Metabolism, how does it generally work?

[.Lethal]

Following on from my previous thread where I decided to take up running to lose some weight I have hit a snag and am looking for some advice on the matter.

Just a recap here: Near the end of July I began running every day for 30mins at around 12kph, I was burning the pounds off near on a daily basis due to the fact my calorie consumption was below 1000 (I couldn't be more specific at this time, but it was relatively low).

Today I've lost 1.5 stone but in the last 2 weeks I have lost nothing and occasionally notice I have gained a pound. My diet started back in the beginning of July where I cut out a hell of a lot of junk and I believe what I have done now is slow my metabolism so much that it is only consuming 700 or so calories, given the fact I have been burning 600+ on the treadmill each day I am no longer making progress.

Realising the error of my ways and realising I need to eat more, factor weights 2 days a week into my routine I am wondering how long it will take me to restore my metabolism, and even speed it up when I begin using weights.

I am a bit concerned that I have given myself 4 days rest (until Monday) and during this time I am going to gain a few pounds due to my slow metabolism, I plan to eat more than I have done previously but, as above, how long typically can/does it take to get my metabolism going?

I was 15 stone when I began all this in July, I'm now just over 13 and a half stone and slowly gaining the odd pound.

Regarding the use of weights, how much/little/sets/time should I be spending using them and which parts should I focus on for best results in speeding up my metabolism (I assume all my body should be worked on but I have no routine yet).

Thanks for reading, any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Buffman]

have you increased the time/pace you do on the treadmill? You're obviously going to find it easier the more often you do it so you'd need to increase the time you're doing it for/pace for a similar heart rate. As for gaining a pound that doesn't really mean much, you can gain ~+-2 pounds from water alone day to day. As for a weights routine I'd ask in the gymrats thread and also post up your daily diet.

Edit: just read this

I was burning the pounds off near on a daily basis due to the fact my calorie consumption was below 1000

Read Gordy R's sticky on bodybuilding.

Ok so here goes… If you remember in Part 2 of this guide I explained how to add muscle you needed to eat more calories than you burned up each and every day. Well for losing fat the opposite is true. You must consume less calories than you burn up each day. It’s common sense really.

One of the biggest mistakes commonly made by those wishing to lose fat is cutting calories too much. Or even starving themselves throughout part of the day. Without getting too scientific, when you eat too little your bodies metabolism slows down. When your metabolism slows less calories are burned just by simply being alive. This obviously is detrimental to fat loss. Not only will your metabolism slow down but your body will begin to feed off your muscle tissue. You will of course lose some fat if you cut calories drastically but you will hit a brick wall very quickly. Due to your metabolism slowing down you will probably find it incredibly difficult to get rid of the last layer of fat surrounding your abs.

If you have starved yourself down to your desired weight and then begin to eat normally again you will suddenly find that all that fat comes back. The reason for this is that your metabolism takes some time to adjust. After a period of starvation it will be incredibly slow. Therefore as you begin to eat normally again you will be consuming more calories than you actually burn up in a day until your metabolism finally speeds up to its normal rate.

Quite simply… If you want a six pack, do not under any circumstances cut your calories too much.

 

[Paul11]

only eating 700 calories a day ???

how tall are you for your weight?

 

[.Lethal]

I run 30 minutes at present (I stopped last night for a few days because of this). I could raise the time I spend on the treadmill but I believe the problem is with my diet due to the lack of calories I'm consuming.

At the moment I'm mostly trying to find out how this whole metabolism malarky works and the time it will take to get things going again. I'm off on holidays in 2 weeks and was hoping to burn a few more pounds before then.

 

[.Lethal]

only eating 700 calories a day ???

how tall are you for your weight?

I know, it wasn't the smartest move by myself. When something works so well at first you tend to ignore common sense and keep trying to shed as much as possible in a short space of time.

Which is why I have created this thread to change what I am doing but I would like to find out about the questions I've asked at the same time.

I am 5"11

 

[.Lethal]

Right a quick run through of a Monday-Friday diet.

Breakfast = A ceral bar
Mid morning = A yoghurt
Lunch = A tin of tomatoe soup, tended to only eat half of it.
Dinner = Chicken breast and some peas (would vary each evening but was not a whole lot different, ie one night would be fish).

I would have a bottle of juice during the day and about 3 glasses of semi skimmed milk.

That was it.

 

[.Lethal]

Edit: just read this
Read Gordy R's sticky on bodybuilding.

Aye, this is what I believe has happend with me, although I personally don't believe it is anywhere near as bad as he has written given the fact I have only been running every day for 2 maybe 3 weeks, although the diet has been going since July so in total 6 weeks perhaps.

I already knew (pretty much) what Gordy said and it is good to read what I feel is the problem I have but I am wondering the time it takes to get the metabolism going again, which is what I was asking in my original post.

Sorry if I come across a bit harsh, I'm trying to learn from my mistakes and get things back on track and understand how and when things will get going again.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Personally I think a lot of what people think happens with the metabolism, is utter twaddle.

It makes zero sense that eating a very low calorie diet WHILE losing weight drops your metabolism. The Fat doesn't magically remove itself from your body just because you need food, you EAT IT. you BURN IT. Its EXACTLY THE SAME as if you weren't fat and simply ate that fat in your diet.

If you lose a pound in a day, you burned an EXTRA 3500 calories, you didn't use 700 calories and your body didn't adjust to a new low calorie diet, your body ate 4200 calories that day, not 700.

Now heres the problem, it takes nutrients and vitamins to fuel the various processes that let you metabolise and "eat" that body fat. The problem is, you eat less food, you have a lower supply of essential things to the body fat burning process, less vit b12's, omega's, etc, etc, etc. So eventually you run out of the ingredients needed to burn that fat and THATS where the problem is, its nothing to do with calorie intake at all, not even closely connected.

Take a car, give it a full tank of gas that simply can't turn the process on because the spark plugs aren't working. You've got the calories sitting right there, just your body hasn't got the kindling/spark plugs to start your body burning it.


The other problem is this, your overweight, very unfit, your body is working very hard just to pump your blood around your body as your heart isn't a massive efficient strong lean muscle, its unexercised, inefficient poop. You exercise and you get fitter, your body gets stronger and more efficient, you can do more with less energy.

An unfit person will have maybe a resting heartrate of 80, and you walk up one flight of stairs and you're sweating and your heartrate hits 160 and takes 15 minutes to return to its low of 80.

You exercise for 6 weeks, your resting heartrate is now only 60, that flight of stairs only takes you to 110 heartrate and its back at 60 within 3 minutes.

Increased efficiency is fairly counterproductive to weight loss, your body burns 2000-3000 calories a day, a fatter unfit person might be burning 4000 calories a day because even breathing takes more energy, all day long, while you sleep, at all times. So get fit, you burn all of 500 calories running for an hour, but in the meantime you take your daily calorie need down from 4000 to 2500, with the overall daily calorie usage decreasing despite doing exercise daily.

When I was supplementing perfectly, taking everything the body needs daily and only really eating between 1000-1500 cals a day, I lost 5 stone in 3 months while in ketosis. I fed my body what it needed to burn body fat.

To be honest, as recent threads have shown, one guy went from unable to run for 3 minutes, in a single month, to being able to run for 25 minutes non stop. Efficiency and fitness is really damn easy to gain, losing weight is not, its damn hard, and making your body more efficient doesn't help.

Now that doesn't mean exercise is bad, or not a way to lose weight, but for small weight loss it might be good, for longterm large weightloss it can make it more difficult. YOu can get fit VERY quickly once you've lost the majority of the weight you need to and you can lose weight without exercising and eating very well very quickly, but its incredibly difficult to do BOTH at the same time.

 

[.Lethal]

drunkenmaster,

I find your post a bit confusing and some of the things you have said are completly wrong in regards to my heart rate, fitness and ability. How can you base 13.5 stone and conclude my blood pressure is high and that I can barely climb stairs without breaking into a sweat? That is ludicrous. for 23 years of my life I was never above 12-12.5 stone, I hardly think I'm going to have a heart attack any time soon due to being a few stone heavy for 3 years. My ability in the gym is not what it was a few years ago, but it hasn't transformed me into a pile of crap eaither.

If you lose a pound in a day, you burned an EXTRA 3500 calories, you didn't use 700 calories and your body didn't adjust to a new low calorie diet, your body ate 4200 calories that day, not 700.

In regards to a slower metabolism this (as far as I know) happens via a lack of eating. I ate around 700-1000 calories (throwing a ball park, I didn't count calories) now over a period of 6 weeks my body begins to realise this and while the typical male body consumes 2500 calories a day - based on the average height/weight of a male (NOT burn through the gym), my body was starved and begins to slow down consuming less calories a day. = Now I have a slower metabolism and my body no longer consumes the average 2500 calories it normally does.

I don't understand why this is "utter twadle".

The body consumes 2500 calories a day (on average) I eat (for example) 800 calories, I burn (for example) 700 calories in the gym. The next day I am a pound lighter but my body feels starved. Over a peroid of time my body adjusts and will slow my metabolism down.

Now consuming less calories and loosing weight is possible, but you would have to eat more calories than say 800 that I have been doing. Probably near 1500 or so to keep a metabolism normal. To speed this up you can use weights into your diet - which I intend on doing. I have taken multi vitamins for years to help with my diet, whether I was overweight such as in the last 3 years or previous to that.

Regarding my fitness, I have never had problems running nor has my body had a "hard time". I run 30 minutes at 12kph because thats the time I give myself, I can just as easily run more but I believe burning 5-600 calories in that space of time is enough. I also ran occasionally before work so some days I was running twice a day. I find running very boring so I tend to break it into 30 minute chunks.

If I'm wrong then by all means I'm wrong, could you direct me to where you got your info from or where I can learn how it works so I have a better understanding?

Still I am wondering how long does it typically take to get your metabolism going again, I have red is that its "very slow" well, how slow?

 

[tom_e]

I don't think he means you personally it was just a way of getting his point about efficiency across, also hes saying to stop your body becoming used to the exercise you are doing and in turn you using less energy to do it you need to mix it up a little by running at a higher pace or for a longer amount of time.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I really don't get this metabolism stuff, if you eat less than you burn you lose weight.

I mean how can you gain weight if you

a. eat 1000 calories in a day
b. burn 3000 over the course of the day.

That's 2000cal loss, and over 2 days, you should lose 1 Ibs. If metabolism really slow down to a point where you hit a brick wall and don't lose weight. Where does the body get the energy to walk, run, stay awake, breath, keep your heart pumping??? It is almost beyond the laws of physics !

 

[heeeed]

I agree with what drunkenmaster has said there tbh. I think people feel that the body can just slow itself down and drop its consumption of energy down via "metabolism" to insane levels. There are undoubtedly some changes that the body makes in adapting to less energy but it cant suddenly stop consuming energy to the point that you will exist on 700 calories per day without losing weight, unless you are tiny and I mean child size tiny. If you are able to do the same sort of day to day activities and able to exercise at the gym as you did before then it's much more likely that you are eating a lot more than you think you are. There is no way that if you consume 700 calories and burn 600+ at the gym you plateau on your weight loss, the body just can't become that efficient otherwise starvation would be very unlikely in humans

 

[Ian]

When I was supplementing perfectly, taking everything the body needs daily and only really eating between 1000-1500 cals a day, I lost 5 stone in 3 months while in ketosis. I fed my body what it needed to burn body fat.

Could you please expand on your perfect supplements?

Cheers

 

[manic111]

Right a quick run through of a Monday-Friday diet.

Breakfast = A ceral bar
Mid morning = A yoghurt
Lunch = A tin of tomatoe soup, tended to only eat half of it.
Dinner = Chicken breast and some peas (would vary each evening but was not a whole lot different, ie one night would be fish).

I would have a bottle of juice during the day and about 3 glasses of semi skimmed milk.

That was it.

Where are your carbs? Even if you're trying to lose weight, you need something to get your heart going, particularly first thing in the morning. Have a proper bowl of cereal with some fruit at the very least!

 

[tom_e]

Where are your carbs? Even if you're trying to lose weight, you need something to get your heart going, particularly first thing in the morning. Have a proper bowl of cereal with some fruit at the very least!

Theres carbs in the cereal bar, the yogurt, the soup, the milk and the juice. Maybe not the best types or very many but then theres not a lot else in there either.
Although I don't follow a low carb diet these days I have done and carbs are not the be all and end all that most of the public perceive them to be

 

[Globul]

Remember you will put on muscle and therefore weight if you are lifting.

And men should eaat 2500 cals a day, which can be achieved healthily.

Cereal bars are packed with sugar. Stop. Eat something like toast or cereal instead. Swap yogurt for fruit. Eat all your damn soup. Add some potatoes (boiled if you prefer) to that evening meal. I hope fish is oily fish. Beware satfats. This is all I cba to offer at this time haha

 

[Macca]

Remember you will put on muscle and therefore weight if you are lifting.

And men should eaat 2500 cals a day, which can be achieved healthily.

Cereal bars are packed with sugar. Stop. Eat something like toast or cereal instead. Swap yogurt for fruit. Eat all your damn soup. Add some potatoes (boiled if you prefer) to that evening meal. I hope fish is oily fish. Beware satfats. This is all I cba to offer at this time haha

Toast and Cereals aren't much better than Cereal bars, they both contain loads of crap and sugar, obviously dependant on which, but most do.