Weight loss deficit, eating exercise calories, stavation mod

Mookz0r

Mookz0r, how did you calculate your Maintenance Calories (1850)? You can see what I calculated out earlier, but I based my "maintenance level" on my fairly sedentary lifestyle (BMR x 1.2). Is this not accurate? I did notice that it caused my calories limit to go below my BMR, even with exercise calories included.

And to anyone - can someone explain why MFP has you eat "calories burned" on a day to day basis instead of averaging out what you burn per week and adding that to your daily calories? It seems to me that jumping around between 1200 to 1600 calories depending on the day would confuse your body. It also seems to encourage a "reward yourself with food" lifestyle.

I went to "goals" and set it to "maintain current weight" rather than "lose" and jotted down what it came up with... and obviously didn't change it!

Just to tie in with the rest of the discussion - if eating healthily was solely about nutrients, then we could all live off pills, but we can't. The unfortunate thing is that our agricultural industry has changed and our food no longer contains the nutrients it needs. Mass produced bread, for example, is now so devoid of any real nutrition, that it has to have vitamins and minerals added back into it. Vegetables are produced to get the greatest yields and are pumped full of chemicals to make them look better or to stay fresh longer and then are shipped or flown half way around the world... is it any wonder that we are finding ourselves deficient in essential nutrients!

To those who are saying that low calories do no harm and that starvation mode is a myth... I'll repeat this: look outside - look at people across the world who really are starving, not because they want to improve how they look and do so through choice, but those who really have no food, those who live of a small bowl of rice every day because that's all there is. They are not a myth. Their bodies shut down progressively and die through lack of calories. Die.

Put this whole weight loss thing into perspective. We all have the privilege of being able to choose what we eat and when... we owe it to ourselves to treat our bodies with the respect they deserve.

Choose to eat healthily and to give your body exactly what it needs.

Grokette

Mookz0r, how did you calculate your Maintenance Calories (1850)? You can see what I calculated out earlier, but I based my "maintenance level" on my fairly sedentary lifestyle (BMR x 1.2). Is this not accurate? I did notice that it caused my calories limit to go below my BMR, even with exercise calories included.

And to anyone - can someone explain why MFP has you eat "calories burned" on a day to day basis instead of averaging out what you burn per week and adding that to your daily calories? It seems to me that jumping around between 1200 to 1600 calories depending on the day would confuse your body. It also seems to encourage a "reward yourself with food" lifestyle.

I went to "goals" and set it to "maintain current weight" rather than "lose" and jotted down what it came up with... and obviously didn't change it!

Just to tie in with the rest of the discussion - if eating healthily was solely about nutrients, then we could all live off pills, but we can't. The unfortunate thing is that our agricultural industry has changed and our food no longer contains the nutrients it needs. Mass produced bread, for example, is now so devoid of any real nutrition, that it has to have vitamins and minerals added back into it. Vegetables are produced to get the greatest yields and are pumped full of chemicals to make them look better or to stay fresh longer and then are shipped or flown half way around the world... is it any wonder that we are finding ourselves deficient in essential nutrients!

To those who are saying that low calories do no harm and that starvation mode is a myth... I'll repeat this: look outside - look at people across the world who really are starving, not because they want to improve how they look and do so through choice, but those who really have no food, those who live of a small bowl of rice every day because that's all there is. They are not a myth. Their bodies shut down progressively and die through lack of calories. Die.

Put this whole weight loss thing into perspective. We all have the privilege of being able to choose what we eat and when... we owe it to ourselves to treat our bodies with the respect they deserve.

Choose to eat healthily and to give your body exactly what it needs.

True Starvation mode is the people that live in the 3rd world countries with little or no food.

Not someone that lives in an industrialized country with access to an abundance of food and is over weight or obese to boot.

There is NO comparison.

In the article I posted, it clearly states that TRUE STARVATION MODE only happens when the body is down to like 5% body fat in men and a little higer percentage in women..............

Not one person on this site is in Starvation Mode. That is fear mongering at its finest to say that people on this site and other weight loss sites are in Starvation Mode. Hog wash.

Megooo19

For a while I was really concerned with things like starvation mode but the fact is if you worry too much about your diet and all the complicated processes of the body your going to stress. Stress is horrible for someone on a diet (and for those not on a diet), so lets simplify things.

1) Eat between 1200-1400 calories a day. --- if your not that hungry one day dont eat that much. Believe it or not one day at 1000 calories wont kill you either. If your super hungry another day eat 1400. If you go over that dont freat just re-evaluate why you went over and make sure it doesnt happen everyday.

2) Exercise. Cardio and Strength.

3) Get 8 hours of sleep. Sleep is when you release human growth hormone and its gooood for you.

4) Plan your meals for the day ahead of time. Make sure your getting a bit of protien in every meal (and snack) and watch your sodium because it really weighs you down if you go over.

5) Drink! Water mostly, tea sometimes, black coffee okay.

You will loose weight just be good to yourself and give it a few weeks.

SHBoss1673

please read this research study.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=789564&jid=PNS&volumeId=54&issueId=01&aid=789556

take special care to read the section called ENERGY METABOLISM IN STARVATION AND UNDERFEEDING

you guys can come to your own conclusions on it.

rjadams

Lowering your metabolism is not a bad thing and it is not starving yourself. It actually slows down the aging process............

lower metabolism means less calories to exist and I personally don't want to live longer if I can't eat and enjoy life with energy and wonderful tastes.

Grokette

please read this research study.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=789564&jid=PNS&volumeId=54&issueId=01&aid=789556

take special care to read the section called ENERGY METABOLISM IN STARVATION AND UNDERFEEDING

you guys can come to your own conclusions on it.

The study proposed in the link you sent was done on normal weighted people, of course they got the response they expected to get as starvation.............

This site is dealing with overweight individuals, not under weight or normal weight people. Huge difference.

When the body has excess fat to burn there is NO Starvation.

NeuroticVirgo

wow did I open a can of worms lol. This must be exactly why people are confused, because everyone, who's anyone, has something different to say. O.o

PJilly

wow did I open a can of worms lol. This must be exactly why people are confused, because everyone, who's anyone, has something different to say. O.o

Don't feel bad. It gets wormy rather frequently around here. I think the confusion comes into play when a new member asks questions about how MFP works. Some of us explain how it works, and some want to explain why they believe it doesn't work. THAT is what confuses me. :ohwell:

EDesq

Re: Grokette
Thanks for the article...very enlightening...clear, concise and precise. You will never convince some fanatics that things like "starvation mode" only exist in people who are STARVING. Some people hold on to their erroneous beliefs and take others with them. That's why it's so hard to lose weight and be healthy in this country...we are mostly fumbling in the dark. I'm glad you can discern the relevant areas of a Study...especially its Subjects (The most important part of any Study.)

PJilly

The study proposed in the link you sent was done on normal weighted people, of course they got the response they expected to get as starvation.............

This site is dealing with overweight individuals, not under weight or normal weight people. Huge difference.

When the body has excess fat to burn there is NO Starvation.

I'd like to point out there are a good number of normal-weight, formerly overweight, people on this site who have used MFP to make their transformations, myself included.

recipe4success

I disagree with anything that a major university has to say.............

Why?

Jena_72

Personally I'd rather err on the side of caution by eating a little more and lose weight a little more slowly than to eat too little, which is going to slow my weight loss in the long run anyways.

Love this line! Great advice Trent!!

stormieweather

/popcorn

stormieweather

How about Nutritional Deprivation? If you don't eat adequately, you cannot fuel your body adequately. No gas, no go. A pill does not cut it. Only a handful of the necessary nutrients are able to be ingested via a pill. The rest require food. GOOD food, not cheesecake and soda pop.

Personally, I don't enjoy being foggy, tired all the dang time, and irritable on top of having my bowels quit working right, my tummy start to heave and my hair start to fall out. But hey, if YOU are into that, feel free to eat as little as you like. Just don't go around telling people that it is a HEALTHY thing to do.

CGerman

I do eat my exercise cals and here is why I do. MFP start with setting a goal to lose X lbs a week and then sets my intake cals to meet that goal. If I eat my exercise cal then I am still at my original weight loss goal. Not eating exercise cal may help me lose weight faster, but is is not in my plan.

One of the best thing I read on MFP regarding this (and I can’t find the thread now) stated if you are medically obese, 30+bmi, don't eat exercise cal as you have them stored on your body already, if you are medically over weight, 25-30 bmi, eat a portion of your exercise cals and if you are in healthy range of your bmi then eat all the exercise cals.

That made sense to me, but that is just my opinion and it worth the price you paid for it LOL

This makes sense to me. I don't currently eat any of my exercise calories, but with a BMI of almost 36% I've got plenty of fat stores, and starvation isn't really a concern. Once I get further along in my weight loss I will start eating some, and eventually I'll have to eat them all to maintain my goal weight.

Grokette

I disagree with anything that a major university has to say.............

Why?

Because they only subscribe to doing biased studies for the government and various organizations so people like the FDA, USDA, AMA, ADA, Big Pharma, etc, etc can keep their agenda to keep people sick and on all these medications that cause more illness so people stay in the vicious cycle.

I am more into research done independently (not from grants and such) by schools that are more Naturopathic in nature. Finding the root cause and fixing the true source of the problem.

I don't like conventional wisdom and can not subscribe to it.

Grokette

How about Nutritional Deprivation? If you don't eat adequately, you cannot fuel your body adequately. No gas, no go. A pill does not cut it. Only a handful of the necessary nutrients are able to be ingested via a pill. The rest require food. GOOD food, not cheesecake and soda pop.

Personally, I don't enjoy being foggy, tired all the dang time, and irritable on top of having my bowels quit working right, my tummy start to heave and my hair start to fall out. But hey, if YOU are into that, feel free to eat as little as you like. Just don't go around telling people that it is a HEALTHY thing to do.

If a person is eating a whole foods plan (especially farm raised meats, eggs, raw dairy), many veggies and some fruit you will get all of the nutrients your body needs to function. We don't NEED as much as the USDA tries to tell us we need for adequate nutrition.

cutiekay99

Wow! Now I'm reeaaally confused!!!! I was so glad when I came across this topic, because I was asking myself some of the very same questions. Now I don't have a clue . I know as you start to lose weight the amount you lose each week is not going to be as high as the initial weight loss. I started being serious about weight loss and tracking calories about 5 weeks ago . I have about 65lbs to lose. At first I was eating approximately 1260 cal/day and exercising 2-3 days a week for 30-40 minutes ( burning about 350-450 cal ) per session. I lost 10lbs in my first two weeks doing this! In the last two weeks my MFP calories have dropped to 1200 and I have increased my exercise to 5-7 days a week ( burning b/t 500-700 cal @ each session). I have not been eating my "exersie calories". You would think that since the number of calories I am consuming have decreased and the number I am burning have increased that I would be making more progress. However, over the last two weeks the scale has been up and down the same 2lbs. This is frustrating!!! I began to think that I'm overdoing it and not eating enough calories, therefore slowing my metabolism. Others tell me, "Well you're also doing weight resistance, which can cause your weight loss to slow at first". I really don't know what's going on. I really appreciate the different views on whether or not to eat exercise calories, starvation mode, etc. I guess I just need to do a little more research of my own.

toots99

I disagree with anything that a major university has to say.............

Why?

I was curious about that myself.

Edited to add: And I just read your answer as to why.

Mookz0r

please read this research study.

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayFulltext?type=1&fid=789564&jid=PNS&volumeId=54&issueId=01&aid=789556

take special care to read the section called ENERGY METABOLISM IN STARVATION AND UNDERFEEDING

you guys can come to your own conclusions on it.

The study proposed in the link you sent was done on normal weighted people, of course they got the response they expected to get as starvation.............

This site is dealing with overweight individuals, not under weight or normal weight people. Huge difference.

When the body has excess fat to burn there is NO Starvation.

You'll be surprised... this site doesn't just cater for grossly obese individuals. It is also helpful for "normal" sized people who want to keep on top of their weight and for people who are recovering from eating disorders and are tracking their calories to ensure they are eating enough.

Don't ever assume that everyone in an online community is coming from the same angle.

Have you also seen the thread about those who are at a healthy weight and want to lose more? We're talking women (predominantly) who are pushing themselves to be slimmer, pushing their bodies to the lower level of healthy BMI... and then they read things like you're posting. Starvation mode doesn't exist, bla bla bla... and then go ahead and only eat 500-1000 calories a day whilst working out at the gym and thinking they're doing themselves a favour.

Actual physical starvation may not happen until your body has got nothing left to give, but it will have pulled out all the stops to try not to get to that stage beforehand.