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ShKhari
New Member
| Joined: | 19 Oct 2011 |
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| Posts: | 2 |
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Posted: 20 Oct 2011 05:10 am |
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Hi all,
I have spent my last three years losing weight by reducing my calories further and further as I bumped into several fat loss plateaus and in the end I had to introduce pretty aggressive fasting and very low calorie restrictions in order to lose that last bit of fat (averaged around 800 cals a day as a weekly average).
After finally reaching my goal I spent 8 weeks finding my maintenance level and it turned out I can maintain my weight by eating 1300 calories. I lose if I eat less, I gain if I eat more.
Obviously, I'm not very happy about that since I have a fairly active (light to moderately active lifestyle). I walk 4-5 miles (7km) every day in a fast/moderate pace, I run a small farm with horses, sheep and chicken, cook and bake and have a daughter which whom I play and walk around a lot. Only my evenings (~2hr) and morning to noon (~3-4hrs max!) are spent sedentary in front of the computer. I exercise with weights for an hour three times per week and do yoga twice a week.
After a phone consult with Leigh Peele (who suggested I am probably in an unhealthy depleted state of lowered metabolism) I raised my calorie level over the course of two to three weeks from 1300 to 1500 to now 1800 and have gained 5 lbs. I still look fairly lean in the mirror, but I'm starting to get nervous about it. How much more will I have to gain and how much of it will be fat?
I am 36 years old, 5'5" (168cm) tall and my goal weight was 125 lbs (which I pretty much held for 8 weeks), I weigh now 130 lbs after raising my calorie level.
Leigh guessed my maintenance level to average between 1700-2000 (or even more) calories. If I enter all of my info as accurately as possible in the thelegacywebsite activity calculator I come out between 1900-2200 calories. My log was very detailed and I entered every 15 minutes of activity as honest as I could. On very active days with workout, shopping, hauling water etc it even went up to as much as 2500 calories.
Additionally, I wore a heart rate monitor over a couple of days (Polar) and entered my known maximum (186) and resting heart rate (50). The heart rate monitor guessed around 100-200 calories less than the thelegacywebsite calculator, so I will assume it's more accurate. But can it still be far too high?
This sounds extremely high to me and I wonder how is it possible that I maintain my weight at 1300 calories in a depleted state? Can my metabolism really be slowed down THIS severely? Or is it more likely that my body runs highly efficient and I should eat less to maintain?
In the beginning of my weight loss journey I was sedentary, weighed ~160 lbs and lost weight at ~1400 calories.
So I'm a bit confused how accurate those calculators are, how much error there is usually included for genetic freaks etc. As far as I know it is possible to suppress your RMR by dieting as much as 20-25%, but what does it do to your NEAT (calories burned by activity)?
Is it really possible that I will ever be able to maintain a lean weight eating more than 1300?
Where can I find more info on "metabolic repair" (science, methods, what to expect)? And how do I know when the "repair" is done and I can try and carefully lose some fat again?
Sorry for the onslaught of questions, but there's so much BS out there in the internet that I get easily confused. Any competent help would be highly appreciated!
Greetings,
StephLast edited on 20 Oct 2011 05:26 am by ShKhari
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Nir
Senior Administrator
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Posted: 20 Oct 2011 08:13 am |
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>Where can I find more info on "metabolic repair"?
You already found Leigh. This is something of a niche and I have not found anything beyond her manual.
> Is it really possible that I will ever be able to maintain a lean weight eating more than 1300?
I doubt that that this is permanent. It might take more time than you would like to fix, but it will change over time. When empherical observation has you maintaining at higher calories as per normal formula, having another (more careful) go at dieting will make sense.
A normal/typical person with your stats would be maintaining their weight of 125lb with 1510 calories if sedentary, 1730 calories 'lightly active', 1950 calories 'moderately active'.
By your own admission you've been at a 'chronic' calorie deficit for quite some time, and have also eaten below your unadjusted RMR of 1258 ("averaged around 800 cals a day"). So if you once had normal/typical metabolism, it is currently a little 'depressed'.
1) If your goal is to be able to eat more calories then clearly the only way to train your body to do so is by eating more calories. However, larger/faster calorie increases are not necessarily more effective, a GRADUAL approach may be better.
2) in her book, Leigh Peele suggests that taking a complete break from activity (4 weeks) is part of the solution. I would assume that the more severe the case the more this applies
3) a calorie is not a calorie. The calories in some foods (vegetables, beans, fruit) are slightly (about 10%) less absorbable than the calories in processed foods (those that come in packages). I found myself maintaining on X calories and then increased the proportion of junk in my diet (same calories) and found myself gaining. 1300 is a lot of vegetables, beans and fruit.
4) look at your long term goal. if it is to be able to eat more (i.e. restore your metabolism), persue that goal systematically. Be aware that if you ever persue CRON (Calorie Restriction with Optimum Nutrition) which is an approach some follow for life extension, you will inevitably have to revisit this issue because the side effect of reducing calories is a slower metabolism - and as this may be correlated with a longer life (at least in experimental animals), it might actually be something you'll come to want one day.
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ShKhari
New Member
| Joined: | 19 Oct 2011 |
| Location: | |
| Posts: | 2 |
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Posted: 20 Oct 2011 10:05 am |
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Thank you for your quick and thorough reply!
Nir
>Where can I find more info on "metabolic repair"?
You already found Leigh. This is something of a niche and I have not found anything beyond her manual.
Unfortunately, the manual is no longer available for sale, so I only have what she told me and some tidbits from the forum.
A normal/typical person with your stats would be maintaining their weight of 125lb with 1510 calories if sedentary, 1730 calories 'lightly active', 1950 calories 'moderately active'.
I think it is safe to assume that I am at least lightly active on most days.
My number one priority goal is to stay healthy, then after that I would like to keep my lean body and third priority is to eat more.
Currently I can keep my body lean by eating less, but there are a number of signs showing that I'm not running on an optimal health level (I don't have a period, for example, and my body temperature has lowered to the point where it's really getting uncomfortable and I freeze a lot). This is mainly why I believe I need to "fix" myself.
Of course I also enjoy good food, but this is not my main goal, to "eat as much as I can".
Thank you very much for your help, I will try and slowly eat up to ~1700-1800 calories and take a couple of weeks from vigorous exercise.
Greetings,
Steph
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