Is my metabolism hopelessly dead?

Hello everyone. So I have always been pretty active, played soccer and swam in high school, played soccer for my university plus surfed, rock-climbed, mountain-trekked, paddled, you get the picture.  I was very fit, and I ate whatever I wanted.  Three months before university graduation, I broke my right foot and had to stop all physical activity for four months. I still ate the same and went from 120 to 185 almost overnight! I started taking these diet pills, and they helped me lose a bit of weight, but the minute I stopped taking them, the weight came back on. So I would start taking them again, and started depending on them, even going down all the way to 140 lbs. That was in 2007. I didnt want to pop pills everyday for the rest of my life, so I stopped taking these pills, and gained almost all of the weight back. I started working out again, taking spinning classes, and capoeira (a Brazilian martial art), but when I saw that I wasnt losing the weight after three months,  I stopped. Instead, I started watching what I eat. I still kept the weight on. This year I figured since I was eating reasonably, I should start working out again, and hopefully the weight will come off, but its been 2 and a half months, and I actually gained 7 lbs ! I am currently at 181, and I seriously think I have killed my metabolism. I really would love for someone to tell me what is wrong, and how it can be fixed. Thanks so much!

You certainly seem to be doing a good amount of excercise.  What is your daily caloric intake?  Do you input your calories on CC?  I would keep up with the excercise and take a good look at what is eaten each day.  Frequent, small meals each day may boost the metabolism.  And remember to drink plenty of water.  Do not take anymore of the pills...they are no good.  Many weight-loss pills on the market today do much more harm to your body than good.  Good luck to you.

I

would see a Nutritionist first and make sure your eating healthy and enough. Get some help from her. If nothing, then see a doctor, maybe you developed a thyroid condition or something else that would make you gain.

Other than that you can try getting a personal trainer. They can work with you and experiment and see what works for you.

You may want to see a doctor first though and let them know your situation. Tell them about the pills, and let them know you don't want to take them anymore.

Sorry I could be of more help. 

I think you need to start from first principles.   The most common reason by far for weight-gain (or failure to lose weight) is that you're eating more food than you need.  You don't say how tall you are but assuming you're 5'6", that you're in your 20's and reasonably active (half an hour or so a day activity?) then at 181lbs you technically need around 2300 calories a day to maintain your weight.  So you should be able to see weight loss on about 1500-1600 cals.  If you're doing more than half an hour most days of the week that would increase to 2600 with weight-loss at 1800-1900.

Are you keeping an accurate food log, therefore?  Weighing and measuring food intake accurately rather than guessing portion-sizes?  If you find you're eating more than 2300 a day it's quite easy to fix.

Second....  One of the perils of long-term dieting is that reduced calorie intake over a long period of time depresses the metabolism.   Severe reductions in calories over short periods has a similar effect.  I don't know what effect the pills were meant to have... appetite suppressants?  This makes it tougher to lose weight and easier to gain weight on relatively low amounts of calories.  

If you think this applies to you then part of the 'cure' is to eat more.  The 2300 example from earlier.   Split it up into regular-sized meals throughout the day, choose nutritious foods, plenty of fruit, veg, wholegrains, lean meat/fish, oils etc., and drink plenty of water to allow the body to process it.   Short-term it means weight-gain (but that would make you no worse off than you are now) but long-term it means it 'resets the bar'.... as your metabolism speeds up to match the food available.  Once your weight stabilises, then trim your intake by 500-700 cals only... no lower.

Third.... medical reasons.   There are many medical conditions that can result in sudden weight-gain or make weight-loss very difficult.   Examples would be thyroid malfunction and PCOS.   Should the above solutions not make a difference then you should talk to your doctor and ask for a physical check-up.   Of course, depending on what the diet pills contained, that may not be a bad first step in any case.

Good luck

Definitely stay away from diet pills/ juices!!

My friend took hydroxycut in highschool and got really thin... then when she stopped she gained it back PLUS more, and now its even harder to get rid of the weight. I dont know what kind of additives diet pills have, but your body reacts to them great (it seems atleast.. who knows what can happen long term.. I.E. phenphen) and then completely reverses when you stop. "Diet products" are designed to shed pounds, but not teach you how to eat healthy to maintain that pound loss once you stop the product.

I see all those slim bodies on TV promoting the diet products and I too get tempted, but then I just stick with the kashi and special K snack bars for when I have a weak moment :)

It's possible that you have a low-grade medical problem making it difficult to lose weight, as well. Have you had a full check-up at the doctor recently? Thyroid, liver function, and hormone level assessment might be in order.

Metabolism should have re-corrected from being altered by diet pills, at least most of the way, by now, but it's possible that you still need a little more time. And are you completely sure you're counting calories correctly?

Thanks so much for the replies :-) I just read all of them. I am 5'4. The great news is, I think I finally got my metabolism revving up again. How do I know?  I weighed myself last week before joining this site, and I was 183 lbs. I weighed myself again as I joined the site, and my weight was at 181, and yesterday morning, I weighed myself at the gym and am now 180 I did some research and read that when metabolism gets messed with, it typically takes anywhere from three months to five months for it to balance out again (with the proper eating and exercising). Its been about four months since I finally stopped taking the pills, so it sounds about right. I do hope though that the recent weight loss isnt a fluke! please do keep your suggestions and insights coming though, it has been a great help and relief as I have been feeling guilty about putting my body through so much.