Does Decreased Intake & Calories Cause a Slower Metabolism?

[Sooner 0]

Hi All,

I will be having my banding done on October 7th (Yeahhhh!). :thumbup:

During the many times I was on Weight Watchers, the leaders shared that decreased calorie intake over time leads to a decreased metabolism rate as the body's response to "starvation". They recommended eating more for a short time and, of course, an increase in exercise.

Have any of you bandsters noted this to be a problem? If so, were you able to overcome it?

[MistyD65 1]

I've been on soft foods for almost 5 weeks now. I am supposed to be getting between 1000-1200 calories a day, but for the first couple of weeks was only getting 700-900. My weight loss slowed to a crawl, lucky to lose a pound a week. Lately, I've been more consistent in getting over 1000 a day, and in the couple of weeks that I've been doing so, I've lost 3 pounds each week. I do think that my body was holding tight to everything it could get when I was eating under 1000 calories. I had the same experience when I was on the Points program at Weight Watchers about 10 years ago (when it first came out). I lost more weight when I would eat at the high end of the Points range.

So yes, I do think it can be a problem if you are not eating enough each day. My nutritionist recommends 1000-1200 calories a day, or 1200-1400 depending on activity level.

[Jachut 487]

That just goes to show how much some WW leaders know. Honestly, the kind of advice people supposedly "in the know" like WW leaders, gym instructors and personal trainers give is sometimes very much a layman's point of view and quite misleading.

Many people here would easily know as much about fitness and nutrition as the experts we seem to feel compelled to pay to tell us what we already know, and then tell us some completely untrue facts to boot!

Moderate calorie reduction when you were previously stuffing down ten times more than you needed is not starvation and your body is not likely to respond like it is being starved either. You can take in completely adequate calories and nutrition and still lose weight.

What happens is that as your body weighs less it needs less calories to fuel and maintain it. No matter what you do exercise wise, although keeping up your body's muscle is great and you should do cardio and strength training to fuel a good healthy metabolism, but still, no matter what, a body that weighs 100lb less is going to require far less calories than it once did.

So you will not be able to eat as much as you once did and get away with it. That is not a slower metabolism though, that is just that you dont need that many calories.

Now eating under 1000 is getting chancy though, that really is eating very little. But it seems to be what some people have to do, and those are probably people that had slow metabolisms in the FIRST place, not people who have killed their metabolisms by dieting or whatever. We all know people who appear to become and stay very fat on quite normal amounts of food.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Jachut

[MacMadame 81]

I was just going to post what Jachut did. I think this whole "starvation mode" thing is one more "dieting industry" myth, like the one about only absorbing 30 g of Protein at a time.

I think places like WW say to eat that much because they don't want people doing stupid things on their watch and getting sick and suing them. They pick an amount that most people will lose on but you'll still get adequate nutrition even if you don't take your Vitamins or eat mostly junk food.

Also, advice given to people who are dieting but haven't had WLS often doesn't apply to us. When your body is getting the full signal on much less food, it cuts out a lot of the tricks your body does to regular dieters who are hungry all the time.

The big thing is that you have to keep moving. Eat enough that you aren't tired and can do your exercising and you will be fine, even on less than 1000 calories day. After all, the other WLS won't *let* you eat 1000 calories a day for the first couple of months. The remaining tummy is much too swollen. Yet those guys lose just fine. They lose faster than bandsters on average. If there really was a 'starvation mode', their weight loss would slow way down and they'd lose the same as someone on a 1200 calories a day diet... but they don't.

Edited October 1, 2008 by MacMadame