Any RD'S out there? Looking for advice regarding food and metabolic issue
meggs9605
Posts: 55 Member
I have posted about this in the past, but have yet to get an actual answer/ feed back.
TL;DR: my metabolism is about 40% lower than is typical for my stats. How do I properly figure out how much to eat without further "damaging" my metabolism?
I am ashamed to say that I have not handled this past year well. So these stats are from about 15 months ago. My BMR as determined by online calculators SHOULD BE around 1710. However, I did a full fitness panel that included 3D body scan and VOX2 assessment. Turns out, I am actually only burning about / RMR is 1040 calories daily (so about 40% less than my height, weight, BF, age, etc. would indicate. Obviously to cut calories I would need to be sub 1000 or do ungodly amounts of cardio everyday. I have tried to increase/maintain my muscle mass with weight training and increasing my existing cardio. I am so frustrated because I cannot figure out what and how much I should be eating. Even with this past years weight gain, I assume my numbers still need to be adjusted 40ish% less than my projected BMR. But if my suggested macros are properly calculated based on my weight, how do I do that?
TL;DR: my metabolism is about 40% lower than is typical for my stats. How do I properly figure out how much to eat without further "damaging" my metabolism?
I am ashamed to say that I have not handled this past year well. So these stats are from about 15 months ago. My BMR as determined by online calculators SHOULD BE around 1710. However, I did a full fitness panel that included 3D body scan and VOX2 assessment. Turns out, I am actually only burning about / RMR is 1040 calories daily (so about 40% less than my height, weight, BF, age, etc. would indicate. Obviously to cut calories I would need to be sub 1000 or do ungodly amounts of cardio everyday. I have tried to increase/maintain my muscle mass with weight training and increasing my existing cardio. I am so frustrated because I cannot figure out what and how much I should be eating. Even with this past years weight gain, I assume my numbers still need to be adjusted 40ish% less than my projected BMR. But if my suggested macros are properly calculated based on my weight, how do I do that?
3
Replies
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Have you reached out to a registered dietian near where you live? If you have a primary doctor they might be able to refer you to one.
I hope you get your answers.2 -
You don't eat below your RMR or below your BMR (same thing,) you eat below your TDEE - which is your RMR Plus your daily activity Plus your exercise calories. So you take that calorie deficit from a much higher number than your RMR/BMR.
How far out of the healthy BMI are you? Meaning, how much weight do you need to lose to be in a healthy weight BMI?
Here is the explanation from Myfitnesspal on how they calculate:
https://support.myfitnesspal.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032625391-How-does-MyFitnessPal-calculate-my-initial-goals-
Depending on how much weight you need to lose, read that article and set up your Goals on here, and start logging. That's how you figure this out.
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You know, many of the "old-timers" on here say to just plug your numbers into MFP get your calorie goal and do that for 2 weeks. If you aren't losing cut your calories--100 calories less, and do that for 2 weeks. If you aren't losing cut another 100. Keep going like this until you're losing. It doesn't matter what all the calculators say. At a certain point you will start losing and then you've got some data and can start working from there. I wouldn't stress it. Good luck.6
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WeatherJane wrote: »Have you reached out to a registered dietian near where you live? If you have a primary doctor they might be able to refer you to one.
I hope you get your answers.
I did have one planned for last spring, but it got put on the back burner with C9vid and everything else this past year. Thank you for the reminder!1 -
snowflake954 wrote: »You know, many of the "old-timers" on here say to just plug your numbers into MFP get your calorie goal and do that for 2 weeks. If you aren't losing cut your calories--100 calories less, and do that for 2 weeks. If you aren't losing cut another 100. Keep going like this until you're losing. It doesn't matter what all the calculators say. At a certain point you will start losing and then you've got some data and can start working from there. I wouldn't stress it. Good luck.
Weelllllll . . . two weeks may not be long enough, especially at the start of a new calorie level/eating routine/exercises program, or for premenopausal women.
With a brand new regimen, there can be strange water weight changes in the first week or two (either increases or descreases) that won't keep happening after the body adjusts to a new routine. Going with a new approach for at least 4 weeks is more likely to sort out that sort of thing - one can see if the first week or two are wildly different from what follows.
For premenopausal women, the water weight shifts from hormonal effects can make things look either faster or slower, if the timing works out in particular ways. Some women routinely gain/lose several pounds of water at particular points in their monthly cycle (and it can be at different points for different women). So, start a new eating regimen at a low point in water weight, the gain later in the cycle hides fat loss that's actually happening, can even make it look like gaining on reduced calories. OTOH, start the eating change at a high point in water retention, and it can look like super-fast loss at first . . . that will seem to slow or stall out next time a high arrives. Potentially very misleading.
Generally, I think premenopausal women would be well served to follow a new routine for at least one full monthly cycle, so they can compare the same relative point in two (or more) different cycles, for example compare weight the day the period starts in one month with the day it starts in the next month.
If someone has been monitoring scale weight carefully before cutting calories, they may be aware of cycle-related changes, but IME quite a few women here don't realize this until they start trying to lose weight, so monitoring scale weight more carefully.
Some people won't see these kinds of effects from water weight, either from changes in regimen or hormonal. Without knowing one's personal patterns going into it, no way to know if a specific person will experience water weight weirdness, or not. That first month can be a roller coaster, on the scale and emotionally!1 -
WeatherJane wrote: »Have you reached out to a registered dietian near where you live? If you have a primary doctor they might be able to refer you to one.
I hope you get your answers.
I did have one planned for last spring, but it got put on the back burner with C9vid and everything else this past year. Thank you for the reminder!
everything can be done by zoom or whatever. don't overthink it. eat well. make everything yourself from scratch. that will give you true numbers. move more to burn calories. be intentional about the moving and eating. get a fitbit and link to mfp. no excuses. that's the 2021 theme.0 -
Most calorie consumption for sedentary persons is keeping a couple hundred pounds of mass with very high thermal conductivity at 98 F all day every day and only superficially insulated. Metabolic rate has exactly zero to do with that unless there is a failure to digest food and extract the calories.0
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snowflake954 wrote: »You know, many of the "old-timers" on here say to just plug your numbers into MFP get your calorie goal and do that for 2 weeks. If you aren't losing cut your calories--100 calories less, and do that for 2 weeks. If you aren't losing cut another 100. Keep going like this until you're losing. It doesn't matter what all the calculators say. At a certain point you will start losing and then you've got some data and can start working from there. I wouldn't stress it. Good luck.
Weelllllll . . . two weeks may not be long enough, especially at the start of a new calorie level/eating routine/exercises program, or for premenopausal women.
With a brand new regimen, there can be strange water weight changes in the first week or two (either increases or descreases) that won't keep happening after the body adjusts to a new routine. Going with a new approach for at least 4 weeks is more likely to sort out that sort of thing - one can see if the first week or two are wildly different from what follows.
For premenopausal women, the water weight shifts from hormonal effects can make things look either faster or slower, if the timing works out in particular ways. Some women routinely gain/lose several pounds of water at particular points in their monthly cycle (and it can be at different points for different women). So, start a new eating regimen at a low point in water weight, the gain later in the cycle hides fat loss that's actually happening, can even make it look like gaining on reduced calories. OTOH, start the eating change at a high point in water retention, and it can look like super-fast loss at first . . . that will seem to slow or stall out next time a high arrives. Potentially very misleading.
Generally, I think premenopausal women would be well served to follow a new routine for at least one full monthly cycle, so they can compare the same relative point in two (or more) different cycles, for example compare weight the day the period starts in one month with the day it starts in the next month.
If someone has been monitoring scale weight carefully before cutting calories, they may be aware of cycle-related changes, but IME quite a few women here don't realize this until they start trying to lose weight, so monitoring scale weight more carefully.
Some people won't see these kinds of effects from water weight, either from changes in regimen or hormonal. Without knowing one's personal patterns going into it, no way to know if a specific person will experience water weight weirdness, or not. That first month can be a roller coaster, on the scale and emotionally!
This is all true, but OP seems very frustrated and I didn't think the idea of doing 100 cal of cutting a month at a time would go over well. 2 weeks would give results to a lot of people. Better 2 weeks than nothing---just my humble opinion.
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Nope. Your BMR is what you'd burn in a coma, basically. Even if you were completely sedentary, things like lifting a fork to your mouth, going to the bathroom and reading a book burn calories on top of that. See a registered dietician in the real world (or via Zoom), not internet strangers. Hope you get the answers you need.3
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