Question about the starvation mode myth

jvs125
jvs125 Posts: 223 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so I keep reading starvation mode is a myth.

But, after being on a calorie deficit for months and working out 6 days per week, weight training and cardio, My weight loss has completely stalled. For months now, and I don't care much about scale, but inches aren't coming down.

I was thinking maybe I should increase my calorie intake to see if it helps the fat loss process but if starvation mode is a myth, then that would not help... So what would help?

I'm 33, female, 5'4", 127 pounds and currently eat between 1200-1500 cals daily..
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Replies

  • MissusMoon
    MissusMoon Posts: 1,900 Member
    I'm reading that you would need 1241 calories to lose a pound per week with your height. Working out obviously helps. I think you'd better brace yourself for being reminded to weigh everything you eat.

    Perhaps you can try eating at the bottom of your range, which is 1200-ish to lose a pound per week?
  • jvs125
    jvs125 Posts: 223 Member
    Eating 1200-1500 cals daily, NOT counting the burn from my workout..
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    The closer you get to your goal, the smaller your margin of error is. Have you been adjusting your calorie goal as you lose? If you have a small frame you are right within idea weight for your height, which means it is going to be extremely difficult to continue losing. Talking a quarter to half pound a week. If you are not happy with the way you look I recommend you do some research on body recomposition.
  • biocowgirl
    biocowgirl Posts: 1 Member
    Starvation mode is not a myth, if you are severely restricting your calories you can cause your body to store more fat and build less muscle, even when working out. Check out his nifty calculator to see how much you should be eating (complete with breakdown of your macros): https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/
    And this great, although lengthy article about building muscle while losing fat : http://www.muscleforlife.com/build-muscle-lose-fat/
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    How are you calculating how many calories you are consuming?

    So I ran some numbers for you:

    Sedentary lifestyle - 0 workouts
    TDEE: 1457

    Sedentary lifestyle - 3 workouts a week - 30 min workouts - moderate intensity
    TDEE: 1553

    Sedentary lifestyle - 3 workouts a week - 60 min workouts - moderate intensity
    TDEE: 1650

    Lightly Active lifestyle - 3 workouts a week - 30 min workouts - moderate intensity
    TDEE: 1680

    Lightly Active lifestyle - 3 workouts a week - 60 min workouts - moderate intensity
    TDEE: 1777

    Lightly Active lifestyle - 5 workouts a week - 60 min workouts - moderate intensity
    TDEE: 1905

    Sedentary lifestyle - 7 workouts a week - 60 min workouts - moderate intensity
    TDEE: 1907

  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    jvs125 wrote: »
    Eating 1200-1500 cals daily, NOT counting the burn from my workout..

    @jvs125 as noted by biocowgirl starvation mode is not a myth and eating in a starvation mode is 99.9% why my weight yo yo'ed for 40 years wrecking my health.

    Are you eating in a starvation mode I do not know. I do know the USDA states a female needs 1600-2000 calories to maintain good health.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    allenpriest wrote: »
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    jvs125 wrote: »
    Eating 1200-1500 cals daily, NOT counting the burn from my workout..

    @jvs125 as noted by biocowgirl starvation mode is not a myth and eating in a starvation mode is 99.9% why my weight yo yo'ed for 40 years wrecking my health.

    Are you eating in a starvation mode I do not know. I do know the USDA states a female needs 1600-2000 calories to maintain good health.

    You don't know what you are talking about. Sorry.

    @allenpriest do you have any science to back up your personal opinion on the subject?
  • allenpriest
    allenpriest Posts: 1,102 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    No one gets to 250lbs due to starvation...

    Indeed they do not. One gains by eating more, over time, than the body requires to maintain itself.

    That may come from restrict and binge. But filks seem to frequently underestimate what they consume and overestimate what they burn.
  • allenpriest
    allenpriest Posts: 1,102 Member
    edited April 2016
    Duplicate
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    No one gets to 250lbs due to starvation...

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk

    Dr. Jason Fung explains this @Christine_ in this 36 minute video. Run up to 21:00 if you wish to see how cutting calories to lose weigh can put one in starvation mode leading to weigh regain automatically at some point in time. Then go back and watch it from the start.

    If one is burning 1800 calories daily and cuts calories to 1500 triggering starvation mode over time lowers their daily burn rate down to 1300 calories which means eating 1500 calories becomes a 200 calorie surplus.
  • fatfudgery
    fatfudgery Posts: 449 Member
    OP, while starvation mode is a myth, metabolic adaptations to prolonged caloric restriction are real and may be at play in your case. You could try a reverse diet for a few weeks and see if that gets your TDEE back up so you can restart your cut and lose more weight. Bear in mind, however, that it probably won't make that much of a difference unless you're actively working on your body composition by strength training properly. If you're currently able to lift 6 days a week on a deficit, you're most likely not lifting heavy enough to get much fat-burning/body composition benefits from it. Get on a real lifting program with progressive overload and big, heavy compound movements.

    Also, cardio is an extremely ineffective way to lose weight, particularly for women, especially for women who are already fairly lean (which at 120-something pounds you probably are) and even more so for leaner women who've been calorie-restricted for a while. Do cardio because, as the name implies, it's good for your cardiovascular health - not because you want to lose weight.

    Dr. Layne Norton has written extensively going over a lot of the scientific research that explains all of this stuff. Lyle McDonald is also a good source. Look them up.
  • evildeadedd
    evildeadedd Posts: 108 Member
    http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,741 Member
    biocowgirl wrote: »
    Starvation mode is not a myth, if you are severely restricting your calories you can cause your body to store more fat and build less muscle, even when working out. Check out his nifty calculator to see how much you should be eating (complete with breakdown of your macros): https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/
    And this great, although lengthy article about building muscle while losing fat : http://www.muscleforlife.com/build-muscle-lose-fat/

    Prove it.
  • maxit
    maxit Posts: 880 Member
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/another-look-at-metabolic-damage.html
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    fatfudgery wrote: »
    OP, while starvation mode is a myth, metabolic adaptations to prolonged caloric restriction are real and may be at play in your case. You could try a reverse diet for a few weeks and see if that gets your TDEE back up so you can restart your cut and lose more weight. Bear in mind, however, that it probably won't make that much of a difference unless you're actively working on your body composition by strength training properly. If you're currently able to lift 6 days a week on a deficit, you're most likely not lifting heavy enough to get much fat-burning/body composition benefits from it. Get on a real lifting program with progressive overload and big, heavy compound movements.

    Also, cardio is an extremely ineffective way to lose weight, particularly for women, especially for women who are already fairly lean (which at 120-something pounds you probably are) and even more so for leaner women who've been calorie-restricted for a while. Do cardio because, as the name implies, it's good for your cardiovascular health - not because you want to lose weight.

    Dr. Layne Norton has written extensively going over a lot of the scientific research that explains all of this stuff. Lyle McDonald is also a good source. Look them up.

    https://bretcontreras.com/calling-out-lyle-mcdonald/

    @fatfudgery is above the exercise Lyle McDonald guy you are talking about who may hold an undergraduate exercise science degree? Have you seen Dr. Layne Norton's video to women that supports Dr. Jason Fung info on calorie restriction only sets you up for a 100%+ weight rebound. Dr. Norton does have out some great no BS pod casts as well on nutrition if you have not heard them.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=IhDnkrUEq6w

    Below is another link to Dr. Fung's video that explains how the starvation mode and downward metabolic adaptations are One and the Same caused by longer term (more than six weeks) calorie restrictions. While calorie restriction seldom works look at Intermittent Fasting (IF) that does work and why below.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk



  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    shadow2soul wrote: »
    biocowgirl wrote: »
    Starvation mode is not a myth, if you are severely restricting your calories you can cause your body to store more fat and build less muscle, even when working out. Check out his nifty calculator to see how much you should be eating (complete with breakdown of your macros): https://legionathletics.com/how-many-calories-should-i-eat/
    And this great, although lengthy article about building muscle while losing fat : http://www.muscleforlife.com/build-muscle-lose-fat/

    Nope. Severe restriction causes your body to start eating it's muscle and organs as well as your fat stores for fuel. Your metabolism will slow as your weight goes down, but your BF% is unlikely to change (possibly get higher) since you are losing your lean mass as well. However, your weight will continue to go down until you hit the point where you are eating right around your maintenance level (which will be lower then what would normally be estimated since lean body mass was lost).

    This is a great explanation of what happens when you are eating too little.

    OP, are you logging every single thing you put in your mouth to the gram (including prepackaged items, my prepackaged oatmeal can be off by 30-40 calories when I weigh it, do that with several items through the day and you wipe out your deficit)? As you get closer to goal weight, and particularly because you are smaller, it will become increasingly important that you are more accurate with your logging.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    GaleHawkins wrote: »
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    No one gets to 250lbs due to starvation...

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk

    Dr. Jason Fung explains this @Christine_ in this 36 minute video. Run up to 21:00 if you wish to see how cutting calories to lose weigh can put one in starvation mode leading to weigh regain automatically at some point in time. Then go back and watch it from the start.

    If one is burning 1800 calories daily and cuts calories to 1500 triggering starvation mode over time lowers their daily burn rate down to 1300 calories which means eating 1500 calories becomes a 200 calorie surplus.

    By which process does a TDEE of 1800 become a TDEE of 1300, a reduction of over 25%? What calorie burns go down and how, and why doesn't your body do that all the time to begin with as it is designed to store as much fat as possible on every single occasion?

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