Starvation Mode is Real, and ugly

Marla64

Okay-- so week two in the books. I've been trying to take note and record any changes positively and negatively from the increased calories. Not too many negatives.

My psoriasis has flared worse. Terrible on the scalp, and beginning under the breast area. Coincidence? My body simply confused... "Wait, is she starving me or feeding me? I don't know what to do?" Who knows-- again, this is where people smarter than me would have to weigh in.

I've done 2 weeks of P90x, lean version-- and 2300 or so calories per daily. I started at 198, and this morning am 196.5.

Eating every 3 hours or so, protein, good food. I've had some desserts here and there. Cutting out sugar totally is so flippin' hard with kids in the house..... But, measured portions, and very controlled.

Gentleman-- female information to follow-- read at your peril--

Just completed my cycle. I am always like clockwork, which totally confounded the doctors who wanted to lay my weight gain on simply being menopausal or premenopausal. Uh, hello? You can set your clock to me.

Past year my cycles were extremely fierce. No pain, but duration and scope, if you will, were off the charts. This week was "normal" for the first time in over a year. Again, coincidence? I don't think so. Time will tell.

I've added a green tea supplement to my repertoire. I know it's not a magic pill, nor am I looking for one now or ever-- but, the research I've done shows that it's an aid to metabolism. And Lord knows I need that. So I'm taking them with my morning and noon meals.

I ran 2 miles the other night for the first time in months. I was still in the midst of my cycle, and terrible waterlogged-- weighing over 200 pounds at the time-- but had more strength than I had in past runs.

Running 5 miles on poor nutrition, in hindsight, was miraculous. I'm proud of what I accomplished especially, now, in light of the poor nutrition I was providing my poor body. Truly, I have some grit-- and I'm proud of that.

the bloating is still off the charts. I won't share my picture here, but on my black thread I posted a picture of the muffin top from hell, as I forced myself into my size 12 jeans. End of May 2010, I was size 8. Now I can't fit into 12, and some old 14s I found are tight.

Trying to stay positive. This is very emotionally draining. To have worked so hard and have it all taken away is just so, so upsetting. Knowing I did it to myself is worse.... Dope!

I still read so much on these boards about starvation mode, and people refusing to eat back their calories from exercise and I just want to scream. However, I know most people aren't going to listen. While I'm sharing my tale and will keep updating via this thread, I'm not going to be the voice of experience popping into every thread and sharing this cautionary tale. It will be pointless to a large degree.

I appreciate the folks who have shared this. I've seen a few people post this link on other threads. I never envisioned myself as the poster girl for Starvation Mode-- I was rather hoping to be the poster girl for the mothers of many children, who CAN get control over their eating and their bodies and turn their lives around. I turned mine around, but not in a sensible way. And it turned right back!

I'm rambling-- sorry-- other positives, I guess-- my skin is tighter on my face.... A bit. Seems the layer of water is slightly less. I did have to end up taking a diuretic towards the end of my cycle. My body never, ever likes to release water-- never has. So, I will take the help when I need it.

And, again, my, uh, excretory system is better. My body seems thrilled to be able to function normally-- "oh, so THIS is what it's like to be fed consistent, normal, good, healthy food.....!!!!!!!"

Major positive-- two weeks of increased calories, and I'm down 1.5 pounds. I know it's going to be slow. I have to be patient. But, this is progress.

So, eat those calories, people-- share this tale. I'm going to post weekly updates.

shanhawk

Thanks so much for sharing your story...I can't even begin to imagine havinng to go through something like this. It does, however, make one think about what they are doing and how they are fueling their bodies. Its always good to be able to learn from others when we can.

susioryan

bump

DeeDeeLHF

Marla, this was intense!!! I can't believe what you have gone through. Scares the **** out of me!! I have been slowly dieting for almost 6 years. It has taken a very long time to lose it. I am maintaining at 1350 plus I eat most of my exercise calories. After reading your stuff I am left wondering.

I read your quote "if I am gaining at 1400 then why would I want to increase?" and I think that you are reading my thoughts!!!

:noway: Scared to death to increase the calories. It has taken so long to get here I never want to go back!

I finally just "accepted" that a lower calorie life was just how it is.

You have given me so much to think about.

D

Marla64

Marla, this was intense!!! I can't believe what you have gone through. Scares the **** out of me!! I have been slowly dieting for almost 6 years. It has taken a very long time to lose it. I am maintaining at 1350 plus I eat most of my exercise calories. After reading your stuff I am left wondering.

I read your quote "if I am gaining at 1400 then why would I want to increase?" and I think that you are reading my thoughts!!!

:noway: Scared to death to increase the calories. It has taken so long to get here I never want to go back!

I finally just "accepted" that a lower calorie life was just how it is.

You have given me so much to think about.

D

Well, Donna, what doesn't help in my particular situation is having the genetic makeup that I do-- I come from obese people. My body apparently is just doing what it wants to do in the first place. I'm just the dope who enabled it.

I'm encouraged that through 2 weeks of 2300 calories, there has been no gain.

scagneti

Thank you so much for sharing. I've been very lucky to find this site and heard right away to eat exercise calories, so that's the path I went down. I've been losing consistantly, but there's always that nagging voice in the back of the head that says "why are you taking so long -- if you ate less, you'd totally lose faster. Why are you waking me up at 5:45am to exercise if you're just eating it all back??" Most of it is from posts on here and from 35 years of being a female. Your thread and updates show that faster is not better, and is in fact often worse. I've got 70 odd years to lose this weight. Doing it a month faster is not going to make any difference at all.

As for being the "poster girl for starvation mode", I completely understand your reluctance to jump into every thread asking about eating exercise calories. It's frustrating to see so many people not get it. Plus I think that with sharing your story, you've done more than enough and have helped more people than you can imagine.

The body's an amazing thing and it will get better. Thank God you didn't bother listening to the quacks who think because they took one day of nutrition in med school that they have any business giving food advice.

lovetowrite73

Thank you for updating your story! I peek in here every now and then just to follow your experience.

yanicka

Bump, need this info

MrsSanthoff

BUMP! Thank you for this!!!

SlimLittleMrs

bump

MissAllison

Thank you for sharing your journey.

Kkmama

Marla I can't thank you enough for talking about this! In February my weight loss really slowed and I thought I should lower my calorie needs to get things going again and work out more. I will put my calories back up and eat my exercise cals too.
Good luck, and I am really glad to see that upping your cals was the way to go!
I will continue to check in.

DeeDeeLHF

OK...I have two questions.

#1. Can a person do low calorie but high nutrition and avoid starvation mode? I have seen some peoples food diaries and yes, they might be eating high calories but they are also eating crap. Diet pudding, diet coke, processed flours and grains, high fructose corn syrup laden cereals etc. Maybe not every meal is bad but they have their vices and indulge daily. There HAS to be a difference. It seems to me that the body can go into starvation mode from lack of nutrients as easily as it can from lack of calories.

#2. I have researched it all over the Internet and for a woman of my age, height, weight, etc and INCLUDING exercise, my daily requirement would be about 1600 calories. I probably really do this. My week tends to go like this. Monday-Thursday I probably eat about 1300-1500 calories. Then I try to fast on Fridays for religious reasons (only from Thursday dinner to Friday dinner, so really only skip 2 meals). On the weekends I tend to eat more like 1700 calories and occasionally closer to 2000.

Am I still too low???

Over Christmas I ate a lot more than normal and I did gain back 6 pounds. I don't eat sweets but I did indulge in processed flours and processed foods by eating out and having extra helpings and loving the carbs!! So, I really I think that I would just gain it all back if I increase.

I am still amazed, incredulous, and mesmerized by this idea that you can increase your calories so significantly and after a slight gain, start to actually lose weight again.

Thanks for answering and humoring my paranoia! :laugh:

D

kimlausan

Thanks for sharing

Marla64

You know what, Donna-- I'm not going to even to pretend to be any type of knowledgable person about this, so I'm not going to even entertain your question. People much smarter than me can weigh in, but I'm nutty enough trying to figure out my own calorie crud.

I will agree that 1200 calories of crap may lead to weight loss in the short-term, but not good long-term. My diet wasn't great in large part due to budgetary concerns-- we were unemployed and on a total shoe-string, and I ate a lot of crap-- just 1200 calories of it.

Did that aid the problem? Who the heck knows?

Not the doctor, that's for sure. This yahoo today, after once again proclaiming me free from major health concerns-- no Cushing's, thyroid function in check, no diabetes, blah, blah, blah-- kept referring to my genes, and told me I'm "fuel efficient."

Yeah, okay, that makes sense, Doc, if I suddenly just plateau. Okay, my genes kick in and refuse to let any more weight drop off on 1400 calories plus steady exercise, that makes sense. But, put 30 pounds back on with no change in diet or exercise level?? That does not compute.

So I try to talk to him about the starvation mode thing, something which I asked him to put "in layman's terms" last time, and he acknowledged the term. Today, he seemed surprised by the notion. Talked to him about increasing my calories, and of my research on starvation mode, the metabolism shutting down, blah, blah, blah-- he seems concerned that I'm eating 2200 calories.

"Wow, that's a lot." And then goes on to say for my weight, height, age, my basal metabolic rate is only 1600 and change.

"Yes, Dr., but that's what I'd need if I did nothing but stay in bed all day."

"That's true." :noway: Hellooooooo???????? Which of us is getting paid for this? One of us is definitely not earning their salary there, buddy.

Told him I've done my math, and spent the past freaking year trying to solve this mystery in the absence of any medical explanation. Told him, yes, my BMR is 1600, plus I'm raising a billion kids, vacuuming, cooking, laundry, shopping....hell, my part-time typing job burns 500 calories or so for my 4 hours-- AND I do 4-5 days of hard exercise on top of that.

I don't know-- I was left just flippin' puzzled. How do these aholes graduate medical school? What purpose do they serve beyond trying to squeeze you into their tidy, little boxes? And believe me, I'm not fitting into anything these days, let alone their boxes!!!!!

There is no MEDICAL explanation he can find, so he just keeps regurgitating "genes, fuel efficient, genes-- " you know, save it, buddy. You tell me my thyroid is fine, I'll have to now think outside the box.

According to his scale, I was up almost two pounds today-- different scale, different office, though-- but, my scale at home is what I'm going by. Hubs and I are trying to figure this out, thinking outside the box. It makes sense. It's the only thing that's made sense.

Doing all I was doing, yes, with my genetic makeup, on so few calories, with the full court press towards the end of nothing but rice cakes and plain yogurt to get the last stubborn pounds off-- it makes sense that I scared the hell out of my body. It makes sense that the body freaked out, sensed danger, began to store the fat and burn the muscle.... And my body's current state bears that out.

While my exercise never stopped, my body shape has certainly changed. I can hardly see the definition in my calves, for example, that were so lean and cut due to all my running. Now, they're all plump and squishy. Some definition is beginning to begin again, within the past two weeks, but very, very slowly.

I know-- I'm rambling again-- sorry. But, to close, Donna-- I really can't answer any of your questions. I'm still trying to figure this out.

Where's Banks? And that other way smart dude who gave me all the links earlier? Maybe they can help.

For me-- I got through the first doctor's appointment in over a year without tears. I've sobbed in more offices than I can shake a stick at (what does that expression mean, anyway??) out of frustration, pain, anger-- all my hard work gone with no explanation. Seems I may have one now, and I just have to be patient and hope I'm onto something. Seems I am. We'll see.

I dropped from 2300 calories to 2200 effective today-- every couple weeks, as I see progress I'm going to reduce slowly. Never below 1800, though, and probably not even that low-- I don't want my body fearing starvation again.

Later-- thanks again for all the support.

SHBoss1673

I'm Here Marla!

Donna you wrote this:

#1. Can a person do low calorie but high nutrition and avoid starvation mode? I have seen some peoples food diaries and yes, they might be eating high calories but they are also eating crap. Diet pudding, diet coke, processed flours and grains, high fructose corn syrup laden cereals etc. Maybe not every meal is bad but they have their vices and indulge daily. There HAS to be a difference. It seems to me that the body can go into starvation mode from lack of nutrients as easily as it can from lack of calories.

And my answer to that is, both calorie amount and calorie quality are important. calorie quality won't send you into, or keep you out of starvation mode, but they can trigger all sorts of other things. for instance, highly processed carbs with lots of sugars (think cakes, pastries...etc.) will flood your blood stream, whelming your body's ability to burn the energy and triggering storage of fat, where as that same exact amount of calories, when eaten in the form of high quality complex carbohydrates (think veggies and wild rice for example), would be digested far slower, thus avoiding the sugar spike and giving you a steady stream of energy for hours with virtually no fat storage at all.

So yes, there's a difference, and it's significant, but in the end, it DOES end up being the lesser of two evils when you compare eating "diet foods" to eating straight up crap. I dislike both as regular parts of your meals, but I dislike the crap worse than the "diet foods" (recognizing that sometimes they are one and the same, which makes them even worse, as they are disingenuous).

As to your second question, impossible to know from this. The only way to know for sure is to either have your metabolic rate tested, or use one of the health gadgets that tracks your daily calories (like a body bugg or something). Or you could slowly raise your calories to maintenance and check for a few weeks to see if you maintain, if you do, then there you go, proof in the pudding.

SHBoss1673

oh and Marla, doctors generally receive very little training in nutrition, and remember, what they receive is as out of date as their training is. Better off not even bothering talking to your GP about nutrition and weight management unless your sure they've certified in some kind of AMA sponsored program. Otherwise you'd be better off finding a good Registered Dietitian.

the problem is doctors sometimes develop a bit of a complex about being able to answer questions. And even though their brain is probably screaming at them to say "I'm not sure what your issue is" or "I'm really not qualified to talk about nutrition with you.", they end up giving you (horrible) advice.

I liken a doctor giving nutrition advice to a dentist doing a pelvic exam. Yes they can both do minor surgery, but I wouldn't want one doing the other kind.

janemartin02

Thanks for sharing.I too have hypothyroidism/Hishmotios.I`ve struggled with loosing wt for 5 years.Up and down.I`ve finally lost 102 lbsI haven`t found the right number calories that works.I am unable to ex due to knee surgery,so I did cut down my calories 1000-1200.When I get back to ex I will up the calories. I work with a dietician who helps monitor my calories vs ex.I agree if your body isn`t getting the fuel it needs to sustain you,you aren`t gonna loose the wt.
I hope you can get it all figured out.It sucks to be overwt and esp.when your body doesn`t cooperate like most people.I have a 1 day at a time approach.It took me 25 years to put this on,I`m not in a race to loose this.I just want to be healthier and someday be at my goal wt.
Good luck to you!
jane

scagneti

Any of the doctors that my parents visit only seem interested in getting them on yet another drug to combat the pain instead of say, CURING OR EVEN EXPLAINING WHY THE PAIN EXISTS. Good to get that off my chest.

The last time I went to a doctor about a specific issue, he tried to put me on some drug for clogged veins. I was barely 30 and I'd get severe pains in the back of my legs occassionally when I walked. Not all the time, but enough times for a 30 year old to be concerned. My calves would get really hard and would hurt so badly. He was half way out the door while he was writing the prescription without even really listening or asking any questions. When I asked him if twas normal for a 30 year old who wasn't particularly unhealthy to have clogged veins, he kind of hemmed and hawed. When I asked if this couldn't be part of a bigger problem (i.e. my freaking heart!) he said "well this will stop the pain". So I asked how long I needed to take it. "You don't stop talking it," he said. Ok -- now we've got a problem. I'm not on some drug for the rest of my life prescribed by someone who has spent 3 minutes barely listening to me.

I took the prescription but never brought it to the pharmacy. Then I started to log the pain myself. It didn't seem to matter about distances -- some days I could walk miles without any problems and some days I was in tears by the end of my block. So then I paid attention to my shoes. I don't have any high heels (other than one pair that I only wear a few times a year and not to walk anywhere), and realized that certain insoles arches are what caused it. Now I just have to be really careful when buying new shoes and if I'm not, then the backs of my legs hurt. I'm sure I could get some kind of a custom ortho done, but honestly, I'm too freaked out by the sheer ignorance of doctors now to trust them. I could have been on some blood thining drug because of the ineptitude of the doctor (who, by the way, never called about the drug or about any refills or anything).

7 years of school doesn't seem to make them any smarter than the rest of us.

Marla64

Thanks for sharing.I too have hypothyroidism/Hishmotios.I`ve struggled with loosing wt for 5 years.Up and down.I`ve finally lost 102 lbsI haven`t found the right number calories that works.I am unable to ex due to knee surgery,so I did cut down my calories 1000-1200.When I get back to ex I will up the calories. I work with a dietician who helps monitor my calories vs ex.I agree if your body isn`t getting the fuel it needs to sustain you,you aren`t gonna loose the wt.
I hope you can get it all figured out.It sucks to be overwt and esp.when your body doesn`t cooperate like most people.I have a 1 day at a time approach.It took me 25 years to put this on,I`m not in a race to loose this.I just want to be healthier and someday be at my goal wt.
Good luck to you!
jane

Jane-- thanks for your words. And I'm not in a hurry. I'd first set my goal back in June 2008 for 50 pounds by June '09. Not setting goals anymore. Like you, one day at a time. Trying to find what's going to work.

Banks-- thanks for your suggestion-- not sure my insurance covers dietitians-- but I'll be looking just the same. And I'm still poring over things online-- I think I'm on the right road, no matter how long it takes. Really, really appreciate your help.

Just had a good P90x workout-- shoulders/arms, and ab ripper-- doggonedest thing-- I'd never stopped exercising, but I'm so much stronger these past two weeks with the extra calories. Go figure-- :noway: dope!

Need to go replenish-- later!