Oh good, I'm glad I didn't offend. 1200 is kind of like the "danger point" put out by doctors - if you go lower than that in cutting calories, you're probably damaging your body. But really, that's kind of like the ultimate lowest. I think that if you try to stick in the 1600-1800 range you'll probably be best off. But obviously, you know your body best.
Metabolism and stuff was discussed a lot when this board first started... look for posts by Elizabeth (e_mcmaster) and Alicia (HansSolo) especially. Elizabeth's story is pretty interesting - when she was battling with an eating disorder she was eating a ridiculously low # of calories, i.e. around 800 or so a day I think. But then after a while, she actually starting GAINING weight - the less she ate, the more she gained. Basically, the body goes into starvation mode. It knows it's not getting enough food so it hangs on to everything it can by slowing down the metabolism. The less you eat, the slower it goes in response.
So yes, it's very possible that you have a slow metabolism. But the biggest myth is that you have no control over your metabolism - you do! Yes, there are some aspects to it that you can't control - genetics, hormones etc. (the fact that people in your family have trouble losing weight *may* be a sign of that, but it may not be, however the other things you mentioned, i.e. sleep and being cold all the time, probably aren't related to it. I'm cold all the time too - it's probably more likely circulation-related). Aaaaanyway, back to metabolism. It's mainly determined by your lifestyle - so if you don't do anything to speed it up, it's not going to speed up. And to speed it up, you have to give it MORE to do. So you have to eat more, be more active, build more muscle (increased muscle mass spikes your metabolism like nothing else), drink more water etc. etc. etc. Now, if you just start eating lots more right now you'd probably gain a little bit of weight. But in the long run, you'd increase your body's ability to burn fat. Especially if you put on more muscle.
OK, I'm rambling a little here... I hope this had made sense. Really do check out some of the older posts though. Try searching "metabolism" on this board only maybe. HTH 
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
Posts
Re: re: jaime/protein
