To start off, I am 18 years old and weigh abot 120 lb at 5'2''. I am fairly active (exercise about 3 times a week). I want to maintain my weight, maybe loose 5 lb at max. so i decided to get my metabolism tested at the doctor's using the bodygem. I had been eating about 1100-1300 calories a day--not loosing anyweight. I had also been exercizing too, and when i told my friend this,she said, you should be eating like 1800-2000 calories a day! So I got the test done and my result was that my rmr was 1120!!!!! I was shocked. I am quite lean and muscluar so this came as a big shock. I had noticed that my weight was going up (about 6 months ago i weighed about 105), but i wasn't eating more than 1500 calories, so i suspected that i had a lower metabolism than others, but not this low!!
What should i do? i mean, even when you factor in my daily activities which count for another 20%, it is still not many calories at all. I am always hungry and dont now how much longer I can eat just 1300 calories a day! I was kind of expecting (hoping) that the results would be like what my friend had predicted.
I am now doing more weight training and cardio to increase my muscle mass, but i dont know how much that will help. I heard that yo-yo dieting lowers one's metabolism or resticting calories too muc can also, but wouldn't I have lost weight--not gained the 10 lb these last 6 months when I was eating about 1500 calories. PLease, if you have any advice, i would appreciate it. I see all my freinds eating so much food and i feel like I am starving myself, but not loosing weight! Is there somthing wrong here?
Starving your self was the first alarm, You see if your body thinks you are starving it saves everything you are not currently using. So it is the same treatment as with water weight gain, drink 6-8 glasses of water a day, not fluids. . . water. Next eat every 3-4 hours don't wait any longer between, unless you are sleeping, try to get at least 6 solid hours of sleep a night 7 is better. Now if you are eating every 3-4 hours it seams like a lot, but if you work out a plan, where every time you eat you get a serving of protein and fiber to go with the carbs you will feel satisfied. Do NOT drink a meal, your body absorbs it too fast and it ends up stored away for future famin, or so your body is programed to believe.
I hope you will do more reading about nutrition it is a interesting subject, and will help you understand the things our bodies do to keep us safe.
Good Luck
For once, how high is the RMB SUPPOSED to be, do you have any idea? Maybe yours isn't that low, because the retsing metabolism is not the only thing we need energy for, we also need energy for every step we take etc etc.
Second, if it IS low, have you asked what the cause could be? Yes, starving yourself CAN lower your metabolism, but it could also be an under-active thyroid or something.
I did the BodyGem to a couple of months ago, my RMR came to about 1700, I'm 5'2, 140 lbs, and very muscular. Since then, I actually started eating more (before that I would eat around 1200 calories a day) and losing fat (I don't think my body can naturally be gaining any more muscle since I've been weight training for six years already).
A close friend of mine who is also a trainer at a gym that uses BodyGem to test RMR told me the results are very inaccurate. It has an error of +-300. So I could test 1700 one day and then 1100 the next. It takes so many things into consideration like caffeine, the time of day, whether you've worked out or not, hydration, etc. The equation to figure out RMR that some trainers use is actually more accurate!
Also, some of the weight you gained could have been muscle. I've weighed about 140 - 145 for the past three years, but I look a LOT better now than I did three years ago.
Yeah, I agree with the others that you need to eat more, especially if you're active. Try to eat more wholesome, natural products. My body responds better when I eat whole foods than processed foods. Hope this helps.
Ok, so many people have told me i should eat a little more, but wat i dont understand is that i gained quite a bit of weight this winter (like sept. -dec.) This was the only time in the past where i have eaten constantly more than 1100-1300 calories. I was eating on average 1500-1600 calories, if even that much, and i gained almost 7 pounds! I weigh most of my portions or eyeball them, i'm almost positive i dont underestimate my eating habits. Now that i am back on the 1100-1300 calorie diet, i am maintaing my weight, but not loosing. Eating more (which i did this winter) has only resulted in weight gain!
I am so confused. PLease, if someone can explain this, i need advice!
help please!! my rmr is really low 
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