Will I lose my metabolism if I stick with this workout plan?

June 4, 2008 11:51 AM

Will I lose my metabolism if I stick with this workout plan?

I'm 20 years old (male) and I have always been pretty thin (around 120 lbs). I think this is because I have a super-fast metabolism. I can eat very calorie-heavy foods without gaining very much weight.

I've started lifting weights for the first time this summer and my trainer recommended a pretty ambitious diet (far more than I have ever eaten before in a single day) which I have posted below.

My fear is that if I follow this diet it might permanently slow down my metabolism. Is this a warranted concern? Also, I'll probably only be working out for 60-90 minutes per day, so I'm worried about becoming fat (even if I become slightly more muscular).

Is there anyone else who has been in my position who can comment? Thanks.

The diet:
1 gallon of water throughout the day

breakfast: 6 scrambled eggs, 3 slices of bread, one bowl of cereal, 6 slices of bacon, one apple

whey protein shake (with two servings of protein)

lunch: 12" subway sub, rice, chipotle burrito, 2 chicken breasts

whey protein shake (with two servings of protein)

dinner: (same as lunch)

whey protein shake (with two servings of protein)

post-dinner: 3 packs of oodles of noodles, peanut butter and jelly sandwich

posted by JamesJD to health (32 comments total)

That diet is completely ridiculous. No trainer who is concerned with physical fitness and health would suggest that you eat 2 chipotle burritos a day. Get a new trainer.
posted by King Bee at 11:57 AM on June 4

don't know about the weight gain, but be prepared to poop a lot.
posted by tachikaze at 11:58 AM on June 4 [3 favorites]

...Unless, of course, in your diet list, your commas mean OR and not AND. In which case, having an apple for breakfast, a serving of brown rice at lunch, and a chicken breast at dinner is not a lot of food at all.
posted by King Bee at 12:01 PM on June 4

Yeah, I'm thinking those must be OR commas not AND commas, because... a 12" sub, a chipotle burrito, AND two chicken breasts? Twice a day? I'd be impressed as hell if you could even eat all of that.

Assuming it is OR, it seems like quite a bit of protein for your weight, but if you're a hard-gainer, you may well have to eat that much to put on muscle. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try it for a couple weeks and see how it goes.
posted by restless_nomad at 12:04 PM on June 4

Even if those calorie levels were appropriate for bulking up and building muscle (which they don't seem to be) it is generally recommended that you only increase or decrease your calories in small increments (like 100-200 calories) at a time. You don't just jump up by 1500 calories or whatever, it will play havoc with your metabolism.
posted by pixlboi at 12:04 PM on June 4

You weigh 120lbs! This is about 5X your caloric needs for the day! College football players eat less than this. I highly suggest you clarify this with your trainer, and if it's accurate, find someone else. It's ludicrous.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 12:05 PM on June 4

That is ridiculous. Your trainer is hopelessly retarded. No decent trainer would include "bacon" or "chipotle burrito" in his or her recommendation. You need lots of lean protein plus vegetables, carbs and good fats.

Your metabolism will adjust any time you start a new workout plan and/or diet. If you go off that workout plan and /or diet, it will adjust again. I do not know whether a metabolism can be "permanently altered" but would be interested if someone on here does know the answer to that.

Start with this plan here.

Then hire a new trainer.
posted by charlesv at 12:09 PM on June 4

Oodles of Noodles?? There is nothing in Oodles of Noodles that's good for you. Even if you don't include the packets of flavored sodium, that's still a mass of saturated fat and processed white carbs. I'd be ultra-wary of any diet plan that suggests they might be good for you, let alone three packs after dinner.

This plan sounds like it's straight out of Hollywood Upstairs Medical College.
posted by Metroid Baby at 12:16 PM on June 4

That is an astonishingly bad diet, full of lots of things you should eat very little to none of at all (not because they are highly caloric, but because they are full of crap and highly processed). Consult a proper nutritionist to create a healthy diet that will provide sufficient calories for you to gain muscle.
posted by kosem at 12:16 PM on June 4

Eating won't slow your metabolism. Age takes care of that!
You should take your trainers plan to a nutritionist. That is a lot to eat in a day regardless of working out blah blah blah...
Are you trying to bulk up? All that protein + lifting.... If so, why?
You are 20 now, one day you will be like me, 40 trying to get the weight off. Find the middle ground and don't go nuts is my advice.
posted by a3matrix at 12:17 PM on June 4

Yeah, this is ridiculous. Is this a joke post?

Anyway, correct me if I'm wrong, but typically increasing your food consumption *speeds up* metabolism, right? Regardless, when you change your diet, your metabolism will adjust.
posted by iguanapolitico at 12:17 PM on June 4

You do need to eat a lot of calories to put on muscle but this diet plan sucks. You shouldn't sacrifice health for sheer volume. Go nuts with chicken breasts, low-glycemic fruit, veggies, whole grains, lean beef, turket, peanut butter, etc. but don't eat fast food. Check out some of the diet articles on Testosterone Nation and Bodybuilding.com.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 12:24 PM on June 4

Your trainer is a joke. The ONLY legit items on that list are the items that you drink (water, shakes).

If you CAN follow through with that diet, prepare for VERY HIGH cholesterol, nausea, vomiting, and generally feeling of "blah".

I'm guessing your trainer is a new guy who can only do math using 1 or 2 variables (protein, calories). He has no comprehension of other nutrients.

Don't do it. Good luck.
posted by hal_c_on at 1:02 PM on June 4

If you ate all that food you'd be hugely fat, very quickly. Either your trainer is nuts or there are some ORs missing there. Plus you'll probably spend half the day in the toilet with all that food plus 1 gallon of water.
posted by missmagenta at 1:07 PM on June 4

6 scrambled eggs
475 calories (assumes no milk)

3 slices of bread
200 Calories (approx.)

one bowl of cereal
220 calories (blueberry frosted miniwheats with skim milk, because that's the box in the office kitchen)

6 slices of bacon
850 calories

one apple
80 calories.

That's 1825 calories. For breakfast. You are going to puke, die or both.
posted by dersins at 1:13 PM on June 4

6 slices of bacon
850 calories

Fortunately, no.
posted by Evangeline at 1:20 PM on June 4

Is this a diet for a human, or a duck/goose being fattened for foie gras?

This is incredibly unhealthy. In addition to being high-calorie and high-fat (and very high in saturated fats, just the oodles of noodles alone make up half the daily maximum recommended amount of saturated fat), at about 4,800 mg a day, you'd be taking in 2 - 3x the maximum recommended amount of sodium.

If you ate like this everyday, I would be shocked if you had the energy or health to get a good workout.

I don't know if it will slow down your metabolism. Since I don't know what kind of training you are doing, it is hard to even speculate whether or not 60-90 mins is enough to counter the amount of calories and fat. However, if you get used to eating like this, and continue after you stop working out, you will get fat. Very, very fat.
posted by necessitas at 1:23 PM on June 4

6 slices of bacon
850 calories

Fortunately, no.

Thats some really tiny bacon at 43 calories per slice.

Its also interesting that the raw bacon is listed as 157 calories per slice. The bacon would have to be more than 50% fat (and that fat would have to all be removed by cooking) for those figures to be correct
posted by missmagenta at 1:29 PM on June 4

I don't know of any evidence that eating a lot slows one's metabolism.
posted by OmieWise at 1:31 PM on June 4

I think for any of us to properly assess this diet plan we would need to know what you currently eat, specifically the amount of calories you consume per day. If you're already consuming, let's say 5,000 calories and are maintaining your weight then this diet probably isn't as over the top as everyone above is saying. I doubt you are eating that much though. And since you are obviously a hard-gainer I would recommend only upping your diet by about 1,000 calories per day (i.e. two 500 calorie protein shakes). That will be plenty to support a weight gain (read: more muscle mass). If not, add more food the next week.

I would, however, concentrate on healthier food with less cholestoral and less saturated fat. Try oatmeal instead of the eggs and bacon for breakfast. And always make sure your eating plenty of vegetables and fruit. And keep this in mind: you will gain fat if you're gaining weight. There's no way around that.

But to answer the question, you're metabolism will stay the same. I've went through a similarly sized diet, as far as calories and protein go, about two years ago. (Here's a tip for those Chipotle burritos: ask for them double wrapped, that is, with an extra tortilla because it's free calories.) You can expect big gains if you eat big. My weight went up 15 pounds in a couple months, and my strength gain was impressive. But a few months into my diet I had an injury that prevented me from lifting for a month and a half and so I stopped stuffing myself because it can be really expensive, and I would have probably gotten fat eating that much. Plus I like to run and bike and be active which burns off tons of calories that have to be accounted for with more eating when you're shooting for weight gains. But I can still eat as much as and whatever I want without gaining weight. In fact, I'm struggling to maintain my weight right now and I'm eating over 3,000 calories a day. So no, my metabolism was not affected by my diet changes.

And for the record, IANAD but I am a hard-gainer.
posted by trueluk at 1:39 PM on June 4

The bacon in my refrigerator is 70 calories a slice according to the package, and it's just regular old bacon. That comes out to 420 for 6 slices, which is more than the website states, but it's still not 850!

Are you guys battering your bacon and deep frying it? 'Cause that might explain it. Don't do that.
posted by Evangeline at 1:41 PM on June 4

If you are a hard-gainer, then you DO need to eat a lot, and you do need to have a LOT of protein.

However, your eating plan, while high in protein and calories, is of pretty crappy quality. Eating more won't slow your metabolism, but if you want to build quality weight healthfully you need to eat quality foods.

If I were you, I would figure out how many grams of protein you're supposed to have, and make sure you get that from lean animal protein sources, eating many meals across the day. You don't want to eat more than one gram per pound of body weight of protein in a day--your body can't process much more than that anyway, so all you will do is put excess strain on your kidneys and piss and poop the extra out. So you will need 120g of protein--more as you gain more weight. Split across five meals, try to get 24-25 grams of protein every meal.

Eat get at least two or three servings of fruits or vegetables a meal. Try to get at least one cup of green, leafy vegetables a meal. You can use the other serving on fruit or vegetables--keep in mind that fruit is more compact, so it will fill you up less.

Finally, figure out how many calories total you want to eat per day. I'm guessing if you are a super-hard gainer, with 60-90 minute weight-lifting workouts, you want at least 3,000 calories a day. Adjust it as needed, of course, but start there. So to fill the rest in, you want to eat fat, a LOT of fat. The idea that fat is somehow "bad" for you is a pretty outdated, unfounded nutritional myth (read "Good Calories, Bad Calories" by Gary Taubes, he has written for Science and has top-notch credentials). Stay away from trans-fats and you'll be fine. Fat is high in calories and thus a very easy, compact source of energy. You can get these calories from eating tons of nuts, adding coconut milk to everything, drizzling olive oil over your vegetables and meats, and, if you are really having trouble, taking extra-virgin olive oil shots. No, seriously. It is gross, but it is efficient and will get you the calories your body needs.

Or, if it's easier, scrap the eating plan, eat in quantities of food you're comfortable in (limiting yourself to fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and fats)--and then add a gallon of milk a day on top of that. If your system (and bank account) can take it, this method is GOLD for building muscle.
posted by schroedinger at 2:18 PM on June 4

I am not a nutritionist or a trainer, but just as a matter of common sense, that diet is FUCKING INSANE. Lunch is at least 2000 calories (a chipotle burrito is ordinarily almost a thousand calories on its own) alone. Perhaps your trainer has you confused with a horse? (Ok, that's only about 1/3 horse calories. But still...)
posted by paultopia at 3:12 PM on June 4

If by "lose your metabolism" you mean "die," I think this diet gives you a fighting chance.
posted by gum at 3:17 PM on June 4

You're 21 years old.

The human body starts dying at 21-22.

Be ready for your metabolism to slow down, whether you like it or not.
posted by crunch buttsteak at 4:23 PM on June 4

My mistake, 20, so you're not dying yet! Lucky you :D
posted by crunch buttsteak at 4:24 PM on June 4

There is no way you'll be able to eat that much food without throwing up. Most people who think they have "fast metabolisms" and "can eat whatever they want without gaining" are not actually eating that much. I thought the exact same thing about myself, but when I started carefully tracking what I ate, I was startled to find that I was barely breaking 2K calories a day. I now shoot for about 3200 (I weigh a bit more than you) and I've been gaining steadily.

The usual metric is your weight x 20 calories in order to gain, so you'd want to try eating about 2400 calories a day (of course this changes if you've carefully tracked your intake and found that you're already eating more than that). Make sure that you're getting 120 grams of protein, preferably from lean sources like chicken and fish, and eat your veggies.

Also, this page has some helpful tips on gaining weight specifically for skinny guys.
posted by myeviltwin at 4:27 PM on June 4

Your 20, no need to worry about your metabolism. This diet is not insane, but it is poorly planned. The one and only thing I got from the Body For Life program was when they first started. There were a couple of guys who started out very skinny, and they obviously gained the most muscle out of everybody. At one point in the video they were talking and they said they were taking in anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 calories a day. To see massive changes in your body, you will have to make massive changes to your diet.
posted by P.o.B. at 5:45 PM on June 4

Anyone who says this diet is not insane is insane.
posted by King Bee at 9:12 PM on June 4

Anyone who is insane can't clarify what is insane and what isn't.
Anyone who doesn't work out regularly and read through tons of literature on the subject (and I'm not talking about Muscle & Fitness) doesn't know what it takes to seriously build muscle.
I don't think you're insane, but I also don't think you really know what the poster should be eating.
posted by P.o.B. at 9:47 PM on June 4

No one in the world should be eating chipotle burritos and "oodles of noodles". Those things are basically poison.
posted by King Bee at 4:27 AM on June 5

I don't know about calories, but all of this sounds like a lot more salt than one should consume in one day.
posted by qvtqht at 9:45 PM on June 5