No Yo-Yo: Is Lowered Metabolism a Myth?

I disagree our metabolisms do slow down, you can verify it by taking your temps. my temps were always in the 96 or 97 range for many years probably 15 or more, but as I stopped restricting and started to eat whenever I got hungry (and found missing hunger cues too) after a couple of years of eating well my temps now register 98.6 to 99.0.

I know lots of people who say their temps are in the 97 or 96 range all the time and they said their doctors say that is normal these same people I know for a fact restrict their caloiric intake for weight control, lots of people have temps in that range, but guess what lots of people are restricting their caloiric intake, at first through willpower, then over time out of habit when they are not consciously trying to lose any weight.

when I was a kid and teenager they always said 98.6 was the normal range (at school, in health class and my doctors always said so too) and that anything over 99.5 was probably a low grade fever, never ever did they mention that normal ranges are 96.5-98.6.

their metablisms have slowed, in other words the body has slowed it's basic processes down to minimum to conserve due to not enough coming in and to prepare for the next famine once the person regains the weight.

these same people always complain of being cold especially their feet, mine used to be cold too, but now they are warm all the time except in the coldest of weather and I happen to be outside and have wet feet!!

so you make up your own minds do our metabolisms slow? yes they do in my humble opinion.

RR

You appear to be confusing 2 different things.

I believe the mechanism of lowered metabolism WHILE DIETING is well known, and undisputed. This is part of the body's feedback - it reacts to lower calories by beginning the "starvation response", which lowers metabolism in an effort to conserve body fat.

What the NYT article is saying is that some doctors have been claiming that REPEATED dieting leads to a lower basal metabolism. IOW, if you have 2 identical twins with the exact same metabolism, and one practices yo you dieting, and the other doesn't, these doctors claim that the yo yo dieting twin will have a lower metabolism EVEN WHEN NEITHER TWIN IS DIETING.

The article and the studies cited suggest this claim is untrue.

So what this means is that when dieting you will experience the sypmtoms of a lowered metabolism, and unless you continue to reduce calories as you diet over time, you will see your weight loss leveling off or even plateau.

It also means that if you frequently diet and then quit, there is no harm to your metabolism in beginning a new diet each time you stop dieting.

So, your body temperature lowers and you feel colder when you are lowering calorie intake?

Re: Metabolism and dieting

I have dieted many times over my lifetime, using both kinds of diet: daily and every-other-day. With neither type of diet do I recall that my feet were cold.

The metabolism automatically becomes more efficient as we age, whether or not we diet. A person who weighed 200 pounds at age 20 and who still weighs 200 pounds at age 60 is not eating anywhere near the same amount as 40 years ago. I don't eat as much as I ate in my 30s; these days, I can go a long way on half a grapefruit.

There are also people who just naturally have a more efficient metabolism than the "norm" for their age. I have had clients whose metabolic level was anywhere from one to five levels higher than it "should" have been. One former client's is the same level as mine---and I'm almost 40 years older than she is.

My metabolism is one level higher than the "norm" for my age. Given the number of times I've dieted, it ought, according to the experts, to be a lot higher than it is.

I appreciate the comments of others, I know there are so many ideas floating around out there that it is hard to decifer, true from false, but one thing I do know our bodies react in ways to survival threats (whether food supply threats or psychological or other physical threats) in ways we don't understand.

we figure since we are not dieting anymore our metabolisms should be repaired, trouble is many are still dieting and don't even know it.
we have become a nation of dieters whether we are aware of it or not, we don't eat until we are very hungry, when we do eat we try to eat lower fat or lower caloire stuff, or when our bodies are asking for richer foods we force ourselves to eat salads or fruit because these are better for you so we think.

we get a craving or desire for ice cream while watching tv and we try to get busy and do something else to get our minds off the junk food craving, or we try to quelch it with a very low caloire food. we think I am not really hungry (no stomach growlings or I just ate a half hour ago) and since we don't understand those food thoughts or cravings we think then we are emotional eaters. eating out of boredome or whatever, and don't feel bad I used to believe that too.

what we fail to realize is our concept of proper eating and improper eating (and this can apply to other areas as well) is conflicting with our bodies survival instincts. when there is a conflict that is where you get serious problems.

and when our bodies do things that conflict with our wills such as make you eat what you have been trying not to, or make us fat or make us sleepy and interfere with productivity or makes us very thirsty when we are tired of going to the bathroom every hour and a half because we ate too much salt and our bodies are trying to get rid of it or whatever, we think our bodies are defective it is never our ideas or understanding is wrong but rather the body is defective.

but it never seems to occur to us that our bodies are trying to get through to us about needs and we are trying to ignore it because we have work to do, or we don't have access to a bathroom so better not drink any water even tho your parched or better not eat because we just ate an hour ago, (even if it was only a bagel) and shouldn't be hungry.

no wonder our bodies are getting sick or making us tired, fat and having lower metabolisms even when we could of sworn we are doing it right. it is struggling just to keep you alive despite yourself.

see my point? so by eating on cue (and finding those cues can take practice) all the time will reve up that metabolism because your body can afford to become spendy, it won't happen overnight but as your body realizes that you will listen to it and give it consistently what it needs it will stop saving up for a rainy day. but that can take years to happen.

it will actually start to burn off excess fuel once it is convinced it's signals will be listened to and you will eat enough everyday and give all controls to the body. it does this by reducing appetite or changing appetite to leaner fare all without fighting suffering or fear.

and as for those who eat less later in life and stay the same weight I don't believe our metabolism automatically slow just because we age, maybe when you are 70 or higher it may slow a little, I think the lack of activity and reluctance to eat (maybe age decreases appetite I don't know) that causes that, the metabolism is more related to eating enough and drinking enough then our age, tho barring disease or whatever. exercise helps with that too. and this can be more pronounce if a older person is taking medications and smokes, as smoking decreases appetite. and some medications do to.

RR

I'm only 17 and already i feel that i've damaged myself. I'm 5ft and weigh 7 stone. Last year i weighed a low 6 stone wich wasn't healthy. I became obsessed with my weight wen i reached about 6 stone 8lbs so I ate about 300 calories a day 2 lose weight wich was simple starvation. Food feared me because i thought that every bite meant i would get fat. But wen i went 2 my GP she warned me that i was becoming anorexic and tht i had 2 eat more. B4 i was starving myself i ate everything and got away with it bt I made the mistake of weighin myself after a chinese at night which obviously meant that i would weigh more-even though it wud change in the morning-that was the point when i began 2 starve myself. Now i can't eat half as much as i used 2 without gaining weight. I now love food and every second i'm thinking about it bt i now eat less than i normally did and i put weight on very easily. Therefore i believe that yo-yo dieting does affect metabolic rate

oOps i've got a problem... Since i was in my elementary days..i'm so thin.. I just wanna experience to be fat coz a lot of people thought that i'm not eating much bUt they are wrong..i eat a lot and i love to eat maybe its just on my metabolism thats y im so thin....would you help me?? what are the things that can help lower my metabolism??.... i do need answers and suggestions... Please just send me your replies on my e-mail add,,stuffedwithlove19@yahoo.com.ph....thanks...i'll wait guys...

hi for years now iv been on a diet i started this when i was 21 at 5 feet 1 inch 145 pounds i thought was healthy full of hard core exercising and weight tranning i was at 1,200 calories i lost 20 pounds then a year passed after me cosuming that much i gained weight 15 pounds i reserched a little and figured it was from eating to little so i increased my calories to 1,400
and continued on my diet and passed it off its now a year later from that i gained 10 more pounds lowered my exercising recently raised my calories to 1,500 and sometimes more gained 10 pounds paniced then this lasted for 3 mos then lowered my calories again to 1,200 and started hard core training again i run on a treadmil incline at 5 mph with a booksack on my back with 30 pounds of weight in it for 45 min 4 times week and i train my major mucles groups 2 week sit up with 20 pound weights 3 sets 0f 15 do push up 3 sets 15 biceps 20 pound weights tricepts 20 pound weight squats at 80 pounds iv changed my mind i use to want to be skinny now all i want is to be healthy and not obesse in a year or two i know people reading this may think muscle weight but it fat mostly fat i need some seroius help i wont leave my house anymore i havent left in mos because i feel like im just getting worse i wont even do outside activities and at this rate its only going to get worse im a home mom im a good mom of two 3 years olds but i think my un happiness is severly affecting my children and they of course never leave the house either and its having so much stain on my marriage
just for weight loss it feels like im losing control of my life before i lose all hope of everything im going to try a metabolism tester to seem what my metabolism is if anyone knows anything else i can do please help