"Starvation Mode"

jenathp

Ok. I am even guilty of using this term. Quite literally the answer is no you can't get fat from not eating. Otherwise look at 3rd world countries with food issues, they wouldn't be dying of starvation they would be getting fat. However, here is what CAN happen. Your metabolism can and will slow down if you do calorie restriction and DO NOT EXERCISE.

The effects of caloric restriction and exercise on resting metabolic rate (RMR) were studied in obese humans. Subjects consumed a 500 kcal.d-1 diet for 4 wk, with the subjects remaining sedentary during the first 2 wk and then exercising 30 min daily at 60% VO2max during the last 2 wk of caloric restriction. After 2 wk of dieting, RMR decreased to approximately 87% of the pre-dieting control value. Over the last 2 wk of dieting with the addition of daily exercise, the fall in RMR was reversed as it returned to the pre-dieting level. In summary, daily exercise reversed the drop in RMR associated with severe caloric restriction.

Now, none of us should be on a 500 calorie diet but you get the point. When you restrict calories (such as many of us are doing at 1200 a day when we were up around 3000) then your metabolism CAN slow down and change resulting in not losing weight as fast as you want. However, doing exercise will reverse that slow down and allow your metabolism to speed up and burn more calories throughout the day.

I found this same problem...doing 1200 calories a day and I wasn't doing my exercise meant that I was slowing down on weight loss. Now that I'm exercising again my weight loss has started back up.

rankinsect

The idea that your metabolism can slow a bit in response to food deprivation is real, what most people who talk about starvation mode are wrong about is the magnitude of the change.

jenathp

A 13% drop in RMR for someone who is obese can be upwards of 400-500 calories per day. If you're going for a 1 pound a week weight loss that drop in RMR without exercise can mean hitting a plateau where you don't lose weight at all. Adding exercise, it takes 2 weeks to regain the RMR loss...I recently had this happen personally and have done tons of medical research to figure out WHY this was happening. Now I know and have seen the results.

EvgeniZyntx

study link?

13% drop in 2 weeks seems a little high, I'm willing to bet that the variance on that is all over the place, but still Adaptive Thermogenesis is a thing...

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss

jenathp

Molé PA, Stern JS, Schultz CL, Bernauer EM, Holcomb BJ
Department of Physical Education, University of California, Davis 95616.
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise [1989, 21(1):29-33]
Type: Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

T1DCarnivoreRunner

My experience is a bit different. I'll acknowledge that my experiences for a lot of things related to weight loss are different than most on MFP can understand. For some of those things that nobody here understands, I have scientific explanations. For this, I do not...

Once, I went from a small daily deficit to a larger daily deficit (i.e. I was already weighing food and eating to lose - the only change was how much I ate, not what I ate or how it was measured). Immediately, I started gaining weight. After 3 consecutive weeks of weight gain, I returned to a smaller daily deficit. Within a few days, I stopped gaining weight. The threshhold that made a difference was BMR. If I eat less than BMR, I gain.

I'm not saying my experience proves "starvation mode" is a thing. But I am saying that sometimes people experience things that the average MFP user cannot explain.

jenathp

@midwesterner85 I do agree, every body is different.

summalovaable

No, you will not gain weight in a calorically restrictive diet (that's simple science).

Yes, you will slow your metabolism and become more efficient in storing excess calories as fat (that's slightly more complicated science)

Never assume the findings from one scientific study are relevant, never assume they apply to you.

Fuel your body, stop looking for the easy way out and enjoy the journey.

jenathp

So, the study didn't say anything about gaining weight but rather that the RMR would drop and therefore you could plateau or not lose as MUCH weight as you were before... That's science. Having said that, every BODY is different and sometimes our bodies do things that science can't explain. That's why there are doctors and medicine, to counteract what one BODY does to make it line up with what most other bodies do.

I'm just trying to help other people who think they have have their bodies go into starvation mode due to severe restrictive caloric intake and not understand why they aren't losing as fast as they did in the first two weeks...adding exercise will counteract the RMR drop but it won't happen overnight. That's also science.

amberlyda1

jenathp wrote: »

So, the study didn't say anything about gaining weight but rather that the RMR would drop and therefore you could plateau or not lose as MUCH weight as you were before... That's science. Having said that, every BODY is different and sometimes our bodies do things that science can't explain. That's why there are doctors and medicine, to counteract what one BODY does to make it line up with what most other bodies do.

I'm just trying to help other people who think they have have their bodies go into starvation mode due to severe restrictive caloric intake and not understand why they aren't losing as fast as they did in the first two weeks...adding exercise will counteract the RMR drop but it won't happen overnight. That's also science.

yep. I have used the term "starvation mode"...and man do you get attacked quick and sent tons of articles about death camps etc. Its kind of funny.
Yes you RMR does go down, when you restrict caloric intake; this is science. If you look at other developing countries you can see healthy populations living on far less food than we would ever be able to because their bodies have a lower RMR. When people are denied or have severely restricted diets they have to reintroduce regular amounts of food to their body slowly or the get sick I believe it is called refeeding syndrome. This is an obvious extreme but it expresses the point that our bodies adapt to what we expose it