damaged metabolism??

[willow13]

hi! i am new to the forum...this is my first post. i generally think that i have a good intellectual understanding of nutrition, exercise, and how to have a healthy lifestyle. i don't always do such a good job applying what i already know, however. i am a dancer (not a ballerina) and have gotten a lot of education about the body and nutrition. needless to say, i have always been a pretty active person. now i'm a bit older and have more breaks between my dancing jobs. when i am dancing it is pretty easy to lose/maintain weight.

here's my issue. when i was 19 i developed anorexia. it never got too severe and i was never hospitalized. i am a 5'7" female and between the ages of 19-25 i weighed about 115-120 lbs. not horrible...but 20 lbs lighter than i weighed all through high school. as i got older and started dancing professionally, i developed this bad habit of really over eating while i was on a break from working. i would gain 15 lbs in 3 weeks, then lose 15 in 3 weeks when i would start rehearsing for my next job. i've done this cycle twice now. i'm not here to discuss my bad habits, and i don't need someone to tell me that what i have been doing is unhealthy...i realize that.

now i am trying to lose weight in a healthy way to get ready for my wedding. i am not dancing now so i do cardio on the elliptical 6-7 days a week for 50-60 mins. i also do pilates for an hour twice a week. i eat about 1200 cals a day. so far about once a week i have ended up eating 1700 in a day. i started at 143 lbs and i have lost 7-8 lbs in about 5 weeks, but i have hit a plateau.

i am concerned that because of all my starvation in the past, and my constant weight fluctuation that my metabolism is quite slow and doesn't know how to lose weight unless i'm eating less than 1000 cals a day or if i'm dancing (burning a ton). i don't want to revert back to unhealthy eating habits, but i'm nervous that if i keep doing what i am now i will not lose anymore weight before my wedding in 6 weeks. people are always writing that if you eat more (reasonably) you'll lose more, but what i'm doing now has always worked quickly for me in the past.

i'm feeling very frustrated. i am eating healthy and exercising to little results. i'm not sure what i should do different or if the damage is done and i have to live with it.

 

[Steve]

Okay... here are some thoughts for you:

1) You are a relatively light female who lost 8 pounds in 5 weeks. How you can deduce that you have a damaged metabolism from this is beyond me.

2) How long have you been at a "plateau"?

3) Even if you did "damage" your metabolism, it doesn't remained damaged in the sense you're thinking. Heck... even in extremely severe cases, metabolism doesn't depress all that much. And when you resume "normal" eating again, things tend to rebound.

4) You're currently 135 lbs. And you're active. Given this, you can assume that your maintenance is roughly 1900 calories per day. Given the fact that you've had an eating disorder, maybe you're working with a slightly depressed metabolism, at which point your maintenance might actually be closer to 1700.

5. You're consuming an average daily intake of 1270 (6 days per week at 1200 and 1 day per week at 1700). That means your average daily deficit based on the assume maintenance of 1700 is 430 calories. This represents a 25% deficit off of said maintenance, which is fine.

6. The question then becomes a matter of accuracy. How accurate do you believe that your intake estimates are? Are you using a food scale to weigh everything? It's not something I suggest permanently... but when you run into problems, it's the logical first step to assure you're actually eating what you think you're eating.

7) If it turns out that you are in fact in a 430ish cal per day deficit, based on the supposed maintenance, and you're still not losing given enough time, then it's worth looking into the health of your metabolism. You could start with a generic test of morning waking temperature, which can indicate a slowed metabolism if you're running low. Take it for 3-5 days and average it. Then report back. But move to this step only after you've spent a week or two zeroing in on your calorie intake with a food scale.

8) As I mentioned "enough time" above... that's an important factor and I'll refer back to my 2nd question of how long have you been plateaued? A week or two isn't enough time to judge. Especially when you're solely relying on weight as your metric of success. You can be holding onto water, for instance, to such a degree that it entirely masks fat loss. Remember, the scale measures everything... from muscle and fat to water and bowel matter. Moral of the story is to give it time - be patient. 3-4 weeks is a better time horizon to judge progress on when you're at the stage of the game that you're at.

9) You're doing nothing but cardio. Which begs the question, "Are you in this to weigh a certain weight or to look a certain look?" If it's the former... have at it. If it's the latter... I'd suggest taking a more balanced approach that entails strength training in addition to the cardio.

10) Obviously it's not solely about calories as the nutrient profile of your diet is also critically important.

 

[LiveLeanTips]

Time to change your exercise routine. Muscles develop memory and the body adapts to work in 3 weeks. Do something different. Consider HIIT training and adding resistance work. Keep the pilates for flexibility and core.

 

[Steve]

Time to change your exercise routine. Muscles develop memory and the body adapts to work in 3 weeks. Do something different. Consider HIIT training and adding resistance work. Keep the pilates for flexibility and core.

Ummm....

No.

 

[JackedJoey]

Ummm....

No.

Anywho,

First, I would stay with your diet and routine and make sure you have in fact hit a wall. Do it for another few weeks and if nothing is changing then continue.

A damaged metabolism? Not likely! Read a study titled, 'Hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid function in anorexia nervosa: influence of weight gain.' It basically discovered that in a handful of women during low body weight states and periods of fasting, TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is extremely suppressed. When the women reached 'normal body weight' months later, thyroid function was also normal. Long term damage to the thyroid is extremely questionable in patients with Anorexia. Keep in mind, our metabolism slows with age. Prepare for forbidden question a guy should not ask a gal, How old are you?

Having a fairly active lifestyle and eating 1200 calories a day? You should be losing weight. I think you are grossly underestimating the amount of calories you are consuming. Depending on your age, I would peg your metabolic rate somewhere between 1500-1900.

If all else fails and you really do think you have a damaged metabolism definitely see a professional. People with thyroid deficiencies can be prescribed synthetic variations of the hormones T3 and T4.

 

[Steve]

Anywho,

First, I would stay with your diet and routine and make sure you have in fact hit a wall. Do it for another few weeks and if nothing is changing then continue.

A damaged metabolism? Not likely! Read a study titled, 'Hypothalamo-pituitary-thyroid function in anorexia nervosa: influence of weight gain.' It basically discovered that in a handful of women during low body weight states and periods of fasting, TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) is extremely suppressed. When the women reached 'normal body weight' months later, thyroid function was also normal. Long term damage to the thyroid is extremely questionable in patients with Anorexia. Keep in mind, our metabolism slows with age. Prepare for forbidden question a guy should not ask a gal, How old are you?

Having a fairly active lifestyle and eating 1200 calories a day? You should be losing weight. I think you are grossly underestimating the amount of calories you are consuming. Depending on your age, I would peg your metabolic rate somewhere between 1500-1900.

If all else fails and you really do think you have a damaged metabolism definitely see a professional. People with thyroid deficiencies can be prescribed synthetic variations of the hormones T3 and T4.

Good synopsis of my first post in this thread.

It should be noted that people who have lost an appreciable amount of weight can have a depressed energy expenditure for an extended period of time. Some of this stems from adaptive thermogenesis. Most of it seems to stem from a reduction in NEAT or SPA... whatever you want to call it.

Pretty cool paper worth the read here:



Granted, the OP doesn't seem to have lost an appreciable amount of weight over her lifetime, but many of the same outcomes are likely observes that transcend TSH output.

I concur, that if I had to put money on it, it's likely a miscalculation of calorie intake.

 

[JackedJoey]

Good synopsis of my first post in this thread.

It should be noted that people who have lost an appreciable amount of weight can have a depressed energy expenditure for an extended period of time. Some of this stems from adaptive thermogenesis. Most of it seems to stem from a reduction in NEAT or SPA... whatever you want to call it.

Pretty cool paper worth the read here:



Granted, the OP doesn't seem to have lost an appreciable amount of weight over her lifetime, but many of the same outcomes are likely observes that transcend TSH output.

I concur, that if I had to put money on it, it's likely a miscalculation of calorie intake.

Great article, Steve. I will have to read it a few times to make sense of it. I love other 'study-junkies' like myself.

As far as the rules posting links here, could you clarify? I am very hesitant to post links as the mods seem to frown on this.

 

[Korrie]

As far as the rules posting links here, could you clarify? I am very hesitant to post links as the mods seem to frown on this.

Yes, i can help you with that answer, so could Steve, since he's a mod as well...but I beat him to it! ha ha!

Anyways, we DO allow links to studies or newspaper articles, things that are related to the topic being disscussed. What we don't allow are blog links, or blaintent spam where someone is selling a product or service. We do allow you to post a charity link in your diary and only once, not repeatedly.

hope that helps?