Weighing In: Can A Diet Increase Metabolism?

Heather Reese Health Professional Registered Dietitian Heather Reese, MS, RD has worked in the nutrition industry for... Send Message Subscribe: Heather Reese

Friday, August 31, 2007
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Dear Heather, I was wandering if there was a diet that will not mess up your metabolism or make your metabolism worse if you eat other foods other than what's in you diet. For example, low carb diets, if you stay on this diet, as soon as you eat food with high carbs will you gain weight more...

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Laura
Tuesday, September 11, 2007 at 09:36 AM

It is absolutely possible to get all vitamins and minerals, as well as a full range of phytonutrients, on a low carb diet - in fact, it is not hard at all. The trick is to eat a lot of non-starchy vegetables, a little low-sugar fruit, and and some nuts and seeds. You don't need to eat foods with lots of sugar and starch to eat a balanced diet.

No matter how you lose weight, if you go back to eating the old way you will regain, and for some of us unfortunates, it means weighing more than we used to. I have kept a moderate amount of weight off for over 5 years, and have other health improvements which are even more important, but I'm dedicated to staying away from sugar and starch for life AND eating lots of veggies, etc.

adaptation
Laurie
Friday, November 16, 2007 at 06:13 PM

I also think treating yourself once per week keeps your body from adapting to your diet. If you eat the same number of calories every day, week in and week out, eventually your body is going to adapt to that. After a while, the results of eating a restricted diet won't be as significant. To vary my caloric intake, I treat myself to an ice-cream bar or something similar once per week. The body is so predictable in its ability to adapt. For this same reason, it's important to change up your exercise routine every 3 weeks or so.

"Starvation Mode" questions
Mike H
Wednesday, January 02, 2008 at 01:53 AM

I've seen conflicting opinions on whether "starvation mode" exists, and could use references to studies on this.

For one, there are an increasing number of studies showing the dramatic health benefits of calorie-restricted diets, including those calling for intermittent fasting--and with no "starvation mode" effect.

Second, there seems to be a difference between whether "starvation mode" is a result of skipping meals, or of attaining extremely low body-fat composition. The latter seems to make more intuitive sense than the former--are there specific studies that support or contradict either/both?

re: "Starvation Mode" questions
Dave
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 at 03:28 PM

I've recently done a tone of diet reseach so that I could diet intelligently. "Starvation Mode" is another name for ketosis and it definitely exists. When your body's reserve of glycogen (blood sugar) dwindles either from starvation or extremely low carb dieting, the body starts converting fat into ketones. Apparently this also produces a very small amount of glycogen, but eventually it will not be enough. At that time, the liver starts converting protein into the missing blood sugar. In this state of ketosis, almost all of the body starts running on the ketones (including muscle), but certain parts of the brain absolutely require the glycogen (which is why it is produced in small amounts). Since blood sugar is low, the body does not produce insulin. Insulin is basically the chemical that gives muscle and fat permission to absorb sugar from the blood (keeping your blood from becoming a viscous soup that doesn't flow correctly). Without insulin, the little sugar is reserved for the brain and the body runs on ketones made from fat.

I've heard conflicting opinions on how ketosis induced by a low carb diet interacts with the precense of protein and fat remaining in the diet. Most information on ketosis concerns starvation not low-carb dieting. More scientific studies need to be done of low carb dieting. It is possible that the protein from the diet is metabolized instead of muscle protein, so that in a low carb diet the metabolism is not reduced the way starvation does it (by eliminating muscle).

In my own experience, when dieting you should shoot for 1000 to 1500 calories a day, and avoid simple sugars and carbs (soft drinks, deserts, french fries, white bread). Eat WHOLE GRAIN breads (you should see peices of grain in the bread). Eat Kashi TV dinners instead of Lean Cuisines. Get your carbs, but get good carbs from the whole grains (these good carbs release their sugars slowly and come with fiber which helps keep your appetite steady throughout the day). If you do this, you will have a calories defecit of 500 to 1000 a day (3500 = 1 pound of fat). Be patient, and carefully stick to your plan and you'll lose weight. Weigh yourself every day, but write it down (make a little line graph) and don't obsess over the numbers. Your fat may be steadily decreasing each day, but other parts of your body fluctuate in weight masking your fat loss.

FOOD AND METABOLISM
NENAD
Tuesday, April 07, 2009 at 11:26 PM

TO SAY THAT FOOD DOES NOT INCREASE METABOLIC RATE (METABOLISM) SHOWS SHE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT SHE IS TALKING ABOUT. I SUGGEST SHE REFER TO THE STANDARD TEXT BOOK ON MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY, GUYTON'S "TEXT BOOK OF MEDICAL PHYSIOLOGY". YOU CAN BUY IT ON AMAZON FOR ABOUT $80. AT ABOUT PAGE 860 DEALING WITH THE PHYSIOLOGY OF METABOLISM - THE PROFESSOR POINTS OUT THAT PROTEIN (THATS FROM MEAT, EGGS, CHEESE, ETC) WILL INCREASE METABOLIC RATE BY 10-15% WHEREAS CARBOHYDRATES WILL SEE ONLY A SLIGHT INCREASE IN METABOLIC RATE. EATING MORE OFTEN DOES INCREASE METABOLIC RATE SOMEWHAT - BUT NO WHERE NEAR WHAT PROTEIN FOODS WILL DO. BY THE WAY, GUYTON POINTS OUT THAT A HIGH PROTEIN MEAL WILL INCREASE METABOLIC RATE FOR 6-8 HOURS WHERE A CARB MEAL MAY ONLY MARGINALLY INCREASE IT FOR SEVERAL HOURS.