What is wrong with my metabolism II

[dietcoke]

Ok, so I know that bluewisdom did this, but I have been wondering for a while if anyone had the same problem as me... cuz this is REALLY weird...

So I KNOW I don't eat enough... :down: I don't have much time, and I only seem to be hungry after exersizing or in the mornings... my usual intake is anywhere from 1000-1500. Sometimes 800, if I forget to eat lunch. Normally I underestimate (fitday...) but I don't think I've gone over 1500.

The problem is, I am VERY active, I walk everywhere and have workouts/sports practices for at least 2 hours a day, when break ends it will be back up to about 3. I should be eating about 1800-2000 cal. a day.

So I started to increase a little, to staying steady at about 1500 a day, and I GAINED 2 pounds! Even at 1500 I should have still been losing (I don't want to lose weight), not gaining!!! I don't WANT to gain weight, I want to stay the same.

Here is some examples of what I have been eating:

(not in order, just how I put them onto fitday)
4 apples
15 grapes
.7 cup chex cereal
.5 cup (dry) oatmeal
1.5 T peanut butter
1 luna bar
1 cup steamed broccoli
1 cup mushrooms (and I just found out I might be allergic... :( )
1 medium muffin (homemade)

That was 1080 calories, so towards the low-end. But here's what I was eating at the upper-end:

2 cups raisen bran
5 almonds
2 servings cream of wheat
2 T jam
1 cup steamed broccoli
1 cup sweet peas
7 triscuits
.25 cup (dry) oatmeal
teeny amount of sunflower seeds
1 cup pineapple
1.5 T peanut butter
1.5 cups tomato sauce (I think the was pored over the peas and broccoli)
1 apple

that was 1440. I ate like that for 2 weeks.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the weight I gained was fat, or most of it, because my jeans got a little tighter, and I could feel it on my legs. Also, I don't get bloated when my "speciel monthly friend" comes. (I only get bloated when I eat mushrooms. :cry: )

does anyone know why this is?


p.s. I'm not just jumping right into vb...I was a member before but said stupid things :rolleyes: so I left for a little while and then just re-joined under a different name.

p.p.s. sorry so long

[Jinga]

You may be fighting your body in order to maintain a weight thats lower than its optimal/normal level. Thats a probable cause for gaining when you eat healthy amounts of food. Its also fairly common for the human body to get used to under eating. You're metabolism will slow in order to compensate for the lack of calories. The only way to get it back up is to eat increasing amounts of food and to be active. If you don't already, I'd suggest strength training. More muscle = higher metabolism.

[Azalea]

Are you underweight?

[dietcoke]

jinga--I used to straingth train but stopped when school started--I think I'll start again.

azalea--according to BMI counters I'm not underweight
(my BMI's 20)

thanks!

[Professor12]

Undereating for a prolonged period of time will cause your metabolism to slow down so that your body can conserve as many nutrients/calories as possible to stave off death. The longer you subject yourself to an artificially low calorie intake, the more damage your body does to itself as it starts to metabolize your organs/bones in an attempt to stay alive. You need to eat significantly more, more than 1400 calories a day (and your sample menu is NOT 1400 calories) in order to maintain. You will gain weight when you do this but it is only a temporary result of your metabolism catching up with your increased food intake. Please treat yourself better, your body will thank you for it.

[bluewisdom]

I found a formula that works for me, maybe it'll work for you?

Take your weight and multiply it by 12.
Then multiply that number by your lifestyle:

1.15 = not active: sit along, office work, does not fidget, don't really exercise

1.375 = somewhat active: sit a lot but constantly fidget, often are 'out and about', very rarely exercise

1.55 = moderately active: walk around a lot, very rarely sit down and rest, maybe 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week

1.75 = very active: don't rest often and you do cardio exercise for about 5 - 7 hours per week

For me, I multiply by 1.4 and I get a very very accurate result.

[dietcoke]

so... should I just increase my calories and let my body take control? sounds like it...

Thanks!

P.S.--my sample menu's calorie thingy was just taken off of fitday... math is not my strong point. :)

[chocsoymilk]

It sounds as if you are eating hardly any food and your thyroid may be so slow that you are trying to swim upstream by just concentrating on your diet alone.

I have a very low thyroid, but it is still in the "normal" range though just barely high enough not warrant thyroid medication. It is very typical for a woman's thyroid to start to shut down as she gets older (35+.)

Another thing you might want to consider is that not a whole lot of study goes into human metabolism anyway. Physicians generally check your thyroid and (if it's found to be normal) insist that "maybe you're not being accurate counting your calories."

Well, maybe there's more to the human metabolism than just the amount of hormone output of the human thyroid gland too! Maybe it's a little more sophisticated than that and western medicine just doesn't understand it all.

I know this isn't exactly an answer to your question. I'm just trying to help you realize there may be more to this than just the amount of food you're putting in your body and how much you're exercising.

[*Sunflower*]

Under 1200 calories a day is starvation. 1500-1600 is still a weight-loss amount.
You need at least 1700-but that's only if you are sitting in bed trying to conserve energy. If you are active, you need to eat more.

When you starve your body, your metabolism shuts down because it doesn't work properly if it doesn't have food. That's why people who don't eat enough never feel hungry and when they do eat, their body holds onto whatever food it can get. Eating a sufficient amount everyday will rev up your metabolism and it will eventually start working properly again, it'll just have to ease into working again.

[tomatotomato]

when i was in IOP for my eating disorder i was maintaining a BMI of 15 on about 1000 calories a day. i think i actually gained about 5 pounds that way... then i started to follow my meal plan, and gained really quickly on about 2800 calories per day. now that i'm at a (low, but acceptable) healthy weight, my metabolism still sucks. it's much better than it was when i was sick, but i still gain weight on anything over 1700 calories per day. this feels like enough, definatly, but i don't know... i'm young, i shouldn't have to worry about it so much, i guess. i don't want to, anyway.

before my ED, i was able to eat whatever i wanted. i ate a lot. i weighed more than i do now, but only about 15 lbs more (i lost almost 40 pounds, gained most of it back)... i really want my metabolism to go back to normal. being "healthy" doesn't mean restricting and counting calories to maintain my weight... I'm only 16! I don't want to do this for forever. i want so badly to "let go," but it's hard when i just keep gaining weight if i eat like my peers... and i really don't want to gain any more weight because i know it will trigger me into some sort of relapse, and i decided that i really don't like being sick. :)

sorry for my rambling... and sorry for all the numbers...

[genocideboy]

I found a formula that works for me, maybe it'll work for you?

Take your weight and multiply it by 12.
Then multiply that number by your lifestyle:

1.15 = not active: sit along, office work, does not fidget, don't really exercise

1.375 = somewhat active: sit a lot but constantly fidget, often are 'out and about', very rarely exercise

1.55 = moderately active: walk around a lot, very rarely sit down and rest, maybe 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week

1.75 = very active: don't rest often and you do cardio exercise for about 5 - 7 hours per week

For me, I multiply by 1.4 and I get a very very accurate result.

this doesn't work for me at all.
i get a result of less than 2000, and i know i lose weight on that much.
in the hospital, i'm on 3250 calories a day and i gain decently, but less than 2500 and i might gain but veerrryyy slowly.