Thanks Mom and Dad, for some crappy metabolism

I went to see a nutritionist last week as I have been struggling to get the last bit of pregnancy/baby weight off. I have been struggling with this pretty much since I got pregnant the first time (before Delaney). Part of the visit was to include testing my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), which basically tells you how many calories your body burns up in a day just being you. There are a lot of things that go into an RMR, like age, height, muscle mass, hormones, and genetics.

Since I have been trying moderately hard to lose weight recently without much success, I was prepared for some pretty bad news about my natural calorie burn rate. I joked with my new (worst) friend that I was pretty sure she was going to tell me that I could only eat 1000 calories per day. She laughed and said, "I highly doubt that!"

Skip to the end of my RMR test and she reads the results with big eyes and says "I'm very shocked. It says your rate is 1100, which is abnormally low for what I would expect". Then we go through some rigamarole about testing my thyroid (which I did two months ago), stress level, amount of sleep, etc. After going through all sorts of other things that could be contributing to this low rate, it appears we have no answers. She is stumped, but thinks that unfortunately I've been given some low metabolism genes as far as she can tell.

Ugh. Thanks Mom and Dad.

So with my weight goals in mind, Katie (my new worst friend) sets out a plan that gets me there within 3 months. It's about a pound per week.

If I were completely sedentary I would only be able to eat 940 calories. O.M.G. Remember that joke I threw out there at the beginning of my appointment? Not such a joke now. But thankfully I'm training for a Half Marathon and therefore can be bumped up to 1200 calories per day.

I am not sure of how many of you are familiar with counting calories, but let me tell you, after 5 days of tallying everything up that I am eating, 1200 calories is NOTHING! Kevin eats 1200 calories in a meal for crying out loud. One of those "low calorie" six inch subs from Subway is about 400 calories. That's not including the Baked Lays or anything else. And a meal out at a restaurant?!? Man.

It's been tough and very eye opening to go through this exercise. I have been a bit depressed lately at the fact that I am stuck with these genes forever and am slowly turning into my mom (who eats nothing and has always eaten like a bird as long as I can remember). Sigh. Yesterday I winced as I wrote down everything I consumed that day and realized I had pretty much spent my wad BEFORE dinner. This is going to take some getting used to! I am also supposed to be trying extra hard to eat five small meals a day, because if I can try my body to get meals at a regular basis it could potentially allow me to eat 200 more calories per day. Interesting. Again, this is going to take some serious practice and willpower.

I highly recommend going to visit a nutritionist and getting an RMR rate if you are at all interested in your body and how it relates to food. I go back for a follow-up visit in a little over a week and I fear that I might be at break down point by that time.

The good news is that after I hit my goal weight we can add SOME calories back onto the plan because I won't be trying to lose and only maintain.