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Understanding the "starvation mode" myth.

Reaverie
Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
in Debate Club
You have to be a yo-yo dieter to truly understand what the starvation mode truly is. No its not "starving" yourself until your body rebels and makes you fat. If that were the case, all those starving children on those charity commercials would have more than just a distended belly to show for their hunger. No, starvation mode takes YEARS of abuse to yourself to show significant weight gain.

If you have ever been that "teen" who was 150 lbs and hanging with her 102 lb besties and ended up as a 300 lb bitter old lady (or just old lady..) years down the road, you can understand in part what I am talking about.

Here you are, 15 and 150 lbs. Your best friend (or sibling or cousin, whoever) is 102 dripping wet, pinching a non-existent roll on her waist and declaring she needs to jog 10 miles a day for a month to lose all that belly fat she irrationally believes she is carrying. You cant strangle her or smack sense into her cause that is just plain RUDE. But now you feel like a huge fat tub of disgusting lard cause if a size 0 model wanna be thinks she is fat, well then miss hippopotamus, you take the cake! And icing.. icecream.. soda.. cookies.. yeah you need some serious overhaul there! Determined not to remain the "fat" friend in this sorted relationship, you jump on the bandwagon and make the decision to diet and exercise your way into a new and improved you.

You start to count calories. And by counting calories, I mean, calories are now the enemy and any and all must now be eliminated from your existence!! You go on a starvation diet. To make sure that works out in your favor, you also join a gym, get into sports, drink 10 glasses of water a day, and stalk your best friend night and day to see what she is eating, what she is doing, what she knows that you DONT know about weight loss. And the weight melts off. Within months you are the lightest you have ever been! At 125 lbs you feel GREAT! Ok, so your friend dropped that half pound of "roll" and is now 101.5 lbs but hell, you are 125! So who cares? You went from a size 10 to a size 7..ish. You are good with that! Besides, any more work towards this dream goal and you will kill yourself and frankly, Skeletor was dead in the 80's.

It's been 5 months now since you started this journey. You are sitting at McDonalds with your size 101.5 lb friend counting croutons on your southwest salad and doing mental math on whether or not you can afford that extra half tablespoon of fat free dress.. OH who are you kidding! That would put you 5 calories over your mark! Your bestie however, (the cow), is scarfing down a double decker cheeseburger with bacon just oozing sauces and delicious smells while dipping her fries in an extra large chocolate shake complaining how she just cant seem to gain ANY weight no matter how hard she tries. *Double take* Wait, Whaaa!!! She just was complaining about her "rolls!!" Whatever.. the cow. And it hits you.. this just isnt freaking FAIR! You lost 1 more lb (124 lbs now.. WOOHOO!) in the last month and you are freaking starving! You shove the offensive wilted salad away from you and rebelliously make the decision that you deserve to splurge a bit as well! And so offeth the bandeth wagon you go.

You dont get obnoxious about your eating. Hell, you even adopted a few healthy habits! Like soda is now on your top 10 most hated list. How could you have not noticed how disgustingly sweet it tasted before? So thats a plus! Miss "Im not fat enough OMG a roll!" skinny britches drinks soda ALL the time! You still exercise, you still pretty much do whatever it is your friend does cause hey, ya'll like, hang and stuff.. and the next thing you know.. you are 180 lbs. THE FUUUU!! Wait! No way I just went from never going beyond 150 to now hanging tight with the 180's crowd! Yeah you are. The good news is, you seem to be caught on the invisible rug and dont gain beyond that point, but now your "back to 102" friend looks even better and you just accidentally knocked over a display case with a swing of your super sized hips.

Its been a year now and you finally cant stand the way you look enough that you make that drastic decision to do something about it.. again. So.. what can you try? Paleo? Atkins? Weight Watchers? Some pill or cleanse? What works!!! Well, you KNOW what works! At least what worked before.. And here you are back to counting calories in a stick of gum. 7 months later you are relieved to step on the scale and see the little arrow hover at 142.. wait, lets just re-adjust our feet here, scoot the scale over to another part of the floor... Oh thats better. 140!! WHOOP! You go girl! So you work your tale off to maintain that hard earned 140, and I tell you, you work hard for it! You cant seem to drop any more but you arent too upset. Your skinny friend had a kid and is now a humongous fat elephant weighing in at a whopping 104! Wait.. Oh, whatever! Nothing will destroy this success! You are hot, sexy, guys are whistling...guys... are.. OoOOooo Nice, look at that one! Wait! Dont! Its a trap!. Oh for F's sake.. go ahead. You deserve happiness. And its a fairy tale relationship.. for awhile. You gain some weight cause hey, happiness puts it on. So you are 150 now.. Back to where you started but thats OK.. Prince charming loves you! And one of your friends.. and some strange girl off the net. And here you are 215 lbs miserably later breaking up and wondering how your life got to this point. Told you it was a trap. You let someone else determine your happiness. The relationship wasnt what was bad, its the foolish belief you needed another to complete you. But you are young yet and life happens so dont sweat it.

Time to lose weight and look good again so you can attract someone more faithful! And so the cycle begins again..and with your dreaded old familiar too, starvation. And you lose to 170! We arent complaining now, are we. We've been to the dark side and joined the 200+ club and lived to tell the tale. You keep it off, sorta, with slip ups here and there and re-vamps to your current system, but so far manage to stay just under the 200 mark. Several years later, a beloved family member dies. Maybe it was natural, maybe a disease, maybe a freak accident, but they were THE family member that "got you" the best and was there for you through all your trials and tribulations. And depression hits, deep, dark, and with all its destructive force. You dont even notice the passage of time, or even recall when you first made the decision to check out of life. You barely eat at all. In fact, your calorie counting days would have been proud of your lack of enthusiasm to pick up a fork. However, you dont do much to get off the couch either. One day, you realize its painful to stretch out a leg, sit up straight without slouching, reach behind your back. You are in constant pain, your joints protest every move, and your muscles.. whats left of them.. cant remember the last time you picked up anything heavier than a pencil. You weigh in at 300 lbs. You look back at your childhood picks. Back when you were a whopping gigantic 150, and wish with all that is within you that you could go back and council your foolish self to just let it go..(let it go! cant hold it back anymore.. OF for heavens sake stop singing!) and not worry about something as mundane and vapid as a little extra fluff. You revisit your 180 lb pics. Not bad.. and you can even recall guys being interested in you at that weight. WHY did you ever think you were fat!! And again at 215. Hell.. 215. You would give ANYTHING to be 215 again, and wouldnt complain either!

So you make the decision to get off your depressing fat *kitten* and do something before its too late and all hope is lost. But this time, you arent aiming to lose it all in a few months. Heck, you wont even lose it in a few years! But the changes you make from this day hence, will be life changing, not some stupid quick fad that obliterates your metabolism and self-esteem.

Starvation mode is the destruction of your metabolism. Not a complete one. I dont think you can ever completely kill it off, and you can even heal it again! But the more damage you do to your system..your gall bladder suffers, your thyroid takes a beating, your gut health declines.. All this damage to your organs plays a role in how your body deals with digestion and how you metabolize what you put into yourself. It isnt a "myth", but it IS a misinterpretation and lack of understnading. But like with anything else in this world, you have to have gone down that path to truly understand it. Like the 102..sorry, 104 lb friend in this little tale. She could never understand the struggle of someone who eats the exact same way as her and exercises the exact same way as well, and can never measure up quite the same way.

My sister and my daughter are both my height. We are all 5' 1". I was 150 lbs in school, lived on a farm and did MOST of the work, cause for some reason all the animals wanted to kill my sister. I was active, in sports, martial arts, and hiked, camped, and walked everywhere. My sister had asthma and pretty much spent her life hanging with the popular crowd. She never weighed more than 120. My friend was 5' 8" and 95 lbs..and ate nothing but twinkies and smoked pot and barely left the couch! My beautiful tiny little precious angel is at the age my sister and I were when we were 150 and 120 and weighs 105. Sometimes she squeezes her sides and exclaims her need to lose the inches, other times she is groping herself and admiring just how perfect and skinny she is. The point is, I wasnt fat at 150. I had guys whistling and paying me just as much attention as they did my prettier sister, but I THOUGHT I was fat. Mainly because helpful teachers and family members kept asking me "dont you want to be as skinny and pretty as your sister?" And it seemed no matter how hard I worked, I just couldnt lose beyond a certain point. You are beautiful just the way you are and you dont need others to validate your existence. If they have issues with the way you look, the issue is with themselves, not with you.
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Replies

  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    Starvation mode is a myth.

    Just like global warming and military intelligence.

    It isnt so much as a myth as it is a misnomer. Global warming is inaccurate in that it conveys a false exposition of reality in what the world is actually going through. A more accurate term would be "Global Climate Change" as the world is actually going through a metamorphic state.

    The same goes for the inordinately unsuitable designation that was bestowed upon the controversial starvation mode. A more appropriate label would have been "self-destructive mode."
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
    tddy2 wrote: »
    Look what you wrote was perfect and funny and right to the point. I loved it!

    Thank you. My pretend boyfriend thinks my cynicism is adorable.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
    zyxst wrote: »
    What was the point of the OP?
    qi95nz5xhl6r.gif

    I'm going to eat a bacon double cheeseburger.

    Id join you, but I had my allotment of croutons for today.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    In my opinion starvation mode is the body slowing metabolism to conserve whats left. I don't see how weight gain could be the result unless calories increase over the long term.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member

    rsclause wrote: »
    In my opinion starvation mode is the body slowing metabolism to conserve whats left. I don't see how weight gain could be the result unless calories increase over the long term.

    That is the basics of what I believe. Weight gain isnt the result of slowing the metabolism, its the result of falling of the wagon. Here is the basic break up of what I have seen and experienced.
    Stage 1: 150lbs, consume 2000 calories a day, walk 2 miles a day.
    Stage 2: Consume 800 calories a day,Starve myself to 130, Walk 5 miles a day.
    Stage 3: 3 day binge just cause.. Start recounting calories after but this time..eh, I feel like I was over doing it, so consume 1500 calories a day and redrop my walking to 2 miles a day. Gain to 180 lbs.
    Stage 4: hover at 180 for 2 years. Redrop calories to 800 a day, walk 2 miles every day. Lose to 140. Also lose my gall bladder.. Surgeon said it was because of the yo-yo dieting.
    Stage 5: Fall off again.. eat 2000 calories a day, walk 3 miles 3 times a week, gain to 215 and hold steady.

    None of this makes sense until this stage
    Stage 6: F it. No walking, no exercise, PTSD, consume who knows what at 3pm every night cause eating breakfast and lunch just isnt your thing, gain to 300. (THAT makes sense. I deserved that.)

    What doesnt make sense is the holding steady at the other ridiculous levels when everyone else around you does less and eats more but retains their weight they originally started with because they didnt feel the need to starve off the excess fluff. Every hear a skinny girl brag about how much she eats and how much she eats? Ever witness it...

    I understand each persons metabolism is unique unto themselves. Two 5' 1 girls can jog 2 miles a day, weight train 30 minutes every other day, and consume 1800 calories each.. And one could be consuming those 1800 calories in nothing but twinkies and ho-ho's while the other is more self-conscious and never touches packaged foods at all. And the Twinkie lover can be 10-15 lbs lighter than her more anxious counter part. I understand this, but I still dont "get' it. And like I pointed out before. I was the active one in my family with no health issues and was the over weight one. My sister was the one who couldnt walk half a mile without sitting down to take a break while I danced in place impatiently wanting to get moving again. This wasnt my need to work out, this was my energy level. I had an entire world to explore and she was holding me up. She had bad asthma so she had her excuse.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Reaverie wrote: »
    trigden1991 wrote: »
    Starvation mode is a myth.

    Just like global warming and military intelligence.

    It isnt so much as a myth as it is a misnomer. Global warming is inaccurate in that it conveys a false exposition of reality in what the world is actually going through. A more accurate term would be "Global Climate Change" as the world is actually going through a metamorphic state.

    The same goes for the inordinately unsuitable designation that was bestowed upon the controversial starvation mode. A more appropriate label would have been "self-destructive mode."

    then why are you calling it starvation mode?
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    albertabeefy wrote: »
    singingflutelady wrote: »
    Unfortunately there are people here who claim they are undereating but gained weight so they must be in starvation mode. It's pretty frustrating obviously.
    I can see how frustrating that would be ... but I think it's quite possibly the exception rather than the rule.

    In this case, OP certainly seems to "get it".

    One thing I should mention ... the idea of a permanently-damaged metabolism from weight-loss in obese subjects does have some merit. Although nobody seems to know exactly why, studies bear this out:


    McGuire M, Wing R, Klem M, Hill J. Behavioral strategies of individuals who have maintained long-term weight losses. Obes Res. 1999;7:334–41.

    Wing R, Hill J. Successful weight loss maintenance. Annu Rev Nutr. 2001;21:323–41.

    Klem M, Wing R, Lang W, McGuire M, Hill J. Does weight loss maintenance become easier over time. Obes Res. 2000;8:438–44.

    Leibel R, Rosenbaum M, Hirsch J. Changes in energy expenditure resulting from altered body weight. N Eng J Med. 1995;332:621–28.

    Weigle D, Sande K, Iverius P, Monsen E, Brunzell J. Weight loss leads to a marked decrease in nonresting energy expenditure in ambulatory human subjects. Metabolism. 1988;37:930–36.

    Weyer C, Walford R, Harper I, Milner M, MacCallum T, Tataranni P, et al. Energy metabolism after 2 y of energy restriction: the biosphere 2 experiment. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000;72:946–53.

    Gemert Wv, Westerterp K, Acker Bv, Wagenmakers A, Halliday D, Greve J, et al. Energy, substrate and protein metabolism in morbid obesity before, during and after massive weight loss. Int J Obes. 2000;24:711–18.

    Leibel R, Hirsch J. Diminished energy requirements in reduced-obese patients. Metabolism. 1984;33:164–70.

    I'm not obese but I had the opposite experience for a while.
    (Disclosure: I am a mostly recovered anorexic binge/purge subtype who went through inpatient and day hospitalization programs.)
    The goal was to gain 1-2 kg a week no exercise allowed. We started at 1500 calories and added 300 a week until we reached BMI 20 or gained too quickly. Prior to treatment I ate 500 calories a day and exercised 2 hours a day. I never once gained more than 0.5 kgs a week even on the highest amount they would give which was 3600 calories a day. My metabolism must have been on fire to only gain 1 lbs a week for months eating 3600 calories a day. Maybe it was using it on healing but I wasn't super scary anorexic thin (BMI 16 when I entered). I never really figured out what happened and you bet I was constantly in trouble from the program leaders for not gaining 1kg and infact I got kicked out when I lost .5 lbs one week on 3600 with no cheating.

    My metabolism is actually back to normal now mostly ( though I now have Crohn's disease which when in a bad flare I suffer malabsorption and lose weight on TPN, Prednisone and eating by mouth. Don't recommend this diet though lol)
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    starvation mode = when you don't eat anything for a pro longed period of time and your body turns on itself for energy. Takes a long time to happen...

    Like say, 20 years? Agreed. Im sure I lost more muscle than I did actual fat when starving. Still think its a misnomer though. Perhaps a new name will clear up the confusion associated behind it. It probably already has one, and everyone completely agrees with the idea behind it, without even realizing its the same bloody thing. Like common core.. Almost everyone hates "common core" math. Change the name but give them the same lessons and they would never clue in to its origins. Its like leading sheep to the slaughter.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member


    then why are you calling it starvation mode?[/quote]

    For lack of a better word. If I changed it into something more scientific sounding, I wonder how many clueless automatons would blindly follow my new cult.
  • snowflake954
    snowflake954 Posts: 8,399 Member
    OP, I think that you suffered from yo-yo dieting. Did it damage your metabolism? Could be. It's hard to watch skinny people and compare ourselves to them. There again you have to take each person and analyze. What do they really eat everyday--total calories. Do they figet, are they in constant motion? So many things enter in. You have to look at yourself--who you are--and work with that, no one else. Let go of your frustration, and work out a healthy, sustainable way of eating for you.
  • Reaverie
    Reaverie Posts: 405 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    I loved your post OP, and i giggled at the cow reference and the animals hating your sister (i always trust animals instincts btw :wink: ).
    I rarely read long drawn out posts (sorry LC), but yours captivated me from beginning to end! Do you have a career in literature? If not, you should :smiley:

    Thank you. I do like to write, however I have never considered it as a potential career path. I also paint and draw, but again, never attempted it for profit. I hope to eventually complete my degree and become a field entomologist and eventually a professor in biology. I wanted to pursue entomology, but my son threatened to disown me and move to a hidden under water bunker he swore I would never find if I brought so much as an a gnat into our home.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    Reaverie wrote: »
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    starvation mode = when you don't eat anything for a pro longed period of time and your body turns on itself for energy. Takes a long time to happen...

    Like say, 20 years? Agreed. Im sure I lost more muscle than I did actual fat when starving. Still think its a misnomer though. Perhaps a new name will clear up the confusion associated behind it. It probably already has one, and everyone completely agrees with the idea behind it, without even realizing its the same bloody thing. Like common core.. Almost everyone hates "common core" math. Change the name but give them the same lessons and they would never clue in to its origins. Its like leading sheep to the slaughter.

    no, I am talking about eating little, or nothing, for a period of six months. Think starving kids in Africa...

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