RMR and Extreme Dieting

Here are a few more carry-over thoughts from my last post. It seems like I am getting a few more readers, thanks!

Let’s discuss metabolism, shall we...

Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is the total number of calories your body burns at rest. This is how much energy you need to blink your eyes, beat your heart, flow blood through your veins, breathe, etc. These are just BASIC body functions. If you were to sit in a chair all day long, this is what you would need JUST to survive. There are several online calculators that you can use to find this number. However, these are calculations and therefore estimates on how much you really burn. If you really want to know for yourself there are assessments where you sit in a dark room and breathe into a mask for 15 to 20 minutes. I used to perform these assessments at Life Time Fitness when I worked there. So, if you have $100, I highly recommend it.

Example:

Last year I was trying to work off the last of my baby weight that I wasn't able to get off because of an injury. So, I used the calculation that I learned in school to caluclate how many calories I needed to lose weight. After adding calories burned in activity I came up with 1500 calories to lose weight. Then, I had my RMR measured at work. The results were 1650 calories, just to sit in a chair. This explained why I had such a hard time eating only 1500 calories. I was always hungry, irratable, and not losing weight because I wasn't even eating enough to beat my heart!

Now that you understand that you need to eat a certain amount of food just to live, let’s discuss what happens when you don’t eat enough.

When you eat below your RMR, your body goes into starvation mode and holds onto excess body fat. If you find yourself working your butt off and eating less but not losing weight – guess what? You may need to eat more. This also explains a plateau. If you have been stuck at the same weight, up your calories. Additionally, this explains the yo-yo dieter…

The Yo-Yo:
You want to lose weight
You starve yourself, go on an extreme diet
Lose a bunch of weight
Get sick of being so extreme
Go off the diet
Gain the weight back
Get depressed
You want to lose weight….

The cycle begins again, but this time the diet you did before doesn’t work the same. Why? You have lowered your RMR so you have to eat less to lose the weight you want. This is one of the main reasons why I am against the hCG diet. You must go significantly below your RMR to lose weight, in turn lowering your metabolism.

Other reasons why I am NOT a fan of hCG:
2. It’s EVERYWHERE! Especially in Utah and that is a shock to me because in a recent obesity report we ranked 44th! Maybe we just care about our weight more?
3. There is no behavior modification. You are told exactly what to eat and some of the food is quite weird. You aren’t taught how to navigate the grocery store or how to fit it into family meals. Also, you CANT eat breakfast! What does that teach?
4. Little ones are watching you. What does it do to an 8 year old little girl when she sees her mom eating so little?
5. What do you do when you are done? What’s your plan? How will you keep the weight off? Will your RMR be affected?

Here is a pretty good article that I found if you want to read more. Hopefully this was helpful information. Let me know what you think!!