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Old Sun, Aug-01-04, 12:35
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ItsTheWooo ItsTheWooo is offline
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Posts: 4,815
 
Plan: My Own
Stats: 280/118/117.5 Female 5ft 5.25 in
BF:
Progress: 100%
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There might be a slight metabolic advantage to eating fat & protein preferentially to carbs, but in my experience it isn't nearly as high as the figures you're estimating.

I've tracked my metabolic rate over several months, and my metabolism seems to be only average to slightly higher than what you would expect. Living a very sedentary lifestyle, at 135-125 pounds, and a 5'5 female, I burned about 1650 calories daily average (while consuming 1150). Eating maintenance raises this a little bit (100 cals tops), but generally speaking that metabolic rate is pretty average. I was eating like 15/30/55 carb/protein/fat. If I were wasting all this energy I think I would have had a faster metabolism.

Then again, I have lost 150 pounds. All studies say that those who lose that much weight typically have abnormally slow metabolisms afterward - 25% slower due to starvation response. Those of us who were very obese have more fat cells, and in order to become "thin" we have to shrink those fat cells to a size smaller than your average person. Even though we might have an average amount of fat, we have more fat cells so each cell contains relatively less fat in it. Each cell is very much "depleted" of fat and behaves similarly as if the whole individual had low body fat, even if the total amount of fat is adequate relative to "normal" individuals.

So, the fact that I have only a relatively normal metabolism despite the weight loss (rapid at that) might be a credit to low carb. If I were eating a "normal" diet, perhaps my metabolism would be much slower. Who knows.
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