woman's experience with starvation mode...great article

astridfeline

I found this article on cnn.com about a woman who lost 175lbs, she was eating less than 1,000 cals a day plus workouts. She began to gain weight and get sick so she upped her cals to 1500 + workout cals...to read here the link:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/23/fn.karen.daniel.catchingup/index.html?hpt=Sbin

Skinnytime

Interesting. It made me want to know more about starvation mode and I found this:

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=35501

BlueLikeJazz

Hmm it was kind of interesting but...it never really stated whether or not she started losing weight again after she upped her calories...

I actually found the second link more intriguing, because whenever I hear people going on and on about starvation mode and saying that you'll stop losing weight, it makes me wonder: How do anorexics ever become so skinny then? I mean, it's obviously not true that if you eat less than 1200 calories a day, you'll stop losing weight.

That's not to say that it isn't unhealthy, because it is: you can't get proper nutrition or have enough energy if you're not eating enough. And yes, the metabolism is slowed (maybe not quite to the extent some make it out to be), but to state that you'll stop losing weight is a bit misleading.

dore0021

Thank's for posting!

MzBug

It isn't that you stop loosing weight, it's just the wrong kind of weight. Your body will start to burn muscle tissue instead of fat. You need the muscle tissue to keep your metabolism going. So in essence your body will horde the calories as fat, burn the lean muscle tissue and then your body goes into a tailspin where it can't burn the fat because the lean muscle tissue isn't there to keep your metabolism going. The more lean muscle tissue you have the higher your metabolism. Ever see a picture of a muscular anorexic? Their bodies are wasted away and then they perceive any miniscule bit of fat clinging to them. Ugly, just ugly cycle.

astridfeline

It isn't that you stop loosing weight, it's just the wrong kind of weight. Your body will start to burn muscle tissue instead of fat. You need the muscle tissue to keep your metabolism going. So in essence your body will horde the calories as fat, burn the lean muscle tissue and then your body goes into a tailspin where it can't burn the fat because the lean muscle tissue isn't there to keep your metabolism going. The more lean muscle tissue you have the higher your metabolism. Ever see a picture of a muscular anorexic? Their bodies are wasted away and then they perceive any miniscule bit of fat clinging to them. Ugly, just ugly cycle.

Thanks, that explanation makes so much sense. You just connected the dots for me!