Fixing a screwed metabolism?

2

Replies

  • mideon_696
    mideon_696 Posts: 770 Member
    if 1850 is what you are working out, then thats what i'd be aiming for.
    Its not alot of food.

    Jeez on a workout day i might eat that in 1.5 hours...

    Easy when you add healthy fats.

    1200 is not enough. especially for someone like yourself.
    If you are running 5 x a week and doing two classes on top of that, i've no doubt in my mind that you could 2000/day everyday and lose weight. :)
  • Kim55555
    Kim55555 Posts: 987 Member
    I highly recommend Tom Venuto's "Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle"

    Great book!!!

    I'll revisit this thread later. Heading off to do some weights
  • Kim55555
    Kim55555 Posts: 987 Member
    ps. I am 5 2 weigh 62 kg (136 lbs) and I'm losing fat eating in the range of 1800 - 2300. In the past month the scale hasn't moved yet I have lost centimetres and body fat %! Half the time I've eaten below 2000 and the other half above the 2000.

    I do intense excerise including 3 sprint/hiit workouts a week, a timed quick 15 min run, I also cycle and do weights twice a week. On top of that I commute to and from work 15 mins each way and walk for 30 mins at lunch time to get my incidental exercise in.

    I want to lose another 3 - 4 kgs but if I decided to go into maintenance mode tomorrow I'd easily be able to maintain my weight eating a 2000 - 2600 calorie range.
  • lrd2010
    lrd2010 Posts: 161 Member
    Sorry to hijack, but:
    I can tell you from my position as a nutritional counselor that spicy foods DO increase your metabolism.

    Really?

    How?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,420 MFP Moderator
    Are we talking about repairing the metabolism or talking weight loss? Its different approaches.
  • CallmeSbo
    CallmeSbo Posts: 611 Member
    bump
  • NitaCB
    NitaCB Posts: 532 Member
    I'm talking weight loss. I need to get my metabolism moving again. I'm not looking for all of those little tips which may or may not actually make any difference in 'speeding up' my metabolism like caffeine, green tea, frequent meal timing etc.
  • pratod
    pratod Posts: 68 Member
    While you are figuring out your diet you may want to consider taking a multivitamin if you don't already. This can help assure your body that it will be getting proper nutrients and show it that it can afford to shed the pounds. When someone has stable and healthy eating habits then vitamins are not necessary but they can be helpful when a diet has been changing a lot, especially when the previous diet was restrictive.
  • daydreamernyc
    daydreamernyc Posts: 4 Member
    While I do not have the answer, I can say that I am in the same boat as you. I run regularly, about 30 miles a week at the moment and I've run 3 marathons over the last couple of years. I also go to the gym regularly and do weights and cardio.
    I gained about 10 pounds in the last few months and just started to count my calories to see what I'm doing wrong. After all, everything is a simple math equation, right? calories in, calories burned.

    I can say that I have not altered my diet and it appears that I regularly eat 1200 (net)) a day. I believe my metabolism is a bit screwy as well.

    I had blood work done about 2 months back so I know my thyroid is fine. I'd be interested to learn what you discover.
  • fimm
    fimm Posts: 191 Member
    I don't know if this thread is much help, but ...
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/174065-starvation-mode-is-real-and-ugly
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,420 MFP Moderator
    I'm talking weight loss. I need to get my metabolism moving again. I'm not looking for all of those little tips which may or may not actually make any difference in 'speeding up' my metabolism like caffeine, green tea, frequent meal timing etc.

    Well reapiring your metabolism requires you to increase lean muscle mass so you would eat at your maintenance calories or even a slight surplus. This allows for muscle to grow which will also help you burn more body fat so you end up doing body recomp. If you want to lose weight than a deficit is required. And when you have a deficit you cant increase lean muscle mass. So like i said, you can either increase your metabolism and cut body fat or lose weight and burn calories through exercise. So if you definitley want weight loss we need to figure out your bmr and tdee and then create a small deficit (.5 lbs per week ). But in general i tend to see people under eating in these situations.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    While I do not have the answer, I can say that I am in the same boat as you. I run regularly, about 30 miles a week at the moment and I've run 3 marathons over the last couple of years. I also go to the gym regularly and do weights and cardio.
    I gained about 10 pounds in the last few months and just started to count my calories to see what I'm doing wrong. After all, everything is a simple math equation, right? calories in, calories burned.

    I can say that I have not altered my diet and it appears that I regularly eat 1200 (net)) a day. I believe my metabolism is a bit screwy as well.

    Please read and discover yourself too, before you do harm.

    This
    I don't know if this thread is much help, but ...
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/174065-starvation-mode-is-real-and-ugly

    And this
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux

    Because eating 1200 with exercise (no comment as to you eating exercise calories back, so I'm guessing not) means you are in the same boat or worse, because that is a lot of exercise.
  • daydreamernyc
    daydreamernyc Posts: 4 Member


    Please read and discover yourself too, before you do harm.

    This
    I don't know if this thread is much help, but ...
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/174065-starvation-mode-is-real-and-ugly

    And this
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux

    Because eating 1200 with exercise (no comment as to you eating exercise calories back, so I'm guessing not) means you are in the same boat or worse, because that is a lot of exercise.

    Thank you for the response. How do you know if you are in starvation mode?

    ps - i do eat exercise calories back.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Thank you for the response. How do you know if you are in starvation mode?

    ps - i do eat exercise calories back.

    Good to know.

    So only possible issues would be:
    Accuracy of BMR which maintenance and goal calories is based on.
    Accuracy of maintenance calories based on activity level selected.
    Accuracy of calories burned in exercise.

    If all those possible inaccuracies were stacked on the wrong side to cause an unsafe deficit or too low goal, you'd probably see the same effects commented on in those links.
    And you could test some of those effects too, just in case you never had a bing day for instance, to discover if you upped the weight more than the food you even ate.

    Outside of the effects, you can have a BMR test done. I've noticed that many companies that do the VO2max tests or stress tests, will also do a much cheaper BMR type test. That way they can use most of the equipment, but because you just lay there, much cheaper usually.

    And then if the result of that is way off the normal bell curve ranges suggested by sites, worth investigating more.

    If you have none of those effects, then those inaccuracies are probably stacked on the right side so you actually aren't in the deficit it might appear to be.
  • daydreamernyc
    daydreamernyc Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you for the response. How do you know if you are in starvation mode?

    ps - i do eat exercise calories back.

    Good to know.

    So only possible issues would be:
    Accuracy of BMR which maintenance and goal calories is based on.
    Accuracy of maintenance calories based on activity level selected.
    Accuracy of calories burned in exercise.

    If all those possible inaccuracies were stacked on the wrong side to cause an unsafe deficit or too low goal, you'd probably see the same effects commented on in those links.
    And you could test some of those effects too, just in case you never had a bing day for instance, to discover if you upped the weight more than the food you even ate.

    Outside of the effects, you can have a BMR test done. I've noticed that many companies that do the VO2max tests or stress tests, will also do a much cheaper BMR type test. That way they can use most of the equipment, but because you just lay there, much cheaper usually.

    And then if the result of that is way off the normal bell curve ranges suggested by sites, worth investigating more.

    If you have none of those effects, then those inaccuracies are probably stacked on the right side so you actually aren't in the deficit it might appear to be.

    Thank you so much, this is really helpful!
  • NitaCB
    NitaCB Posts: 532 Member
    While I do not have the answer, I can say that I am in the same boat as you. I run regularly, about 30 miles a week at the moment and I've run 3 marathons over the last couple of years. I also go to the gym regularly and do weights and cardio.
    I gained about 10 pounds in the last few months and just started to count my calories to see what I'm doing wrong. After all, everything is a simple math equation, right? calories in, calories burned.

    I can say that I have not altered my diet and it appears that I regularly eat 1200 (net)) a day. I believe my metabolism is a bit screwy as well.

    I had blood work done about 2 months back so I know my thyroid is fine. I'd be interested to learn what you discover.

    So do you mean to say that you have yours set to 1200 and eat all of your exercise calories? Do you have a HRM or Garmin to measure accurately how much you burn while running? I've just got mine so I'm glad to finally have an accurate number to be working with. You probably need to increase your goal. My goal is set at 1350 at the moment, but if this isn't working I may try upping it slightly. Apparently (according to the experts and not from my own unsuccessful experiences!) you need a smaller deficit if you don't have a lot to lose. More like 300 or so.

    But like you, I never would have expected that eating at a deficit and doing the running that I do would result in a gain. I thought at the least you'd just stay the same. Alas no...
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    Do you have a HRM or Garmin to measure accurately how much you burn while running? I've just got mine so I'm glad to finally have an accurate number to be working with.

    Which Garmin did you end up getting?
  • lilsassymom
    lilsassymom Posts: 407 Member
    bump
  • NitaCB
    NitaCB Posts: 532 Member
    Do you have a HRM or Garmin to measure accurately how much you burn while running? I've just got mine so I'm glad to finally have an accurate number to be working with.

    Which Garmin did you end up getting?

    I got the Forerunner 405CX. It only just arrived a few days ago, so I'm still learning my way around it. But I'm really loving having the accurate numbers to work with, and it totally brings out my inner running geek!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    I got the Forerunner 405CX. It only just arrived a few days ago, so I'm still learning my way around it. But I'm really loving having the accurate numbers to work with, and it totally brings out my inner running geek!

    I was curious about Garmins fix to the x05 series to really base calorie burn on the HR, and not weight/pace. My 305 does it that way, so not nearly as accurate.

    Anyway, the 405 and 310 can have accuracy problems if you pick the wrong activity level, so really readup on how that is to be set.

    A great utility that I like more than Garmin's stuff is SportTracks 3
    http://www.zonefivesoftware.com/sporttracks/

    Upload the Garmin workout. Totally configurable for what you want to see, and record extra info if desired.
    It can then sync up to several sites if there is a desire to share workouts, and it's open API so some cool add-ons available.

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