Starvation Mode

plv2010

How bad is it to go into starvation mode? I know this sounds stupid, but I'll explain my situation tonight. I dance in a group, which has practices from 8-9pm. Tonight, our coach decides to run our practice from 8-10pm, and my HRM records double the amount of calories I intended to burn. So when I input my exercise, I have a remaining 840 calories, and my log says I'm eating too few calories. Does one day really hurt, or should I force myself to make up those calories. Thanks guys!

albinogorilla

one day wont hurt
but once you get used to the calories and how much exercise you will be doing, you can plan to eat those calories you will be earning, throughout the day, eating them all at the end of the day would do more harm than good

Amo_Angelus

keytosis (or however you spell it) doesn't actually begin for THREE days. Your body burns carbohydrates to produce Kilojules, which is what your body runs on, now if you eat carbohydrates it takes three days for your body to purge your system entirely, then it begins with keytones, which is where it starts burning fat reserves under the impression that a starvation period has begun. Hence the laymens term, starvation mode. Now the problem with Keytosis is that excess fat and let's say your heart (although it's actually several vital organs) have very similar make up as do your muscles and your body isn't quite intellegent enough to distinguish between the two and that is the main reason why it's bad. That, and because as soon as your body gets carb again it think "Right, time to ave up for the next starvation period) and hides them away as fat.

So in short, one day hasn't even triggered "starvation mode"

pp67

It won't hurt. You're the same height as me and your #2 goal is 5 lbs above mine I've been doing loads of research on Weight Loss Surgery and have found their particluar diet plan (once they are past their liquids phase) that absolutely works for weightloss and throws that Starvation Mode out the window. I'm not going to have the surgery but I am coming down from 270 lbs.

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight. Yes you have to count your calories but not so strictly, only what you are eating, not the drinks - I have about 4-6 cups of coffee with sugarine and lite milk a day and low joule soft drinks and cordial and I don't count these. You also have to match, your eating calories with your exercise calories, don't eat back your exercise calories. Your body will have enough fat stores to use during the night and you will wake up lbs lighter. The only time the scales don't budge is when your body is kindoff going into a shifting around mode and this is when the centimeters drop, you'll notice your clothes are looser.

Keep your diet High Protein, Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Sodium, Low Calorie and match you exercise calories with your eating calories and you will definitely lose weight.

Amo_Angelus

pp67s advice is VERY wrong and consulting with a dietician will tell you this. You count the calories of EVERYTHING you put in your mouth, not jut what you feel like and while yes a calorie defecit is needed, too much is bad and you should eat back some excercise calories after a heavy workout that's used more than a few.

pp67

No... pp67's advice is not VERY wrong, just different to Amo_Angelus's. That's ok and am not bothered that there are a lot of people who may not agree with or approve of what I write. It ís, afterall, my opinion that I write. I have been doing a lot of reading up on WLS and what happens to folks after they've had it, their eating plans and their exercise plans. Plus, when you don't have over 100 lbs to lose one is bound to have different ideas and opinions.

MellowGa

starvation mode is not smart and bad for your body.

suzycreamcheese

starvation mode is only a theory

joejccva71

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Your advice was good here.

Yes you have to count your calories but not so strictly, only what you are eating, not the drinks - I have about 4-6 cups of coffee with sugarine and lite milk a day and low joule soft drinks and cordial and I don't count these. You also have to match, your eating calories with your exercise calories, don't eat back your exercise calories. Your body will have enough fat stores to use during the night and you will wake up lbs lighter. The only time the scales don't budge is when your body is kindoff going into a shifting around mode and this is when the centimeters drop, you'll notice your clothes are looser.

Keep your diet High Protein, Low Carb, Low Fat, Low Sodium, Low Calorie and match you exercise calories with your eating calories and you will definitely lose weight.

Your advice was bad here.

You count every calorie, not just what you "feel like counting". Not sure what kind of advice is that.

It's amazing how everyone on this forum is infatuated with HIGH PROTEIN. It's like some magical macronutrient that will shed all the fat off them in no time. High Protein isn't neccessary and it doesn't make you lose weight. A calorie deficit of 20-40% under your TDEE while hitting your macros that are balanced will make you not only lose weight, but not plateau like so many do.

You should be consuming 1 to 1.5g of protein per lb of LBM.
You should be consuming .35-.75t of fat per lb of bodyweight.
The rest should go into carbs or additional proteins and fats. Carbs aren't neccessary.

100lb

Having a calorie INTAKE of under 1200 calories isn't recommended, because of how the body reacts when you come out. there have been plenty of medical research into it. Anyone remember the story of a strict 600cal medically supervised diet can stop diabetes, latest study shows this not to be the case but it can be used to reset blood glucose levels to normal to then follow a balanced diet. So that's a 600 cal/day for weeks.

I stated intake, because many people on this forum say you have to "eat your exercise calories", this is out-of-date thinking and if your dietician is advising this maybe they need to get up to date. My mother went to a ThinkGlucose study day for health professionals (ThinkGlucose is part of the UK NHS Institute) with a series of talks on latest developments and diabetic treatment policy. I'm not diabetic but I got my mother to ask about eating exercise calories for a non-diabetic obese individual. The nutritionist said that "eating exercise calories" was no longer advised and the important fact is staying within your calorie intake and that calories burnt off as part of exercise should be treated a bonus to your weight loss.

So regarding the OP as it was only exercise that took you below 1200, I wouldn't worry.

In a cardio workout I can burn off 1000+ calories, and I do not ensure I eat these back! I do have a pre & post workout protein shake, so I guess that's 250 back, but that is more to do with ensuring that my body has a ready supply of protein to help repair/recovery rather than correcting the deficit. Your body doesn't store protein and if you've had a heavy cardio/strength workout your muscles will be repairing over 24 hours - if it doesn't find protein in ready supply it can strip it from underused muscles because your body deems the ones your using a lot are more important.

My opinion on the calorie counting difference is you need to apply common sense. Yes you should count everything rather than being selective, but that can depend on what you are omitting. Not recording your consumption of 1-cal drinks isn't drastic and pp67's coffees are probably 20-30 cals so that's 150 cals a day. If she's already on a calorie reduced diet and losing, then that 150 calories are fine, and really she could easily add a single entry for the days drinks if needs be. It would only be a problem if weight isn't being lost, because then you would need to look at what you are recording, or more importantly not recording or correctly recording.