starvation mode

scorpiomfs

yesterday i took my teen daughter to the doctor. her doctor said that there is such a thing as starvation mode. My thought is if i eat 3 times a day and snacks , even if they are low calorie, how am i starving my body? i am still losing and losing is what gives me motavation. I dont want to go into sm. I am feeding my body. im right on track with calorie amounts and such.I do go over on weekends so i do have a cheat meal on weekends. Does everyone have to go through this?

KareninCanada

"Starvation Mode" isn't starving yourself to death, it's that you're not providing your body with all the nutrients it needs in order to feel happy about releasing fat stores. So it starts leaching from your bones and organs, burning lean muscle, and holding on to fat for dear life because it thinks you're living with ongoing limited access to food.

It's hard to offer advice when your diary is locked, so you might want to open that up so people can help you better.


And I know this goes without saying, but please be really conscious of the example you set for your daughter as you're traveling this road. :flowerforyou:

amdahwd

I do not believe in the starvation mode either, unless you are already very, very thin and have minimum fat stores to begin with. If I require more energy than I am taking in, my body will burn the fat I have stored, which is what my goal is - get rid of my already stored fat.

ArroganceInStep

Do a search on starvation mode, this has been posted countless times before already.

Starvation mode is kind of a bad name. When you lose weight, you lose both lean body mass (muscle tissue) as well as fat. The idea is to maximize the retention of lean body mass and make as much of the loss come from actual body fat. If you don't eat enough to support your basic bodily functions, a much higher percentage of your weight loss will come from lean body mass.

Read: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/setting-the-deficit-small-moderate-or-large.html

This is helpful too: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-fundamentals-of-fat-loss-diets-part-1.html

lizard053

Starvation mode is real! Your body just holds onto every extra bit of energy it can find, because it doesn't know when there will be an abundance again. It will be set off whenever you feed your body fewer calories than it needs to survive. And it will chew away your muscle before your fat stores because it requires more energy to maintain the muscle. To burn the fat, you need to at least eat your BMR in NET calories each day.

grinch031

Starvation mode happens over time when your caloric intake is too low and your body fat stores are running out.

I suspect the more common scenario is this:

If you go on a short-term low calorie diet (ie. 1200 calories) and/or add strenuous cardio exercise, then your body could retain water due to cortisol being released. Then people ask for advice on why they aren't losing weight and are told they are in starvation mode and need to increase their calories. Then they eat more calories and their body releases water because cortisol levels drop and they think they just left starvation mode because of the increased calorie intake.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/the-ltdfle.html