metabolism

How do you know when you've wrecked it - and what do you do to fix it (if it can be fixed)? Where I'm at.... - years of  yo-yo dieting - just leaving a very low calorie diet (much like Medifast) - gaining weight back - currently eating lean protein, vegetables, apples - exercising 45 - 60 min a day Any advice?

There is very interesting research out there on eating several times a day.  Some recommend as few as 5 meals...  I personally found success with as many as 8! eating 8 meals, 2 hours apart at about 200 calories each really helped to re-set my metabolism.  Basically I was telling my body that there was plenty of food and there would be more in just a little bit! It took me a good 2 months before I knew it had worked.  at first I was hungry at the 2 hour mark - once that was happening very consistently I began moving my meals farther apart until I was eating about 6 a day (3 real meals, 3 snacks) give it a shot - it cant hurt!

Thanks for your reply violamom.  I'm not spacing out my meals as I should so I'll be sure to do that.  I'm wondering if I'll regain what I just lost and as I'm trying not to dwell on it I can't seem to stop looking back and seeing what a mistake I've made.  Ugh.

Yup, 6 minimeals every 2-3 hours!  You should never feel hunger.  If you are, you're screwing yourself up.

You can control the amount you gain or lose by balancing intake and output...  easy as that.  The more you exercise and the higer your BMR (how many calories does it take to breathe all day!) the more calories you can eat without gaining.  That you will have to play with a bit to find.. but once you do you can easily move from maintenance to loss and back again. Just remember, the more you lose the lower your BMR will be (because it takes less effort to haul your carcass around) so the more you lose the less you will eat to maintain. did that make sense?

"the more you lose the lower your BMR will be " Yup.  Good to check every 20-30 lbs, but you'll find if you're gaining muscle you BMR will go up.  Mine's gone up 200 calories, LOL.  Crazy, fun, I love this journey. Total aside--I keep catching myself in the mirror--I have a collarbone. YEAH!

Wow, hello, I didn't write the above, LOL. Well, Mountain Rain (lovely moniker) you sound like me. I was 320, 5'6, 38 (female) and last year was on Jenny Craig (after six months lost only 14 lbs and gained it back in two weeks), then heeded the wrong advice (eat less) and went on Medifast and averaged 1000 calories day.  I lost 10 lbs and that was it. So, thinking that's it, surgery was my only option, I looked into the VSG...but I knew that I didn't have a true eating problem.  So as a last ditch effort I went to a gym, talked with a trainer and signed on that day for 60 sessions (my five months ends next week and I signed up for more). My trainer lost 180 lbs and knows metabolic problems well from study and personal experience.  In addition to the training I got, to "repair" my metabolism required eating 8-9 calories per pound I weighed.  I couldn't stomach 2600-2900 calories, but I tried.  We did this for about six weeks, then pulled it back a bit and changed the breakdown to 30/40/40 of fat, protein, carbs.  But I didn't lose on that (only about .25lb/week).  We've now settled on 1900-2300 calories and periodization where I eat no starches for a while, then allow complex carb starches back and keep trading it on and off.  I average now 2-3lbs a week. I train 6-7 days a week for 1-2 hours weekdays and 1.5-3 weekend days. I researched a lot of endocrinology website and discovered this is a common problem--not eating enough and not losing weight no matter your level.  We settled on the no starches to break the insulin resistance causing everything I ate to store as fat.  And the higher calories were recommended also by endocrinologists to repair the metabolism.  All was a surprise to me.  It's so counter to what we're taught in our culture--"diet"...nah, you need to eat to lose.  And frankly, it's wonderful to lose weight and still enjoy food.  First time in years.... The other component for me was the level of exercise.  All I can say is the intensity of training is so much more than how I worked out before. Anyway, that's my story--you can read more on my blog or pm me for info.  Good luck to you! Oh, and I'm now 294.

JerseyGirl, Great information there!  And your blog is great, I was glad to see a sample of what you eat, I had been wondering (when I read another of your posts).  I realize this is your menu and we're all different.  But is there a certain formula (for lack of a better term) that one follows to figure out how many calories to eat? Although I exercise up to an hour a day it is nowhere near the intensity that you workout.  Wow, I don't know where you get your energy from! I'm so mad at myself for falling for another diet trick.  I guess I thought since a doctor was "helping" me with it that it wasn't going to be a bad thing.  Wrong.  Live and learn and then move on. I will no doubt take your offer of PMing you because I do have questions. Thanks. 

Thanks for the + on the blog.   Hmm, formula.  Well, you need to know your BMR (you can roughly do this via online calculators, or get a better reading from certain scales, or do a tank test).  Once you know your BMR, if you were inactive, you would eat 300-500 calories less than your BMR. If you're active, you need to include that activity.  So, if your BMR is 2000 and you burn 800 calories during your workouts then you should eat 2800-300/500=2500-2000 calories. I will re-emphasize the need to work intensely.  No matter your ability or challenges (which you can accomodate), you need to work hard.  What I considered hard before was hard but PALED in comparison.  And you really need to include weights, core work, as well as cardio. As for diet tricks...here's the thing I came to "get".  All the industry does is lower your metabolism to keep needing them.  And while there are many successes, they are often short term or live in a way, well, I don't want.  Often the result is that you must eat less than normal to maintain and frankly, that's unacceptable. When you think of it, my 2000 calories is the same as it will be at goal.  The adjustment as you can imagine will be with much greater ease, IMO. I looked to my experience as an experiment--I didn't know what I would learn.  But I saw quite a number of trainers who were once 100lbs overweigh and maintained it for years and who have clients who have maintained.  Frankly, I realized their "formula" was what really worked.  I don't give doctors or diet programs much credence about this at all.  I think they're far to uneducated about weight loss or miseducated about it. Oh, and where do I get my energy from?  In the beginning it was all drive.  I wanted to avoid surgery so bad...I wanted to be free of my weight, find love, marry and have kids...I HAD to lose weight.  But joke was on me--it now comes from, you guessed it, my exercise. I've lost weight before (most was 65 on LAWL) and people would say, don't you feel better?  Well, my jeans fit and that was nice.  Now, only 26lbs into it (which I'm told looks like 50), OH MY GOD!  YES!  I have so far avoided winter sickness, I get by on 6 hours of sleep, and I can't sit still.  It's the best drug out there, LOL! 

try www.thedailyplate.com  not only is it a great food journal it allows you to figure a BMR, calculate how much you want to lose per week and then put in activities to see your net calorie intake! check it out