No Starvation mode

pauljsolie

The traditional notion of "starvation mode" is loosly understood by most on here as a time when the body begins to adapt to the very low calorie intake and weight loss stalls out. Most people come out of this by eating more which is thought to stimulate normal metabolic function allowing you to begin burning fat stores again (this is paraphrasing what I think most MFP members think "starvation mode" is just to be clear on what we mean while discussing this topic). As I will show below, this (taken at face value) is kinda a myth, but not really. It's much more complex.

Scientifically, what is really going on is a process called adaptive thermogensis, which has been shown to adversely affect weight loss in unbiased scientific studies on both men and women with greater effects on women than men (see below). HOWEVER, this process is slow, but indications do point to it existing and having a very serious and deliterious effect on weight loss. Furthermore, large calorie deficits lead to much lower resting BMR due to loss of lean mass and muscle tissue than smaller ones (beyond the expected lower BMR of someone who is naturally your goal weight). The more you lose, the bigger the change in BMR is going to be, meaning, someone who loses 100+ lbs (say 250 lbs to 150 lbs) on a 2000 calorie deficit is going to have a MUCH lower BMR than someone who went from 180 lbs to 150 lbs on the same deficit because more muscle tissue is catabolized in the process because the extreme deficit is maintainted for much longer.

You can look up more articles that have cited these papers or have been cited by these for more information.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11430776
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19660148
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20054213
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17260010

These are all recent, but more studies are available showing the predicted changes in metabolic rates decline sharply in individuals undergoing adaptive thermogenesis which does lead to plateauing.

P.S. I am not going to come back to this, but those of you reading this thread should avoid taking nutritional advice from fitness gurus who post articles without a single peer-reviewed scientific reference on pages laden with advertisements. Just FYI. PubMed is free to access, and you can often go to your public library to get the full articles for free also if you really want to dig into these papers. I'm not going to argue further than this post, because, quite frankly, I don't feel like it. Read if you want. Dismiss if you want. Just throwing it out there.

^^^^^
LIKE

TheFitnessTutor

So I don't get it. What is the general definition of Starvation Mode? Eating too little and the subsequent and/or potential metabolic slowing/damage, that occurs...is not "starvation mode" ? Otherwise what are people trying to explain by saying starvation mode. It's not like they think you're actually starving, but it's a pun for not eating enough, from what I've seen. I've used the term countless numbers of times for the same reasons I posted on this topic a few weeks ago, and those reasons are basically, 1. Why not call it starvation mode? 2. If one was to say "adaptive thermogensis" it carries little weight for the average layperson or non or new trainee, and you might have to further explain what that means and then run off into other "in one ear and out the other" tangents

Pebble321

Sure, sure, people are going to argue over this for ever.

In my opinion, whether "starvation mode" exists or not (and I think that term gets used so much that it's practically meaninless), cutting calories very low isn't necessary to lose weight and is not likely to be a good path to long term health.

pamelad77

Starvation mode is real for me.

When i eat too little i starve.

And then i eat:

1 Big mac combo with
2 doublecheeseburgers
2 junior chicken
rolo icecream
and diet pepsi

with 3 dips of ketchup.

pamelad77

^^^^^this lol

Di3012

Not sure I believe it all. There are a lot of people who write articles like his. Doesn't mean they are 100% true.

This is true for every article, including those pieces that write that starvation modes exists.

It is definitely a case of people hearing what they want to hear. If somebody reads or hears somebody say something and it is what they already believe in or like to hear, they will more often than not, endorse it. If, however, it is something they dislike, especially immensely, or they steadfastedly do not believe it, they will discard it as myth much of the time.

Personally, I do not believe in starvation mode as in the definition regarding MFP.

triplejay1

http://body-improvements.com/resources/eat/#starvationmode

^ Good read.

^^ Very good read, thank you