Starvation Mode Real or Bogus?
grandpoobah12
Posts: 138
I know this is a hot topic on MFP. Do you think starvation mode is real?
I`ve been on here for 40 days and 0 lbs lost. My fit bit says I burn about 2800-3000 cal per day. I usually eat around 1600. I have been eating around 1600 for years before coming on this site. I have held on to the same 20 lbs I need to lose for 3 years.
Of course I believe eating too much is the cause of my weight. Yet I am an unusually healthy eater, cook most of my meals, lots of lean protein, veggies, etc. I started out eating the 1200 but lost nothing in two weeks, upped to 1600 for the remainder and lost nothing. Indeed I haven`t gained weight either. Now at day 40 I am trying for 1800-2000 per day. Am I setting myself up for a fall?
In your opinion, do you think starvation mode has any real impact? Or is it all in my head?
I`ve been on here for 40 days and 0 lbs lost. My fit bit says I burn about 2800-3000 cal per day. I usually eat around 1600. I have been eating around 1600 for years before coming on this site. I have held on to the same 20 lbs I need to lose for 3 years.
Of course I believe eating too much is the cause of my weight. Yet I am an unusually healthy eater, cook most of my meals, lots of lean protein, veggies, etc. I started out eating the 1200 but lost nothing in two weeks, upped to 1600 for the remainder and lost nothing. Indeed I haven`t gained weight either. Now at day 40 I am trying for 1800-2000 per day. Am I setting myself up for a fall?
In your opinion, do you think starvation mode has any real impact? Or is it all in my head?
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Replies
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Are you drinking plenty of water every day and moving around and getting exercise? I'm guessing yes to the exercise with the calories you are burning. After 40 days you should have lost something by now. I know people preach the whole "Starvation mode" thing, but I've been eating under my calorie goal for three months and I've lost 33+lbs.
I can't see your food diary, but there are things you can do. Watching your sodium level can help, as well as drinking plenty of water and cutting out diet drinks.
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What do the starving children of (fill in the blank) country think? Do they go into starvation mode????0
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You said in a previous thread that you only ate 500 calories and lost a bunch of weight. I think you ruined your metabolism. I don't think starvation mode is what you think it is.0
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If you are actually burning 2800-3000 calories a day and only eating 1600 calories... that would mean you are netting -1400/-1200 per day...
"Starvation mode" is when your body does not get enough food to run its normal functions and -1400 calories would definitely fall under that.......
Have you been taking measurements or photos?0 -
Do I believe that not eating enough can be just as damaging to your health as eating too much?
Yes
Do I believe there is a magic number at which your body "stores fat"?
No
Do I believe that not eating enough can cause your metabolism to slow down enough to where it actually matches your intake and takes you out of a deficit?
Yes, but it can take months/years for this to happen
Do I believe that if you don't eat enough you can risk losing LBM?
Yes
Do I believe that even short women can eat more than 1200 calories a day and still lose weight?
Yep....strength training = more lbm = more calories you need to eat.....Heck I'm 5'4 and have days where I can eat up to 2500 calories and still be in a deficit0 -
Personally I think it is real. Stop giving your body what it needs and it will try to adapt to save itself. I do not think you can go into starvation mode in one day though. Now on these forums I've seen people stuck on a plateau without losing any weight and someone suggests they increase their calorie intake by 100 or so calories. Those people then report back saying they've finally lost weight.
I eat 1660 calories and can lose weight even if Friday through Sunday I eat what ever I want. Although I seem to not lose weight very well unless I take my B100 vitamins plus my Green tea + Hoodia supplements.
B Vitamins are good for metabolism
Green Tea is supposedly good for metabolism
Hoodia is only good for curbing appetite a teeny tiny bit.0 -
All I know is I've been stuck around the same 5 lbs for over a year. I eat right and workout. My body media says I burn 2500 a day. According to that I should have wasted away to nothing by now. I have not. So right now I'm upping my calories. I'm gonna prove it right or wrong. One way or another. I figure what I've done hasn't worked. So I either need to eat more or eat less. So I'll eat more first ;-). Basically I've run out of ideas. I've seen MANY others struggle. So either everyone's lying or off in their measurements or its real. Something real is happening. Is it starvation mode? Metabolic adaptation? I don't even care at this point. I wanna figure it out and fix it.
I'm sorry I know this isn't an answer. More of a commiseration.0 -
If you are actually burning 2800-3000 calories a day and only eating 1600 calories... that would mean you are netting -1400/-1200 per day...
"Starvation mode" is when your body does not get enough food to run its normal functions and -1400 calories would definitely fall under that.......
Have you been taking measurements or photos?
Ok. Screw what FitBit says right or wrong. First, you need to figure out, with a margin for error, what amount of energy needs to maintain its currentlyfunction. So, if your BMR is 1700 (the absolute amount necessary to stay alive and healthy) and you eat 100 calories less plus burn an additional 1200 calories, where exactly is your body getting energy from in order to support a healthy metabolism and reproduction of cells. ADP process requires energy, without it, it slows down. Hence, STARVATION MODE. If FitBit says you burn 2800-3000 calories then you need to be eating 2000-2200 calories a day in order to facilitate weight loss.
The starving children comment is just wrong. Poor kids0 -
The starving children comment is just wrong. Poor kids
The poor starving children also tend to get Kwashiorkor
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this isn't starvation mode. something else is going on here. "starvation mode" is from seriously undereating for a prolonged period of time, causing your metabolism to slow down, and your body to begin using muscles to try to keep itself alive. It doesn't happen overnight. Or even in a month. Its how the body tries to save your life during a famine..real or imposed.
I'm not sure what's going on with you, but reexamining your measurements and logging would be the first place to start to figure it out.0 -
call it starvation mode or metabolism slow down or whatever you need to eat to fuel your body and when you don't it changes how it burns what you are eating.
That easy.0 -
Like someone mentioned, starvation mode happens when, say, a 150lb male eats 900 cals a day for years. It doesn't happen easily.0
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The starving children comment is just wrong. Poor kids
How is it wrong? I am totally serious on my point. If there is a such thing as 'starvation mode' where your body holds on to whatever calories, would children be starving? It is not being rude, or wrong, it is being truthful and serious.0 -
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What do the starving children of (fill in the blank) country think? Do they go into starvation mode????
Well yes, how else to explain why they can survive so long on less calories than they actually require. You would eventually die from starvation but not if you had a minimum of calories to continue body function.
Or how about anorexic people? They can eat nothing for days and they survive for a long time with a minimum of food.0 -
You said in a previous thread that you only ate 500 calories and lost a bunch of weight. I think you ruined your metabolism. I don't think starvation mode is what you think it is.
Yes, that was 3 years ago and since then I have worked on gaining muscle back. My metabolism should be better by now. You don`t ruin your metabolism forever.0 -
All I know is I've been stuck around the same 5 lbs for over a year. I eat right and workout. My body media says I burn 2500 a day. According to that I should have wasted away to nothing by now. I have not. So right now I'm upping my calories. I'm gonna prove it right or wrong. One way or another. I figure what I've done hasn't worked. So I either need to eat more or eat less. So I'll eat more first ;-). Basically I've run out of ideas. I've seen MANY others struggle. So either everyone's lying or off in their measurements or its real. Something real is happening. Is it starvation mode? Metabolic adaptation? I don't even care at this point. I wanna figure it out and fix it.
I'm sorry I know this isn't an answer. More of a commiseration.
Thank you. This is exactly how I feel. Let`s figure this out.0 -
What do the starving children of (fill in the blank) country think? Do they go into starvation mode????
Well yes, how else to explain why they can survive so long on less calories than they actually require. You would eventually die from starvation but not if you had a minimum of calories to continue body function.
Or how about anorexic people? They can eat nothing for days and they survive for a long time with a minimum of food.
No. What people are pointing out is that your body will eventually change how it uses calories, but the idea of "starvation mode," where you fall below some invisible magic calorie number and suddenly your body just stops losing weight, doesn't exist. Yes, your metabolism can slow down from eating less than it needs and yes, eventually, your body will start to catabolize other tissue in order to preserve brain function, but that isn't going to happen because someone with 30% body fat is eating less than they require for a month or two.0 -
Oh interesting, so if I burn so much more than I eat I may have metabolic slowdown but it`s a small difference. So even if I starved 3 years ago and have been eating more than 1000 cal under my 'percieved ' fit bit level for those 3 years. I have stayed at the same weight because that is the real amount I should eat for my size. My fit bit is just completely wonky.
yet when I ate 900 cal per day I lost nothing. And when I weeks later upped it to 1600, I gained no weight but lost none too.
Time to get my thyroid checked? But I should gain weight if I have a thyroid prob. I don`t have other thyroid factors either.
The one thing I haven`t done is eat more than 1600. Maybe time to trot out the 1800 or 2000? At 5'9" 182, 38 years, and 26% bf is this just a ridiculous amount of cal to lose weight at? Am I crazy? my buddies on MFP mostly eat less than net 1200 cal per day, work out, and lose weight.0 -
Just based on a rough online calculator, your BMR alone is a hair under 1600 calories, so no, I don't think eating 1800/day is at all ridiculous! Why not give it a shot?0
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i just clicked on your diary and saw a bunch of "quick added calories".
So I'm suspecting you aren't using a food scale, and your deficit is actually unknown.
start measuring your food, see how many cals you have to eat to maintain by keeping records, and work from there.0 -
His diet was an 1 apple and a cup of coffee a day.0 -
^ Agreed, don't just quick add calories. You need to be accurately logging your food, calories AND your macro and micro nutrients. Invest in a food scale because we have no idea how you are measuring your food, if you even are at all. You could be eating more calories than you think.i just clicked on your diary and saw a bunch of "quick added calories".
So I'm suspecting you aren't using a food scale, and your deficit is actually unknown.
start measuring your food, see how many cals you have to eat to maintain by keeping records, and work from there.
Before I got a food scale, I just eyeballed my food measurements and logged it for whatever I thought it was. I was actually eating closer to 3 servings instead of just 1, it can make hundreds of calories worth of difference in the span of a day.
And for the record, no, I don't believe in starvation mode... at least not how it's perceived these days. ie; "if you don't eat every 3 hours your metabolism crashes" "if you don't eat for a day, your body will hold onto fat because your body thinks it's starving" < that's all the biggest crock of s*** that's floating around the internet and fitness magazines.0 -
All I know is I've been stuck around the same 5 lbs for over a year. I eat right and workout. My body media says I burn 2500 a day. According to that I should have wasted away to nothing by now. I have not. So right now I'm upping my calories. I'm gonna prove it right or wrong. One way or another. I figure what I've done hasn't worked. So I either need to eat more or eat less. So I'll eat more first ;-). Basically I've run out of ideas. I've seen MANY others struggle. So either everyone's lying or off in their measurements or its real. Something real is happening. Is it starvation mode? Metabolic adaptation? I don't even care at this point. I wanna figure it out and fix it.
I'm sorry I know this isn't an answer. More of a commiseration.
Thank you. This is exactly how I feel. Let`s figure this out.
Game on!!!0 -
Bogus. See http://neatbodies.com/?p=823#axzz2ZJSZpuEh
That's not to say it doesn't exist. It's just not something the average dieter ever has to worry about.0 -
i just clicked on your diary and saw a bunch of "quick added calories".
So I'm suspecting you aren't using a food scale, and your deficit is actually unknown.
start measuring your food, see how many cals you have to eat to maintain by keeping records, and work from there.
Right, you might do this too if you counted calories for 3 years and lost no weight. I`m pretty sick of it. 3 years of using MFP. You get this right?
I have done this in the past, weigh everything, for months at a time. I have an excellent idea of how many calories are in things. Years of calorie counting! Years! Also, cook for family, use lots of vegetables, yadda yadda. If anything, I overestimate by50- 100 at least for each meal.
really, I should say I hate the idea that I must count each food I eat for the rest of my life. That is how long a lifestyle lasts isn`t it. But I wasn`t saying critique my logging method. I am saying
Do you personally think starvation mode is real or not.0 -
His diet was an 1 apple and a cup of coffee a day.
Right, I totally see this.
say I diet to 1500-1600 during the week and binge up to 2300 on the weekend one or two days. My average is 1800 and my glucose levels just bounce around. so I lose two kg during the week and gain it back in two days. It`s water. And a vicious cycle.
If I did eat an apple and a cup of coffee a day, I would look like Christian Bale. (that`s him right) But what if I am eating just enough to keep my body functioning on some days, my tdee on one day, and less than my bmr on 3 days a week. If I am eating too little on average why don`t I lose weight?
The difference between having no food, and chronically under eating by a little. Is that what starvation mode is about?0 -
His diet was an 1 apple and a cup of coffee a day.
Right, I totally see this.
say I diet to 1500-1600 during the week and binge up to 2300 on the weekend one or two days. My average is 1800 and my glucose levels just bounce around. so I lose two kg during the week and gain it back in two days. It`s water. And a vicious cycle.
If I did eat an apple and a cup of coffee a day, I would look like Christian Bale. (that`s him right) But what if I am eating just enough to keep my body functioning on some days, my tdee on one day, and less than my bmr on 3 days a week. If I am eating too little on average why don`t I lose weight?
The difference between having no food, and chronically under eating by a little. Is that what starvation mode is about?
Yeah I have no idea how this was supposed to answer your question... Maybe you actually asked "what would happen if Christian bale ate an apple and drank some coffee?"0
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