Why is it tht when ppl dont eat enough, they gain weight, bu

Drealicious

I am confused on how the system works. So people say that when they dont eat enough calories, they end up staying the same, or even gaining weight. But anorexics, who do the same are super skinny?

n0pants3ver

Your metabolism slows down, so your muscle ends up eating itself. That's why anorexic people are so skinny is because they have no fuel, so their bodies are slowly eating itself. NOT HEALTHY.

achapman01

When u don't eat enough calories, your body will do what it is supposed to do: go into survival mode and hold on to the fat, as an emergency energy source. Anorexics are extreme in their lack of caloric intake. The body has to use whatever it can to keep you alive, including depleting muscle tissue, once your fat reserves are gone. Eat lots of good, healthy, whole food, and your body will shed the pounds it doesn't need in a healthy way!:happy:

annacataldo

I know a fat belimic...she never looses any weight so she stays big and she doesn't lose because her body stores everything the minute she eats it cuz she doesn't eat enough...she doesn't stop being belimic cuz she can't and has been doing it for some 20yrs or whatever...


Anorexics r skinny cuz they're body eats itself...that's y u end up losing teeth and hair, etccuz they aren't eating enough

Ty_1227

This is probably bad forum etiquette but I saw this and wanted to respond really quickly before bed. The short answer boils down to BMR - how many calories your body naturally burns even when you're doing absolutely nothing (ie sleeping, sitting, etc). I have very little knowledge of the details of how anorexia ravages a person's body or how it is properly treated since much of the disorder is psychological, but in essence they are skinny because their body is starving itself and has shutdown or consumed any tissue it can to try and survive. The fitter you are / higher your BMR is - the more calories you can burn. Here is a cut and copy of my response to one person's questions about if they would lose weight by simply staying under MFP's calorie recommendation w/ zero exercise...

"To answer your question... Yes and No

Yes - If you stick to the recommended net calories provided by MFP you should steadily lose weight for a while. The way this site works is that all of our plans have a built in calorie deficit, which does allow you to lose weight even if you do ZERO exercise. Also, yes, you can really eat anything and everything you want, but you will quickly see the clear trade off between healthier foods which can keep you satisfied throughout more of the day vs. a burger and fries which could easily eat up an 1400 net calorie limit in one sitting.

buuuuuttttttttt.....

NO - In the end you will NEED to exercise. All of our bodies have this pain in the *kitten* truth known as adaptive thermogenesis. Thermo-wha? Yeah, it's just a fancy way of saying that your body will adapt to a smaller caloric intake and you will eventually plateau at a weight that is usually not your goal. This is a double whammy because this adaptation actually lowers your metabolism (Baso metabolic rate) from what it originally was. It actually takes quite a lot of work and energy to burn for our bodies to move around when we're heavier and doing even the most basic of things. Worst of all, even if you pretended to be deathly allergic to working out and were content w/ your small intake... once you hit 40 you'd have to get ready to scale back EVEN MORE because each year after 40, we naturally lose 5% of calories naturally burned w/ BRM. So say you managed with my arbitrary example 1400 net calories + 0 cals burned from working out - by age 45 you'd have to drop to eating only 1083 calories, age 50 - 838 calories, and if you weren't emaciated by age 75 you could chow down on 388 calories max!

Lol yeah, it's extreme but the moral of the story is diet alone will NOT ensure long term health, this is why it's so common to see people "yo-yo". Working out allows you to strengthen your muscles and cardio so that your body burns more calories even when doing "nothing" like sitting or sleeping.

Lastly, if this is all new to you, by all means just take it one step at time and focus on just eating within your net limit - you will see results. Then, if you slowly add in the physical activity you'll love the sudden drop that comes with amping up your bodies output levels and will actually enjoy the fact that you can eat more! Good luck!"