I think I just disproved starvation mode!

SarabellPlus3

Starvation mode is Crap.

You don't see too many fat people walking around in Ethiopia and from images of detention centres from Wars do you...

I am pretty certain they are under 1200 cals a day...

Not eating enought to be healthy is true, "starvation mode" is bullsh1t

This is silly. Of course you don't.
Starvation mode is SUPPOSED to be how your body adapts to a lack of nourishment (I.e. VLCD's and to clarify that does not mean "omg I only 1199 calories today, I'm going to be in starvation mode. That would be more like 300 or less for a very prolonged period of time) In the case of children who are actually starving (and not forcing themselves too because they don't want to be fat) they would not gain weight randomly. However, if you were to take one of those children and feed them properly for a week you (in theory) would notice a higher ratio of fat storage to caloric intake. The body realizes there won't be much food around for awhile, and will make use of it as best it can. In the mind of the child's body, efficient storage would not be too burn up all those excess calories.. it would be to store them, to assist you in surviving until you may eat again. Your body adapts to protect and save you, it doesn't want you to be fat.... it wants you to stay alive. Those children will not EVER appear fat, because they never have part 2 of the equation. That doesn't mean their bodies aren't starving for nourishment.

With all that being said, if you truly did "damage" your metabolism by choice, there are ways to "fix" it without gaining fat. You just have to be smart about it.

This, 100% correct. Starvation mode is a slowing of your metabolism, beyond just being a lower weight. Does it cause weight loss to slow and stop? Eventually, because eventually you will lose enough weight and your metabolism will adapt enough that the extreme low levels you are eating become your new maintenance level. 1200 is a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. Some people need less, some people substantially more, hence 1200 being a guideline for "average" women.

And this is why I say it is Crap. Anyone who is on here warning people about "starvation mode" when someone mentions eating 1000cal one day or missing dinner etc is a moron. The studies showed a 50% BMR diet for 12 weeks! Not for a day or even two days! You WILL NOT go into Starvation Response unless you are doing it on purpose for a very long time, but you will still continue to lose weight even though your metabolism is slowing. Eating ultra low then binging is another matter all together. If you eat normally then binge you will gain weight. 1200 is Bunk. A 6 foot woman will clearly need more than 1200 and a 5 foot woman could definatley be healthy on much less.

Totally, but that means those people are 1. misguided, 2. "morons," or 3. creating a strawman argument.
It doesn't mean "starvation mode" itself is not real in terms of slowing metabolism as a very real physiological response .

emmab0902

It's a shame the "misguided" don't educate themselves and stop wagging the finger of doom at people who have their net intake set under 1200. That's why I closed my food diary. I know what I eat is right for me, and got fed up (bad pun!) with those people passing judgment and declaring I would be a fat storing machine!