I'm still not losing weight
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The problem with the term starvation mode is that people tend to think exactly as stated above, that your body will try to save fat and even add fat somehow, due to some metabolic crash brought on by eating low calories for a various definitions of a long time.
Actual starvation mode only happens once the body has gotten down to dangerously low levels of body fat and lean mass.
Definition I grabbed from Wiki
"Starvation mode is a state in which the body is responding to prolonged periods of low energy intake levels. During short periods of energy abstinence, the human body will burn primarily free fatty acids from body fat stores, along with small amounts of muscle tissue to provide required glucose for the brain. After prolonged periods of starvation the body has depleted its body fat and begins to burn primarily lean tissue and muscle as a fuel source."
If you have adequate body fat then you by definition still have available energy and cannot be starving. Eating 1000 calories a day or even less is not what starving is. I hope none of us ever experience starvation and to call forcing a low calorie diet with abundant fat stores starvation is darn shame.3 -
RowdysLady wrote: »
Can you explain what you mean and give us some research? My understanding is if we deprive ourselves of enough calories for long enough, that is exactly what will happen.
I tend to agree with her. Many people "starve" and aren't obese. It just doesn't make any logical sense really.
I have had this conversation with calorie in/calorie out people....and I always ask "If weight loss is strictly based on calories consumed, how can you THEN say that by consuming less calories you'll stop losing?"
I'd love to see research either way, to be honest. I will have to go look into it more.0 -
If you under eat to much you will eventually lose weight. Starvation mode doesn't work like that. In the short term you may see a pause as the stress your body is under has your hormones going crazy but eventually your body will go after fat stores and muscle.
OP you're stressing to much over the scale. You have lost weight and as others have pointed out there are other things going on masking any sort of loss. Sunny has it right, just stay the course, it's hard when all you want is a lower number on the scale. But trust the process your body is doing something else right now, let it finish that. Don't change anything to force the scale to move thus creating more stress on your body.2 -
Here's the photo that's kept me going when the scale hasn't moved below 150 in a year.
I weigh less in the photo on the left than in the photo on the right
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This MFP user's blog explains metabolic adaptation (adaptive thermogenesis) pretty well and simply and has references.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/EvgeniZyntx/view/not-starving-but-metabolic-adaptation-and-weight-loss-5675461 -
I think your experience is pretty typical. I dropped scale weight quickly at first and now I have seen little to no movement for a while, although as others have said, body measurements are still changing. And look at the big picture...you HAVE lost weight since June and over the time frame, it HAS been successful. Keep at it!
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RowdysLady wrote: »
Can you explain what you mean and give us some research? My understanding is if we deprive ourselves of enough calories for long enough, that is exactly what will happen.
http://ketogeniclifestyle.com/starvation-mode-and-muscle-wasting-myth-on-a-low-carbohydrate-diet/
there you go.
the upshot is, that yes, as you lose weight, your baseline calories will go down too, so you have to adjust down, but this is only a 5 - 10% decrease in metabolism, which is simply not low enough for your body to go into true starvation mode.
true starvation mode, (your body will start to severely safeguard reserves in order to preserve you) does not happen until you have lost almost all of your body fat.
this is not something that happens on diets that we normally consider as lower calorie, and it certainly doesn't happen on keto.2 -
Good YouTube is Dr. Zeeshran Arain on "Why am I not losing weight on LCHF"2
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@lodro : I do not take offense to your "bluntness", we all come to this forum to learn.
@baconslave : Thanks so much for your link to the blog post on Starvation Mode. I truly enjoyed reading it 2
