Nutrition fail or slow metabolism, how do I know?

I've been logging for 75 days, keeping my nutrition at 30% carbs, 40% fat, 30% protein for most of that time except for a cheat day once a week where it's more like 50% carbs.

I have a Fitbit that measures my heartrate and ensures that I'm leaving between a 300-600 calorie deficit everyday. Working out 4-5x a week.

I have gained a bit of muscle, and lost 0 pounds, despite the large calorie deficit.

How do I know if my metabolism just sucks, or if I'm not doing nutrition correctly? And if my metabolism does indeed suck, is weight lifting and protein and patience my best option? Thank you in advance for any wisdom!

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Same has happened to me. Is your body looking better, though? With my body, I have noticed that the clothes fit differently before it ever shows up on the scale. Weird, right?

It's hard to comment on this without knowing your specific goals and statistics. I'm assuming by the title of your post that you are trying to lose weight. If that is the case, your success will be largely dependent upon sustaining a calorie deficit over time. While I agree that ensuring your macros are on target is important, it is secondary to calories in vs. calories out if your primary focus is weight loss.

Also, if you're not already, make sure you are correctly weighing and logging everything you consume so that you have accurate data to assess whether it is truly a metabolic issue or whether you are just consuming more calories than you're burning.

Good luck!

Before jumping on the slow metabolism train, eliminate the other probabilities. First, tracking your intake. THere's a wonderful post that is stickied about tracking accurately. You will want to weigh everything you consume, except for liquids, which you could measure with an actual measuring cup. After you have weighed your food, you will want to choose the proper entry. Do you have any idea how many entries there are for chicken breast? Look at the nutrition information for the product YOU have and choose the entry that matches it (or scan it using the barcode scanner, but if you do this, make sure the info that pops up matches). If you are logging meats, it's best to use the pre-cooked weight as what's lost is usually water, not calories.

After you have accounted for the intake side, you have to look at the output side. So you have a fitbit HRM? If so, be aware that heart rate is not actually indicative of caloric burn. In general, for some activities, there is a correlation between a higher heart rate and higher caloric burn, but not always. If you are out of shape or if it's hot outside or if your heartrate runs higher on average, your burn totals will be off. You might be better tracking your activities through MFP and allowing the negative calorie adjustment from Fitbit for a while. See if it makes a difference in calories allowed. Also, be aware that BMR and TDEE calculators are less accurate if you are more overweight as often the fat % is underestimated. If you know your body fat %, find a calculator that uses body fat % + all of the other factors to calculate BMR and TDEE and see if it matches.

Your macro %s don't really matter that much, it's more the accuracy of tracking what you are consuming. If you have a cheat day/meal, track it completely to the best of your ability. Some people get very surprised at how quickly it adds up. If it's at a restaurant it's even harder to be accurate because NI isn't always available. In those cases, it's best to track individual components. Don't forget to track any calories you consume from beverages and small bites throughout the day.

After you have tracked completley for at least a month, see if you are still having issues. If you are, then it may be time to drop your calorie goal down a bit or see a doctor.

Blood tests can be done to check your thyroid...

I have this issue! Are you on any medication? Have you been eating a large calorie deficit long term?
I'm on a drug called quitiapine which slows metabolism and has proven to make previously skinny people retain belly fat.
Also where i restricted my diet to between 1000-1500 cals a day for 2 years and had frequent binges as a result, I now have messed up my metabolism further as well as caused myself gut ulcers and IBS!
If there's is a chance either of this things could be responsible speak to your doctor and most of all- DO NOT give up

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

Chewitz wrote: »

Blood tests can be done to check your thyroid...

Thanks all! Very helpful replies. So, the thing is, I've always weighed a lot more than I look. To give you an idea, when I was in top shape about 5 years ago, my measurements were 34', 24', 34' at 5 foot 3 and 145 lbs. Back when it was fun to tell people my weight and watch them stare in disbelief.

Now, after college and times of not working out, I'm looking to lose 10-15 lbs of bodyfat. Problem is, whenever I begin working out harder, I gain weight. Probably muscle, since my deficit is ALWAYS on track to lose at least a pound a week.

I have had my thyroid tested, and it's lower than average, but not low enough that the doctor wanted to do anything about it. So I guess new question... what are some methods of naturally improving thyroid function?

christianneworksout wrote: »

I have this issue! Are you on any medication? Have you been eating a large calorie deficit long term?
I'm on a drug called quitiapine which slows metabolism and has proven to make previously skinny people retain belly fat.
Also where i restricted my diet to between 1000-1500 cals a day for 2 years and had frequent binges as a result, I now have messed up my metabolism further as well as caused myself gut ulcers and IBS!
If there's is a chance either of this things could be responsible speak to your doctor and most of all- DO NOT give up

No medication, but I've never had a big appetite. In fact, once I started using MFP, it took some effort to consume the minimum calories.

yarwell wrote: »

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

5'3, varying between 168-173 depending on the day. Consuming minimum 1500, burning 2300. But as weird_me2 mentioned, perhaps I am not actually burning as many calories as all my calculations make me think I am.

How is your logging? Can you open your diary? Before you start messing with home thyroid treatments, rule out the usual suspects. Most of the time when people aren't losing, it's a tracking issue, either underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out.

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/tsh-why-its-useless/

Spheee wrote: »

http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/tsh-why-its-useless/

Thank you! I'll peruse that site thoroughly. I have 2 aunts with hypothyroidism and my grandpa recently had a bit of thyroid cancer so...worth paying attention to.

weird_me2 wrote: »

How is your logging? Can you open your diary? Before you start messing with home thyroid treatments, rule out the usual suspects. Most of the time when people aren't losing, it's a tracking issue, either underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out.

I think you're probably right. My heart rate runs a little high, so it's very possible I'm getting overestimates on exercise burning. I'm very afraid of eating too little and truly mucking up my metabolism, though.

Can you open your diary or do a screenshot of a few days? Maybe we can point out anything that is glaringly obvious. Also, what's a cheat meal to you? How often do you eat out, even if it's on plan? It's tempting to look for factors that are out of our control to blame when we have problems, but it's often not the case.

car0lineeeee wrote: »

yarwell wrote: »

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

5'3, varying between 168-173 depending on the day. Consuming minimum 1500, burning 2300. But as weird_me2 mentioned, perhaps I am not actually burning as many calories as all my calculations make me think I am.

What are you doing to burn 2300 calories per day? How are you determining that burn?

Are you weighing solid foods and measuring liquids?

brianpperkins wrote: »

car0lineeeee wrote: »

yarwell wrote: »

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

5'3, varying between 168-173 depending on the day. Consuming minimum 1500, burning 2300. But as weird_me2 mentioned, perhaps I am not actually burning as many calories as all my calculations make me think I am.

What are you doing to burn 2300 calories per day? How are you determining that burn?

Are you weighing solid foods and measuring liquids?

Not weighing foods. Was hoping just paying attention to nutrition/portions would be sufficient. I have a standing desk, I take walks at work, I swim (a mile at least, or an hour, whichever comes first), weight-lift, and do bouts of intense cardio on elliptical/bike/rowing machine. I am exercising at least 5 hours per week. Is that not enough? I'm determining calories burned from the calculations used with Fitbit Surge HR. I also hike on weekends which (according to my fitbit) burns a bunch of calories.

car0lineeeee wrote: »

brianpperkins wrote: »

car0lineeeee wrote: »

yarwell wrote: »

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

5'3, varying between 168-173 depending on the day. Consuming minimum 1500, burning 2300. But as weird_me2 mentioned, perhaps I am not actually burning as many calories as all my calculations make me think I am.

What are you doing to burn 2300 calories per day? How are you determining that burn?

Are you weighing solid foods and measuring liquids?

Not weighing foods. Was hoping just paying attention to nutrition/portions would be sufficient. I have a standing desk, I take walks at work, I swim (a mile at least, or an hour, whichever comes first), weight-lift, and do bouts of intense cardio on elliptical/bike/rowing machine. I am exercising at least 5 hours per week. Is that not enough? I'm determining calories burned from the calculations used with Fitbit Surge HR. I also hike on weekends which (according to my fitbit) burns a bunch of calories.

Weighing foods is where it is at! Sorry to say. If you aren't losing and you aren't weighing, the easiest way to start losing would be to weigh. You are probably consuming 50-100% more calories than you think. If you really don't want to weigh you can also start reducing your calorie goal (you are unlikely to be getting too low, since we can gather than you are underestimating).

Good luck!

car0lineeeee wrote: »

brianpperkins wrote: »

car0lineeeee wrote: »

yarwell wrote: »

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

5'3, varying between 168-173 depending on the day. Consuming minimum 1500, burning 2300. But as weird_me2 mentioned, perhaps I am not actually burning as many calories as all my calculations make me think I am.

What are you doing to burn 2300 calories per day? How are you determining that burn?

Are you weighing solid foods and measuring liquids?

Not weighing foods. Was hoping just paying attention to nutrition/portions would be sufficient. I have a standing desk, I take walks at work, I swim, weight-lift, and do bouts of intense cardio on elliptical/bike/rowing machine. I'm determining calories burned from the calculations used with Fitbit Surge HR. I also hike on weekends which (according to my fitbit) burns a bunch of calories.

Okay, then I'm going to go with an error in measuring calories in and calories out. For intense bursts of cardio, like HIIT, heart rate is not going to be accurate. If your heartrate runs high, then just walking at 2 mph could put your heart rate at higher than normal which could translate into an artificially high burn. It sounds like you are fairly active, so I would use a TDEE calculator and disallow the Fitbit adjustments for now. For the food, obviously you are going to need to have better measurements before you can really know what you are eating. It's very easy to eat 400 calories worth of salad dressing or peanut butter or cheese if you aren't accurately measuring it. Sure, portion control is good, but how you measure those portions can be important. From past experience, I have noticed that when I am very active, I am hungrier and the calories add up quickly when you aren't controlling them.

weird_me2 wrote: »

Can you open your diary or do a screenshot of a few days? Maybe we can point out anything that is glaringly obvious. Also, what's a cheat meal to you? How often do you eat out, even if it's on plan? It's tempting to look for factors that are out of our control to blame when we have problems, but it's often not the case.

Honestly I don't know how to do that! But I can try! Cheat meal = beer.

girlviernes wrote: »

car0lineeeee wrote: »

brianpperkins wrote: »

car0lineeeee wrote: »

yarwell wrote: »

Height, weight, current food intake cals/day ? It's fairly unlikely your resting metabolic rate is below 1200 cals/day.

5'3, varying between 168-173 depending on the day. Consuming minimum 1500, burning 2300. But as weird_me2 mentioned, perhaps I am not actually burning as many calories as all my calculations make me think I am.

What are you doing to burn 2300 calories per day? How are you determining that burn?

Are you weighing solid foods and measuring liquids?

Not weighing foods. Was hoping just paying attention to nutrition/portions would be sufficient. I have a standing desk, I take walks at work, I swim (a mile at least, or an hour, whichever comes first), weight-lift, and do bouts of intense cardio on elliptical/bike/rowing machine. I am exercising at least 5 hours per week. Is that not enough? I'm determining calories burned from the calculations used with Fitbit Surge HR. I also hike on weekends which (according to my fitbit) burns a bunch of calories.

Weighing foods is where it is at! Sorry to say. If you aren't losing and you aren't weighing, the easiest way to start losing would be to weigh. You are probably consuming 50-100% more calories than you think. If you really don't want to weigh you can also start reducing your calorie goal (you are unlikely to be getting too low, since we can gather than you are underestimating).

Good luck!

Ok. Just buy a food scale?

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