Numbers that Tell it All: I Have a Real Problem!

I am so glad that I learned all of these numbers immediately prior to repairing this situation.  I would have first gone crazy, and then gotten pretty depressed.

So...one thing that is absolutely unique to the Mind:Body Method is the full series of physical assessments that each participant goes through.  Success in this protocol is not measured solely in "Pounds and Inches" (to quote the title of the original, 50-year-old science that is currently running the hCG show out there).  Success also encompasses a faster resting metabolic rate at the end of the extremely low calorie protocol.  This absolutely flies in the face of everything known in the fitness industry regarding the effect of calorie restriction on the metabolism. 

Believe me, I have learned and read everything I can get my hands on over the years in an effort to raise my metabolism.  I am a workout FANATIC.  Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is everything--the number of calories you burn doing nothing.  RMR is really what separates out all those (insert expletive here) people who can eat whatever they want and never gain weight from people like me who really have to work at it.

I haven't known until now exactly what my RMR was, but I do everything right from a metabolic training perspective.  I do intense restistance training (Tabata-style, for those of you fitness people out there!), I have participated in intense boot-camps and personal training for years on end.  I eat small frequent meals.  I am ridiculously strong for a female: I can bike 100 miles in one day, I lift the same amount or more than the men in my boot camp, I can hold two-point planks til the cows come home, and my trainer literally has to sit on me to make a side-plank challenging anymore. 

Get the picture?  I work out...HARD.  I have A LOT of muscle.  Here's my first number from my assessment:  My resting pulse rate is 49.  I am in great freaking shape.

Are you ready for the pisser?  My Resting Metabolic Rate is 1360.  That is below average.

What exactly does this tell me?  Well, this number, combined with the fact that any reduction whatsoever in my workout intensity or frequency results in huge and instant weight gain, tells me that metabolic training in the fitness sense has completely failed me.  I have a different problem.

How can I have a resting heart rate of 49 and an RMR of 1360?  I have a hormonal problem.  I can workout til the cows come home--and I have--and all that it will do is make my endocrine system think that that is normal.  It won't raise my RMR--it will just create an environment in which reduction of intense exercise will make me gain more fat.

Get me off of this train!  It's time to fix my hormones.  My muscles just ain't cuttin' it.