A trick around starvation mode?

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  • thinminmeg
    thinminmeg Posts: 1
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    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!
  • johloz
    johloz Posts: 176 Member
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    Here's a trick around starvation mode: eat more food. Stop acting like you can trick your body. The human body is more "intelligent" and adaptable than we give it credit for. If you consistently eat 1200 or 800 calories a day, you will lose some weight initially, then your body will adjust to maintaining your weight on that many calories. If it doesn't, you will die -- so it adapts. Then, you will either have to 1) eat even less, risking your health and ending up in the same place, or 2) eat more and gain a bunch of weight at the level you were mainting on.

    If you don't have much weight to lose (which you don't), don't make such drastic cuts to your caloric intake. Lose the weight gradually at a caloric intake level you can maintain in the long-term.

    Your profile says you are trying to be healthy. What you are suggesting is not.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
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    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.
  • bionicrooster
    bionicrooster Posts: 353 Member
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    I tried 1600 cals, then 1400, then 1200 when i was losing. 1200 worked best. A few days a week I would stick to around 1000. Once a week or so I would creep up to 1600 again. Worked for me , never went into startvation mode. I think what kind of calories you take in (what you eat) is as or more important than how many (within reason).
  • scottbrown78
    scottbrown78 Posts: 142 Member
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    LOL, it's going to be a good week, a starvation mode thread on a Monday morning. My favorite.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 9,998 Member
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    Rubbish. We will catabolise muscle tissue and burn body fat if we're in a deficit all the way down to death.
  • FitNB
    FitNB Posts: 16
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    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.

    I like the idea of how people assume your body can make something out of nothing.
  • seansquared
    seansquared Posts: 328 Member
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    There are no tricks. Just eat correctly to meet your goals. Anything else is just plain silly.
  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    Interesting fact, thanks for sharing.

    why do you assume it is a fact?
  • shmoony
    shmoony Posts: 237 Member
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    There are no tricks. Just eat correctly to meet your goals. Anything else is just plain silly.


    I'm with him. Hasn't this website and journey taught some of you people anything. Find the maintanance calories of a person at the weight you want to be at and eat that everyday. When you reach that weight, yes you will stall, but isn't that the point? Then you can just keep eating the same calories forever for maintanance. It's pretty simple really. If you're 245 pounds and you want to weigh 145 eat now what it will take to maintain at 145, no more no less. It will take a while, but when you get there, you'll be so used to that amount of food, you will never yoyo. Enough with the tricks and theories!
  • tammy4him
    tammy4him Posts: 2
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    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
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    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: 9,998 Member
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    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
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    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
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    OR, you could just eat enough on a daily basis and lose weight the healthy way.

    ^this

    /thread
  • taso42
    taso42 Posts: 8,980 Member
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    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
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    1200 cals is not some magical number.
  • leomom72
    leomom72 Posts: 1,797 Member
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    i like food too much to only eat 800 calories a day :laugh:
  • Mcgrawhaha
    Mcgrawhaha Posts: 1,596 Member
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    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
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    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.

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