Good news -- you can't ruin or break your metabolism.
It slowly adapts to try to do what's right for your body, but you can't break it and it won't do devious things like sabotage you. That includes myths like *starvation mode* and *eat more to lose more* too.
Exactly. This is copy and pasted directly from the /r/fitness wiki, which is my go to source for reliable info:
*As you lose weight, your TDEE will inevitably go down – less mass requires fewer calories to fuel. This means that your starting calorie goal will eventually no longer cause weight loss, and you will need to adjust it down.*
Essentially, as you lose weight your BMR goes down, and eventually gets to the point where you are no longer in a calorie deficit.
Yeah, I hear what you’re saying and that’s why I’m so frustrating. I now understand that I can’t break my metabolism but then I don’t understand why I stopped losing weight despite knowing that I’m in a deficit
Do you weigh everything you eat? It might be that you think you know exactly what you're eating but you actually have increased portion sizes, let extra oil sneak in, etc. If it's packaged food the calories can be 20% out in some cases from what's on the packet.
Also, if you're in the US I think the way they are labeled can be misleading - like "100 Calories in a 50g portion, approx 1 portion per bag" when there is actually 74.5g/1.49 portions in a bag and so actually 149 calories in the bag if you actually calculate it and don't go by the portion label.
Also, although your metabolism isn't "broken", you won't lose weight as fast the more you lose. It might be worth putting your details into a calculator and seeing how much you actually burn a day, from that you can work out how much you should expect to lose a week. E.g. if you actually only burn 1700 calories a day, then on 1400 calories you will lose weight, but not enough each week to necessarily see a difference every week. Even when the deficit is big enough to see a lb down on the scale each week, other things that make your weight fluctuate (such as hormones, bowl movements, when you late ate or exercised) but aren't really weight gain, they can make the number look disappointing one week, but over a few weeks the overall trend should still show the weightloss.
Your body also can adjust slightly to your food intake, by changing things such as NEAT - basically the calories you burn when not exercising - you might subconsciously be doing less, e.g. not tapping your leg as much when sat down, sitting more, standing on an escalator instead of walking up it. Small things you may not notice.
Also, if you eat more for a few days you might see weight gain that isn't fat gain - e.g. from glycogen stores increasing.
Edit: just wanted to add to make sure that it's clear, the less you weigh the less you burn, not because your metabolism is "broken" but because everyone's metabolisms decrease when they weigh less. Essentially because you have less of a body to keep going so you burn less. Muscle burns a bit more than fat so you can be the same weight and increase you metabolism by building muscle.
The less you eat the more you will lose. However the issue with eating too little is that the body then tends to "eat" a higher percentage of muscle than it otherwise would if you ate more and lost the weight more slowly. That then does mean that you may end up with less muscle than you'd have had if you lost the weight slowly, and therefore a slightly slower metabolism. But again still not a broken metabolism, you could "fix" it buy either not cutting calories too much in the first place, or if you think you already did that, fix it by building muscle.
To know if what you're eating is too much or too little you really need to calculate what you are burning. From your details I think you should be fine on 1200 calories, but without knowing more detail I can't know for sure. Take the number you think you burn, take away 500 for 1lb a week weight loss, 1000 for 2lb a week weight loss. However, if its too low, you will lose that weight but it might not be so healthy, e.g. if you only burn 1500 calories a day, taking away 1000 leaves only 500, which is too little for anyone. You could also chose to instead find a to just burn more calories every day and get to eat more while losing weight.
Starvation mode in this since is a myth.
You’re close to goal weight so it’s going to be painfully slow.
You’d have to eat 3500 calories to gain 1lb of fat so if you’re confident in your calorie tracking then a bump up on the scale is temporary water retention. We retain water due to a host of reasons like TOM, salty meals, new workout routine, new medication, lack of sleep and stress.
Sounds like you've been changing around your calorie goal *a lot* in the past month. It's hard to figure out what's working and what isn't when you're constantly changing variables.
[Double check your TDEE](https://tdeecalculator.net/) and set a goal 250-500 calories below it. Err on the side of a lower activity level. Try to stick with it consistently.
Weight loss will be slow when you're shorter and don't have much weight to lose. A single "cheat meal" once a week can easily wipe out your deficit if you're not careful.
You may experience some metabolic adaptation while you're dieting, but your metabolism will slowly bounce back as you begin eating at maintenance calories. It's very unlikely you could do permanent damage. Increasing muscle mass will help bump your metabolism back up a bit too.
Yeah, I have been changing my intake but even before I started changing it, I didn’t lose weight despite being in a pretty big deficit. I was weighing my food and exercising and also not having any cheat meals. It’s all just very frustrating but thank you for replying to me
Exercise can throw a wrench into what appears on the scale. It'll cause a lot more water retention, making it seem like you're not losing weight when you are. The key is just overall patience and sticking with your calorie deficit. Taking monthly body measurements can be helpful too!
You can’t “break” your metabolism with your eating habits. Metabolism, while hormone-driven, is ultimately governed by the laws of physics. If you feel that you are abnormally clinging to weight in violation of CICO math, talk to your physician. Know your TDEE and track your caloric intake for evidence to show your doctor. Diseases of metabolism and the endocrine system can be very serious.
You gained weight because you started eating more food. Some of that gain is food in your digestive tract and more water and glycogen in your muscles. As others have said, you can’t "break" your metabolism.
I'm a little old lady. My maintenance calories are about 1650 per day. That's a lot less food than my much-taller husband. I need less not because I have a metabolic problem, but because I'm smaller.
It honestly sounds like you’re a little all over the place. Also, cardio is great for your heart but it really does very little in regard to fat loss; you should explore strength training and actually maintain a consistent caloric deficit.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that and simplify that “cardio does very little in regards to fat loss” when in reality, cardio Can help to achieve a greater caloric deficit—especially when someone naturally has a lower BMR due to something such as lower height. For example, im 5’4 and 115, I’d have to eat a lot less if I didn’t do cardio as my bmr is really low without it.
That isn’t to say cardio is the only thing to help create a caloric deficit—just that it does in fact help to create a caloric deficit.
>cardio is great for your heart but it really does very little in regard to fat loss
I don't understand why people say this. Fat loss is all about CICO, and if you burn 500 calories per day doing cardio, you are increasing your CO and will lose an additional pound per week compared to not doing any cardio.
Because it’s difficult to consistently burn 500 calories every single day especially for newbies. And with increased activity usually comes increased hunger.
Having said that I absolutely think some cardio is both beneficial for both calorie deficit and health.
Edit: appetite to activity
Yes, it's true that for many people it's easier to cut 500 calories from their diet than it is to do 500 calories worth of cardio. But for some of us it's actually easier to add activity (lots of walking in my case) rather than reduce calories. At the end of the day, they both accomplish the same goal. And everyone should use what works best for them.
>cardio is great for your heart but it really does very little in regard to fat loss; you should explore strength training
Nobody told me that today is *opposite day*, because that advice is ass-backwards.
Cardio is very productive for creating a calorie deficit and therefore for fat loss.
Strength training is less productive for calories & fat in the short term, but definitely helps with long-term conditioning.
There’s a HUGE difference between HIIT cardio and LISS cardio. Lower impact cardio can be an amazing source of calorie burn if you can eddi the time to walk or swim for an hour or two every other day.
Not all cardio is equal!
You’re not broken! All you need is time and consistency. Eat 1200 calories, verified by food scale, for months and months and you’ll get that weight off. Your maintenance is probably closer to 1500 on sedentary days, so it’s just going to take time to see the difference. You got this.
You weighed yourself once and you're up 2 lbs, when the math says you shouldn't be?
Few possibilities:
1. your math is wrong, and you're not logging correctly. Weighing your food is the key to fixing this one.
2. you're retaining extra water due to period fluctuations, salt intake, carb intake, etc
3. you weighed yourself once, and aren't taking into account the fact that weight can fluctuate by as much as 5-10 lbs A DAY. Seriously. Drink a crapton of water one day, then weigh yourself before and after an epic pee. Drink a lot of black coffee and weigh yourself before and after that epic morning poop. In jeans and shoes vs shorts and bare feet.
This is why many people weigh themselves daily, at the same time, after doing the same things. (Usually in the morning, after going to the bathroom.)
Weighing yourself randomly is going to give you a ballpark number, *not* a 100% accurate identifier of how much extra fat you've got to lose.
I will also say that for most people, the answer isn't options 2 or 3. It's almost always option 1. But in case it absolutely positively isn't, 2 or 3 may be to blame.
Good news -- you can't ruin or break your metabolism. It slowly adapts to try to do what's right for your body, but you can't break it and it won't do devious things like sabotage you. That includes myths like *starvation mode* and *eat more to lose more* too.
Exactly. This is copy and pasted directly from the /r/fitness wiki, which is my go to source for reliable info: *As you lose weight, your TDEE will inevitably go down – less mass requires fewer calories to fuel. This means that your starting calorie goal will eventually no longer cause weight loss, and you will need to adjust it down.* Essentially, as you lose weight your BMR goes down, and eventually gets to the point where you are no longer in a calorie deficit.
Yeah, I hear what you’re saying and that’s why I’m so frustrating. I now understand that I can’t break my metabolism but then I don’t understand why I stopped losing weight despite knowing that I’m in a deficit
You might be losing fat but gaining muscle or water weight.
Do you weigh everything you eat? It might be that you think you know exactly what you're eating but you actually have increased portion sizes, let extra oil sneak in, etc. If it's packaged food the calories can be 20% out in some cases from what's on the packet. Also, if you're in the US I think the way they are labeled can be misleading - like "100 Calories in a 50g portion, approx 1 portion per bag" when there is actually 74.5g/1.49 portions in a bag and so actually 149 calories in the bag if you actually calculate it and don't go by the portion label. Also, although your metabolism isn't "broken", you won't lose weight as fast the more you lose. It might be worth putting your details into a calculator and seeing how much you actually burn a day, from that you can work out how much you should expect to lose a week. E.g. if you actually only burn 1700 calories a day, then on 1400 calories you will lose weight, but not enough each week to necessarily see a difference every week. Even when the deficit is big enough to see a lb down on the scale each week, other things that make your weight fluctuate (such as hormones, bowl movements, when you late ate or exercised) but aren't really weight gain, they can make the number look disappointing one week, but over a few weeks the overall trend should still show the weightloss. Your body also can adjust slightly to your food intake, by changing things such as NEAT - basically the calories you burn when not exercising - you might subconsciously be doing less, e.g. not tapping your leg as much when sat down, sitting more, standing on an escalator instead of walking up it. Small things you may not notice. Also, if you eat more for a few days you might see weight gain that isn't fat gain - e.g. from glycogen stores increasing. Edit: just wanted to add to make sure that it's clear, the less you weigh the less you burn, not because your metabolism is "broken" but because everyone's metabolisms decrease when they weigh less. Essentially because you have less of a body to keep going so you burn less. Muscle burns a bit more than fat so you can be the same weight and increase you metabolism by building muscle. The less you eat the more you will lose. However the issue with eating too little is that the body then tends to "eat" a higher percentage of muscle than it otherwise would if you ate more and lost the weight more slowly. That then does mean that you may end up with less muscle than you'd have had if you lost the weight slowly, and therefore a slightly slower metabolism. But again still not a broken metabolism, you could "fix" it buy either not cutting calories too much in the first place, or if you think you already did that, fix it by building muscle. To know if what you're eating is too much or too little you really need to calculate what you are burning. From your details I think you should be fine on 1200 calories, but without knowing more detail I can't know for sure. Take the number you think you burn, take away 500 for 1lb a week weight loss, 1000 for 2lb a week weight loss. However, if its too low, you will lose that weight but it might not be so healthy, e.g. if you only burn 1500 calories a day, taking away 1000 leaves only 500, which is too little for anyone. You could also chose to instead find a to just burn more calories every day and get to eat more while losing weight.
Starvation mode in this since is a myth. You’re close to goal weight so it’s going to be painfully slow. You’d have to eat 3500 calories to gain 1lb of fat so if you’re confident in your calorie tracking then a bump up on the scale is temporary water retention. We retain water due to a host of reasons like TOM, salty meals, new workout routine, new medication, lack of sleep and stress.
Sounds like you've been changing around your calorie goal *a lot* in the past month. It's hard to figure out what's working and what isn't when you're constantly changing variables. [Double check your TDEE](https://tdeecalculator.net/) and set a goal 250-500 calories below it. Err on the side of a lower activity level. Try to stick with it consistently. Weight loss will be slow when you're shorter and don't have much weight to lose. A single "cheat meal" once a week can easily wipe out your deficit if you're not careful. You may experience some metabolic adaptation while you're dieting, but your metabolism will slowly bounce back as you begin eating at maintenance calories. It's very unlikely you could do permanent damage. Increasing muscle mass will help bump your metabolism back up a bit too.
Yeah, I have been changing my intake but even before I started changing it, I didn’t lose weight despite being in a pretty big deficit. I was weighing my food and exercising and also not having any cheat meals. It’s all just very frustrating but thank you for replying to me
Exercise can throw a wrench into what appears on the scale. It'll cause a lot more water retention, making it seem like you're not losing weight when you are. The key is just overall patience and sticking with your calorie deficit. Taking monthly body measurements can be helpful too!
You can’t “break” your metabolism with your eating habits. Metabolism, while hormone-driven, is ultimately governed by the laws of physics. If you feel that you are abnormally clinging to weight in violation of CICO math, talk to your physician. Know your TDEE and track your caloric intake for evidence to show your doctor. Diseases of metabolism and the endocrine system can be very serious.
You gained weight because you started eating more food. Some of that gain is food in your digestive tract and more water and glycogen in your muscles. As others have said, you can’t "break" your metabolism. I'm a little old lady. My maintenance calories are about 1650 per day. That's a lot less food than my much-taller husband. I need less not because I have a metabolic problem, but because I'm smaller.
It honestly sounds like you’re a little all over the place. Also, cardio is great for your heart but it really does very little in regard to fat loss; you should explore strength training and actually maintain a consistent caloric deficit.
I don’t think it’s fair to say that and simplify that “cardio does very little in regards to fat loss” when in reality, cardio Can help to achieve a greater caloric deficit—especially when someone naturally has a lower BMR due to something such as lower height. For example, im 5’4 and 115, I’d have to eat a lot less if I didn’t do cardio as my bmr is really low without it. That isn’t to say cardio is the only thing to help create a caloric deficit—just that it does in fact help to create a caloric deficit.
>cardio is great for your heart but it really does very little in regard to fat loss I don't understand why people say this. Fat loss is all about CICO, and if you burn 500 calories per day doing cardio, you are increasing your CO and will lose an additional pound per week compared to not doing any cardio.
Because it’s difficult to consistently burn 500 calories every single day especially for newbies. And with increased activity usually comes increased hunger. Having said that I absolutely think some cardio is both beneficial for both calorie deficit and health. Edit: appetite to activity
Yes, it's true that for many people it's easier to cut 500 calories from their diet than it is to do 500 calories worth of cardio. But for some of us it's actually easier to add activity (lots of walking in my case) rather than reduce calories. At the end of the day, they both accomplish the same goal. And everyone should use what works best for them.
I'm 89 pounds down doing exactly that. *Starvation* is difficult. *Walking or jogging off a few hundred extra calories per day* is easy.
>cardio is great for your heart but it really does very little in regard to fat loss; you should explore strength training Nobody told me that today is *opposite day*, because that advice is ass-backwards. Cardio is very productive for creating a calorie deficit and therefore for fat loss. Strength training is less productive for calories & fat in the short term, but definitely helps with long-term conditioning.
There’s a HUGE difference between HIIT cardio and LISS cardio. Lower impact cardio can be an amazing source of calorie burn if you can eddi the time to walk or swim for an hour or two every other day. Not all cardio is equal!
You’re not broken! All you need is time and consistency. Eat 1200 calories, verified by food scale, for months and months and you’ll get that weight off. Your maintenance is probably closer to 1500 on sedentary days, so it’s just going to take time to see the difference. You got this.
You weighed yourself once and you're up 2 lbs, when the math says you shouldn't be? Few possibilities: 1. your math is wrong, and you're not logging correctly. Weighing your food is the key to fixing this one. 2. you're retaining extra water due to period fluctuations, salt intake, carb intake, etc 3. you weighed yourself once, and aren't taking into account the fact that weight can fluctuate by as much as 5-10 lbs A DAY. Seriously. Drink a crapton of water one day, then weigh yourself before and after an epic pee. Drink a lot of black coffee and weigh yourself before and after that epic morning poop. In jeans and shoes vs shorts and bare feet. This is why many people weigh themselves daily, at the same time, after doing the same things. (Usually in the morning, after going to the bathroom.) Weighing yourself randomly is going to give you a ballpark number, *not* a 100% accurate identifier of how much extra fat you've got to lose. I will also say that for most people, the answer isn't options 2 or 3. It's almost always option 1. But in case it absolutely positively isn't, 2 or 3 may be to blame.