Metabolic Damage From Dieting

I agree with this quote whole heartedly, and I mostly agree with the notion that metabolic damage isn’t really what most folks make it out to be. I speak on my own experience and opinion, and mostly for what I’ve experiences as a female so I’m no expert, but I have gone through some things.

I think metabolic damage( serious damage) in its entirety is a threshold that has death right around the corner depending on how quickly you decide to fix it, or if you even can fix it, and visions of painfully obese, or terrifyingly bone thin people come to mind, or instances concerning being beyond shredded with not an ounce of fat anywhere, but I would say that this is doubled when PEDs, diuretics, fat burners, etc. are used excessively.

I’d agree that metabolic disturbances are what people of all shapes and sizes and age ranges come into contact with, which can call for limiting calories, upping calories, manipulation of macros, cardio, or changes in sleep, sex, age etc. But I wouldn’t equate that with damage whatsoever. Now, that I think about it I wouldn’t even call it disturbances, more so just changes.

I’ve said this multiple times on here, but I’ll keep saying it again because I think it provides some perspective, but I’ve spent the last 14 years practically emaciated, and struggling with an eating disorder, and have only been “officially” recovered for about 2 years and some odd months. I got to the point of amenorrhea, hair loss, lanugo, parts of my hands developed blueish tints from low blood circulation, insanely low blood pressure, and a brief period of time where I was experiencing bradycardia. Even considering that most of my developmental ages were spent being way too thin, I really don’t think the majority of the human population experience metabolic damage whatsoever. I myself, have not damaged my metabolism to the point of no return because here I am, and I seem to be progressing perfectly fine. Even now, while I’m trying to trim off some extra pounds, I don’t struggle with anything that would remotely resemble damage. I experience some metabolic changes.

Usually from what I’ve been eating, how much of it I’ve been eating, how much I have or have not been sleeping, menstruation, water consumption (as mentioned before),how I react to my medication, how heavy my training has been or how frequent it has been, etc. but that’s no different than what others experience. Male or female.

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More of the healthy unwell. It’s more desirable to point to an affliction than to admit you can’t eat as much as you would like. It is also easier to get people to listen to you (and buy your services) if you identify an issue rather than suggest the person themselves is the issue.

BTW, I have metabolic damage… I call it getting old haha

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I might seem ignorant or silly, but I admit that no matter how many times people explain metabolic damage, I don’t understand what they’re talking about.

As much as I can understand is that if someone lost a relatively large amount of fat in a relatively short amount of time, he or she will be more efficient or inefficient (depending on the context of the terms) in using calories then someone who has not done so. That is, someone who maintained a relatively steady weight for years and didn’t resort to large amounts of cardio and harsh dieting will be able to get away with consuming more calories without excessive fat gain than someone who didn’t have to resort to harsh measures. (And even here I am confused about how to explain this, so I hope this helps.)

As people have read from my contest prep thread, my physical activity diminished greatly after my contest, partly because I was very burnt out from five and a half months of dieting, and also because I incurred a physical issue that at the time I didn’t know how to deal with and with which I am still dealing, though there has been great improvement.

And even with my reduced physical activity, I did not get overly fat and am still not so because all I simply did after my show was eat sensibly–no reverse dieting, no counting calories. There was no way I could handle counting calories anymore after nearly six months of doing so. All I did was not overeat and use portion control.

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The cure sounds worse than the disease!

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I always joke with Brad that there’s much less money to be made without buzzword or touting of the “latest and greatest” understandings of a relatively simple amount of nutritional knowledge.

S

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Theres more money in writing reverse diets drawn out because of increases of half cups of rice or a slice of bread.

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Just wanted to say thanks to @The_Mighty_Stu @BrickHead @Yogi1 @robstein @EyeDentist ; For noobies like me, threads with discussions and information like the one here are great;

Hopefully this does not interfere with the great discussion, but I can’t help not asking for advice from you guys.
I am 18yo, play soccer competitively and do calisthenics; I move a lot, and, unfortunately, in the last several months, I was apparently undereating plus I did some crash dieting. This lead to fatigue, poor sleep, constipation, flatulence, poor concentration, poor motivation to train both soccer and calisthenics, low libido, feeling cold, and, as of the last month, stalling on my reps and a lot of muscle soreness for the same volume of calisthenics. Last two weeks, my reps actually decreased, so I went get checked at the doctor in fears of so-called “metabollic damage”.

According to my doctor, the blood results were “ok” and just needed vit D and iron, but the TRT forum suggests otherwise based on my TSH and T4, so I went again and got another panel with more in depth thyroid/t related hormones. For now, I am currently doing 15 minutes of soccer (reading around the website, it seems equivalent to cardio, hence why I reduced it) 5 times a week, about 1/5 of what I used to do, and doing half the volume of calisthenics I used with the same frequency (4x per week) and just eating at my estimated current TDEE (the TDEE taking into account I drastically reduced my excercise).

It is nice to know I don’t have “metabollic damage”, that it is adaptive thermogenesis and that it can apparently be reversed. Again thanks, and any opinion is appreciated.

Btw, blood work:

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I’ll let the more knowledgeable guys you listed chime in on the important shit, but I can tell you that TRT is probably not the right thing for you. At your age you can probably get yourself back into balance without going that route.

Caveat - I know very little about the TSH and T4 shizzel, other than you need to be sure to use iodized salt.

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Yeah, TRT is not really an option right now; I just posted the blood panel there because it seemed like the most accurate place to the advice I am seeking; thanks by the way, will look into the salt and iodine.

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Be very, very cautious regarding the advice you receive on the TRT subforum. There are a number of posters on it whose reach far exceeds their grasp when it comes to medical issues. (For example, no one on your thread has commented on the most important abnormality in your lab panel, much less recognized its implications.) Further, groupthink and confirmation bias tend to dominate the discussions and advice over there.

Stick with your doctor. Follow his/her advice. If you get better, great. If you don’t, ask for a re-evaluation. If s/he seems stumped or disinterested, ask for a referral to an endocrinologist. But don’t start chasing potentially life-altering treatments suggested by faceless, credential-less strangers on the internet.

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I’ll say from experience as someone who played football (soccer) everyday pretty much from the ages of 5-18 and still play once a week to this day at age 32, you’ll expend a hell of a lot of energy doing it. Throwing in crash dieting it’s no wonder you’ve hit such a wall. At your age of you’re playing a lot of sports you should be eating a LOT. Just make sure it’s mostly clean and properly timed (no one likes voming pitch side).

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Thanks man, I appreciate the word of caution. I am going to an endo soon; in the meantime, I got a new test done that includes other hormones, so when I see the new doctor, I will already have the results.
Btw, what was the part of my test that you found abnormal? What do you think in general of my test?

Thanks! Lesson learned. I sure will follow on that advice.

As a physician, I’m obligated to be very circumspect in what I say to you, as it is unethical for me to respond in a way that could reasonably be construed as offering a medical opinion or recommendation.

As for which labs are abnormal, that’s simple–it’s the ones that are italicized (that’s why those are “suggested to be especially taken into account given the patients symptoms”). So you can easily determine for yourself which are out of whack. Of course, the trick is knowing 1) which abnormal labs are clinically significant (at least one of yours isn’t), and 2) for the ones that are clinically significant, how they should be interpreted within the context of both your recent history and the other lab findings.

I’m sorry I can’t be more specific than that. But I’ll make a deal with you–once you’re feeling better, and your labs have all normalized (ie, once your current issues have resolved), you can bump this thread if you want and I’ll tell you, in retrospect, what was going on with your labs.

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I surely will bump this when I feel better. Thanks, let’s see what does the new panel throw out, what does my (new) doctor say, and what does the thermometer read tomorrow morning and afternoon.

By the way, to anybody reading, please share your opinion despite @EyeDentist 's post not setting the precedent; I encourage you to do so if possible; I am not an idiot and will not inject myself with T (or anything) because of a forum thread, but it would be nice to have opinions to share with my endo on monday.

this is your problem.

I could eat like shit for a week, not sleep and train myself into a coma, then if I went to get bloodwork my hormones’d be in the shitter. It does not mean I have hypogonadism (which is what TRT is designed to treat), it means I’ve fucked myself up a bit.

Hypogonadism doesn’t get better. Beating the shit out of yourself does.

You’ll be ok.

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Hey thanks for the reply; I just want to let you guys know that I never intended to get TRT; I simply created the thread there because it seemed like the most relatable subject/category. In fact, I will add an edit with that disclaimer.

Anyways, thanks for letting me know. What would you do solve the issue? Rest? Increase calories? Increase calories slowly while resting? Increase calories a lot and continue excercising normally?

Well what I would personally do is take a week or two from working out, eat some junk food, hang out with my mates, smoke some grass, get laid (it’s not hard to do if you’re smart) and generally chill my head out a bit.

Obviously not all of that advice will appeal to you, but my main point is just to recharge your batteries in whichever way you personally find to be the most restful.

Just stop running yourself into the ground by doing so much and stressing about it.

Enjoy being 18.

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Gotcha, some of that caters to me.