Starvation mode myth or fact???

snowbab

I am set at 1500 but I usually eat 1200 or a bit over. I'm at a BMI of 20.1 at the moment and i struggle to eat enough sometimes e.g. today I ate 1063.

Is this bad? I ate under 1490 yesterday but day before it was 990...is this a bad sort of pattern or will that be ok for my metabolism?

Fruit_Girl

I do the same thing, Like today I ate 990, yesterday like 1200, the day before 1000. I think if you stay within like a 300 calorie range you should be fine.

vbennett7

Our bodies are made for energy (fat) storage. Our ancestors did not always have access to food and could sustain themselves on bodyfat. That being said I am in the stage of trying to lose the last 10 pounds and have really hit a wall. I'm afraid to drop calories below my resting metabolic rate for fear of exhaustion and stalling my metabolism. I love what I do and need the energy to do it!

I think this is a topic that is still not conclusive either way.

Regardless of what studies have found, here is my experience so far. I have lost about 40 pounds over the last year. I started at 178 pounds and calories of 1440. When I got below 140 pounds, it was really hard to lose more. I was at 1200 calories and not progressing. If I ate a little more, I seemed to gain. A MFP friend told me to get my maintenance calories for my desired weight and average it with the 1200. It increased my daily calorie intake and I have been losing weight since! Yeah!

My husband started out at 369. He is now 297 or so. He started losing in August. He lost quickly by severely decreasing his calories. He plateaued a bit and now is slowly increasing his calories a little. He has seen loss since increasing.

crash_13

Most informative article(s) i have read. Easy for the non-sci majors. :yawn:

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/diet/calorie-maintenance-calculator-daily-calorie-requirements/

Sid1988

Very usefull information thank you.

I think there is so much commotion about 'starvation mode' but when you have a tummy layered in fat and are eating just below the 1200 calories as recommended, i somehow don't think my body is going to starve on those spare tyres i have! maybe if i didn't have an ounce of fat on my body but the truth of the matter is i do so i don't think i need to worry!

DanaDark

It generally has to do with protein intake.

BMR is a suggested calorie intake because people that naturally eat at that level or slightly above in a HEALTHY way will get their required protein for the day.

If you do not get your required protein, your body then has to get it from other sources such as muscle tissue. It cannot get ALL of it's protein from this source either. So, all the processes that depend on protein get short changed. That means the ENERGY that your body would normally spend running these processes will not be spent. This is what slows down the metabolism, in combination with slight muscle loss.

You CAN go under BMR and lose weight long term. However, doing so would require INTENSE tracking of EVERY nutrient. There would be NO room for error at all. And your diet would have to mainly be of EXTREMELY lean meats (fish and egg whites, no beef).

Eating healthy at or a little above BMR is the suggested route to ensure you get all of your proper nutrition. I will NEVER recommend anyone eat bellow their BMR for any reason.

mcarter99

When authorities talk about it they're almost invariably referring to intake levels much lower than the average MFP poster is.

I think the 'harder to maintain your loss' stuff mainly occurs DURING the high deficit, not after it. There are two effects-- reduced activity and increased appetite that occurs DURING the deficit and reduced LBM that affects one afterward as well. If you take measures to protect your LBM %, there is no reason it's harder to maintain your loss afterward. Your activity and appetite will go back to what they are at maintenance level eating when you return to that eating, regardless of if you lose weight at .5 lb/week or at 2 lbs/week.