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| Metabolism too slow? Here's what you can do about it. |
There was an interview conducted by Low Carb Friends with Colette Heimowitz in October of 2007. Colette was Vice President for Nutrition Communication and Education with Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. back then. She was basically the spokesperson.
The focus of the interview was on repairing and revving up a damaged metabolism, but Colette's advice is still useful for those who are experiencing a sluggish metabolism today.
If the weight isn't coming off fast enough, here is what you can realistically do about it:
Many of the members of the low-carb community believe that you could damage your metabolism by eating too few calories and/or too little fat, so Colette was asked to speak to the Low Carb Friends community, a low-carb forum, about how to improve a sluggish metabolism.
People want to know how to fix the problem.
Some of the interview is very repetitive because Colette went out of her way to thoroughly answer each question placed by LCF members. And some of it was a bit surprising to me, considering what was being advocated by the low-carb community in those days.
It certainly cleared up a lot of issues for me.
The following are a few of the highlights from that interview that are still useful and appropriate today.
What Revs Up the Metabolism?
When you think metabolism, you might think about the rate at which your body fat is coming off while dieting, but metabolism actually deals with your basic metabolic rate.
Basic metabolic rate is the number of calories you burn if you stay in bed all day. It doesn't take exercise, fidgeting, or the thermogenic value of foods into consideration.
However what you eat and what you do within a 24 hours period can affect your basic metabolic rate. That rate can go up or down depending on a number of variables.
If you ask people following Atkins what to do about speeding up the metabolism, since most of them don't understand what metabolism actually is, they will talk about upping your fats and calories to increase metabolic output.
Obviously, this makes little biological sense, but it is what most low carbers believe: you must eat a lot of fat and calories.
According to Colette, however, it is actually exercise that plays the major role in revving up your metabolism and keeping it going -- with exercise being especially beneficial first thing in the morning.
When you exercise before breakfast, it gets your metabolism fired up and running.
The stress is on physical activity, rather than eating breakfast.
Most low carbers believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day to get your metabolism up and running, but exercise is far more useful in firing up a sluggish metabolism because the more active you are, the more out-of-balance your personal energy equation becomes.
So it works regardless of your age.
More energy used equals more energy needed. However, not all exercise is the same.
- To strengthen the heart you have to do exercises that will speed up the heart rate to 20 beats a minute above your resting heart rate and keep it elevated for awhile.
- To strengthen skeletal muscles you have to have resistance in short, hard bouts. But doing so for more than 50 continuous seconds can tear your muscles.
How Many Calories Do You Need?
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| You don't have to eat everything on your plate |
Calories is a sticky issue within the low-carb community.
Many believe you must eat to your BMR to keep your metabolism functioning at an optimal level.
However, no where in that interview did Colette concede to the idea that you need to eat 10 to 12 times your current body weight in calories to keep the metabolism running smoothly.
This was something that someone within the low-carb community made up.
In Dr. Atkins' books he was never concerned with calories.
While he did admit that calories count, his belief was that counting calories was unnecessary for most people because the state of dietary ketosis naturally controls the appetite.
Dr. Atkins' weight-loss philosophy was to eat until you're satisfied, with satisfaction defined as just enough food to make you not hungry, but not so much food that you feel stuffed.
Counting carbs was all the general public reading his books should be concerned about.
In the real world, that doesn't always work.
But keep in mind that these recommendations were made long before the food industry began playing around with chemicals and additives to make you physically addicted to food.
In private practice, real life would now and then enter into the picture. And BOTH eating too little and/or too much can stall weight loss.
Metabolism, activity, age, genetics, muscle mass, gender, and even the weather and nutritional state you are currently in all play a role in how the body utilizes calories.
So the ultimate reality is that each person needs to find their own calorie level for weight loss.
However, in Colette's opinion, if you are doing Atkins correctly, and have a moderately-active lifestyle, you shouldn't be dipping below 1500 to 1800 calories per day for women and 2000 for men.
But that was an average. Not a rule.
Individual differences in energy requirements must be taken into serious consideration when determining calorie intake; making that 1500 to 2000 calories a day just a STARTING POINT from which to work, and not something set in stone.
There are many people who can't lose weight on that many calories, even with carbohydrate restriction.
This is especially true if you are:
- older
- have a history of yo-yo dieting
- are very short
- or are on medications that interfere with weight loss
The idea is to find the speed of fat loss that is acceptable to you. And you do that by upping or lowering your fat intake.
How Protein Affects Metabolism
In terms of food choices, fats do not increase metabolism. Fat is used to control calories.
If your metabolism is slow, you can increase your metabolic rate by upping your protein intake because protein takes 25 percent of its calories to break it down into amino acids. Oxidizing amino acids increases thermogenesis.
Protein also spares muscle mass, which will help prevent some of the metabolic slow-down you get from going on a diet.
Allergies and Food Sensitivities
If your weight loss has stalled, you might want to be on the lookout for allergies and food sensitivities.
It is allergies and food sensitivities that cause you to stall when eating foods like cheese, nuts, and the chemicals and additives used in processed foods.
Food sensitivities cause inflammation and sometimes histamine release, both of which will drive up stress hormones and cause glycogen to be broken down into glucose and dumped into the bloodstream, regardless of how much glucose is already there.
When glucose is elevated, ketone production and fat mobilization will be put on hold, so while temporarily that isn't a problem, if you're continuously eating things you are sensitive to, it can cause you to stall.
Low Blood Sugar
Colette recommended that if something seems to be wrong with your metabolism, you might want to check out your blood glucose levels.
When you're sensitive to insulin, rather than insulin resistant, you need to select higher carb foods than those who aren't because insulin sensitivity can result in hypoglycemia.
When you're sensitive to insulin, instead of insulin resistant, it doesn't take very much insulin for the body to respond to it, so an overdose of insulin can cause your blood sugar to plunge.
If Induction is too low in carbs for you, you can move to the Ongoing Weight Loss Phase (phase 2) before you complete Phase 1, if needed.
In OWL, Phase 2, there will be higher carb selections available, and those higher carbs might make you feel better.
You do not have to do Atkins Induction if you already have a fast metabolism. You can add an extra serving of veggies (5 grams of carbs for a total of 25 net per day) or an ounce or two of nuts/seeds to slow down the weight loss.
Losing weight too quickly can cause you to feel washed out, lethargic, and dizzy, so it's important to discover your particular carbohydrate tolerance level and get enough calories to support your daily activities.
Eating way below your personal tolerance level or an appropriate calorie deficit can backfire on your weight-loss goals, rather than support them.
Hair Loss and Metabolism
Many people begin to experience hair loss when they go low carb. Colette's answer to the hair loss on Atkins Induction and beyond was especially interesting to me because I always have that problem when going very low carb.
I'm not talking about losing a few extra hairs. My hair literally falls out in fistfuls.
Apparently, Colette believes it is natural to go through periodic episodes of losing hair. This belief coincides with Dr. Eades opinion, as well.
However, in my own experience, if hair loss continues to be an on-going problem beyond a few weeks, then something is definitely wrong.
Something is stressing out the body.
In my own case, the hair loss was tied to Graves' Disease because I already have a fast metabolism. I also lose hair whenever I've been accidentally glutened.
If you're insulin sensitive, rather than insulin resistant, or if your body is trigger-happy when it comes to life preservation, hair loss can result from going too low in carbs.
In that case, you might have to raise your carbs up a bit, maybe 5 to 10 carbs a day, to get the body to stop shedding hair.
Shedding hair is a life-saving adaption that low carb might trigger because hair isn't necessary for survival.
You have to remember that low carb uses the starvation pathway, so for me, I have to eat a minimum of 60 carbs a day or my hair will start falling out again.
I can't do Atkins Induction.
ANY weight-loss regimen can slow your metabolic rate, as the body tries to bring the energy imbalance back into balance, and this includes low-carb diets. But according to Colette, Atkins is the least likely to cause this phenomenon, due to its higher calorie content.
In my experience, this only holds true if your body is content with a very low-carb diet, which will often be the case if you're insulin resistant.
This is why I always stress the idea that low-carb works best for those who are insulin resistant.
If you are NOT insulin resistant, you will have to adapt the Atkins Diet to fit your metabolism.
However, there are also nutrients that are required to keep your hair nice and healthy. If the following nutrients are too low, it can cause hair loss:
- biotin
- N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC)
- glutathione
- and lecithin
Soy's Affect on Metabolism
I also found Colette's comments about soy to be very enlightening.
If a woman with breast cancer is estrogen receptor positive, then she needs to limit her consumption of soy to 2 servings per day.
But if a woman doesn't have cancer already, or if she has cancer but isn't estrogen receptor positive, then soy is encouraged to protect against free radical damage to cells and organs.
If you have hypothyroid problems, you have a sluggish thyroid response, so metabolism will be slower. You should also limit your intake of soy products to 2 servings per day.
Many individuals choose to avoid soy completely, even though soy itself doesn't slow down the thyroid.
What About Gall Bladder Surgery? Can You Do a Lower-Fat Atkins?
I was having gall bladder issues when this interview came out, and eventually had my gall bladder removed, so this part of the interview caught my attention.
The question from Low Carb Friends participants was for those having gone through gall bladder removal:
Is it okay to cut back on your fat intake from the general recommendation of 65% of your calories to a more modest level, say . . . 50%, or even less?
Colette's reply:
You CAN follow a lower fat version of Atkins. No problem. Her recommendations were as follows:
- Just eat fish, poultry, lean meats, low fat cheese and nuts in moderation, and make sure that you get lots of fibrous vegetables to help with the extra bile you have in your digestion.
- Avoid creamy salad dressings, choosing mustard based sauces and/or simple olive oil and vinegar dressings instead.
- Don't fry foods, but use "lean" meats.
- Stay away from processed foods, such as bacon and sausage.
- Supplement your Atkins Diet with 1 tbsp orange-flavored Metamucil daily in a glassful of water to keep things running smoothly.
Can Carb Cycling Boost Metabolism?
Colette didn't think too highly of cycling your carbs, but then, that was no surprise.
The Atkins Diet is based on the idea that you need to find your personalized carbohydrate tolerance level, and then stick to that level for life.
You don't stay at 20 or even 30-net carbs a day, for long periods of time, unless that's the best carbohydrate level for you.
And if you're eating at your best level already, why would you need to bump up Leptin? Especially if bumping up your carbs requires you to go out of ketosis.
In theory, I can see her point.
If you're insulin resistant, loading up on carbs is a recipe for disaster. Carb cycling won't work.
But in reality, most people attempting to follow a low-carb diet today are not insulin resistant. They have decided to go low carb because of the claims of success they have heard online from those who are insulin resistant and not because they are having serious problems eating carbs.
When insulin sensitive people go very low carb for long periods of time, their Leptin levels crash, and they go into starvation mode because the body doesn't function well on very low carbs for an extended period of time -- UNLESS -- you are insulin resistant.
How Long Does it Take for a Sluggish Metabolism to Recover?
The length of time it takes to correct a sluggish metabolism through dietary changes and exercise is basically unknown.
But, Colette recommended that you give your body several MONTHS to recover, at least. This is because dieting is already a strain on the body and comes with adaptions that slow energy usage even more.
The slowing is meant to balance energy coming in with energy used.
You have very little control over what the body chooses to do to save your life.
I can't say this often enough.
Dieting is always perceived by the body as a famine, and its number one purpose is to regain balance, so the best you can hope for is to remove things that are standing in the way of a higher metabolic rate.
Up your activity level. Make sure your caloric deficit isn't too large, and get adequate protein, carbs, and fats.
Avoid foods you're sensitive to and try to stay calm and patient. Getting upset about the number on the bathroom scale only makes the situation worse and leads to unnecessary suffering.
These are things you can DO to improve your metabolic rate, but there are no guarantees. The "how" in the healing process isn't up to you.
Life determines how it will heal your body, if at all.
That's interesting about soy. My mother had estrogen receptor breast cancer and the oncologist, endrocronologist and gynocologist ALL told her NO SOY. It's has natural estrogen and it feeds cancer.
ReplyDeleteI have PCOS and my GYN told me try to avoid ALL soy. Same reason. Estrogen. My hormones are so screwed up and extra estrogen will only "mess with" my systems.