Stop blaming your poor, defenseless metabolism

[jpgray]

Unless you have thyroid problems or another disorder that changes your basal rate. I think this is like how only 4% of cars need higher octane gasoline, yet some 22% believe their cars need it.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=AN00618

Is there any such thing as a slow metabolism?

Yes. But a slow metabolism is uncommon.

Metabolism is the complex biochemical process by which the food you eat is converted into the energy your body needs to function. Carbohydrates, proteins, fats and other nutrients combine with oxygen to release energy. Metabolism also produces heat, carbon dioxide, water and waste products. Your body uses the energy created for muscular activity and for many essential chemical processes. The heat it generates helps maintain body temperature.

Basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy your body uses at rest. This rate is based on calories burned. The number of calories burned depends on how much you exercise and on your body's muscle-to-fat ratio as well as on your BMR. All physical activity, not just strenuous exercise, increases your calorie burn.

The more muscle and the less fat you have, the more calories you burn. That's one reason why experts recommend strength training as a way to build muscle mass. It's also why men — who typically have more lean muscle than women do — tend to lose weight faster and gain it more slowly. Metabolism slows with age. This is most likely due to a loss of muscle mass.

Many people who've had difficulty losing weight blame it on slow metabolism. In fact, only a small number of people burn fewer calories at rest than they should, according to estimates based on their height, weight and age. Because people who weigh more have more muscle as well as fat, overweight people usually have an increased metabolic rate, contrary to popular belief.

Some medical conditions can decrease BMR or alter the muscle-to-fat ratio. These include underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism) and Cushing's syndrome. Your doctor can test for these conditions.

[Susang]

1. Ooooh, you're feisty today!

This thread's going to be interesting. ;-)

While I mostly agree, as a victim of an undiagnosed thyroid condition for five years, sometimes it isn't as simple as this article makes it out to be. Metabolic conditions develop slowly, not showing up in the abnormal range in the bloodwork for years (as was the fact in my case), while symptoms often show up first.

Also, many doctors do not do all the proper tests for metabolic disorders, relying on only the TSH test and not testing Free T4 and Free T3, making thyroid disease one of the most underdiagnosed problems in the US.

~snip~

And even when patients complain of symptoms that could signal a dysfunction in the thyroid, the problem is still being missed, some endocrinologists say.

Thus that butterfly-shaped regulator of metabolic processes presents primary care doctors with a peculiar conundrum. They are well aware of the range of disorders that affect the thyroid, but there is still considerable debate about patients who slip through the cracks. Add to this a growing discord over screening, and this small gland becomes more complicated.

For starters, the slow onset of the vague symptoms that can accompany the most common form of thyroid disease, hypothyroidism, trips up many primary care physicians who are swamped every day with patients who are fatigued, depressed or gaining weight, says Paul Ladenson, MD, professor and director of endocrinology and metabolism at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. He estimates that almost half the people with thyroid dysfunction are not properly diagnosed.

http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/03/01/hlsa0301.htm

[jpgray]

2. Did you have to use "feisty"?

There are so many other words.

:P

[Blue-Jay]

3. Would you prefer "feasty"?

Or "fisty"?

[Susang]

4. Sorry, it was the first one that came to mind

I figured it this thread would get a lot of responses and "feisty" always struck me as a very active adjective. :shrug:

Why, don't you think you're feisty? }(

[Donkeyboy75]

5. I think he's yeasty, not feisty.

[jpgray]

7. If you don't know, consider yourself luckier than Jay and I

But yes, I suppose my feistiness is beyond doubt at this point.

[Susang]

12. I think I agree

feist·y ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fst)
adj. feist·i·er, feist·i·est
1. Touchy; quarrelsome.
2. Full of spirit or pluck; frisky or spunky. See Regional Note at andiron. See Regional Note at feist.


http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=feistiness

[Cadence]

9. I have extremely low body temperature 96.5

as a result of thyroid issues so I started taking coconut oil because it has properties that support thyroid function and metabolism. My body temperature has gone up and I'm feeling a lot better.

Can't I get a WhOO - WhOO for natural medicine?

Raise the roof....Ahh yeah...kitty..kitty!! :D

[redqueen]

20. Wow really?

I take thyroid medicine... just had the dosage upped in fact. I wish I'd have read this before changing dosages. Hmmm....

[Cadence]

23. Research it.

There is a lot of information out there. But if you want to try it and just see for yourself it can't hurt. It also helps to lower bad cholesterol. You can take it in liquid form or there is a company that sells gel caps at Whole Foods. Good luck!

[RandomKoolzip]

17. My metabolism is NOT defenseless!

I eat in self-defense.

[StopTheMorans]

33. in order to address the increasing rates of obesity in our country and

the health problems that come along with increased rates of obesity, I think it is essential to at least have an honest dialogue. Regardless of how the question is framed (it may be a bit harshly worded and I can see where some could take offense to it), I feel that this article contains an honest assessment of the problem, and that SOME overweight people often use the phrase "don't assume you know why someone is fat" or a similar phrase to dismiss all discussions of what could be done to make the US, as a nation, healthier.

[mcscajun]

6. Stop oversimplifying the problems of fat people.

And stop attacking them.

You may well believe that every fat person is hiding behind the excuse of 'slow metabolism'; you may even have heard some say that. The truth is far more varied and far more complex than you imagine.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: There are as many reasons for people to be fat as there are fat people. What works for one may not work for others. No one should judge another's struggle or apparent lack of one. Most intelligent fat people know as much or more about the science and nutrition as you seem to think you do, but the truth does not always set you free, and it is NOT just about 'willpower'. No matter how much you'd like it to be otherwise, or how much you simplify the food/fat equation.

And just what IS it that you feel you have to gain by beating this drum all around DU? Are you a part of the diet industry? Do you have a book out? Or is it just that seeing us around bothers you in some fashion?

I'm getting a bit tired of this.

[scarlet_owl]

11. Thank you mcscajun. Well put.

[auntAgonist]

14. Thanks, I agree with you 100%

I was trying to formulate a response to the thread and you said it so well. Fat person does NOT equal stupid person.

[jpgray]

15. I don't see how this attacks or judges anyone

I don't believe every fat person is hiding behind excuses--I have no way of knowing the reasons behind someone's physical state whatever shape they are in. But I don't like hypocrisy or rejection of science using faith-based reasoning. It just really rankles with me.

[mcscajun]

18. Hmmm...you been taking lessons from Bush?

You don't see how this attacks or judges anyone? And two sentences later you're talking about hypocrisy and rejection of science using faith-based reasoning?

Now you're not only judging our bodies, but judging what you BELIEVE goes on in our heads!?!?

If there's a word that we could use to equate your behavior towards fat people with those of freepers towards DU...I'd be using it right now.

Please just...Go away.

[jpgray]

22. Metabolic rate isn't the major cause of obesity.

I don't know why this should offend you? Nowhere do I claim to know what's going on in anyone's head. But those who blame the 40+% obesity rate in this country on metabolic rate or related problems are seriously deluded. What does that have to do with you?

[mcscajun]

25. It isn't "Metabolic rate isn't the major cause of obesity" that offends me

You do.

Stop blaming your poor, defenseless metabolism Is a pretty inflammatory statement...not designed to do anything but slam fat people.

And you do make claims about what goes on in people's heads ... your own posts prove it.

It will not have escaped anyone's notice that you fail to answer my questions.

[jpgray]

27. Ok. Show me where I do these things.

"you do make claims about what goes on in people's head"

Where? As for this:

"Stop blaming your poor, defenseless metabolism Is a pretty inflammatory statement...not designed to anything but slam fat people."

The metabolic rate simply isn't the cause in the vast majority of obesity cases. Using the gasoline example, if I were to write on that saying "Stop filling your tank with gasoline that's the wrong octane" I doubt I would get replies that tell me I'm bashing people who drive cars.

As for your questions, all you've done is accuse me of being like a freeper and attacking fat people. What were the questions again?

[mcscajun]

30. You really ARE thick...

Your own words:

"But I don't like hypocrisy or rejection of science using faith-based reasoning."

Nobody here mentioned rejecting science...nobody here mentioned faith-based reasoning....Where you got HYPOCRISY from is beyond me. But somehow...this became part of your argument.

"Stop filling your tank with gasoline that's the wrong octane" may cause a discussion, but nobody's going to be offended by the advice or the information. Weight is personal...very, very personal; and unsolicited personal advice, particularly judgmental advice, can be very offensive. "Stop blaming..." is the key phrase here, because it is an unqualified assertive declaration: it implies that a) everyone blames their metabolism for their weight problems, and b) that they SHOULD stop this. Two judgments for the price of one.

And before you shift the argument yet again...I will repeat that you haven't answered ANY of the questions I posed to you. I am not going to answer ANY more of yours.

[jpgray]

37. I would note the only one throwing out insults is you

---Nobody here mentioned rejecting science...nobody here mentioned faith-based reasoning....Where you got HYPOCRISY from is beyond me. But somehow...this became part of your argument.---

Again, what does this have to do with you or anyone else on DU? Here you're taking a general statement and attributing it to yourself or a group of people where no such attribution exists. If there exists a person who blames metabolic rate as the chief cause of the obesity problems of this country, that person is rejecting science and is engaging in wishful thinking. Again, how this gets attributed to all overweight people can only be explained by you, because the words themselves do no such thing.

---"Stop blaming..." is the key phrase here, because it is an unqualified assertive declaration: it implies that a) everyone blames their metabolism for their weight problems, and b) that they SHOULD stop this. Two judgments for the price of one.---

No, it only applies to those people who blame their metabolism for weight gain without any good reason to do so--just as "Stop filling your car with the wrong gas" only refers to those who are engaging in the practice. Why would you assume it applies to those who are choosing the correct gasoline? That doesn't make sense to me. You're reading attacks into these words that don't exist without a good deal of subjective interpretation, and I don't know why.

As for your questions--no, I am not in the diet industry. I think the diet industry has a vested interest in encouraging obesity. I have nothing to gain by bringing this up, in fact I seem to offend a lot of people. Seeing someone who is overweight doesn't bother me, as I used to be overweight myself.

[Droopy]

8. Well I don't know if it's my metabolism or not

But I have a hell of a time losing weight and I have significant muscle mass. I just ate my one meal for the day. It was a foot long sub from Subway. I won't get hungry for the rest of the day. I weigh 250 lbs. I've probably been eating like that for the last 4 years. I was at 280 when I started eating like that. I lost the 30 lbs. in the space of about 3 months. I've been holding steady at 250 ever since.

[kick-ass-bob]

13. It's because you only eat one time a day.

Your metabolism slows because you only eat once - so it saves up to keep energy stored away.

That fits exactly with what you describe. It takes a bit of time before your body adjusts, which is why you lost weight in the beginning.

[Tafiti]

19. You're right about this.

A lot of nutritionists today reject the popular 3 meals-a-day tradition. Now they say you should eat 5 (maybe 6, depending on your activity level) SMALL meals a day. Obviously, they need to be healthy too. That way, your metabolism is constantly at work, burning calories at a more constant and consistent rate.

On edit: you should also eat breakfast everyday - very important. It wakes up your metabolism, so-to-speak.

[kick-ass-bob]

24. Yep. I lost 28 pounds by eating more often

I used to skip breakfast and eat junk food.

Now I eat higher protein stuff about 5-6 times per day.

[Worst Username Ever]

28. Right on.

6 small meals a day for me. Breakfast (small), midmorning snack, light lunch, afternoon snack, medium sized dinner, light bedtime snack. Heavy on the veggies and grains. I have the energy to, literally, train for marathons. Even on the off season I do not gain much weight back at all, because my body is just constantly using what I am constantly giving it.

[scarlet_owl]

10. I, like most fat people, know why I'm fat.

I don't blame it on anything. My fat ass is nobody's business but my own.

[Beaverhausen]

16. Never had a weight problem, have you?

[bobbobbins]

21. I have a super high metabolism, i've never weighed over 150 pounds

I currently weigh 140...for me to put on any weight at all i have to eat 6 full meals a day.

[RandomKoolzip]

26. My wife has hypothyroidism.

She eats like a bird, never snacks, avoids sweets, excercises, but is constantly putting on weight and feels sluggish all day (she has to nap a lot).

I, however, am overweight because I eat too much, and the excercise I do isn't enough to counteract it.

She's a foot shorter than me, but weighs the same as I do.

[Susang]

31. Crazy, ain't it?

When I was under-medicated, my weight went up to about 175lbs, it could have been higher, I just stopped weighing myself at that point.

After I finally received proper thyroid medication, with no change in my diet and exercise regime, I am down to 130. I got lucky, I managed to find a great doctor who actually listens to my symptoms and takes them seriously instead of dismissing them as psychological.

[RandomKoolzip]

34. Yeah....we're aliving example of jpgray's point.

SHE has hypothyroidism, *I* overeat. One has an excuse, the other doesn't.

Anyway, she's on sythroid and cytomel, but continues to put on pounds. I've been begging her to go to doctors, but the cost of health care's so goddamned prohibitive, we'd be paying it off for months for just one visit. I think she may need to up her dosage.

And I need to start doing sit-ups and lay off the frozen pizzas.

[Susang]

42. Sounds like she's not at the correct level

Health care costs do suck, especially tests. Has she ever taken Armour thyroid instead of the two synthentics? For some reason, women seem to do better on it and it's significantly cheaper.

The only problem I had with the initial article posted was that the level of metabolic disorders is seriously underreported (as I referenced the article I posted ;-)). For whatever reason, thryoid disease seems to be increasing, particularly in women, probably because we are living so much longer than previous generations, the rate appears to be close to 10% of the population now, mostly undiagnosed or undertreated.

[Left Is Write]

36. My husband has had thyroid problems for years.

In 1999, while I was pregnant with our daughter, he developed some pretty scary symptoms - weight was falling off of him, his hair was falling out, he had the shakes, difficulty with coordination, and he started getting panic attacks.

His mother suggested that this was all caused by stress - the stress of being the breadwinner in a family that was about to add another member - and I was left feeling guilty, like it was somehow MY fault my husband was sick.

My mother suggested he get his thyroid checked. Bingo! He had pretty severe hyperthyroidism. He had dropped fifty pounds in a matter of a few weeks. He had to be eased into medication, gradually changing the dosage until he was somewhat stabilized. Then he had radio-iodine treatment to zap his thyroid. After that, he went hypothyroid while they tried to figure out the right dose of Synthroid for him. He put the fifty pounds back on, and then some. They finally got his medication at a decent dosage about 10 months after the radio-iodine treatment, and he lost about twenty pounds. He does have difficulty with his weight, and he has to work out much harder than I do to lose weight. I don't know if the Synthroid dose will ever be exactly right.

[MsAnthropy]

29. Geez, first the thread telling us to eat less and exercise and now this

They just can't leave us alone with our delusions! :-)

[dean_dem]

32. Okay, it's not just metabolism...

...there's been a lot of research just this past year actually that has proven genetic predispositions in some people not necessarily for obesity, but for certain people's bodies to accumulate fat more quickly than others. It was in Discover magazine past few months, I've been trying to log in to get the article online, but no luck.

So what's your point, though? Is this just more of the same "All fat people are just lazy" sentiment that's been floating around DU so much lately, or am I missing something?

[jpgray]

35. More of a "sometimes personal choices are actually to blame" sentiment

I suppose if you read that as "all fat people are just lazy" it's easier to villify and reject. But I have yet to see a single post that actually argues the case that all fat people are lazy. I would never assume that I know the reasons someone is overweight, nor will I judge anyone for being that way.

[dean_dem]

39. Good, I was mistaken.

That's fair enough, personal choices do play a role sometimes, I can acknowledge that. I just think too many people seem to lose sight of the fact that you can be thin and still have abominable eating habits as well, thus making the same poor personal choices so many assume overweight people are making. Then it becomes a matter of them just looking different, not a concern for their well-being.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

41. I have to agree.

I have never read a post here that has ever said or insinuated that all fat people are lazy. Most posts that I read on DU are very supportive and defensive of overweight people.

[dean_dem]

52. I wouldn't say I have seen posts actually attacking overweight people...

...on DU, but some peope have taken a pretty condescending attitude about it. Getting a pat on the head and saying "exercise and eat less" isn't going to fix anything. My point is that there are plenty of skinny people who eat like shit, smoke, and don't exercise. That's just as bad as overweight people who do it, but at least the skinny people don't have to get judged for it constantly.

[Bertha Venation]

38. Whom are you addressing?

Whom are you addressing? I want to know. Thanks.

[jpgray]

40. Those who blame metabolism for weight gain without good reason to (nt)

[Bertha Venation]

43. Thanks.

Who are they?

[jpgray]

45. As the Mayo clinic link notes

A very common misconception is that obesity is due to a slower metabolism. The same thing is true the other way--people assume a skinny person has a faster metabolism, when that isn't necessarily the case. In fact, the opposite can be true in that case because the person may have much lower muscle mass--a female supermodel of the waif stripe for example probably has a slow metabolism as a result of her eating/exercise habits.

[Bertha Venation]

50. That's not really what I asked.

I'll be more specific:

What prompted you to post this information on a message board where "fat flame wars" are known to rage?

[Bunny]

44. And who determines if their reason is good enough? You? n/t

[jpgray]

47. No--people can judge that for themselves (nt)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

46. honestly why do you care if people blame their metabolism?

its not like their metabolism has feelings of their own

[northzax]

48. excuse me? it is completely the fault of my metabolism

that Icannot eat two quarts of ice cream a day while lounging around the house watching teevee and still fit into my 48 inch muumuu. I resent your implication that my 5,000 calorie a day diet has anything to do with my 500 pound frame.

you have no sensitivity towards fat people, you bigot.

[DemExpat]

49. It is the title of this thread which implies widespread (!) blame

of anybody with a weight problem ....

"Stop blaming your poor, defenseless metabolism"

instead of the article's title:

"Slow metabolism: Is there any such thing?"

Totally different effect on the reader.

IMO

:hi:

DemEx

[mcscajun]

53. You got to the point precisely!

:)

Well done.

[Shakespeare]

51. Sorry, it's more complex than that. AND you don't mention another factor.

It's not simply "metabolism." It can be the thyroid, the pituitary, adrenals or a combination of the above. I have polycystic ovary syndrome, for which one of the complications/side effects IS weight gain (because it wreaks havoc with a number of hormones in a woman's body). I'm able to keep my weight in check, but only with herculean effort, and it's a pretty miserable situation. I can't eat ANYTHING without pausing to think about how I'm going to combat what it does to my body. For a foodie like me, that's pretty much a living hell. And a lot of women who have this syndrome--and doctors think as many as 10% of women do have it--just can't keep their weight off, even though they exercise and watch what they eat.

So, it's not just a matter of blaming it on your metabolism. I agree with part of your premise that too many people make excuses for their weight, but it's not as simple as you suggest.

The other factor you don't mention that mainstream medicine is only just now starting to take a serious look at is high fructose corn syrup. It's cheaper than cane sugar, so HFCS or variations of it are in almost every processed food product out there. There's strong evidence that HFCS does nasty things to a body's adrenal system, and may go a long way in explaining the sharp rise in obesity, as well as related problems like diabetes. If you look at a timeline of when HFCS began to be used on a massive scale and when obesity rates and diabetes saw spikes, there's an almost perfect overlap. I know (in part because of what I see at my job at a law firm) that internally, many food companies are running scared over this right now, and researching both their legal liability for using the product, as well as initiating their own internal studies to determine if HFCS is really that bad (and it IS that bad).

Don't put crap into your body--watch labels closely for processed corn byproducts. Who knows if the damage from HFCS is even reversible at this point? But watch for it, because you're going to see it getting more and more attention in the next few years.