Is it true that your body enters into starvation mode if you don't eat for a while?

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  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
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    AnvilHead wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    I don't buy into starvation mode but have always felt that eating smaller but more frequent meals keeps metabolism at its peak. I suppose if you were to fast and then binge eat your body may be a little more efficient at storing the extra calories. In your case your are consistent so your body has and does adjust so it really falls back to the total calories in and out.

    1) If you eat larger, less frequent meals, the body takes longer to digest/metabolize the nutrients because the bolus is larger than it would be in smaller meals. So in theory it would even out, given equal calories. If I pour a cup of water into a container sixteen times a day or add a gallon of water once in the evening, there's a gallon of water in the container at the end of the day in either case.

    2) That theory falls flat due to the fact that many people do intermittent fasting and have been successful with weight/fat loss. (Disclaimer: I don't ascribe any magical properties to IF other than it being an eating schedule which helps some people with adherence.)


    There is a limit to how many calories per hour you can process from food before it processes through. So there may be some slack if you're doing IF.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
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    stanmann571 wrote: »
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    rsclause wrote: »
    I don't buy into starvation mode but have always felt that eating smaller but more frequent meals keeps metabolism at its peak. I suppose if you were to fast and then binge eat your body may be a little more efficient at storing the extra calories. In your case your are consistent so your body has and does adjust so it really falls back to the total calories in and out.

    1) If you eat larger, less frequent meals, the body takes longer to digest/metabolize the nutrients because the bolus is larger than it would be in smaller meals. So in theory it would even out, given equal calories. If I pour a cup of water into a container sixteen times a day or add a gallon of water once in the evening, there's a gallon of water in the container at the end of the day in either case.

    2) That theory falls flat due to the fact that many people do intermittent fasting and have been successful with weight/fat loss. (Disclaimer: I don't ascribe any magical properties to IF other than it being an eating schedule which helps some people with adherence.)


    There is a limit to how many calories per hour you can process from food before it processes through. So there may be some slack if you're doing IF.

    Food takes like 8 hours just to go through your stomach and small intestine where most digestion happens. Another day and then some for the large intestine on average. How many calories would you need at once that 8 hours wouldn't be enough?
  • Sunna_W
    Sunna_W Posts: 744 Member
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    Every body is different.

    The risk is that as you get older that it might cause spikes in your blood sugar and you can go into hypoglycemia (or not) after eating such a big meal, depending on what it is you eat.

    That is the theory around spacing out your calories over your waking hours and you "break your fast" when you awake and fuel yourself over the day with food.

    Here is a history of mealtime: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20243692

    Food does help concentration and that is why kids are recommended to eat before school and teens / college kids / adults are encouraged to eat before a test.

    But, you know yourself, best.

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