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20893793 tn?1580909977

How can I accelerate my metabolism?

I've been trying to lose weight quickly, using techniques like drinking oolong tea, or drinking lots of water. Are there any other ways to help my metabolism rise? Currently exercising every day as well. Thank you :)
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Avatar universal
Why do you need to lose weight quickly?  Doing so usually results in short-term loss but not keeping it off.  Losing weight slowly but steadily by permanently altering your diet for the better and increasing your output of energy works long-term.  I doubt oolong tea will do a lot for you.  While it does contain caffeine, tea also contains balancing relaxants, which is why drinking it generally doesn't affect people the way unbalanced coffee does.  So yeah, there are a lot of things that contain some form of speed that will speed your metabolism quickly, but not healthfully.  So again, why the rush?
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To be honest, it just feels better to lose it faster. Life has been crazy for the past years, but its been even crazier just in these last few months. I unexpectedly lost weight (due to a cold) and since then, i haven't really been able to stop. I was originally 137 and now I'm down to 122, just in the span of a week and a half. I feel like it needs to keep going.
Whoa, losing over 10% of your body weight in a week and a half is probably not healthy.  Although, any weight lost that quickly is most likely mostly water weight and may come back.

I have a question -- are you still a child/teenager, and if you are, it is very important to maintain a healthy diet and healthy weight as your body matures and brain continues to develop.  We live in a culture that is obsessed with being the "perfect" weight, but what really matters is are you healthy and are you taking care of your body the best way you can.  It is fine to try to maintain a healthy weight and try to put healthy foods into your body, but it can sometimes become an obsession and turn in to disordered eating, and I certainly don't want that to happen for you.

If you are exercising every day, your body will need fuel to rebuild muscle tissue, as well as fuel to keep your brain powered and your body going.  If you don't fuel your body enough, it will use both fat and muscle tissue to make up the difference, and losing muscle is one way to slow your metabolism down.  I am a distance runner and will frequently run 10 plus hours a week, and I try very hard to make sure I don't under eat my calories by more than 200 a day (usually I overeat, but it seems to even out).   I'm ok with losing a little fat, but I really don't want to lose any muscle that I have worked so hard to put on so I make sure I am eating enough.

Muscle weighs a lot more than fat, so even at 153 pounds and 5'9", most people look at me and think that I am very slim - weight is only a number and not the most important factor in my overall health.  And, if you are putting on muscle and burning fat, you may not see any changes on the scale, but you may notice the shape of your body is changing.

As Paxiled has stated, if you really are set on losing more weight, I suggest the "the slower is better" approach.  I lost 35 pounds over a 9 month period, and then another 6 pounds or so over a one year period.  Once I was at a healthy weight, I switched to focusing more on my running and less on trying to get to my "goal weight" which meant there was a.) less chance of losing muscle and b.) I would be more likely to keep it off.

Good luck and I hope you take a healthy approach to thinking about your weight and what you want for your body.  Exercising is a great way to get fit and feel great about yourself, no matter what your weight is.
I understand that. I'm just really having problems with self control. I'm 16 and 5'7. I had a similar incident when i was in middle school. I wasn't eating for some months and after seeing a nutritionist (plus pediatric doc) i was diagnosed with anorexia. It comes in waves though. Sometimes i binge, and other times i restrict. I thought i had completely gotten over it but now I'm actively trying to lose weight again, and i feel like I'm not satisfied unless i keep seeing the numbers drop.

If this was a restricting episode, i know its still in the early stages. I'm not happy with a lot, from my body to my life. Everything has been chaos; i feel like i just need something to hold on to. For me, the one thing i can rely on is the scale. Everything else in my life seems to be a lie or just a mess.

I used to be a national volleyball player, but due to a DCF case, things at home got worse and i ended up having to quit. After 6 years of ALWAYS being in the gym, i got paranoid. It didn't help that my parents are always commenting on "image".

I'm not sure if all of that is contributing to the restriction. I'm not ever sure how to handle it. Part of me wants to help myself, but the majority of me is telling myself to keep going and never stop.
Your info about the things at home getting worse, and not being happy with your lot and feeling like everything is chaos except the scale, is a perfect description of the mindset for anorexia, For example, someone who endured a rape and then got anorexia said "I felt like my weight was the only thing I could control."

So, to keep the need to escape from the chaos from turning into an obsession like anorexia (which will hurt you, probably more, in the end), let's look at the chaos and you being 16. Here are some things to know.
- Counseling is a good thing. It might not seem like it will do much, but it helps to have someone to explain your plight to who has seen similar, deals with it professionally every day, and won't (like your friends) give you inadequate suggestions. Even just laying it out your problems clearly enough for someone else to understand can help your own common sense come out in surprising ways.
- Teenagers more often feel their lives are sad, bad or a mess than that they are doing great. I believe you that there are things in your life that ANYONE would agree are bad, but keep in mind that your filter right now through which you see your life makes things worse. The teenage filter is tilted away from being satisfied: we are biologically programmed not to be satisfied at this age. (Our biology is pushing us to leave the nuclear family: if people were so content that they never left the home fire, that would be the end of the human race.)  Take this as a good thing -- despite the grief this filter adds to the chaos of your life right now, at least you will not end up living in Mom and Dad's basement playing video games with nothing going on at age 30, you will have set your own sail long before.
- Speaking of setting sail and getting some feeling of control: it's time to make plans for what you will do at age 18 that are so ambitious that they both scare and please you. You can be legally independent then, and two years is not too long to work out what you are going to do.
... Given that your stress response is to eat or binge or starve, one thing to put on the list is access to a counselor. A lot of schools have this service -- when you're in school definitely take them up on it, and after college, find a counselor just to have in your phone book for an as-needed relationship. (Imagine that you had a virus that most of the time lays dormant but occasionally comes out as an active condition. If that were true, wouldn't you want to maintain a relationship with a doctor who knows how to treat it?)
... Set interesting plans. Since anorexia is a disease caused by a mental image that you are not perfect, don't encourage it by being dissatisfied if you think your plans aren't perfect. Make a plan, based on the choices you have in front of you right now. It will serve as a foundation. Part of the goal here is to have some control, which even an imperfect plan will give you. Think about: what you will study (if you're going on to college), where you might live, how you might live (roommates? dorm? apartment?), what you might want your life to look like at age 25, what kind of a job you might like immediately and what kind of a career you might like long-term, and such as that. My little sister just signed on for a 2-year course of study to do eye exams for people. She has a degree from Vassar, and is a little embarrassed to be doing something she considers to be more humble than her background, but she is so happy to have a plan that it overcomes her worry that she somehow has to live up to her posh education. Your world feels like chaos. Having plans and meaning them, is putting a nail in the spinning shingle and holding it still long enough to give you a foundation.
... Do recognize anorexia as a disease, and take it seriously. The rush to lose weight fast is just like being hooked on video games or any other obsession. It's not the solution, it's the temporary response that makes you feel better for about a minute, but sinks you deeper in the long run. Do you have access to a therapist that knows specifically about eating disorders? They can be hard to treat, and really aren't something to shoulder alone. But if you have to (shoulder the issue alone), look online and find out the causes of anorexia and bulimia. It can help.
... Finally, if you can, learn to turn a thick skin to your parents and their comments about your image. They are obviously part of the package that created the anorexia, or at least they clearly have no idea of how to help, and though kids shouldn't have to put up shields against their parents, your dynamic with them in relation to that specific kind of comment is not positive. If you have access to a therapist, talk to him or her about what your parents say and how it affects you. She might be able to suggest some ways to fend them off, and/or might even be able to talk to them about what they should do.



I would only add, I'd see a psychologist rather than a school counselor at this point.  This has been going on and the more you respond the more it becomes clear your true issues are emotional, not weight.  No stigma in that, life gets to everyone at some point or other.  But at 16, you really do need to eat well.  Your brain and your body are developing and you're at a very active age and you really do have to eat enough to fuel your normal development.  It's always best to tackle this kind of thing when you're young and adaptable rather than waiting until you're older, it's been around a long time, and demands on you are greater.  A good psychologist will help you understand this, demystify it for you so it doesn't seem so daunting, and help you change the way you're thinking about yourself.  And you know, no reason why you can't play volleyball and go to the gym just for fun.  All the best.
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