So which is it? page 4

[j3nn]

I wouldn't say all that! Unless, those are your symptoms? Those are just possibilities, not definite answers.

[Ayla2010]

Just slow weight loss then gain when nothing changed

[RichMahogany]

I know this is a lackey question, but I don't really understand how a person can "break" their metabolism?

I understand the process by which it apparently happens, but can a metabolism really be "broken"?

Metabolic syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Ayla2010]

So I weigh 2 kg less than 4 months ago and have been 100% primal in that time.

[Ayla2010]

And when primal oct 11-may 12 didn't lose scale weigh but lost inches but was doing cf 5 days a week then

[Leida]

When I eat less I get really hungry, can't sleep, but I lose fat. When I eat more, I feel great, but gain fat. I have never experienced the miracle of eating more, feeling fantastic and getting firmer, as shown by a couple of classic female weight lifting amateurs on their blogs.

My feeling is that athletic level of leanness (15-20% for females) comes with a competition-style efforts, i.e. continuous improvement and hours per day of training. Starvation is a compensation when I reached my athletic ceiling (which is dastardly low). I would say one needs to eat more and allow for weight gain if the athletic performance improves when food intake increases. If it is still stalling, increased food intake will likely go for the most part into the fat storage and is detrimental.

Unless you simply can't survive on low cal any more as is my current case.

I frankly don't believe starvation mode can be entered by a person who do not have anorexic disorder, as your mind will not over-ride the body impulse to eat when it needs nourishment.

[YogaBare]

Ayla, you mentioned you had a binge eating disorder, but you're also questioning whether your hunger mechanism might be "broken"... Do you think you might have an emotional relationship with food?

Unless you simply can't survive on low cal any more as is my current case.

Same. I am done restricting. I look at my mum and she is one of those classic lean people who religiously ate three meals a day, but would leave food on her plate if she was full. I really believe the key to a healthy body (for me, and possibly for many others) is healing the relationship with food.

Metabolic syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

THAT'S a broken metabolism?! Was thinking it meant something entirely different... cheers RM

[j3nn]

Just slow weight loss then gain when nothing changed

I know you said you don't track calories, but do you use a food scale to measure portions? When I count calories, I also measure/weigh every single thing that has significant calories. A few grams here and there of calorie-dense food can add up quickly!

Not discounting any metabolic problems which may also exist, but just throwing another variable out there.

[RichMahogany]

When I eat less I get really hungry, can't sleep, but I lose fat. When I eat more, I feel great, but gain fat. I have never experienced the miracle of eating more, feeling fantastic and getting firmer, as shown by a couple of classic female weight lifting amateurs on their blogs.

My feeling is that athletic level of leanness (15-20% for females) comes with a competition-style efforts, i.e. continuous improvement and hours per day of training. Starvation is a compensation when I reached my athletic ceiling (which is dastardly low). I would say one needs to eat more and allow for weight gain if the athletic performance improves when food intake increases. If it is still stalling, increased food intake will likely go for the most part into the fat storage and is detrimental.

I thought we were talking about fixing the metabolic machinery, not breaking it. Homeostasis for most women isn't anything like 15% body fat. If you're talking about looking like a competitive bodybuilder, you're not talking about effortless regulation of optimally healthy weight, which I believe is the goal for most people here.

I wasn't always an athlete and I wasn't always primal. I was once skinny-fat with a substantial beer gut. It took me a lot of years of eating like crap to get there and it took me a long time to correct it, but now I am always a week of IF and a couple sprint sessions away from single-digit body fat (I compete in weight-class sports).

I don't think these people are asking how to get shredded, but rather how to live a life where they stay at a healthy, decent , weight without having to stress about it, starve themselves, count the bites of food they put into their mouths and analyze them with a calculator. I remember a post in which Richard Nikoley called such a thing a birthright. I thought the term particularly appropriate.

[Ayla2010]

I used to binge but haven't in months. The freedom from this is indescribable