Last year I lost more than 70 lbs for the fourth time in 20 years. It took me 11 months. Since then I have regained 30 pounds. I know that by overdieting I sent my body into starvation mode, and that my metabolism is still really slow.
I have kept record of my food intake which averages at 1500 Kcal/day. I exercise 4-5 times a week (brisk walking 30-45 minutes), and still gain weight. As a 42 your old male, I should easily burn 2200 calories a day, but I don't, that's for sure.
I have read dozens of books and searched the internet to find out how long it takes for a slow metabolism to recover and to start burning energy at a normal level again, but I find no answers.
Have I shed too much muscle tissue? What can I do to get my metabolism back to 'normal'?
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ReplyStop dieting. Estimate what your daily calorie intake should be for your activity level. It's probably closer to 2700. I'm 32, 6' and 180 lbs. I burn 2700 without exercise. When I workout I can go over 3200 easy. Anyway, estimate your daily calorie intake requirement and eat that much food. Do this every day for at least two weeks. It may take longer.
A good way to check your metabolic rate is by taking your resting temperature in the morning. When you wake up, before you even get out of bed, reach over to your nightstand and grab the thermometer you put there the night before, and take your temperature.
Recent studies suggest that the average temperature for healthy adults is 98.2 °F. Google around and you'll find some charts that correlate temperatures lower than this with some percentage of estimated metabolic depression.
Anyway, the bottom line is that you have to eat and stop dieting to repair your metabolism.
In the future, don't diet for more than 8 to 12 weeks at a time. The leaner you get, the less time you can diet before taking a two week break.
ReplyYou'll also probably get some feedback about how you "have to eat breakfast" and how you should "eat five to six times a day". That is nonsense. Eat two giant meals if it suits you better. Just get the required calories in.
ReplyBarry, that is ridiculous! If you want to be healthy you should most certainly eat a breakfast everyday and you should eat 5 times a day. This will help to increase your metabolic rate. Implement some weight training into your routine and try do your cardio workout prior to eating breakfast.
ReplyNo, it will not and there's not a single shred of science to support your claim.
Google intermittent fasting and check out the Lean Gains website.
You are wrong, plain and simple.
ReplyBarry, you obviously don't do very good research. Their is oceans of research that shows this. You don't know what you're talking about.
ReplyYou're making the claim. Show us the studies.
Or just read this:
http://www.alanaragon.com/an-objective-look-at-intermittent-fasting.html
ReplyThe only tests/research conducted for intermittent fasting have been done using mice. There have been no human trials. However, if you check with the American College of Sports Science, American Medical Association, British Department of Health, Australian Institute of Sport which are a few among many that have conducted research withing this field you will find that they agree with me. However, intermittent fasting is recommended to deal with specific health issues. In terms of fueling your body to exercise regularly, being healthy and losing body fat as well as increasing metabolic rate it is advisable to eat regularly. To be up front about it, I don't believe that fad diets,pills, potions or starvation are reasonable means of losing weight. In fact it has been shown that in 95% of cases people who use these means gain back the weight and then some. The only sure fire way to lose body fat and maintain good health is to adopt a healthy lifestyle, i.e. eating healthily, exercising regularly and taking time to relax and unwind.
ReplyHere is an article showing that when you eat in the morning, you are likely to eat less the rest of the day, because it increases your satiety signals:
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/134/1/104
I know I've seen one showing that if you eat the majority of your calories early in the day, it boosts your metabolism relative to eating later in the day, but I can't find it. At the very least, though, if eating early makes you feel fuller all day, you're less likely to overeat later.
ReplyHi Barry
ReplyYour metabolism is basically controlled by the amount of muscle on your body. Most diets cause loss of muscle as the body takes some each time we yo-yo so we burn less calories i.e. lowered metabolism.
All the other ideas simply do not work as they are old news that has failed too many times to even count now.
Look at the net inflammation in your diet. If you will get to a point that your diet is net positive or anti inflammatory you should loose weight naturally and then keep it off. The only time that will not work is if you simply eat too much and I suspect you are not doing that. All these other things simply cause the situation to worsen in our bodies.
There is a lot of mis information out there on anti inflammatory diets, so be careful and do your homework. I can suggest www.nutritiondata.com as an excellent resource, but you must dig the information our yourself, its not pre digested there for us.
Good luck.
I am on my way down from 342 pounds simply by adjusting my diet to be net anti inflammatory. I am below 300 pounds now for first time in 25 years on my way to 180 pounds or less.
It took me about 3 months. I used the calorie calculator on this site to find out how much I should eat for the amount of exersize I do. I also do eat some protein after my workouts, especially weight training. I just feel better when I do.
ReplyHave you had a check up? Perhaps some hormones are off? If that doesn't help then perhaps consult a good nutritionist to go over your diet/exercise with you. For what it's worth, I know how you feel, I'm having a hard time losing weight, and I wander how it will maintain.
ReplyCan you run? Because walking isnt going to do much.. you need to get your heart rate up. Brisk walking is only exercise for the sedentary or ppl who cant run.
Replyeat when you're hungry, stop eating when you're full. Easier said than done, but it works.
ReplyYou don't say what your height and weight are. Your metabolism can be easily estimated from that. I have a scale that estimates mine based on my age, height, weight and body fat content. My scale says about 2200 calories and I'm 6 foot 6 inches tall and 205 pounds. I'm guessing you aren't, so your 2200 calorie number is pretty high.
Also, 30 minutes of walking burns about 100-140 calories. It's not a huge amount. One pound of fat is 3500 calories worth, so your walking probably loses you 1 or maybe 2 pounds per month.
Your numbers are off somehow. Whether it's because of your "slow metabolism" (which I personally don't believe in unless you have a thyroid disorder), or a miscount on the exercise, or a miscount on the intake, or just some bad luck getting an apples-to-apples weight measurement, you really have only have a couple of options. 1. eat less. 2. exercise more
So I'm going to suggest you eat less and/or exercise more.
You could do strength training to build muscle and use up more calories in the day, but you may actually gain weight doing that because your muscles store water and water is heavier than fat.
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