Day 27 – Feel The Burn

“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”

~ Lao Tsu

210.4 lbs.

There you have it. 27 days into this crazy starvation and I’m lighter now than when I was 12. Of course, I was a fat 12 year old.

Starving yourself for 100 days (or more, if you’re actually anorexic) carries with it all sorts of health risks. But even recovery can be problematic. I’m being warned by everyone from physicians to people who have “been there, done that” that I can expect it to take years for my metabolism to recover – it’s going to remember the starvation for a long, long time and try to store whatever food I eat when I go back up to a normal caloric intake.

People sometimes blame being overweight on a slow metabolism, but barring periods of genuine starvation triggering such a fat-storage response is there any truth to it? Or is it like someone suddenly becoming “big boned” around the time they start eating McGangBangs?

Metabolism is linked to weight, but not the way most people think it is. Contrary to popular belief, “metabolic enhancer” supplement ads, and the occasional excuse from an over eater, excess weight gain is rarely the fault of a slow metabolism unless you have Cushing’s syndrome or an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism).

Your metabolism responds to your body’s basic energy needs but it’s how much you eat (and drink) and your physical activity level that are the key factors in how much you weigh, as per the formula I mentioned on Day 17.

Metabolism 101

Your metabolism is simply the biochemical process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. Food & drink calories combine with oxygen & release the energy you need to function, even at rest. The calories your body uses to carry out basic stuff like breathing, pumping blood, adjusting hormone levels, and growing & repairing cells is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR) — what people usually mean when they say “metabolism”. This may come as a shock to some, but BMR accounts for 60 – 75% of the calories you burn up in a day.

Your BMR is determined by:

• body size& composition. Bigger or more muscular people burn more calories, even at rest. This is why weight training helps slim you down, unless you ‘reward’ yourself with more food than you need after workouts.
• gender. Men usually have more muscle & less body fat than women of the same age and weight, so they burn more calories. This is why the recommended average caloric intake for men is about 500 Calories more per day.
• age. As you get older you tend to lose muscle and gain fat, slowing down calorie burning.

Your basic energy needs – still BMR – are like the speed of light; fairly consistent and not easily changed. But your body also needs energy for other things, like thermogenesis. This is digesting and absorbing the stuff you eat, and transporting and storing the resulting energy. Thermogenesis uses up about 10% of your daily energy and, like BMR, isn’t easily changed. Physical activity – how long you sit in front of a computer watching the new Batman trailer vs. walking, running, lifting heavy things and putting them down again, playing tennis, having sex, or whatever – make up the rest of your energy use.

Working Against You is really Working For You

So while some blame “metabolism” for fast or long term weight gain, your metabolism is more accurately your body trying to balance things out to meet your individual needs. If you starve yourself as I’m doing, your metabolism slows to a pace a snail would call slow. It’s trying to conserve calories for survival.

While you have almost no control over your BMR or thermogenic calorie burn, you can increase the calories you burn through physical activity. Usually the people we think of as having a “high metabolism” are more active. In general it’s easier for men to burn more calories through exercise than for women (here’s why), but toning or building muscle works well for both. Just avoid the “I’m working out, so I can eat like a horse with a nacho addiction” mentality.

I used to spend a small fortune on thermogenics and other supplements that would supposedly magically “boost my metabolism” to lose weight. The only thing that lost weight was my wallet. Most of those magic pills are more hype than help, and some are even dangerous. Eat less than you need for your energy use, and you’ll lose fat. If you exercise like mad and eat a reasonable amount and still can’t seem to lose weight, talk to your docto

There’s no magical way to lose weight. It comes down to exercise and diet. Take in fewer calories than you burn, and you lose weight. But if you’re worried about your metabolism or you can’t seem to lose excess weight despite diet and exercise, talk to your doctor.