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How Much Does BMR Drop After surgery



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With the sometimes significant loss of tissue That accompanies bariatric surgery, it only makes logical sense that BMR would drop. There is simply less tissue metabolizing nutrients to stay alive.

But is there a systemic/hormonal drop in BMR on top of that more mechanical one?
Is that why caloric needs for Bariatric patients seems to be relatively lower than the general population?

I am a large man even after weight loss, 6 foot one and 230 pounds. Yet my body fat percentage is 19% which is just barely within the normal range. I have very high muscle mass. So according to the inbody analyses I have had done at my local YMCA, my BMR alone based on muscle mass is close to 2600 calories a day. But then I am also super active on top of that, I exercise hard and regularly, and according to the standard model of 1 mile running equals 100 cal burned, it would seem that I would be burning another 500 to 1000 cal a day on top of BMR.
But then when I see my dietitian she says my goal should be under 1500 cal of intake. Generally I am under 2000 for sure. And all my food is good quality non processed, Protein centric, etc.

All of this, and my weight has stayed within 5 pounds for two years. It would seem if the math were as simple as it sounds, I should be losing a lot of weight still. But something seems to be happening metabolically.

Does anyone have any knowledge about what percentage of standard BMR having had bariatric surgery reduces?

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2 hours ago, wwboy said:

With the sometimes significant loss of tissue That accompanies bariatric surgery, it only makes logical sense that BMR would drop. There is simply less tissue metabolizing nutrients to stay alive.

But is there a systemic/hormonal drop in BMR on top of that more mechanical one?
Is that why caloric needs for Bariatric patients seems to be relatively lower than the general population?

I am a large man even after weight loss, 6 foot one and 230 pounds. Yet my body fat percentage is 19% which is just barely within the normal range. I have very high muscle mass. So according to the inbody analyses I have had done at my local YMCA, my BMR alone based on muscle mass is close to 2600 calories a day. But then I am also super active on top of that, I exercise hard and regularly, and according to the standard model of 1 mile running equals 100 cal burned, it would seem that I would be burning another 500 to 1000 cal a day on top of BMR.
But then when I see my dietitian she says my goal should be under 1500 cal of intake. Generally I am under 2000 for sure. And all my food is good quality non processed, Protein centric, etc.

All of this, and my weight has stayed within 5 pounds for two years. It would seem if the math were as simple as it sounds, I should be losing a lot of weight still. But something seems to be happening metabolically.

Does anyone have any knowledge about what percentage of standard BMR having had bariatric surgery reduces?

BMR is weight and age sensitive, I'm pretty sure it doesn't change just from having the surgery, it's the weight loss that changes the BMR total.

https://bariatricsurgeryco.org/bariatric-surgery-information/bmi-calculators/bmr-us-basic-metabolic-rate/

Something lots of folks miss is the Water, the human body requires water to not only work it's normal day to day processes, but for fat removal as well, if we don't give the body enough water to meet it's needs and then extra for the fat reduction, fat processing suffers.

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I get BMR and it also confuses me. I know what it is, I know (mostly) how it works, it was covered in a nutrition class I took in college but sometimes it doesn't make sense to me. With my weight/height/age/gender my BMR should be roughly 1765, I eat less than 1000 calories, and I exercise about an hour a day. I've been drinking about 80 ounces of Water but I'm not really losing much, only a few pounds a month lately. I can't see how I can physically fit more water in. I'm technically 4.5 months out, 67 pounds down. I need to re-do my measurements again. But I've lost 35 inches

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So - I'm 2 years out and just had a resting metabolic assessment today (which is used to calculate BMR). I'm half the person I was when I started this journey. But keep in mind, most times my resting heart rate is in the mid 40s. My body fat is around 30% which is pretty darn good for a post-menopausal woman who has had two kids.

I also know that I have always had a slow metabolism. I was a competitive athlete in my teens and even with training 4-5 hours a day, I needed to stay under 2500 calories to make weight. (I was an ice dancer - if I went over 125, my partner would drop me.)

Told my nutrition coach this prior to the test and he didn't believe me. Preliminary results are that I need 1100 calories to keep the lights on - which is what I have been eating. Occasionally, I'll lose a pound here and there, but at this point I'm more concerned with replacing fat with muscle.

The research I've read indicates that for men, age is the single greatest factor to decreasing BMR and it goes down with each year once you reach about 30.

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2 hours ago, Diana_in_Philly said:

So - I'm 2 years out and just had a resting metabolic assessment today (which is used to calculate BMR). I'm half the person I was when I started this journey. But keep in mind, most times my resting heart rate is in the mid 40s. My body fat is around 30% which is pretty darn good for a post-menopausal woman who has had two kids.

I also know that I have always had a slow metabolism. I was a competitive athlete in my teens and even with training 4-5 hours a day, I needed to stay under 2500 calories to make weight. (I was an ice dancer - if I went over 125, my partner would drop me.)

Told my nutrition coach this prior to the test and he didn't believe me. Preliminary results are that I need 1100 calories to keep the lights on - which is what I have been eating. Occasionally, I'll lose a pound here and there, but at this point I'm more concerned with replacing fat with muscle.

The research I've read indicates that for men, age is the single greatest factor to decreasing BMR and it goes down with each year once you reach about 30.

That's an awesome body fat percentage for any age for a woman! My resting heart rate is low to mid 50s, I'm approaching 40.

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