2,290kcal/day Resting Metabolic Rate after losing 46lbs

Weight loss doesn't have to slow down your metabolism if you do it right

tl;dr:

• It is commonly assumed that rapid weight loss will “lower one’s metabolism”

• Not the case for me: I just lost 46lbs in 5 months yet my metabolic rate is normal

• How you lose the weight seems to matter

• Don’t restrict your energy intake, don’t force output via overexercising

• Then your metabolism will be fine

After 30 weeks of restricting calories and intense exercise, participants of The Biggest Loser wrecked their metabolisms

It is commonly assumed that substantial weight loss lowers the body’s metabolic rate. An infamous study done on the participants of the TV show The Biggest Loser showed that some of the winners had reduced their metabolic rates so dramatically that, years later, they could not eat more than 800kcal/day or they would gain fat.

One recommendation you hear a lot in response to this is that “rapid fat loss” is what caused the slowdown in metabolism, and you should instead aim for “slow and steady” weight loss.

This just isn’t true. It’s perfectly fine to achieve rapid fat loss, and you can do it without reducing your metabolism to a crawl. It’s just that the poor people who joined that show were given bad advice.

After losing 46lbs eating mostly saturated fat, my metabolism is perfectly normal

I am pleased to announce that I got my Resting Metabolic Rate tested recently and it came out at 1% lower than predicted for my height and weight (6’1, ~245lbs, male) at 2,290kcal/day or basically “totally normal” (within 10% of the prediction is considered normal). And that hot on the tails of losing almost 50lbs. In fact, I haven’t even stopped the diet, I’m currently on it!

Why didn’t I dramatically reduce my metabolic function despite losing a lot of weight very rapidly? I suspect that it is because I lost the weight “right” and not “wrong.” I never starved myself, I never “reduced calories” and never tried to induce a caloric deficit any other way like overexercising.

The Biggest Loser studies show that even when “eating less” and “exercising more” works, it doesn’t really “work.” Yes, with enough pressure, coaches, extreme interventions, and being on national television, you can beat your body into submission - for a while. But something’s got to give. And you end up ruining your metabolism.

Now I am actually not convinced that these Biggest Loser participants have indefinitely ruined their metabolisms. I bet if you put them on an ad-libitum high-saturated fat, no-sugar, no-PUFA diet, while they might gain a bunch of weight, their metabolic rates would spring back within weeks or months. Then, they could begin to REALLY lose that weight in a way that is sustainable.

I have some personal experience with this: way back in the day before I discovered keto, I went on a 1,000kcal/day OMAD diet of mostly white rice with a little bit of chicken (for protein) and butter (for fats) and some vegetables. First I lost a few pounds.

Then I plateaued for 2 months straight. No weight loss whatsoever on 1,000kcal/day. With somebody who should be burning ~2,300kcal/day according to the RMR.

My metabolism had slowed down as much as it could in response to the relative starvation I was putting it in, and it was conserving energy.

Luckily, I tried keto a little while later, and had much more success on that. Say what you want about keto, but it is not starvation.

I am a fat burning machine

The RMR test also said I burn 22.8% carbs and 77.2% fat, which seems to match a diet made up of 88% fat by calories.

Presumably a lot of those carbs are created by gluconeogenesis because I really don’t eat that many. 22.8% of my daily energy requirements (estimated by the test at 3,200kcal) would imply burning 182g of carbs per day. I eat <30g carbs most days. My body must generate the other 150g/day on its own.

And how do ketones fit in here? Would they be counted as carbs? Fat? Neither? I seem to maintain 1.5-3.0mmol/L of ketones (by blood prick test) most days on ex150.

If you don’t want to wreck your metabolism, don’t starve yourself

The takeaway is that even if starving yourself works, it doesn’t work. Same for super intense exercise. That might get you from 15% to that six pack, but you won’t go from obese to healthy weight and stay there.

You have to fix your metabolism and its feedback system, and the way I’m currently losing weight seems to be working without reducing my metabolic rate at all.

In case you haven’t read some of my other posts, I’ll freely admit that I currently do not know why my diet works. That’s why this is called “Experimental Fat Loss” and not “The Eat Cream & Butter Diet”. I have created a page listing my working hypotheses.

But give heavy cream and butter a try.