Metabolic rate and muscle mass

Heres my response to Yana who commented on my previous post - I tried to post it as a comment but had a temporary glitch. So here it us for everyone!

Hi Yana,

You are absolutely correct with your figures - as we lose weight we need less calories. However, muscle needs more calories per gramme to function than the equivalent weight in fat or other body tissues. This means that if, as you lose weight, you do a lot of exercise and build up muscle mass, your metabolic rate increases a little. Using your hypothetical numbers, if you lose weight from 300 to 200lbs and your metabolic rate drops from 3000 to 2000 - you then do loads of exercise over a period of months and increase muscle mass. Assuming your weight stays at 200lbs, your metabolic rate increases to, say, 2300 calories. If you still continue to consume the same amount of calories as you did before increasing muscle mass, then you will lose weight at a slightly faster rate. This was what I meant when I said I was using my calories more effectively - sorry it wasn't that clear but sometimes my head kind of tips out ideas onto the screen before they've been thought through properly!! Hope that helps!

Trees x

Why I've not gained weight

I recently responded to a post on the UKGastricBand forum to someone who was asking how to get the self control needed to overcome the desire to eat chocolate and other unhealthy things. I've copied some of my response below. Some of these things I have said on here before, but thinking about it helped me put into perspective exactly why I hadn't gained weight during some of the bad times I've experienced in recent months.

"I am a self-confessed emotional eater and complete chocaholic and yet I've lost nearly 8 stone (if I can do it - anyone can!!!). When things in life are going well, my desire to eat chocolate and other bad stuff just goes - and if anything, I crave good, nutritious, healthy foods. During these times I lose weight. However, when life is difficult, as it has been for me over the past 2-3 months (work pressures), I utterly crave chocolate. Over the past 2-3 months I have regularly (i.e. every 2-3 days) binged on chocolate. By that, I mean, I've gone out and bought 6-7 bars of chocolate and eaten my way through all of them in an evening. On top of that I've eaten cheese sandwiches (cheese comes second to chocolate in my head), muffins, iced buns and all sorts of other rubbish.

HOWEVER (this is the good bit) - during these times I have NOT GAINED any weight! This is because:

1. My metabolism has speeded up because I've lost weight so my body uses calories more effectively,
2. I do more exercise (though nothing like as much as I do when life is going well),
3. The portion sizes of my main meals is much smaller than it ever used to be - because of the band,
4. In between the bad days I have relatively good days where I have a negative calorie balance (i.e. I use more than I put in).

So, if you still find you can't keep off the chocolate (and incidentally, I never keep any in the house), it's not all doom and gloom - stick to good eating habits as much as you can and this should mean that at least you won't gain any more weight. On good days, and at good times in your life, you should be able to lose with the band - and keep it off during the bad times".

Back to the gym

I kept my resolve today (just) and trudged off to the gym after work. I did about half an hour of aerobic activity on the treadmill including some gentle jogging, and spent another half hour doing some light weights for upper and lower toning and strength. I asked my dietician at the last support group meeting, how soon should one begin doing weight training? I asked this because he had previously said people losing weight should do calorie burning activity initially and not lift weights - this us to avoid building up muscle too early on (it can counteract weight loss and may turn fat bulk into muscle bulk). Anyway, he reckoned that we should move onto some light weights work once we have lost about 75% of our excess weight. I'm a little past that point now (closer to 80%) so the time us definitely right for this kind of workout.

I didn't overdo it though because it's been a few weeks since I last went. Even so, I am expecting to be aching in the morning!

I'm getting younger!

I reported a few months ago that my scales gave my metabolic age as 48 - three years older than I actually am, but two years younger than they had been reading ever since I got banded. Well, this morning I weighed myself again, and my metabolic age has dropped to 44 - a year younger than my real age!! That's fantastic - I'm delighted!

However, what I am even more pleased about is that my muscle mass is now classified as 5. I looked this up in the manual and it means 'Standard' - average muscle mass and average body fat!!! Whoopee!!

I'm getting younger!!

Two years younger to be exact! Several months ago I purchased a Tanita Innerscan body composition monitor (click on the link to purchase!). As well as telling me my weight, it also tells me my body fat %, total body water %, visceral fat level, muscle mass, physique rating, bone mass, basal metabolic rate and metabolic age. I've been keeping a vague check on my readings for several months and Ive noticed quite a few slow changes:

1. Body fat %: This started off around 45% but is now 34%. This is just outside of the 'normal' range.


2. Total body water %: This is usually inverse to body fat, so when I started taking readings it was quite low - about 32%. It's now just inside the 'normal' range at 45%.


3. Visceral fat level: This is a measure of how much fat there is internally around the abdominal cavity - and is a good indicator of susceptibility to nasties like heart disease. If you're in the range 1 to 12 then you're OK. Fortunately, I tend to collect fat around my bum and hips rather than around my stomach, so I've always been inside the OK range (well since February when I bought this machine). Recently my level has improved from level 9 to level 6.


4. Muscle mass: This is given as a weight - and mine has actually fallen a little from eight stone something to seven stone something. I presume this is because even though I have increased my proportion of muscle, the actual weight of it has dropped as I've lost weight overall.


5. Physique rating: This is a subjective measure of physique according to the ratio of fat to muscle. There's a complex scale in the manual they provided with the monitor - but basically, my rating has improved from 3 (large frame obese) to 2 (medium frame obese). I long for a rating of 6 (standard muscular) which represents a person with average body fat and a high % muscle!


6. Bone mass: To be honest, I've only really taken notice of whether this has been above 6.5lb or not because below this level there is increased risk of bone diseases like osteoporosis. I've always been above that level.


7. Basal metabolic rate: When I started recording BMR it was about 2200 calories, but as I've lost weight this has fallen steadily to around 1550. This is normal because as we lose weight our body needs less energy to 'keep it going'. The downside of your BMR going down is that it means you can consume less calories to maintain your current weight. However, in the last few days, for the very first time, my BMR has started to increase again - it's now 1590! Given that I am still losing weight, this is a good indication that I am starting to develop more muscle (which needs more energy to keep it going).


8. Metabolic age: The monitor indicates the average age associated with your measured level of metabolism. The maximum reading it gives is 50 years - and I have to confess that I have been 50 years old ever since I started taking readings..... that is, until this morning! Today I'm only 48!!! Yippeee!!! I'm actually only 45 years old so I clearly still have some way to go in losing weight and building up muscle mass before my BMR reflects my actual age - but it's nice to get started along the road to youthfulness!

Gym update

I reported last week that I had joined my local gym. I've been back twice so far and have really enjoyed it! I went this morning before work which really is a first for me. I must admit I never saw myself as a gym-aholic but I can see how it just kinda 'gets to you'. I'm still getting the hang of all the equipment - not so much how to use it - but what kind of exercise it gives you and what muscle groups it builds. My routine, if you can call it that after just three visits (!), goes something like this:

• Ten minutes walking flat on the treadmill and gradually building up the speed to 6.2kph - just as a warm-up really.


• Twenty minutes doing the 'hills' programme at level 20 (the highest) on the treadmill. Attempting to do this at the same walking speed as the first activity is really hard and gets the hamstrings working. I can just about keep up 6kph for the first 10-12 minutes but then have to slow it a little to about 5.7kph. This one really gets the sweat pouring!


• Then I either work on my upper body strength and tummy muscles, or my upper body strength and leg muscles. You'll have gathered from this that my upper body needs the most work! I'm particularly focussing on my triceps (the ones at the back of your arms) in the vain hope that this might reduce (or at least, firm up) my bingo wings. I'm working on my tummy muscles for a similar reason!

This all takes about an hour. If I have more time to spare I spend more time on aerobic activity and use the cross trainer or cycle. I haven't really had a proper go with the rowing machines yet but give it time and I'm sure I will. I also experiment with a wider range of the leg-strengthening kit that I haven't used yet.

Once I'm done I spend a few minutes on one of the mats just stretching - especially my leg muscles. I've always found that if I don't stretch after exercise they just tend to cease up later in the day. As always, I'm keeping a careful check on calories burned and this morning, I reckon I burned about 500 calories. That's roughly equivalent to walking about 8,000 steps - so that's one walk I won't have to do this evening!

Something else I've been doing is using some small free weights at home. They're like a small, metal dumbell with a 1kg weight on each end. I've had them for many years but they've spent most of that time gathering dust. Well not anymore. They now take pride of place in front of the TV in our living room! That's so I don't forget - whenever I sit down to watch TV I'm now reminded to do some light weight-lifting! I have established a routine of doing six exercises - all focussing on my upper body strength, and especially my triceps, and I've been doing them daily. It's been less than a week so far so I can't see any difference - but I have noticed some of the exercises are starting to get just a little easier!

Gym induction

On Monday this week I took the plunge and went down to my local gym to find out what they had to offer! I got loads of infomation about classes, their fitness suite etc and booked an 'induction' for the gym on Tuesday. Tuesday came and I kitted myself out in some very baggy leggings - fortunately they had a waist tie that I used to tighten them up (at least they wouldn't fall down!). I also put on a T-shirt that was probably big enough for two of us! On my feet I wore the running shoes that I purchsed, at great expense, some TWENTY years ago!! I couldn't help noticing that they fit me better than they have done for years because my feet have shrunk!

I was slightly fearful that the gym would be full of slinky, thin people wearing the latest fashions and glowing, rather than sweating. But I was in for a surprise because when I arrived there were a wide range of people - all ages, shapes and sizes, including a number of people who looked a lot less fit than me. I was shown around all of the equipment, some of which looked like it would suit better in a torture chamber! I was then let loose to have a try myself.

I spent a good hour and a half (it went by very quickly) experimenting on the treadmill, cross trainer, cycle, rowing machine and loads of different weight machines. I must confess that I really quite enjoyed the experience. I never felt out of place as I feared I might -I was just there, doing my bit, trying to get a bit fitter - just like everyone else, I suppose.

When I left, I decided to buy a one month 'pay-as-you-go' membership. At £28, compared with £5.50 for a one-off visit, it works out very good value as long as you visit at least once per week. The price includes use of the swimming pool and day-time classes. I am thinking that I really would like to make a visit to the gym a permanent fixture in my weekly routine. My main goal is to get some strength and toning to my muscles - especially in my arms (which are very weak). At the same time, I can also get some more intensive aerobic exercise - this may get more important over the winter months when poor weather may make it less inviting to go for a walk when I get home from work.

I'm planning to go again soon - I'll let you know how I get on.

I did it!!

A short while ago I posted about my desire to run again - and today I did it! Back from our energetic holiday - walking in Chamonix, I was today, feeling full of energy. I didn't think much about it, I just found myself getting into my jogging bottoms and doing a bit of contortionism to get into my new sports bra! I checked that my nearly 20 year old running shoes still fit (honestly!) and sneaked out if the front door. I didn't want my husband to see or guess what I was going to do because I didn't want to face the embarrassment if it all went pear-shaped!

I walked for the first ten minutes to get warmed up, and also this had the advantage of taking me to a secluded path in the wooded edge of the local sports field. I tentatively began to jog along and the first thing I noticed was how much my bum was jiggling up and down!!! I trotted slowly along the path and then ventured out onto open ground and went round the edge of the sport sfield. I was lucky that rain had threatened a few minutes before so there was no-one about!

I ran for a whopping 12 minutes (!) before resuming a walking pace for the return journey home. On my arrival home, with a red face covered in sweat, my other half asked if I'd been running - so much for keeping it a secret! Anyway, I seem to have survived. I felt a very slight niggle from my knees that probably reflects years of carrying the equivalent of several sacks of potatoes. Otherwise no problems. A couple of hours after returning I can feel a little tightness in my hamstrings. Given that I have just returned from a holiday where we walked a minimum of 20,000 steps a day, with no real leg muscle aching at all, this just goes to show how effective running is as a form of exercise.

My medium term aim is to be able to go for a three-mile run once or twice a week. That's a little way off yet, but I've begun the journey. Thank you to those people who encouraged me to do this. I can't honestly say I felt the exhilaration that I used to when running - I was too anxious about bring seen and injuring myself for that. But give it time and I just might re-live that experience again.

Burning calories in the Highlands

I am back from my jolly jaunt in the Scottish Highlands and have returned feeling very fit and energetic! Although this was a work-related trip I have managed to fit in LOADS of walking over the past week, spent in the Highlands of Scotland. Most days I managed at least 15,000 steps - and this over rough, hilly ground, and often uphill. I must have burned loads of calories. However, I haven't lost any weight this week because I have been putting in just as many calories as I have burned!!

A typical breakfast consisted of a small bowl of muesli followed by two slices of bread and marmalade. Typically, lunch was a cheese and pickle sandwich (or two, on some days), plus a small chocolate bar (like a Penguin) and a piece of fruit. I often supplemented this with an Alpen Light cereal bar too. Evening meals consisted of three, yes you read that correctly, THREE courses! First there was soup. This is obviously a slider food so it slipped down nicely, leaving plenty of room for my main meal! The main meals were slightly on the small side by 'normal' people's standards but were very large compared to what I have been eating for the last few months. Consequently, I was pretty full after each eveing meal. I didn't finish it every night but passed out leftovers to my more hungry male colleagues! I ate dessert every night too - also consisting of slider foods such as apple pie and a spoonful of custard. On top of all that (as if that wasn't enough), most evenings I also had a pint or two of calorie-laden orange juice and lemonade or shandy - well you've got to be sociable haven't you?!

On the plus side though, when I got home I weighed myself on my new super-duper body impedance bathroom scales (see a post to come later this week) and it seems that my body fat percentage and visceral fat have fallen over the past week. In other words, I have put on a significant amount of muscle. Certainly, the way my legs are starting to feel hard if I tense them up, and the goat-like way I managed some of the steeper climbs, seems to suggest I have developed more muscle.

For now, it's away with the luxury of three course meals and back to some serious, healthy eating. I am only about five pounds away from the magic BMI boundary of 30 that will take me from 'Obese' to 'Overweight' - so I really must get back to some serious business.

Offa's Dyke walk

I went for a holiday weekend walk today along a section of the Offa's Dyke trail in north Wales. It was a beautiful day with very warm sunshine and there were loads of people out and about and lots of families out walking. The route followed a well-made path and was generally along a ridge top. There were also some long sections of uphill walking and some steep downhill stretches. There were beautiful views to be had in all directions and it was really enjoyable. I think what made it even more enjoyable for me was that I felt really fit! I stepped out and kept up a pretty fast pace all the way, including on the uphill sections. I actually surprised myself at how fit and healthy I felt. I kept thinking back to pre-surgery times and how a walk like today's would have been really tough - and there's no way on earth I could have kept up the pace I did today.

Back at home now and rested, fed and watered (!), I am conscious that although I have no particular aches in my legs or other muscles, my body as a whole feels, well, sort of empty! A bit drained of energy, I suppose, I guess this is because I am consuming generally less calories. I have attempted to calculate how many calories I have burned today. I went back to the web site I posted about in March (click on the link above to return to my original post) that lists a wide range of activities and their calorie-burning equivalents per hour. This gives a rate of about 520 calories an hour for uphill walking and/or hiking. I did the sums and basically, if you multiply normal steps (i.e. as recorded on a pedometer) by 1.44, you get the equivalent steps if your walking was 'hiking' or uphill. You can then use the equivalent steps figure to determine calories burned - for someone weighing about 200 pounds, one step burns 0.06 calories.

So today, I have walked about 12,500 steps hiking, equivalent to 18,000 normal steps. Multiplying this by 0.06 gives total calories burned of 1080. I will have eaten about 1200 calories by the end of the day, which means that my total effective calorie intake is only 1200-1080 = 120!! Since my basal metabolic rate is about 1650, this means that I have achieved a calorie savings today of about 1530 (1650 - 120) - i.e. nearly half a pound!!! Well, the walk was lovely, but that figure makes it even more enjoyable!

Port Pain and Pilates

I had a half-hour Pilates session today - my first ever. I did it to a DVD with two colleagues of mine. We found a quiet room at work and locked ourselves in so no-one could walk in on us! It was hilarious! The woman delivering the DVD was very muscular and really made everything look like a piece of cake. She would tell us to get into a particular position and we were all laughing our heads off crawling around on the floor and trying to copy her!!

If you don't know much about Pilates (I had no idea what it was - I thought it was some sort of Japanese Tai Chi sort of thing!), it's basically a whole series of slow, stretching and strengthening exercises designed to tone muscle. Most of the exercises are done sitting or lying on the floor and by the end of the session I had sore pelvic bones! I've ordered an exercise mat to avoid this problem in the future. We've decided to sign up for an 8-week course run at our local sports centre - it starts after Easter and I'm already looking forward to it in a masochistic sort of way!

The woman on the DVD made it look easy but it is actually really hard! My two colleagues had already done a session yesterday as well and were both aching today - I guess I've got that to come...

Anyway, it didn't all go smoothly. One of the exercises involved lying down on my left side with my arm stretched out above my head. I then had to raise my right leg up and down and then make circles in the air with it. Now, when I did this on the other side (my right side), I had no problems. But when doing it on my left side, the side my port is on, I got quite nasty pain around my port. It felt as though if I tried to carry on I might do some serious damage (like strain the muscle or tear the tissue or something) - so I stopped. I have experienced very minor, occasional niggles from my port area on and off since I was banded in November. But I've never experienced pain like this before. I wondered if I would get any port pain when I started swimming again, but I haven't - it's been fine.

So, I'm left wondering what this is all about. Will it be like this forever? Was this just a one-off? Next time I try that particular move I expect I will be a little nervous. I have posted a question about this on the UKGastricBand forum and will let you know if I get any insightful responses. Failing that, I am going to ask about it when I next go to a support group meeting (that's about three weeks off) and see what my Doctor says. If I get any recurrence of pain (i.e. without doing Pilates), I may even give my nurse a call and see what she says.

Basal metabolic rate

We looked at metabolism at the support group meeting last weekend and I found it really interesting - and helpful for sorting out exactly how much I need to eat (or not!) each day to lose weight. Basically, the metabolic rate is the rate at which a person burns energy. Contrary to popular belief, the heavier you are, the higher your metabolic rate is. How many of us have come across a skinny person who eats loads - and heard others say that that person must, therefore, have a high metabolism?! Well it's just not true. Imagine a normal weight person is a car. The car does absolutely nothing all day except idle with the engine switched on (this is the equivalent of this mythical normal person breathing, circulating their blood and beating their heart). At the end of the day, even though that car has gone nowhere, petrol (i.e. energy) has been used up. It's the same for human beings. But now imagine that the person is obese - and they are a lorry (bear with me!). The lorry also sits idling all day and at the end of that day, even though it hasn't gone anywhere, much more petrol (or diesel) has been used up than it was in the car. This is because the lorry is bigger, has a large engine and needs more energy input to keep it going - even though it is doing exactly the same as the car.

So it is with thin people and fat people. For the same activity, fat people burn more energy than thin people. Hence, the metabolic rate of a fat person is greater than that for a thin person. The energy we are talking about here, is the plain and simple calorie. That's what a calorie is - a unit of energy. So, if I did absolutely nothing all day except sit on my bum, I would need a certain amount of calories (energy input) simply to maintain my weight where it is now. That number of calories is my basal metabolic rate (BMR) and can be determined by (a) weighing yourself on one of those clever bathroom scales (or at your clinic or hospital) that will tell you what it is, or there are all sorts of web sites where you can look up your BMR from a table, based on your gender, height and age. I got mine from the clinic at the weekend and it's currently 1960. This value will go down as I lose weight.

In reality, most of us do not sit on our bum all day - we do stuff, and if we are taking any notice of the advice given to us by everybody, we should also be getting lots of exercise. Exercise burns energy so we have to take this into account too. There are two different ways of doing this:

1. If you have a pedometer that records the amount of calories you have burned throughout the day by walking, then you can simply add this number of calories onto your BMR.

2. If you don't have that then you can estimate your level of exercise and apply a multiplier. There is a standard table of four activity levels which can be found on lots of web sites which goes something like this:

Level 1: Essentially sedentary, sit down a lot, don't set aside any time for regular physical activity. Multiplier = 1.2
Level 2: Light activity, do some walking during the day and take part in formal activity / sports 1-3 times per week. Multiplier = 1.38
Level 3: Moderately active, job needs physical activity, you take part in formal activity / sports 3-5 times per week. Multiplier = 1.55
Level 4: Very active, very physical job, you take part in activity and sports every day. Multiplier = 1.73.

So, choose which one of these applies to you and mutliply your BMR by the value shown.

Whichever method you choose, you should now have a figure that represents your AMR (activity modified metabolic rate). In my case, if I choose a multiplier of 1.38 x 1960 gives an AMR of 2705. This means that for that level of activity, your body needs that many calories each day to maintain weight. If you then subtract from that figure what you are actually consuming each day (about 1000 calories in my case), you then have the number of calories of deficit. In my case this would be 2705 - 1000 = 1705. So, if this was the pattern every day, this means that I would be consuming 1705 calories a day less than I need.

Over the course of one week this would add up to 1705 x 7 = 11935. This is how many calories you will have effectively 'saved'. Now, 3500 calories is equivalent to 1lb weight. So if you divide the 11935 by 3500 you get 3.4lbs. This is how much weight you will lose in one week if you do level 2 amount of activity and eat 1000 calories per day (and your BMR is 1960 like mine)!!

It's important to remember two things here: one, that your weight determines the BMR, not the other way around, and two, that you need to adjust your own BMR periodically as you lose weight because it will go down. There's just one more thing. For a person of given weight and age, gender etc, your BMR will be higher if you have more muscle mass. So while I wouldn't recommend starting on body building (!), exercise that will add some muscle tone (e.g. swimming, yoga, pilates etc) will raise your BMR. This will mean that if you don't increase your calorie intake, your calorie deficit each day will be greater - and weight loss greater!! Simple!!

Crossing my legs.....

A funny (peculiar) thing happened last night. I was watching something lighthearted on TV and chatting away to my other half. I turned around in my chair to explain something to him. However, I was twisted a little awkwardly in the chair so I crossed my legs - you know the sort of thing - I threw one leg over the top of the other. I was just about to continue with my explanation but a niggling feeling in the back of my head was teling me "something's different!" So, distracted by this thought, I stopped mid-sentence to figure it out. My other half noticed the change in my demeanour and asked what was wrong. I thought for a millisecond or two, and then it hit me - "I've crossed my legs!", I said. The bemused expression on his face hinted that he hadn't a bloody clue what I was on about, so I tried again, a little more forcefully this time; "I have just crossed my legs - look!". Still no reaction, so I had to spell it out. "I haven't been able to cross my legs in years 'cause my legs have always been too fat!!!"

I've noticed something else too over the last week or so - I can feel muscles in my arms. No, I haven't been lifting weights, in fact, I doubt my muscles have changed at all. It's just that there's much less fat covering them now so I can actually see them!!