The truth about Starvation mode being pushed on MFP boards.

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  • bigmamma3
    bigmamma3 Posts: 134
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    i think its rubish to i eat between 800-1000 cals a day and I'm losing between 1-2lb a week i also don't feel hungry or as if I'm missing out on anything i could quite happily eat like this for the rest of my life!


    oh and love the bike btw
  • TourThePast
    TourThePast Posts: 1,753 Member
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    MYTH: Eating a diet that is too low in calories will cause the body to go into starvation mode and not burn any calories

    FACT: Severely cutting calories will cause the metabolism to adjust slightly, but not enough to prevent fat loss
    That article makes perfect sense to me.
  • lil_missfit
    lil_missfit Posts: 565 Member
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    Interesting:smile:

    Thanks for the insight....I will keep this in mind.

    I am considering simply eating 6 meals a day rather than focusing on a number. Two things I have noticed: 1) While trying to NET 1200 on somedays ...I end up feeling stuffed and miserable. This is bc somedays I burn 900+ and have to eat A LOT of food to do this. Also my numbers ( sugar, fat, etc) sometimes are all over the place.
    2) Sometimes<
    emphasise added....when I don't eat back my exercise cals. I get weak, agitated, and confused. It's as if I can not function.

    What I am learning is simply listen to your body rather than worrying with mathmatical calculations. I suppose we all need to focus on providing our bodies with the proper nutrients and use sense enough to know when we need to bulk up on the calories and/ or push the plate away and say...."enough".

    All theories are worth the consideration:smile: thanks!:flowerforyou:
  • graysmom2005
    graysmom2005 Posts: 1,882 Member
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    I'm healthy and pretty muscular (not body building muscular....I have always had muscle tone..even as a toddler. LOL!) But even when I put in my stats for BMI, at my weight it says I'm smack in the middle of normal...erring on the side of overweight! considering I'm a fitness instructor, and I eat so little most of the time in regards to what I burn..that you'd think I'd at least be in the athletic section. My body confuses me! LOL!
  • nikkijedlo
    nikkijedlo Posts: 30 Member
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    You can definitely go into starvation mode and continue to lose weight. The question is, can you keep off the weight? People who seriously want to change their lifestyles shouldn't attempt to go into starvation mode.

    EVERYBODY, no matter HOW they lose weight, WILL gain back every pound if they begin eating more calories than their bodies require.

    Yes, yes to these!!
  • Barneystinson
    Barneystinson Posts: 1,357 Member
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    I think the real thing here is to determine what exactly your body needs. That's based on a couple things:

    1. How much activity you generally have in a day
    2. Any specific training needs (are you building strength? Training for an event?)
    3. How much do you have to lose?
    4. Your age (related to metabolism, caloric needs decrease a bit as we age).

    The closer you are to your goal, the less your caloric deficit should be from your "maintenance" level caloric intake (TDEE). The closer you are to goal, the less fat stores you have to burn and you risk utilizing muscle tissue as fuel - NOT GOOD. So sure, you lose weight, but is losing muscle tissue beneficial?

    So while some can afford that large caloric deficit 1000+/day (i.e. when you still have a larger amount of weight to lose), the closer you are to goal, the more you train, the more active you become, etc. you will benefit from adding some calories back into your diet.
  • monkeymomof3
    monkeymomof3 Posts: 107 Member
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    yeah i don't really buy it either. i used to eat barely 500 calories a day and i was a stick. but like MightyTaco (hehe) pointed out, the weight won't stay off once you start eating like a normal person again.

    How does one eat like a normal person. You meant excessive OVEREATING that got most of us here to begin with? We have to eat enough to maintain high energy levels throughout our day. I eat roughly 3 x 500 calorie meals plus snacks a day under 2000k total and im full of energy all the while my maintain weight calores at current is over 3000 a day. I'm not going to just eat for the sake of eating once i reach my goal weight or eat any different then i am now.. Good luck!

    This makes me laugh....I stopped reading the replies after this....but we did not all get here by excessively overeating. I maintain quite well which is why I have to cut calories and exercise to lose...and I got here by having three kids. Because I maintain so well eating like a normal person I need this place to lose. Don't assume that your norm and everyone else's norm are the same! It can be misleading to people like me that will not benefit from dropping into starvation mode to lose the last 7 lbs!

    *** I re-read your response and you did say "most" of us....but still!!! There are healthy ways to lose weight and excessively undereating is sort of just as bad as excessively overeating!
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    Sorry, but these are just some of the scientific studies that show a significant decrease in RMR and loss of lean mass when at an extreme caloric deficit. Most of these studies focus on obese/morbidly obese persons - the effects are far more dramatic in those who are nearer to a healthy BMI. No, it will not "stop" fat loss entirely, forever. But it can impede weight loss and cause a reduction in metabolic rate that makes it harder to lose weight - and the scenario in which it occurs leads to being unhealthy, regardless of weight lost.

    Starvation mode exists. Yes, the term is used too broadly and applied incorrectly many times on the forums. But that doesn't make it a myth. It's been proven time and again in scientific, reproducable studies.

    http://www.ajcn.org/content/53/4/826.full.pdf+html
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2613433?dopt=Abstract
    http://www.ajcn.org/content/49/1/93.full.pdf+html
    http://www.ajcn.org/content/45/2/391.full.pdf+html
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=6694559&dopt=AbstractPlus
    http://www.ajcn.org/content/57/2/127.full.pdf
    http://www.ajcn.org/content/51/2/167.abstract?ck=nck
    http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n3/abs/0803720a.html
    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0887/is_n7-8_v15/ai_18602507/
    http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Human-Starvation-I/dp/0816672342/ref=pd_sim_b_3
    http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Human-Starvation-II/dp/0816672334/ref=pd_sim_b_2

    If anyone is interested, here is my explanation of the topic. I did a LOT of research, which included many, many sources, to put it together. I'm not an expert, but I believe I've learned a lot from those who are.

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works

    Also, just an added point: starvation mode is not the only concern when addressing undereating. There are many risks that come from undereating and rapid weight loss. Undereating simply sets you up for failure and losing weight in an unhealthy manner. I discussed this in another thread, which also includes scientific references:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/222019-60-lbs-in-60-days
  • greeneyed84
    greeneyed84 Posts: 427 Member
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    Totally agree with ladyhawk!
    Of course you will keep losing weight after a while. BUT it's not the most healthy thing to do. I try to build muscle, if i ate so few calories, yes, i would lose weight but i would lose muscle. I want to look good, not malnourished.
    Plus, when you work out, build muscle, your metabolism increases. You burn more calories doing NOTHING. This is why so many people hit a plateau. Once (most of them) increase their calories by a a couple hundred they start losing again. That's how it was for me, I've hit 2 plateau's and came out of them by upping my calories.

    WHY would anyone want to eat only 500 calories a day? I like food too much. i eat 1500 plus most days i work out a lot i eat more as my body requires more. If i ate 500 i would lose muscle mass & my body would not thank me what so ever. Then going to maintaining phase i would gain a bunch of weight back and that wouldn't make any sense since that's the calories my body needs, yet my metabolism has slowed down so much that i would have to stay at 500 calories jsut to maintan. And who the heck would wanna eat 500 calories for the rest of their lives???
    No thank you, i'd rather do it the healthy way!!
  • Cletc
    Cletc Posts: 352
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    Copied from Article base.

    MYTH: Eating a diet that is too low in calories will cause the body to go into starvation mode and not burn any calories

    FACT: Severely cutting calories will cause the metabolism to adjust slightly, but not enough to prevent fat Loss

    Makes sense to me
    EVENTUALLY you are going to lose weight
    He says after the "adjustment "

    I buy it !

    :-)
  • callipygianchronicle
    callipygianchronicle Posts: 811 Member
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    I will never understand why people are so invested in convincing people to starve and underfeed. If you, yourself, are interested in being thin at any cost, you're an adult and perfectly capable of making that choice and living with the consequences. But the need people feel to "sell" others on the idea absolutely perplexes me.

    What is so offensive about the idea of losing slowly and wanting to protect and retrain your metabolism? What is so wrong with trying to prevent gallstones and sagging skin?

    There's plenty of evidence, as ladyhawk has cited, that metabolic damage will occur with underfeeding. And that metabolic damage will affect ones ability to maintain a healthy weight and affects your ratio of lean body mass to fat. But there is nothing to stop willing adults from doing it. But if one makes that choice, with all of the knowledge to contrary staring them in the face, why feel the need to convince others that they should do it too?
  • Cletc
    Cletc Posts: 352
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    I will never understand why people are so invested in convincing people to starve and underfeed.

    There will always be
    People
    invested in convincing people of
    Something-or-Other.

    It's not limited to dietary topics.

    It's universal.
  • katberz
    katberz Posts: 123
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    Well, regardless of whether or not it's effective for weight loss, significantly undereating isn't going to make you healthier. I know because I survived on about 500-800 cals a day, probably around 100 net cals after exercise, for six months or so. Yes, I lost a lot of weight. My hair also fell out, my periods stopped, I was dizzy/fatigued constantly and I grew lanugo (fine blonde hair) on my face. The lanugo was so bad I had to shave like a man. No way am I going down that road again.
  • irridia
    irridia Posts: 527 Member
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    After a very long period of inactivity. I got a very physically demanding job. Lots of lifting and moving constantly. I got stronger and then I started getting weaker and weaker despite working harder/faster and lifting heavier. Then I realized I wasn't eating enough!! I started adding a protien bar and a bananna 2 hrs into my shift and holy cow I started putting on muscle. I was the most fit I had been since giving birth. I was all set to keep it but then got a different job that just invoved standing and arm movement. So I was too tired to keep training and lost all that muscle I put on, and gained back the weight I had lost. *sigh* I'm below that weight now, but more of it is fat now and less muscle.

    So yeah, eating more can definately assist w/weight loss.
  • scapez
    scapez Posts: 2,018 Member
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    I'm happy to read this, because I've been wondering what I should do regarding eating back my exercise calories. I suppose I just don't get the concept -- when exercising, shouldn't you just fuel your body -- not eat back everything you just worked off?!? If you're eating everything back, how are you burning off stored fat?

    At any rate, I don't know that I *could* eat everything back on high exercise days -- just way too much food for me.
  • Robertlawnicki
    Robertlawnicki Posts: 25 Member
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    The last time I asked for help on this subject the response was that I am not eating back my cal. from my work out.
    Soooooo I started to increase my cal. intake, from 1200 per day to about 1700. Prior to my cal. increase I had lost
    71 lbs. Since the cal. increase I put back on 4 lbs. I am now going to try a daily intake of 700 cal. I will see what that will do.
  • Cletc
    Cletc Posts: 352
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    when exercising, shouldn't you just fuel your body -- not eat back everything you just worked off?!?
    If you're eating everything back, how are you burning off stored fat?

    I don't know
    I don't get it either!!

    I'm not eating back my calories
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    I'm happy to read this, because I've been wondering what I should do regarding eating back my exercise calories. I suppose I just don't get the concept -- when exercising, shouldn't you just fuel your body -- not eat back everything you just worked off?!? If you're eating everything back, how are you burning off stored fat?

    At any rate, I don't know that I *could* eat everything back on high exercise days -- just way too much food for me.

    This has to do with how MFP is designed. It is different than most other counters/plans. Most plans use your exercise to create your deficit for weight loss, keeping your daily cal goal static.

    MFP was designed with the idea that many people can't exercise regularly, or at all, due to physical limitations or time. They also recognized that most people set up an exercise plan, but as we all know, that's not necessarily what actually happens every day. So they built the site to allow for weight loss with or without exercise.

    MFP creates a built in deficit based on your loss per week goal, regardless of exercise. So when you log exercise cals are added back in to keep that deficit stable. If you don't replace those cals, you've made your deficit larger than you (presumably) intended. A larger deficit does not necessarily mean faster weight loss; it is usually unhealthy and unsustainable. It is important to fuel the body properly. This is explained in more detail in the threads I linked in my previous post.
  • chanstriste13
    chanstriste13 Posts: 3,277 Member
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    the fellow that wrote this article is neither a doctor nor a nutritionist - he's a sportsman/salesman! find someone more accredited to argue your point, and then i'll consider it.

    "Neal Spruce - About the Author:

    Neal Spruce is chairman of the board for the prestigious National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and founder dotFIT, LLC. Neal is a fitness specialist, author, licensed teacher, researcher, bodybuilding champion, personal fitness consultant and speaker. dotfit is the leading online fitness and weight loss program."
  • Silvergamma
    Silvergamma Posts: 102 Member
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    The goal, in my opinion, is to lose fat and to be healthy. Very large calorie deficits and chronic underfeeding will cause a person to lose weight, but it will be a mixture of fat and lean tissue. To achieve that healthy fat loss goal requires exercise and proper nutrition. You need to fuel your body to keep up with your activity level. To lose fat, you also need to generate a calorie deficit, and there is such a thing as too large of a deficit. Why would you want your body to burn muscle mass? There is an ideal deficit for each of us that will optimize burning fat while allowing your body to maintain and build muscle. Starvation mode isn't just "HUR you are going to get fat by eating too little."

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