True metabolic rate?

Nothing i do at the moment helps me to lose weight.  Every calorie estimator gives a different calorie amount for the day. And i can eat 1800 calories or 1200 calories and it doesn't make a difference. I'm beginning to wonder , if for a lot of us, our metabolic rates don't match what the calculators say.

Has anyone ever gone to a specialist and had a special test done that truly determines your own metabolic rate? I'd be interested to hear about it.

Calculators are based on the majority of the population, so if you are not in the 95% average you will not conform to the calculator.

There are places you can go to get your BMR tested (I haven't done it, so I don't know how to find such places). If you go, make sure you understand the number that they are telling you, because people use several abbreviations to refer to several different things and it gets confusing. There is the amount your body burns in a coma (BMR or RMR) and then there is the amount you burn being sedentary, and then if you add in exercise, there is the true amount you burn in a particular day.

Also remember that your weight on Tuesday is not directly related to the number of calories you ate on Monday. It is also influenced by the number of calories you had for the preceeding week (sometimes weight loss takes time to show up on the scale) as well as water retention, salt intake, your last bm, and the how much food is still in your belly from the last time you ate.  So eating 1200 or 1800 will make a difference, you just won't see it right away.

What are your stats?

Hi

Thanks for your reply. I realize that the impact of calories is not from day to day. When you've been trying to lose a couple of pounds for months.......the calories should eventually show up in the weight loss though after weeks of calorie counting and exercise!

I'd just be really interested in knowing what my exact metabolic rate is through a test so i can compare it to what all the calculators say. It would be one more thing i could rule out as to not being the problem or being the problem. Of course getting my doctor to take me seriously is the really challenge!

I was stuck at 179 for 4 months. I was eating 1200 - 1400 calories a day. Starving but not losing. But last week, after reading so many posts about this, i decided to do an extra 30 mins of cardio (over my usual 50 mins of cardio) my scale finally moved. Have you tried that? varying the exercise routine?

I went and had my RMR tested. I had it done at a gym, and it was free. I believe most places charge for the test, but I guess one of the benefits of having my husband my husband in the military is that we have excellent fitness facilities. Basically, you are supposed to be as lazy as humanly possible before the test. You shouldn't eat or drink for at least two hours before the test either. (If you are moving a lot or eating or drinking, it will make your results inaccurate.) When you go in, they sit you in a chair, ask you a few questions, and then they have you breathe into a tube for 5-10 minutes. The tube is hooked up to a computer, and at the end it gives you your RMR, and I was also given a range of calories to eat. The lower number is for days when I don't work out, and a higher number for when I do work out. I definately found it to be worth it.

I heard about breathing into the tube before. My doctor doesn't have than and neither do the gyms here. We're so not with the programme here sometimes!!! I bet i'll have to go to a specialist to get that done around here and will have to hope my doctor will send me.....if not i guess i'll have to find another doctor who will. That could be a challenge.

Glad you found it helpful.

Thanks !!! Laura

Thanks everyone for your replies. Hmm.....it looks like if i hit "reply" it goes to the forum and if i hit "send" it goes to the person? lol......i'll figure it out eventually.

Stats: 5' 4" and 184 at the moment......for many moments and weeks and months! Medium to large frame.

Have an awesome day everyone x

Hi! I am new as of today.  I want to lose 50 pounds.  I am a female in menopause and the docs messed up my previously o.k. metabolism with meds to help the effects of the pause that never ends.  Any advice from anyone who has been there.  Yes, Gusy, you have gf's who may know of some answers too.