Can the bodymedia reflect damaged metabolism?

[Stroumphette]

Hello

I’m not really new around here and I’ve been lifting for almost 4 years now but only with limited success I have to say. I realize that this is entirely my fault and I’ve been spinning my wheels because of my diet. I was very unhappy with my body 4 years ago and I lost some weight. I ended being underweight a 48kg for 1,7m (103lbs for 5’7),the issue was I was still unhappy with my body as I was just skinny fat. I also had a lot of issues with food and started bulimia. I now have regained some of the weight and I’m 55kg (122lbs) but still not happy with my body.
I’m ready to start fresh but my worry is that I damaged my metabolism. I probably under-ate for all these years as I’m tracking my food and always end-up at around 1400-1600 per day. I gained the weight back to 55kg without eating more than 1600cal + bulimia so I guess that my body is trained to gain at that level.
However I have a bodymedia and it records 2100cal on non-lifting day and 2300cal on lifting days. Is the bodymedia able to reflect damaged metabolism or is it asking too much? If I trust the numbers I shouldn’t gain at 1600cal and I should even loose... But since I do gain weight I’m assuming it’s wrong.
My training is lifting 4times a week (~1h) and I cycle to work (around 15min each way), apart from that I have a desk job and I sit most of the time.
I would like to start doing the right thing for myself and I really need it but I’m not sure if I should go straight to 2000cal or do some progressive increase to give some time to my body to adapt and reset itself.

Thanks for reading until the end, it’s the first time I admit having an issue with food and bulimia so please don’t judge me.

[discdoggie]

No judging here.


I know studies show it as extremely accurate, but i suspect the bodymedia (I've only had mine a month) estimates extremely high.

It consistently has me at 2500-2750
Per day, with 3 3k plus days already.


I have a hard time believing that I was that much of a pig that I was consistently eating MORE than that.

[wakechica]

OP lets be honest - how accurate your BM is shouldn't be your priority at the moment. At your stats your goal should be focusing on becoming a healthy weight.

My opinions on Bodymedia:

I read a LOT of studies which showed it to under-estimate by 5-15% which surprised me. They used a lot of control groups. Most report it to be fairly accurate. Again, I wouldn't use it as gospel - more of a guide. I also don't think eating disorders damage metabolism as much as you/we think. But then some people reckon it over reads. It's going to be far more accurate than an HRM. Use the math but be careful not to underestimate how accurate you are. A happy medium would be between your average BM and what the maths comes out as.

I would honestly eat as much as you can to get you close to 2000. You will need it to aid your lifting and to develop your muscles otherwise as you said you will spin your wheels. You don't need to be losing and often I think people look too small with weight loss etc. Sometimes it takes time; I find I don't lose for ages then get a whoosh of a good load of lbs. It's likely your body is the same as it has been through a stressful few years.

You'd be surprised how much calorie burn is clocked up by doing chores, cycling to work etc. I can burn a good chunk tidying up and just wondering around doing chores.

[Stroumphette]

I know that I shoudn’t worry too much about the bodymedia but I also know that I’ll need to watch the numbers and trust them (in some degree) to be able to eat at maintenance. At 55kg I’m just in the normal weight range for the BMI. I gained weight eating at 1600 so if I increase I’ll carry on gaining. I guess that I can handle it if I think that my body is catching-up and if I think that I’m fixing it but if I think that I eat above maintenance and just gain because I eat too much I’ll probably go back to 1600. It’s all in my head I know but to be able to eat and accept the weight gain I feel like I need to be confident that I burn/should burn the calorie I eat.
Not sure if that makes sense...

[inbetweendays]

I'd like to address these two points that you've made:

I gained the weight back to 55kg without eating more than 1600cal + bulimia so I guess that my body is trained to gain at that level.

I gained weight eating at 1600 so if I increase I’ll carry on gaining.

(Warning, bulimia details to follow - may be triggering to some...)











My experience with bulimia is that the purging aspect doesn't actually remove all of the calories from the binge. So the assumption that 1600 calories + bulimia (meaning binge/purge) would equate to 1600 calories being your maintenance is flawed, IMO. Rather some of those binge calories are retained, meaning that your true maintenance is mostly likely higher than 1600 calories.

Based on that, I don't think what you're describing is a damaged metabolism, but rather an inaccurate assessment of your total calories consumed over time. Again, this is from experience, so you have my utmost sympathies in dealing with this issue.

[Stroumphette]

Yes I do realize that I cannot be sure that I’ve been eating at 1600 because of the bulimia. I guess that I should try to eat around 2000 for a month and see where I am after that. I want to look better but I cannot afford to put too much weight on at least change dress size because I’m getting married in July and I already have my dress and I cannot make any modifications to it. But I also want to be healthy for my wedding and overcome the bulimia by then. I’m not sure why but getting married and still fighting it seems wrong... Once again it’s all in my head, I need reassurance that my body needs the calories I feed him.

[LHarwood]

Yes I do realize that I cannot be sure that I’ve been eating at 1600 because of the bulimia. I guess that I should try to eat around 2000 for a month and see where I am after that. I want to look better but I cannot afford to put too much weight on at least change dress size because I’m getting married in July and I already have my dress and I cannot make any modifications to it. But I also want to be healthy for my wedding and overcome the bulimia by then. I’m not sure why but getting married and still fighting it seems wrong... Once again it’s all in my head, I need reassurance that my body needs the calories I feed him.

Depending on how 'head strong' you are is down to whether or not you'll beat your ED on your own n without pro help You need to take it in little steps. Firstly, gain knowledge about why calroies are so important to you, dont be scared of them either. Look at all us women on here eating the amount of calories that would scare many people with an ED. We dont look horrible do we? We look healthy. Calories are your fuel/friend not enemy, you cant drive a car on empty and the more petrol you have in your car the more you can use it-same with our body's. Just take baby steps with this. Dont do it all at once. Focus on getting yourself healthy THEN focus on bodybuilding.

[IrishLassie78]

OP, if you haven't gotten professional help for your ED, please consider doing so. I've been around the ED block a time or several, and the only thing that really got me healthy and got my mind right (which is the only way you will really get healthy) was finally realizing that I needed professional help, that I wasn't capable of fixing all of this on my own. You are correct that it is in your head, which is why you need to get your head right. If you don't/can't/won't get your head right, the rest will never be quite right either. You owe it to YOURSELF to get healthy. And you have to want to do it for YOURSELF, not for the other people in your life. If you're only trying to get healthy for the sake of others, you will continue to relapse because you aren't truly committed to it. At least that is what my personal experience with my own issues has been, and it's also what I've seen from others close to me who struggle with various psychological issues, whether it is an ED, an addiction, or a mental illness of some other kind. You can overcome this. Good luck to you and best wishes for your upcoming marriage

[lotusdeva]

My “problem” with BodyMedia was me! I had hard time bulking, so I purchased BM to track what I eat. According to BM I was constantly at the deficit or right at maintenance, but I managed to gain ~20 pounds in 6 months. I remember crying about it here and people kept asking me, do you weigh and measure your food – i.e. how do you know how much you are actually eating? Well, it wasn’t until 3 months into unsucessful cutting did I realize something – I was estimating and, hence, did not know how much I was actually eating. BM is going to be accurate if you log accurately IMXO. I purchased digital scale and started measuring everything I eat. Jezz, I was so off, like way off. So, if you want to know exactly how much you are eating, measure and weigh everything (and don’t use measuring cups, use scale)

I was underrating for years – like 1200-1400 cals, which mostly consisted of wine You can look at my progress pictures – yes, I gained, but I think I look so much better now (I am ~15 lbs heavier now then I was then). I feel healthy and strong. I think if you are on good program and eating accordingly, you will be ok.

[Geminis]

Hello

I’m not really new around here and I’ve been lifting for almost 4 years now but only with limited success I have to say. I realize that this is entirely my fault and I’ve been spinning my wheels because of my diet. I was very unhappy with my body 4 years ago and I lost some weight. I ended being underweight a 48kg for 1,7m (103lbs for 5’7),the issue was I was still unhappy with my body as I was just skinny fat. I also had a lot of issues with food and started bulimia. I now have regained some of the weight and I’m 55kg (122lbs) but still not happy with my body.
I’m ready to start fresh but my worry is that I damaged my metabolism. I probably under-ate for all these years as I’m tracking my food and always end-up at around 1400-1600 per day. I gained the weight back to 55kg without eating more than 1600cal + bulimia so I guess that my body is trained to gain at that level.
However I have a bodymedia and it records 2100cal on non-lifting day and 2300cal on lifting days. Is the bodymedia able to reflect damaged metabolism or is it asking too much? If I trust the numbers I shouldn’t gain at 1600cal and I should even loose... But since I do gain weight I’m assuming it’s wrong.
My training is lifting 4times a week (~1h) and I cycle to work (around 15min each way), apart from that I have a desk job and I sit most of the time.
I would like to start doing the right thing for myself and I really need it but I’m not sure if I should go straight to 2000cal or do some progressive increase to give some time to my body to adapt and reset itself.

Thanks for reading until the end, it’s the first time I admit having an issue with food and bulimia so please don’t judge me.

Any updates on this? Are you still around?

Well I used a Bodybugg (same as the bodymedia) back in 2010 and at the time I was undereating by eating 1300 and working out 1 hour a day + 1.5 hour walk.

Bodybugg said I was burning between 3000-3500 cals/day, and I was actually maintaining.

If it was accurate it would have told me 1300 :P

But at least I could see that the number would go down... If I hadn't thrown it to the trash I would be using it now to up my cals to maintenance based on what it says, slowly ofccourse to minimize weight gain while restoring my metabolism then use it as a metric for losing weight.

I am male 5'6 203 lbs