Low resting matabolism problems...

My girlfriend and I have stopped eating like crap and have been trying to eat very healthy to shed the pounds we've both put on in the past few months of fast food and inactivity. I'll try to keep this simple and to the point.

How we used to eat:

Breakfast sometimes, consisting of sugary cereal or buttered toast, possibly some fruit. Bring some lunch to work, a sandwich or some leftovers to heat up. Dinner was our one big meal of the day, usually something really bad like chicken fettucine alfredo, or pizza, or fast food, or something like that. We'd both eat nearly all our daily calories after we got home from work, about an hour before bed - terrible, I know.

How we eat now:

Oatmeal with sliced banana and/or an omelette (couple yolk, couple whites, chopped spinach and pieces of turkey sausage) for breakfast, fish oil, glucosamine, and multi vitamin.

Peanut butter sandwich and/or some fruit, maybe a whey protein fruit smoothie, or cottage cheese, or yogurt, or a spinach and lettuce salad with italian dressing, or pita wrap with chicken, or tuna salad made with light miracle whip (one tablespoon for every can), pickles and avacodo. Something like that for a snack.

Lunch is usually the same as the snack above.

Another snack, one of the above yet again.

Dinner, extra lean beef tacos with homemade guacomole on corn tortillas fried in olive oil, or chicken breast and basmati rice, or stir fry vegetables and chicken with basmati rice, or whole wheat pasta and pesto sauce, or salmon brushed with olive oil and seasoned with pepper and garlic. One of the above.

Usually fruit and cottage cheese a couple hours before bed.

Lots of water (2 liters+) throughout the day.

Both of us exercise at least 2x a week (swimming, boxing, playing frisbee).

In about 3 weeks I've lost 6 pounds, I seem to be dropping weight at an optimal rate. However, my girlfriend has not dropped or gained a single pound overall. She has plateaud right from the beginning. I'm here hoping someone can tell me why, and what to do about it. She is incredibly weak, can't do a single pushup, has very low lean muscle mass. My fear is that because of this, she has too low of a resting metabolic rate. I'm afraid to drop our caloric intake much more, we're already taking in significantly less than we used to. She's not gaining weight anymore, which is good, but I'm surprised to see she hasn't lost any at all either.

Any ideas from you health nuts? More exercise? More protein? Less calories? Should she hit the weights and hit em hard? What can we do?

If I didn't provide enough information, let me know what would help you figure this one out. I hate to see how discouraged she is to write her weight down every day and see it's the exact same give or take half a pound, and to see me steadily losing weight when we're both eating the same. In fact, she actually eats a little bit less than me, usually having smaller portions for breakfast and dinner.

 

It's God punishing you for what you post on MAP.

 

Women need more strength training/resistance training than men. So, at the very least, she needs some dbs and a sand bag and start working on Scrapper's stuff www.trainforstrength.com

The one thing I'd do is take away the scale for a week straight. What your girl needs to be concentrating on is how her clothes are fitting and how she looks in the mirror. Also, use a measuring tape rather than a scale...the scale lies.

That would be a start. And I also commend you on your diet changes.

 

Hey Socrastein,

I had a low metabolism due to some thyroid problems. Some tips:

1. Eat 8 small meals a day

2. Drink a glass of warm water with the juice of 1 lemon squeezed into it, first thing every morning. Supposed to boost your metabolism. Its frightfully disgusting on winter mornings so I take it like a shot (40 ml water + lemon juice)

3. Try to eat your larger meals within 30-45 minutes of exercising

4. Vary the types of fruits you eat (not bananas all the time) and cut the cottage cheese (x1 wk max)

5. Not sure how old your g/f is but try for 4 or more workouts a week. I have an extremely busy lifestyle and I manage a minimum 10 sessions a week.

6. Skip the elevator for the stairs, walk instead of drive short distances, join a sports team/MA, walk for 15 min after a meal, dance etc. Get active and get moving!

7. Its not about weight, its about developing and maintaining good habits that will last a lifetime and help you enjoy life more.

Good luck!

 

if she's really doing what you wrote there as far as nutrition and cardio goes, i guarantee she'll start seeing progress if she does some resistance training. and i mean real resistance training, none of that pink dumbell crap.

 

Skrom - what's up with the sexist implication of 'pink dumbbell crap'? :woo:

 

I saw a guy who was bigger than me at the gym on saturday doing bouncy flytes with pink dumbells

 

er...what's sexist about calling pink dumbells crap?

 

I dont think he was being sexist its just theres a few types of fitness culture which can be summed up by the weights used. Plastic multi coloured dumbells or rusty 20Kg plates and 7 ft bars. The first group training for tone and the second for strength.

 

eat more smaller meals. other than that, the only thing i can think of is that she's cheating when you're eating with her

 

wrong. the difference is that the first group is not training at all and will never get anywhere.

 

I have purple dumbbells for toning. Other than that I'm a self-avowed cardio freak who does MA.

Skrom - are you joking? I can't tell. If you aren't joking with your last post then I'd just say who are you to know what every individual's goals are?

Socrastein - hope you've passed on some of the advice to your g/f

 

Lily, there is no such thing as toning. Muscles do not get firm or soft, they get bigger or smaller, nothing else. If you want to "look toned", lost weight. The lower your body fat %, the more 'toned' you'll appear. Doing a million reps with little purple dumbells is a humongous waste of time. It doesn't matter what your goals are, you're wasting your time trying to "tone".

One of, if not THE, biggest myths in health and nutrition.

 

Hi Socrastein,

Thanks for the advice. My BMI is 20 but I'm not sure what my bf% is, not really worried though as I eat healthy/exercise.

You're right about 'toning' though. I used that term incorrectly. I do light weights and resistance training and that's enough for me. However, I think I still get some benefit out of my light weight work as opposed to not doing any

 

Oh no the "t" word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Lily ... we gotta talk girl

Socrastein: you and your girl have done all the right things in tryoing to boost up your metabolisms but keep in mind ... all individuals are metabolically different.

One person's metabolism may be more active or less active than another's.

I am going to attach a word doc regarding activating metabolism that is fairly informative and might help the 2 of you!

 

no, i wasn't joking. i suppose i'm wrong if there is someone whose goal is to not make any significant progress in any particular area of fitness, but otherwise, my statement stands. pink dumbells are crap.

 

Skrom :bang: :bang:

Nice article KC.

 

i love you too lily :love:

 

Thanks for the Article KC!

Lily, the obvious question is - why waste time doing light weight resistance and seeing little if any gains if you could spend that same amount of time doing heavy resistance, or High Intensity Interval Training, or General Physical Preparedness Training, and see great, consistent gains?

How light are we talking? How many reps, and what are you doing?

 

Hey Socrastein - I walk 3 miles daily, practice JJJ 4 nights a week, run 3-8 miles 3 days a week, work out at the gym 3 days a week (circuit train HIIT, stepper with med resistance) + weights on 2 of those days (eg. 3 sets 20 reps of leg press 35kg, arm press 10 kg, lat pulldowns 15kg). I mix this up with some iaido, swimming and yoga. I have Sunday off.

I'm 5'5, lean and light and prefer it that way, I cop some flack from my dojo mates because of this but my technique is good and I outendure any of them any given day. I do struggle on moves that require more strength (MA is the third or fourth workout of my day, do I sound obsessive?) but it gives me more incentive to have good technique and use what I have. You have a good point though but I'm happy with my current schedule that I've followed for more than a few years.

Skrom - I'm glad MAP is such a big place, it should be easy to lose you