A trick around starvation mode?

2

Replies

  • tammy4him
    tammy4him Posts: 2
    Starvation mode does exist and i am a blatant example of it! i have maintained an unhealthy weight of 245 lbs. for well over 7 years! wanna know how, because i was eating too little! i would go days without eating anything but breakfast and maybe a sub trying to lose weight only to notice i never really LOST anything! i was in maintanance mode. whatever my body got it used to keep me alive and comfortable so therefore i never let go of anything i put in my body. now i know i need to eat atleast 1200 to keep me going and help in this weight loss journey so i try to eat atleast 1200 and some of my exercise calories even if i have to drink an additional protien shake after dinner!

    I am RIGHT there with you!! I put weight on because of depression and hormone imbalance issues. I completely lost the desire to eat for almost 5 yrs. and gained 60+ pounds and kept it on for over 5 yrs. I went for treatment for my depression last yr. and was f!orced to eat 3 meals a day and started loosing weight!! I have lost 50 pounds this year and I am still loosing! It is hard to get all my calories in sometimes but I know if I do I will continue to loose the weight and I feel SO much better without it:happy:
    My suggestion to you is consistent calorie intake and plenty of water! Good luck and hang in there:flowerforyou:
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    Starvation mode does exist and i am a blatant example of it! i have maintained an unhealthy weight of 245 lbs. for well over 7 years! wanna know how, because i was eating too little! i would go days without eating anything but breakfast and maybe a sub trying to lose weight only to notice i never really LOST anything! i was in maintanance mode. whatever my body got it used to keep me alive and comfortable so therefore i never let go of anything i put in my body. now i know i need to eat atleast 1200 to keep me going and help in this weight loss journey so i try to eat atleast 1200 and some of my exercise calories even if i have to drink an additional protien shake after dinner!

    I am RIGHT there with you!! I put weight on because of depression and hormone imbalance issues. I completely lost the desire to eat for almost 5 yrs. and gained 60+ pounds and kept it on for over 5 yrs. I went for treatment for my depression last yr. and was f!orced to eat 3 meals a day and started loosing weight!! I have lost 50 pounds this year and I am still loosing! It is hard to get all my calories in sometimes but I know if I do I will continue to loose the weight and I feel SO much better without it:happy:
    My suggestion to you is consistent calorie intake and plenty of water! Good luck and hang in there:flowerforyou:

    Your body doesn't create fat out of thin air. If this were the case there would be no starving people in the world. It just isn't physically possible to gain weight or maintain fat without eating an excess. If you truly have a body that can do this you need to contact some research scientists so they can figure out how to use this gene to solve the world's food problems.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,207 Member
    Starvation mode does exist and i am a blatant example of it! i have maintained an unhealthy weight of 245 lbs. for well over 7 years! wanna know how, because i was eating too little! i would go days without eating anything but breakfast and maybe a sub trying to lose weight only to notice i never really LOST anything! i was in maintanance mode. whatever my body got it used to keep me alive and comfortable so therefore i never let go of anything i put in my body. now i know i need to eat atleast 1200 to keep me going and help in this weight loss journey so i try to eat atleast 1200 and some of my exercise calories even if i have to drink an additional protien shake after dinner!

    I am RIGHT there with you!! I put weight on because of depression and hormone imbalance issues. I completely lost the desire to eat for almost 5 yrs. and gained 60+ pounds and kept it on for over 5 yrs. I went for treatment for my depression last yr. and was f!orced to eat 3 meals a day and started loosing weight!! I have lost 50 pounds this year and I am still loosing! It is hard to get all my calories in sometimes but I know if I do I will continue to loose the weight and I feel SO much better without it:happy:
    My suggestion to you is consistent calorie intake and plenty of water! Good luck and hang in there:flowerforyou:
    If eating 3 meals a day maintained a deficit, then you would lose weight. Obviously you ate something over those 5 years because otherwise you would have ended up like all people that don't eat enough food, they shrivel up and die, they certainly don't put on 50 lbs.......binge eating makes it difficult to see the forest for the trees.
  • alana_swiss
    alana_swiss Posts: 31
    This method is definitely the best way to lose weight! I wish I had come across this comment when i began my weight loss journey :( I'm now in the process of repairing my metabolism and it sucks.

    No tricks required. Just eat at your goal weight TDEE and you will successfully lose weight in a healthy way. It may take a little longer but trust me, speaking from someone who was on an LCD for months, this method is the only way to go!
  • PetulantOne
    PetulantOne Posts: 2,131 Member
    OR, you could just eat enough on a daily basis and lose weight the healthy way.

    ^this

    /thread
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
    Interesting fact, thanks for sharing.

    incredible. someone reads some crap on the internet, reposts it here, and suddenly it's fact.
  • stargazer008
    stargazer008 Posts: 531
    1200 cals is not some magical number.
  • leomom72
    leomom72 Posts: 1,797 Member
    i like food too much to only eat 800 calories a day :laugh:
  • Mcgrawhaha
    Mcgrawhaha Posts: 1,596 Member
    i believe starvation mode is mostly a myth, however, in extreme cases, im sure possible... like when the body runs low on fat to burn, then starts in on the muscle, in attempt to hold onto what little fat remains...

    those with gastric bypass and lap band eat between 400-800 calories a day, and they dont go into starvation mode... they continue to lose... infact, my brother lost so much weight, so quick, they had to remove the lapband... no starvation mode there...

    either way, i dont worry too much about it... i eat between 1100-1200 calories a day, and also excercise mon-fri and DO NOT EAT BACK MY EXCERCISE CALORIES... i continue to lose weight at a rate of 2 pounds a week... not starving, and definately not in starvation mode...
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Starvation mode is a tern that gets thrown around without really understanding it. You need to be eating (or not eating) at an extremely low level for months before there is a danger. Get to 5% or less bodyfat and your body will cannibalize muscle. Nobody stays fat in starvation mode, your body just can't do it.

    Eating extremely low calories only changes your metabolism because you lose muscle mass. 2 or 3 days of low eating doesn't trigger some secret switch. You will become malnourished unless you are really vigilant about making those few calories of the highest quality and nutrition.

    People in N America are not in starvation mode, a lot are in delusion mode about how much they eat though. If you want to see starvation mode, head for sub Saharan Africa. There are lots of people there that can tell you all about it.

    Could you please provide support for this 5% number?

    And I am confused - the first paragraph says it will only cannibalize (I assume you mean catabolize here) muscle at 5% then you say eating extremely low calories only changes your metabolism because your lose muscle mass. These two statements contradict each other unless I am reading them wrong.
  • MoreBean13
    MoreBean13 Posts: 8,701 Member
    Too bad starvation mode (adaptive thermogenesis) is something that happens on a longer term basis, not within 3 days. Your average calorie intake over a longer period of time will determine So if you average 933 cals ((800+800+1200)/3=933) that's what you're going to adapt to. huh.
  • SideSteel
    SideSteel Posts: 11,068 Member
    I wish there were a trick around bump year old thread mode.
  • cmcollins001
    cmcollins001 Posts: 3,472 Member
    I wish there were a trick around bump year old thread mode.

    QFT
  • healthylife56
    healthylife56 Posts: 32
    OR, you could just eat enough on a daily basis and lose weight the healthy way.

    ^^ THIS
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    Just because it isn't "starvation mode" doesn't mean it's necessarily a good idea.
  • Crankstr
    Crankstr Posts: 3,958 Member
    I wish there were a trick around bump year old thread mode.

    QFT

    SRSLY
  • 70davis
    70davis Posts: 348 Member
    Bump
  • Cali212
    Cali212 Posts: 20 Member
    I'm not really sure. I was eating at less than 1200 calories until I realized that I may permanently mess myself up. What if my body only expects 1200 calories forever? I upped to 1600 -1800 calories and I feel much better.
  • BurtHuttz
    BurtHuttz Posts: 3,653 Member
    OP has lost only 7 pounds in over a year.
    Advice seems legit.
  • Mcgrawhaha
    Mcgrawhaha Posts: 1,596 Member
    OP has lost 7 pounds in 16 months.
    Advice seems legit.

    to be fair, you dont really know when the op genuinly started... mine says may 2011, but thats just the day i found the app and made a quick profile, not to bother with it again until summer this year...
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    OP has lost 7 pounds in 16 months.
    Advice seems legit.

    to be fair, you dont really know when the op genuinly started... mine says may 2011, but thats just the day i found the app and made a quick profile, not to bother with it again until summer this year...

    True, but the original post was made in October of 2011. Someone bumped a really old thread.
  • Mcgrawhaha
    Mcgrawhaha Posts: 1,596 Member
    oooohhhhhhhhhh, i didnt even notice that...
  • amonkey794
    amonkey794 Posts: 651 Member
    Interesting fact, thanks for sharing.

    There was nothing *fact*ual about that
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    I thought of this idea myself.
    They say that after a while your body gets used to your routine.
    Well, if you keep consistently changing your calories, can't that confuse the body and prevent the body from getting used to your routine? I'm gonna try this with my new elliptical that arrives along with my new BodyFit Media wristband! I cannot wait to try that!
    You cannot "confuse" or "trick" your body. Your body doesn't think. It just responds to what your brain does to it.
  • LucyAndDiamonds
    LucyAndDiamonds Posts: 16
    I'm glad someone brought this up...People have been hammering on me about eating under 1200 and scaring me into wondering if I'll gain because I don't hit that...
  • Blondgurl778
    Blondgurl778 Posts: 7
    So what I learned from my Human Biology class is this; sure you will lose weight if you starve yourself, but the weight you are losing is muscle mass and bone mass. The bone that you will lose is in your joints and your spine mostly. This will make you more likely to end up with osteoporosis. Also, does not muscle burn more calories than fat? So if you are losing muscle mass, isn't that making it harder to lose weight later on, and easier to gain weight once you stop the "starvation diet"? In other words, eat healthy, work out, and you should lose the weight at a healthy rate, and you will be more likely to retain that weight loss.
  • scottbrown78
    scottbrown78 Posts: 142 Member
    So what I learned from my Human Biology class is this; sure you will lose weight if you starve yourself, but the weight you are losing is muscle mass and bone mass. The bone that you will lose is in your joints and your spine mostly. This will make you more likely to end up with osteoporosis. Also, does not muscle burn more calories than fat? So if you are losing muscle mass, isn't that making it harder to lose weight later on, and easier to gain weight once you stop the "starvation diet"? In other words, eat healthy, work out, and you should lose the weight at a healthy rate, and you will be more likely to retain that weight loss.
    Ok, so what is considered "starve yourself" At what number do all humans start to starve? Is it just calories that our bodies are after when they attack the muscle and bone instead of the stored fuel (fat)? How long does one have to starve before this happens or is it immediate?
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    So what I learned from my Human Biology class is this; sure you will lose weight if you starve yourself, but the weight you are losing is muscle mass and bone mass. The bone that you will lose is in your joints and your spine mostly. This will make you more likely to end up with osteoporosis. Also, does not muscle burn more calories than fat? So if you are losing muscle mass, isn't that making it harder to lose weight later on, and easier to gain weight once you stop the "starvation diet"? In other words, eat healthy, work out, and you should lose the weight at a healthy rate, and you will be more likely to retain that weight loss.
    Ok, so what is considered "starve yourself" At what number do all humans start to starve? Is it just calories that our bodies are after when they attack the muscle and bone instead of the stored fuel (fat)? How long does one have to starve before this happens or is it immediate?
    It takes about 4 days of complete fasting for the body's metabolism to shift into famine survival mode. At that point, TDEE drastically lowers, and the body begins to catabolize nonessential muscle to supplement fat stores, in order to extend the amount of time the fat stores will last. When the nonessential muscle is gone, it turns to nonessential connective tissue, bones, and then organs. This also occurs when over a period of several weeks when consuming an extreme calorie deficit. The body is always pushing for equilibrium and homeostasis. If your TDEE is 3000, and you cut your intake to 1000, your body will adjust to attempt to match the new intake of 1000. It does this by lowering TDEE (shutting down nonessential systems to allow for more efficient calorie use) and drawing from fat stores. If it is drawing too much from fat stores at one time, it starts catabolizing muscle and other protein sources in order to initiate gluconeogenesis to help make up the difference.

    The human body can "survive" much longer with high fat and little muscle, so that is what it evolved to do in times of famine.
  • scottbrown78
    scottbrown78 Posts: 142 Member
    So anybody can fast for four days without going into "starvation mode" then resume "normal" eating for a day and avoid starvation mode, then four more days of fasting? And can a person starve to death and still be fat? And the body does this for calories only?

    What are some signs of "starvation mode"?
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
    So anybody can fast for four days without going into "starvation mode" then resume "normal" eating for a day and avoid starvation mode, then four more days of fasting? And can a person starve to death and still be fat? And the body does this for calories only?

    What are some signs of "starvation mode"?

    settle down dude

    extreme ranting causes high blood pressure

    relax
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