were giving you, and I would strongly suggest you disregard anything else they told you.