#anareksic
“Did you have breakfast this morning?”
“Yeah”
My breakfast:
No because the fact that some of yall believed taking a cold shower would burn 100 calories…
I can’t with the misinformation being spread here
Ed culture is either being overhydrated or dehydrated
Everytime I think I’ve made ANY progress I go on tumblr and then cry
Many interactions today so I’ll list them
1. My sister said “I’m actually beginning to think you have an ed rn”
2. My dad ranted to me (for like the trillionth time) that what I’m doing is wrong and I’m hurting my body and I’ll end up in hospital
3. My mom was shocked abt all the weight I lost
4. My sister thought I was sucking in my stomach but I was relaxed (same w/ my mom)
Hectic day tbh
I wanna walk into school feeling like a badass since I lost all my weight since last time school was properly open
Like I’ve already lost 5 kgs, pls just let me lose another (AT LEAST) 5 to get me down to 50
I’m working out and restricting, every. single. day.
Where are the results I was told I should get???
Remember when calories were a silly number on the packaging of food alongside some other random numbers
I’m so desperate to lose weight like I can’t live like this
It’s pushing me to the edge at this point
Let’s Learn About Our Metabolism!
Recently I haven’t been able to stop worrying about the dreaded “starvation mode”, and that I wasn’t doing enough to speed my metabolism up… So I looked into it, and I learned a lot of very interesting things! Mainly that a lot of the things I thought I knew about my metabolism was completely backwards, so let’s talk about it! :)
NOTE: I AM NOT AN EXPERT! I just did some basic research and want to share what I found.
As always, all sources used are at the bottom of the post.
So,, what even IS my metabolism?
The word metabolism refers to the chemical processes that go on continuously inside the body in order to to keep you alive and maintain homeostasis. This takes energy to do, which is measured in kilojoules (kJ)
These chemical processes can broadly be divided into 2 groups: catabolism (breaking down food), and anabolism (building repairing our body).
So again: “metabolism” is not a SPECIFIC chemical process, but rather the term we use when talking about ALL of the chemical processes your body uses to keep you alive.
Wait but now I’m confused… I thought my metabolism is what controlled how fast I burn what I eat??
It is! It’s just a bit more complicated. Your body turns food into energy, and uses that energy to function. Any extra energy the body takes in is stored (mostly as fat). Your body’s metabolic rate (or total energy expenditure) is divided into 3 parts:
Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
This is the energy you use to keep all the body’s systems functioning correctly (including breathing, keeping your heart beating, adjusting hormone levels, and growing/repairing cells)
Your BMR accounts for 50-80% of your body’s daily energy usage, and seems to be what people are usually referring to when they talk about “speeding up” or “slowing down your metabolism”
Thermogenesis (Thermic effect of food)
This is the energy your body uses to digest food and drink, and to absorb, transport, and store nutrients.
Thermogenesis accounts for 5-10% of your body’s daily energy expenditure.
Energy used during physical activity
This refers to energy used by physical activity. this includes planned exercise like biking, running, walking, swimming, etc; and all incidental activity like moving from room to room and even fidgeting!
This one really varies from person to person, but for a person who has about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day, physical activity accounts for about 20% of daily energy use.
So basically, a lot of people use the term “metabolism” when they are talking about how many calories their body burns just living when they should really be using the term “BMR”.
And when people say things like “the daily recommended calories for an average adult is 2,000” they are saying that the average person’s metabolic rate uses about 2,000 calories worth of energy a day! that’s kinda crazy, right?
Ok cool, so can the “speed” of my Metabolic Rate change?
Yes! Kinda.
You see, Thermogenesis is out of your control, and your BMR can kinda be affected by different things you can do, but as far as I know the changes are not significant. And you can increase your physical activity to burn up more calories to, but I get the feeling you guys know that ;)
Your BMR is the only one of these that is both in your control, and not. It’s calculated using your sex, age, hight, and weight; but is affected by things like starving (decrease in up to 15%), caffeine (small increase), and even the temp of your environment.
Unfortunately, there is no magic thing we can do to just make our bodies use significantly more calories for our BMR. We CAN try to maximise our BMR by doing strength training (muscle requires way more energy to maintain than fat), and by “high restricting” or planning some high calorie days to help prevent your BMR from slowing due to lack of food!
A quick note for my fellow nonbinary and trans peeps: There is plenty of research out there that shows that your “biological sex” matters less than your “hormonal sex” when calculating your BMR. this is because most BMR calculations look for lean body mass vs fat cause they require different amounts of energy to maintain, and women are more likely to have more body fat (there are many reasons for this, but I won’t be going into it today).
So you can do a couple of things:
1) If you have not taking hormones, then you can calculate using your AGAB (assigned gender at birth)
2) If you ARE taking hormones, or are “fully transitioned” then you could calculate using “male” if your taking T, and “female” if you are taking E. If your microdosing or your transition is incomplete then you could calculate twice (once with male, and once with female) and average the 2 numbers
3) You could look for calculators that DONT include the gender question! they exist! The Katch-McArdle Formula for calculating your BMR does not have the gender question.
That was a lot, can you summarize it?
Absolutely!
TLDR: “metabolism” is an umbrella term for “everything your body does that requires energy.
Your metabolic rate (aka how much energy your body uses) is determined by 3 parts: thermogenesis, BMR, and physical activity.
Thermogenesis is out of your control
BMR is affected by your actions to an extent, but you can’t "speed it up” to use more calories. It can be slowed down if your body feels it needs to conserve energy because you aren’t eating enough, an it can slow down by 15%
Physical activity is totally in your control (for abled body people anyway, I know physical activity is different for everyone). The more you move, the more energy your body uses, and the more calories your burn
As always, I love you all, drink some water, and stay safe <3
-dismal
Sources (I encourage you all to read as they go more in-depth and are easy reads)
Metabolism and weight loss - Mayo Clinic
Can you boost your metabolism? - Medlineplus.org
Nutritional needs, transfolk and biological sex - old blog post
Gdybyś się wtedy nie poddała byłabyś już chuda.
Będziesz się głodziła i robiła wszystko co w Twojej mocy, aby wyglądać coraz szczuplej.
Najlepsze uczucie?
Kiedy zaczynasz dietę i nie możesz się doczekać końca aby zobaczyć te mniejsze liczby na wadze. Kiedy widzisz, że stajesz się coraz szczuplejsza. Kiedy nie czujesz nic zalegającego w brzuchu- tylko pustkę.Kiedy dieta daje ci radość i zabawę. Kiedy słyszysz jak nie schudłaś.
Chcesz to poczuć? To zacznij w końcu robić coś ze sobą!
Na początku będą pytać, po co to robisz. Później będą pytać, jak to zrobiłaś.
When you exercised for an hour and 45 minutes, ate approx. 930 calories and now don’t feel hungry at 12am. Suspicious.
The voice in my head says I probably forget to log some high calorie food and I’m so anxious
I’m back bitches.
Food plan for today. The goal is under 900cals. I’m trying to high(ish) restrict because there are so many unhealthy foods in my home right now and I know if I low restrict, I’m just going to binge on them later. I have a photoshoot this weekend so I don’t want to eat a bunch of crap and get all bloated.
Today’s goal was 500cals and I ate 450. So proud of myself!! I have a photo shoot very soon so I’m trying to lose as much weight as possible
Of course, I always fear a binge whenever I manage to eat very low cal like this
Side note: when I restrict this low, I don’t exercise. In fact, I only walked ~maybe~ 200 steps today
Wednesday
Earl grey tea with 1tbsp soy milk: ~7cals
I want to lose 8 to 10lbs this month so this is the max amount of cals I should eat per day.
Wednesday
I’m baaaaaack on my bullshit
Last night it was suggested I lose weight for my wedding photos in June and today I watched a triggering video so here I am.
Breakfast: black coffee 0cals
Lunch:
miso soup: 30cals
~100g peas: ~60 cals
Water
Always drink your water
Anyone remember the movie Bring It On? It’s the best thinspiration!
I got to update my CW today! Only 1kg (3ish lbs) away from my first goal weight~
I can do it. Don’t F it up now
There is something particularly empty about crying on the kitchen floor 6000 miles away from everyone you have ever known and loved.
I’ve had food poisoning for like 3 days. I’m exhausted.
Got really bad food poisoning but it helped me get over a weight plateau I’m going to milk it for one more day to get away with not eating much and maybe ill make it to my 1st goal weight! I’m only 0.3kg away!!!
But can I keep the weight off is the real question
One of my students was waiting for class to start and she was just staring at a donut singing a Blackpink song and honestly that’s a mood
☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠☠
I did it!!! My first fast over 20 hours! I’m so proud of myself. I’m going to have eggs and a smoothie and then do a 16 or 18 hour fast.
This week’s meal plan
I’m going to eat only these things this week each day. It all adds up to about 800 cals per day. I’m going to try to work my way down by slowly eliminating things.
- Yogurt ~90 cals
- Apple ~100 cals
- 2 sweet potatoes ~200 cals
- 3 steamed eggs ~216 cals
- Protein shake with 100ml milk ~190 cals
- Drinks: water, black coffee, tea only
I’m going to do this along side 16:8 or maybe 18:6 fasting. I do have a job that requires me to concentrate and have energy so if need be ill have some water and chicken stock. Today I am having a protein shake for dinner and going to start fasting at 8pm. My stomach is upset tonight so it should be fine.
These bitches are my bffs. Relora is ~amazing~ if you have stress or anxiety it has been shown in studies to lower your cortisol levels (that is the stress hormone). I don’t like supplements so I only take them if I can find real peer-reviewed studies on them.
It won’t replace prescribed meds but really helps me. Unfortunately, it is not good for people with medical conditions that have to do with estrogen (like Endo).
It can also help prevent stress eating
Having a “mild” alcohol dependency disorder and an ED doesn’t making any F-ing sense but here I am drinking my calories.
Just updated my cw from 54.5 to 55.5kg. I’m so sad rn.
January 20 dinner
- Garlic fried rice with kimchi: I dont know the cals, maybe about 300
Today’s total: ~700cals. My goal was 600 but this is okay i guess.
