Can you change your metabolism?
Nearly impossible to do – except in the wrong direction.
That’s been my observation as well.
And no – lo-carb or Taubes or Atkins doesn’t work for me nor for a lot of other people. I’m happy for you if your experience has been more positive. Mine has been that I don’t lose weight on such programs and they make me feel ill.
At this point, I try to eat healthful things most of the time, exercise regularly (weight-lifting is highly limited, though, because of my chronic arm injuries), and not obsess too much about losing that 10-15 pounds, particularly at my age. And yes, it’s generally easier for you guys.
I’ve known people who regularly eat many times what I eat and have been slender all their lives. I know people who eat less and are fatter. I’ve known people who started out as the first type for several decades of their lives and then slowly morphed into the latter.
It’s complicated.
I’ve had overall good (though modest) results with low-carb.
Lost 10 pounds. Feel better. Shape is improved, though at this age, I mean ….
I started when wife and kid were on an extended vacation. With them back, improvements moderated because it’s hard to live in isolation.
Good luck, everyone LOL
That’s a fairly informative article on the subject. And most folks believe the exact opposite of several of the points it highlights.
1. There is a lot of diversity in human metabolism and we don’t understand all the mechanisms well. All people don’t react identically to the same food intake.
b: We have marginal control over daily, caloric burn. Most of caloric burn is due to functions we have little control over; like digestion. The human brain is actually a huge calorie burner. As the article points out, voluntary physical activity for most folks is about 10% – 15% of caloric burn. Whether you run a marathon or sit and type all day doesn’t make that much of a difference on calories burned.
Gamma – The body’s reaction to caloric intake and output changes is extremely complex, not fully understood, and varies by individual. Based on the above two points one would conclude that diet is the key to weight loss, but reducing calories doesn’t always produce the same results. Calorie reduction can cause resting metabolism to change, decreasing caloric output. And, in the same vein, increased exercise can cause metabolic changes that modify how the body uses and stores calories taken in, reducing calories burned.
IV) Many people who have a lot of extra weight can lose a significant chunk through major changes in diet, activity, or both, but over time the body will go through changes that gradually result in a return to the starting weight.
The microbiome may also have something to do with how efficiently calories are burned. The gut bacteria can change over time depending on what you eat.
From my reading and from observation, it’s true that not all bodies will react the same way to the same dietary or exercise program. “Most” benefit from low-carb, but not all.
I lost about thirty pounds on keto, and reduced my prescription for synthroid by a significant amount. Now a bit of the weight is creeping back on, in spite of care in eating and muscle gain from weight training. I’m off to the doctor to have my thyroid checked and believe he’ll give me an increase. As my hypothyroidism is auto-immune, this will be an ongoing battle.
Over the weekend I migrated from one computer to a new one. I figured it was a good time to purge all those wasted gigabytes, so I had a look at my Sent items folder in Thunderbird and discovered 9 years worth, many with photo attachments of the Sun, Moon, and Planets. All said and done I freed up 5GB of space.
Now to the point I want to make. I found the cancellation email I sent to NutriSystem from a few years ago. At the time I was on the plan for about five months and lost 20 pounds! I cancelled their service due to changes they made in the menu. The food went from “awful” to “truly awful”.
At the time I thought I had learned enough to think that I could manage my weight on my own. Well, sorry to say, I put that weight back on and then some. Since then I’ve tried integrating fasting into my diet. I got the greatest weight reduction with intermittent fasting but the hunger pangs became too great so I abandoned it.
Thankfully I’ve lost weight since COVID-19. Lockdowns mean that I try to reduce my “essential” trips to the grocery store. We’re eating similar quality food as before but just a lot less of it. Let the lockdowns resume! We will starve our way to good health!
I have managed to lose a significant amount of weight with the intermittent fasting diet, which essentially, in the form I follow, involves consuming all food within an 8 hour window. As a practical matter, I only eat two meals a day. Neo, as regards weight training, our largest muscles are below the waist and squats and lunges are great, with or without load bearing and stability exercises, particularly important as we age. They do not require the use of the arms other than for stability.
Well, I don’t know if I’ve changed my metabolism but it seems that way to me. I lost around 75 pounds (I’m 6’3”) about five years ago and have managed to keep it off through semi regular exercise (nothing major) and eating only one normal meal a day with fruit or something a couple times a day. The fasting is also something I’ve come to believe in. I’ll eat around 6 pm then have nothing other than water or a Diet Coke until about 9 the next morning.
Since I’ve been doing that I find I can periodically go crazy and have a big meal for a day or two and gain like a pound which I immediately lose. Longest I’ve been under 200 lbs since high school.
Not sure if that’s a change in metabolism but I like it.
Griffin:
It helps to be male; much harder for females. Congratulations, in any event.
Griffin, eating late is my biggest failure. I’m a night owl so it’s not uncommon for me to eat at 11pm and fall asleep at 3am. Honestly I’d like to turn the clock around and eat by 7pm and sleep by midnight. Easier said than done!
Brian Morgan,
When I first started my dieting effort about five years ago the evenings were the hardest part. I used to have some type of snack practically every night and I cut that out entirely. After a while I got used to it and it helps when you see positive results as reinforcement. I’ve always been one to easily lose or gain weight which has made these last few years so great.
Also accountability to yourself. I still weigh myself first thing every morning and it serves as a test to prepare for.
Neo – you might be interested in my own theory on why post-menopause is such a difficult time to lose weight. Consider a tribe 2000 years ago. Limited food resources – much more than today. All the females of the tribe that are pregnant or nursing need extra calories. Where do they come from? The post-menopausal women of the tribe, as Mother Nature has decreed “no more food for you it all goes to the childbearing women. I make this possible by slowing your metabolism to nothing.”
Thanks for nothing Mother Nature. And why yes I DO have an overactive imagination and I can come up with half assed theories all day long! I like the sound of this so its my story and I’m sticking to it.
Griffin,
During these “COVID days” I’ve lost five pounds and feel lighter on my feet. I’d have to lose another 30 pounds to get down to where I was after NutriSystem. Still, even at that weight I’d have to lose another 30 in order to get to my ideal weight according to the authorities. I was such a scrawny kid.
The biggest problem is lack of exercise. I never really liked lifting weights. I much prefer being outside hiking. Unfortunately I’ve had my share of Deer Tick bites, one pretty severe case. The best shape I’ve been in was when I lived on Long Island only a few miles away from beautiful beaches. Lots of swimming and sun exposure but that was a long time ago.
Portion control and exercise, I think are the keys.
Back in the 80s I was intrigued by Dr. Leonard Schwartz, a psychiatrist who got back into exercise at the age of 52 when he had an idea that the most efficient exercise regimen would combine aerobic training with weight training by using all four limbs and the arms hoisting moderate weights from 1-20 lbs. Scwartz called his method “Heavyhands.”
By the age of 57 Schwartz was freakin’ ripped but not bulky — Jason-Statham-style — and his resting pulse had dropped to a funereal 38 beats per minute. Schwartz believed he had cracked the code on changing metabolism and had found the Holy Grail of exercise and launched some well-selling exercise books.
I was 30 at the time, a bit pudgy but still athletic (I managed a ten mile run in 76 minutes). I figured at my age it would be duck soup to replicate Schwartz’s results. I was pretty excited. (I was an excitable fellow then; still am.)
However, although I reached the point where I could throw around 8-10 lb. weights for decent time and distance, I never got ripped and I never got my pulse to drop below the high 70s.
Maybe I was doing it wrong.
I showed the Schwartz book with photographs to a body builder friend. He just shrugged and said that Schwartz had a fabulous genetic endowment he hadn’t tapped until he tried in his 50s. But Schwartz wasn’t a model for most people.
I suspect my friend was right. But I don’t regret my time with Heavyhands. It’s a decent workout and less prone to injury than some I’ve tried.
I lost about 35# on Weight Watchers, then cut it back some more by limiting my breakfast and lunches. I’m still 6’2″ despite advancing age.
As I understand, we burn most of our calories just maintaining the body; exercise has minimal effect, which my experience bears out: I went to the gym 149 times in 2019 (they keep track, not me.) I haven’t been to the gym since mid-February, yet I haven’t gained weight.
Given the responses so far it appears as though there is a difference between what we can actually achieve and what our dream body should be. I know that is true for me.
Evolutionary biology is not my area of expertise but does anyone know why the standard responses to mysteries is along the lines of ‘a million years ago yada yada yada’? I mean no disrespect to ALP. It just got me thinking. In other fields of study it is perfectly fine to say “we have theories but really we just don’t know.”
Heavyhands still has a following. The books are out of print but are sufficiently in demand for $65.
https://www.amazon.com/Heavyhands-ultimate-exercise-Leonard-Schwartz/dp/0446380040/ref=sr_1_2
The AMF Heavyhands line of handweights has been discontinued, but some optimistic entrepreneur believes he can rename Schwartz’s method to “Heavy Hands” and charge $160 for the grips and the same for each set of screw-on weights. Absurd.
https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Hands-Dumbbell-Aerobic-Walking/dp/B06XHSW2CK/ref=pd_sim_200_1/146-2013225-5904758
Happily, I was careful to hold on to my old AMF grips/weights. Those go for high used prices now too.
I read several of the linked articles (Vox is not bad when it’s on neutral subjects, but once you get into the politics they are as biased as the rest of the MSM).
This one had a great comparison of the low-carb and low-fat diets.
Spoiler alert: they both give, in general, the same results statistically.
However, it is possible even so for an individual to do better with one than with the other.
The two people who lost the most weight had the simplest solution: stay out of the fast food joints.
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/3/13/17054146/diet-isnt-working-why
AesopSpouse and I are doing the Michael Pollan diet:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
I lost 10 pounds this year (AFTER stopping my Pilates classes; go figure!), but have 30 to go to be back where I was in 2010 — and I was 20 pounds overweight then!
Or, as one of the Fridge Magnet Pundits puts it: I’m not overweight; I’m undertall.
Stu, Brian Morgan, I too am an intermittent faster. Most days I consume zero calories for about 16 hours with one fairly light meal and one normal meal during the 8 hour window. I’ve been doing it for about 6 years now and really like it. It didn’t really cause much weight loss for me (but I didn’t have much to lose when I started), but I feel much better. A few days a year I’ll fast for 24 hours, or more. I rarely get hungry. I find glucose is what stimulates my appetite. If I eat something sweet I’m hungry in an hour, so I avoid sweets.
At least the experts in this one are honest enough to admit they don’t know.
So why should i read or believe any of it?
The only lesson i had to learn about metabolism was taught to me by a fitness instructor who had us each bring in our favorite snack. Then he programmed each treadmill to burn off the calories in one ‘serving’… People go jogging, feel virtuous, and treat themselves to a bran muffin that easily contains twice the calories they burned jogging.
A thousand years ago Maimonides quoted even earlier sources that said “eat just 2/3 of your fill” and “more die of overeating than starvation”.
It’s complicated is an understatement. I was pretty thin most of my life and then in my 40’s the weight gain began. I started dieting (Keto, Atkins, intermittent fasting, detoxes, you name it) and working out and running. Trips to the doc have always resulted in tests that show there is no issue with my thyroid or any other issue other than menopause. I lost a lot of weight initially but despite still running and working out with great regularity over the years I cannot seem to lose weight any longer. The last time I lost weight was a few years ago when I was training for a marathon. Since then I gained all weight back and my body seems to want to stay here. I am now 55 and would likely be considered obese despite running 3 to 5 miles 4 days a week with a weight training day thrown in each week. I even worked with a sports nutritionist in an effort to make sure my calorie intake and output were okay. Even she was surprised that I lost just a few pounds and that many of her nutrition suggestions for long training sessions simply made me sick to my stomach so I had to abandon them. Oh well….I still run and enjoy myself. I am hoping to be that old lady who run\walks a 5K when I am 80. 🙂 At least I will still be fit.
ArmyMom,
That sounds very frustrating. I bet you’ll run that 5k when you’re 80!
No doubt different people react differently, and women from men in particular. I’ve had great success with intermittent fasting (along with semi-low-carb). I skip breakfast (black coffee only) and eat mid-day and evening meals. No eating after 8pm, and minimal snacking between meals. Over a period of a few years (mostly within a year or so) I lost 30-35 pounds, and went from pre-diabetic to normal. I was not so heavy to begin with, but I was concerned about the pre-diabetic diagnosis, as my father and paternal grandmother were both diabetic. Also, though my diet includes a lot of eggs and red meat, my cholesterol went down from about 230 to 200, and the “good” HDL went up. I also exercise pretty vigorously almost every day in one form or another (tennis, weights, etc.). As for weight, I’m at the weight I was in high school more than 40 years ago.
Neo:
Check out “The Obesity Code,” by Dr. Jason Fung;
“Why We Get Fat,” by Gary Taubes.
“The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz.
None of these are “diet’ books; the latter two describe how present day dietary recommendations were developed – warts and all.
Fungs book describes how certain food groups impact insulin levels; it is insulin that “directs” the body whether to burn calories or store them as fat.
All of the above authors can be seen on Youtube delivering lectures to various groups.
John Tyler:
I understand you’re trying to help. But why on earth would I want to “check them out” when I’ve already said I’ve tried such diets, they don’t work for me, and they make me feel sick as well?
What is a definition of metabolism?
Every one here seems to think one can control one’s own metabolism, which I find fanciful.
Britannica defines metabolism thus: “Metabolism, the sum of chemical reactions that take place in living cells, providing energy for life processes and the synthesis of cellular material. Living organisms are unique in that they extract energy from their environments via hundreds of coordinated, multistep, enzyme-mediated reactions.”
So metabolism is not simply about weight gain or weight loss, or ideal vs. non-ideal body weight. It is about a great deal more. If you think you can “control” your own metabolism, think again. Think, for example, about your autonomic nervous system, absolutely essential, but it’s autonomic, an auto-pilot that takes care of you whether you’re awake or asleep, and is not up to you to control.
Jimmy, unless you were overweight in High School, and I doubt you were, that’s impressive!
Thanks, Rufus, didn’t mean to brag, but my point was (for Neo) that the intermittent fasting (plus exercise) was the big thing for me. So even if low-carb isn’t good, it’s possible fasting might work. It’s supposedly healthy in its own right, weight loss or no. I don’t even think about eating before 11am any more, or eating 3 meals.
Jimmy:
I already fast most days for between 12 and 14 hours. Not on purpose; it’s just the way it is. Doesn’t help me lose weight. If I fast any longer than that, I get migraines.
So fasting is out as well.
As for three meals – I cannot remember the last time I regularly ate 3 meals a day. Maybe when I was twelve?
Hi Neo it’s been awhile. Mainly I’ve been avoiding anything in the internet getting me pissed off so I’ve kinda avoided your site and Social media. In the mean time I’ve been working on myself instead getting myself back into fighting weight in my 40’s.
For me dieting only helped get me to a certain level.
Instead I started to eat more instead. The trick for me is to eat low calorie dense food, finding all sorts of creative ways to trick my body into feeling full while eating on a caloric deficit.
You might want to check out this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZZrZ4k27cc&t=14s this guys opinion on the 74 year old grandma getting into shape is pretty unique in my opinion.
Then watch more of his video’s particularly the ones categorized as nutrition.
This guy is steadily gaining a following of other youtubers following his diet hacks to eat full meals and still be on caloric deficit.
An example is this girl. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8JUC4wItW2EwpeMkCSyRUw
In my opinion this seems to be the best way moving forward for you to help with weight loss.
Yours truly,
Chang Yee Fong
Chang:
Thanks. I plan to take a look when there’s a lull in the action.