How do you restore your metabolic rate after dieting ?

It seems like we're finally acknowledging on this site that dieting of any kind but particularly calorie restriction is the absolute worst thing you can do to screw up your body's built in calorie burning metabolic furnace .

but how can you get permanently out from under having dieted without wearing a bunch of extra pounds ?

As a certified personal trainer with a lot of working with clients experience maybe I can offer a few tried and true suggestions.

1) if you can make excercise your first thing in the morning first priority you're halfway there. Doesn't need to be running- walking is great. Twenty minutes a day is plenty . Do only what you enjoy so your body remembers a good experience for the next day.

2) remember that every minute of exercise is money in the bank to stoke your metabolic furnace. Every time you exercise and build calorie burning muscle mass you'll be able to eat a tiny bit more forever without gaining weight.

3) if you're really frustrated with excess " skin" ( read empty and hungry now useless fat cells) your instincts are right : each one puts out extra estrogen that keeps you fat and hungry . Save up for liposuction- it's permanent empty fall cell removal and lifts a huge daily burden of hunger and cravings.

4) no matter what - never diet. Listen to your body ! If you feel you have to look slender fir an occasion or opportunity cut out dairy for a few weeks it's a dramatic fix. A longer term solution is protein and veg constantly ... like a bodybuilders diet - no fat - that works too with a single cheat day every two weeks. But that is a RADICAL last ditch solution only for those whose living depends on looking defined.

(((())))) hugs

actually, new studies show that liposuctioned fat will actually return...here's the "reader friendly" version in NYT.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/weekinreview/01kolata.html ?mcubz=1

I hear you and I agree... there are no " magic" fixes.

If a bariatric patient returns to fast food eating ps post op of course they will regain. EVERYONE that eats fast food for three meals or a whole day gains a pound !

Umm...yeah...no! This is completely not true. It depends on what "fast food" you eat. I can eat Hardee's low carb burgers three times a day and not gain a pound, but continue to lose.

As a "certified personal trainer" one of the first things you should have learned was that giving nutritional advice is outside of the scope of your practice and, in many places illegal as a result.

It's one thing to give people advice on nutrition on a random forum, but to do so with the additional claim of "and I'm a certified personal trainer" which leads to the implication that your advice is actually worth anything, is not acceptable.

Not to mention, I'm pretty sure no personal trainer (or nutritionist) has ever claimed that "saving up for lipo" is a legitimate diet method.

No but it is practical . You do get tired of seeing people try so hard and still be frustrated and unhappy with the body they inhabit however healthy it is.

I personally have done what I recommend several times and it made a huge difference in cravings wishing to binge etc. Also in my body's set point.

It's pretty astounding that not one single thing in this post is factually correct. Nothing.