Does anyone else feel this way...

mshunk

I am "allowed" 1200 calories per day....I work out 60 minutes per day 5 - 6 days a week, and then add that into my calorie intake...usually putting me around 1600-1700 calories...Today I ate breakfast, lunch a snack, worked out, came home ate dinner and put everything into the computer...I STILL HAVE 500 calories left to eat and I can't even THINK about putting another bite of food in my mouth...something I would not have complained about in the past, but everything that I have read says that I need to eat those calories or my body will go into "starvation" mode...this is CRAZY:laugh: I know that I can just let it slide every once in a while, but what am I to do when this is happening more frequently????

mshunk

I am "allowed" 1200 calories per day....I work out 60 minutes per day 5 - 6 days a week, and then add that into my calorie intake...usually putting me around 1600-1700 calories...Today I ate breakfast, lunch a snack, worked out, came home ate dinner and put everything into the computer...I STILL HAVE 500 calories left to eat and I can't even THINK about putting another bite of food in my mouth...something I would not have complained about in the past, but everything that I have read says that I need to eat those calories or my body will go into "starvation" mode...this is CRAZY:laugh: I know that I can just let it slide every once in a while, but what am I to do when this is happening more frequently????

Vontreesa

Trust me if you ate breakfast, lunch, a snack, and dinner you had a prpoer intake(maybe more). These calorie estimates are not EXACT. As long as you never go over 2000 calories you are fine!!!!!

dhayes

I don't know and am really curious to see if anyone has a good explanation. Because I am stumped about the starvation mode thing also, as i am usually very satisfied at bedtime and still have 500-600 calories to eat. I just refuse to stuff the food in as I have spent my entire life doing just that.:mad: :sick:

I am allowed 2400 calories a day and rarely exceed 1900. With light exercise I gain a few more calories, it just doesnt seem right. :ohwell:

I watched a marathon about the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic yesterday and it said that those people were on 1500 calorie a day diets and those who follow the diet are losing weight and no mention was made of starvation mode. :huh:

Sign me confused.
:huh:

littlespoon

I absolutely agree with everything you are all saying. I talked to my mum about the "old fashioned way" of losing weight and although she said the same about calories (although back then it was a minimum of 1000 calories a day) she had never heard of adding what you do in exercise to your calorie intake. I eat a really good diet and I struggle to get over 800 calories (though I have made a conscious effort to eat more fruit during the day to up my calories to 950. I tried eating the 1200, and I felt sluggish, and bloated and yuk ALL the time. With my natural eating amount, I dont feel tired or unmotivated, I dont have headaches or mood swings and I sleep fine. If "listen to your body" counts for anything, mine sounds pretty happy.
My reasoning is: if some people (you know those people that are really skinny and have to eat huge amounts to keep feeling full) need lots more calories, then maybe some dont need that many. The problem with research on the internet is that it is not medical or empirical. I have been doing some research through medical journals and I am trying to find this out. I will stress that I am not a health professional of any kind, I am just not prepared to stuff myself silly to make it to 1200.

I had this conversation with "hisangel" on another post and she said the same thing, and she is losing weight just fine.

Phew...thanks for that

MandatoryFun

I was worried about this too. I have significantly increased my daily cardio over the last couple of weeks, and as a result I have has pretty big deficits in my daily caloric intake as well. I agree that often at those times I am stuffed and really can't eat another bite.

My concern, and perhaps this applies to you, was that I will hit some kind of barrier or "starvation mode" where all of my efforts will have been in vain. In short, I am afraid that instead of losing fat, I will be tricking my body into keeping the body fat or, worse, actually put on weight.

However, this fear might be a little blown out of proportion. See this VERY well researched link: http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/28742.html

I highly encourage reading all of it, but the take away info is that:
- "starvation mode" is only reached if you have consumes less that 50% of your daily allotment. So, since my goal calorie intake is 1510, i only get concerned if my "calories remaining" on the myfitnesspal home page is above 705 at the end of the day.
- If you do hit starvation mode, this does NOT mean that you will stop losing weight or gain weight. It means that you may not be losing weight as efficiently. You will reduce your metabolic rate, but this reduction isn't going to make enough of a difference to actually force you to stop losing weight. (Unless, that is, you have a 5% body fat ratio or less.) So you might not have caused yourself to stop losing weight, but the last 10-15 minutes you spent at the gym suddenly became pretty meaningless.
- Although you might not stop losing weight, you might invite a host of other health problems if you aren't getting enough nutrients.

This is where I start having questions. Does this last point mean that if we hit the deficit because we increased our daily exercise (while still eating healthily), we should be OK, even though we lose weight less efficiently? In other words, is hitting the deficit because of exercise better than hitting it because you reduced your caloric intake?

littlespoon

Hello NY Bachelor - I have read this link in the past also, (and its very good). What I am wondering is if along grapevines, numbers and words have been altered and misused (eg. "I have the flu", when it is just actually a cold), and then they are reiterated until it is common concept. ???

"hisangel" i am interested in your point of view...

helton1515

ok...

this is what i learned in college and i majored in this stuff. you should NEVER eat less than 1200 calories a day. your metabolism will slow down and eventually anything you eat will be stored in fat.

this website told me to eat only 1490 calories a day. that is not enough for me! i wasnt losing weight at all. i talked to a trainer and because of my weight and height and my workout schedule, i should be consuming 2000-2200 calories a day. i use this website now just to calculate my foods.. i dont follow the diet plan anymore. it wont work for me.

MiaEllie

I have been confused too about adding the exercise calories to my 1200. I asked my personal trainer about the starvation mode and she said, " If you eat 1200 calories a day by eating 5-6 small meals a day, your body will not go into starvation mode even if you exercise a lot." So, the important thing is to eat at leat 5-6 times a day. If you skip meals, then your metabolism will slow down and your body will hold onto calories.

tdroseler

when i stated this, about a month ago, i had no problem keeping things straight. In the last week, i find im having a hard time getting even the 1200 cals.
It is not because i am eating less...but rather eating more "wholesome".
I have started making everything from scratch, so i can keep track of carb, fat and sodium...three things that wreck havoc with my health. i have stopped using "cheater" methods with cooking, and do everything from the ground up so to speak. Spaghetti sauce, for instance, begins with pureed tomatoes. Real ones, not from a can.
All my recipies now seem to equate to less calories, so i can actually eat large amounts. I am only eating until i feel full however.
I am eating incredibly healthy for the first time in my life, and not feeling like i am hungry. But at the end of the day, i sit somewhere around 1000 cals...it concerns me a little that i may go into this "starvation" mode, except that i am eating lots. It isn't making much sence to me, lol...but for now it is working. I am still loosing weight, at a reasonable pace. My health is getting better, i feel incredible. So how can that be a bad thing?

MandatoryFun

Thank you for joining the conversation Helton 1515. Having no academic background in this, its good to be able to talk to someone who studied it.

However, I am confused by what you said. I was under the impression that the BMR (Basal metabolic Rate) was how many calories our bodies would burn if we just stayed in bed all day. That being the case, if we consume LESS then our BMR, even so few as 1200 calories, why would our body store those calories as fat? Wouldn't it use them all up just trying to keep us alive?

Also, wouldn't this site also adjust your caloric intake if you input how much you worked out every day - - just like your trainer did? Or was that adjusted amount not enough for you? If the adjusted amount wasn't enough, can you help me figure out how I need to adjust my amount?

I am not sure if lilmia's suggestion would hold true for everyone. It seems that a 6'3" 22 year old male weighing 300 pounds would have to convert an awful lot of fat to calories in order to stay alive, since his BMR would be 2738 calories a day (http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/). I'm not saying I don't believe it, I just don't know if the body can actually convert fat to calories that efficiently.

cmriverside

http://www.webmd.com/diet/guide/estimated-calorie-requirement

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/metabolism/WT00006


The first link is to WebMD, the second to MayoClinic.

They don't really mention "starvation mode" on their websites- and bottom line is- we are all different.

dhayes

Thank you for the posts cmriverside those articles made more sense to me than anything else I have read on weight loss. :flowerforyou:

Thank you to everyone else who has posted this discussion has again let me know how much I am not the only one with questions

I guess that since even W seems to have discovered science in the past few days maybe I should give it a chance also. :noway:

mshunk

Thanks so much to everyone!!! All of your thoughts have really helped...I have seemed to plateau in my weight loss, so I am happy to have more resources to turn to. THANKS!!!:happy:

whamoooo

I have felt that way. That's not the problem! The problem is when you get hungry!:laugh:

oldandbroke

This is why I love this site. This thread really made me think and read a lot. My take on all of the reading in the sites listed is don't go below your BMR. That is the problem. What is it? We have guidlines based on age etc. It changes with your body fat ratio and activity level. I think the only way to figure it out is to experiment on your self. If you are losing fat and are not starving all the time your diet is working so be patient. If you are full all the time and are gaining weight eat less. You do have to monitor your calories so that you will know what is too little. I did hit this starvation mode for a while and was hungry as a bear all day. Once I increased calories a little to the point I was able to go three hours between meals I started losing again. I now have a pretty good guess as to how many calores that is for me. I am using a tape measure and fat calipers now too make sure I am losing fat. One thing I can do is go way low on calories for one day then eat normally again for a few days with a positive net result of fat loss. All of this thinking is making me hungry.

Good luck and have patience everyone.:drinker:

icandoit

I reach my calorie count about 4-5 days of the week. I am a little over or a little under the others. I plan my meals for the week. I got into a calorie web site and list all the food I am preparing. I then make a lot of food ahead of time. The days I work out more and have to increase my calorie intake, I add a snack to my day. Rice cake and peanut butter or apple with peanut butter. It was easier for me to plan ahead. Each container was labeled with calorie count. I will cook for 2 days at a time. My intake is 1440 a day.

dhayes

This is all helpful to me but I just wanted to stress that my problem, and I believe the original posters also, was that I am full at the end of the day and always have hundreds of calories left to eat. So I was afraid that I would hit the so called starvation mode because I wasn't eating enough. But from what I have read, thanks to you all, I no longer fear that and am confident that I am on the right path for my body. :glasses:

This is a great site and the people are great. :happy:

Colleenie101

I am "allowed" 1200 calories per day....I work out 60 minutes per day 5 - 6 days a week, and then add that into my calorie intake...usually putting me around 1600-1700 calories...Today I ate breakfast, lunch a snack, worked out, came home ate dinner and put everything into the computer...I STILL HAVE 500 calories left to eat and I can't even THINK about putting another bite of food in my mouth...something I would not have complained about in the past, but everything that I have read says that I need to eat those calories or my body will go into "starvation" mode...this is CRAZY:laugh: I know that I can just let it slide every once in a while, but what am I to do when this is happening more frequently????

See I was confused about that myself. My plan and workouts seems to be almost exactly like yours. I feel full at the end of the day and I feel fine. I think as long as you have your 1200 calories you will be fine. I think it maybe just be that they are giving you the option to have more food if your still hungry. Or say you just have a craving for a can of coke! Which is my weakness. For 8oz its 100 calories. Since I worked out and earned an extra 300 to 400 i can go ahead and have that coke and not feel like Im cheating on my diet because im allowed to consume those calories and Ill see be losing weight. Of course ill still have 200 left to be consumed but thats okay. That just means you may lose more. I think I got it figured out and Im going to see how it works. Of course I picked the perfect time to join myfitnesspal.......right when im on a plateau! Good luck!

Nich0le

You have to have a certain amount of calories for your body to function, you know, to keep breathing, brain working, blood pumping. Most people burn between 800-1000 calories a day just being alive. So the idea is, if you eat 1500 calories per day and you burn 800 while exercising, you will need 300 additional calories to keep your body going and to prevent your body from protecting your vital organs in an extreme manner. This is why anorexics and bulemics have such horrible health problems related to their extreme eatting habits, they are slowly shutting their system off.

Keep in mind that those people at the Brookhaven clinic are severely obese and a lot of them can not even walk so when they start to move they are not burning a lot of calories just doing arm raises or light exercise and that is why the calorie intake has to be so low. When they start to walk and do more and more exercise they also get more calories.