starvation mode myth

dbratton87

It's not about a starvation mode that your body goes through.
It's more your body being able to be more efficient at storing fat for energy with what little food that it gets
Our bodies are so well at adapting to the point that it's almost stupid
Is starvation mode a myth? in the general sense, yes.
But it is more a poorly worded phrase or whatever you call it then anything else.
Perhaps we should call it a "highly efficient fat storing mode"

This exactly. When I eat the same number of calories everyday (or close to the same) I stop losing weight after a while. The only way to fix it is to eat more for a week or so and splurge a little, then go back to what I was eating. To avoid this I am just going to switch up how many calories I eat throughout the week and allow myself to splurge on a different day every week.

Fay84Vegan

I'm in a rut at the mo as i starved myself for months and lost a stone then i went into a binge/starvation cycle and am now overweight! Now i have managed to control the binges but am still restricting and not loosing anything. In fact I don't think i've ever looked this fat! i eat approx 600 cals a day. I'm thinking from reading this i need to up this and my metabolism should kick in and i should start to lose? I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and have done so for the last 6 weeks but still haven't lost anything. I try and burn a minimum of 300 cals a session at the moment just cardio but will be throwing weights into the mix from this week also.

You eat 600 calories a day??? :noway:

You definately need to eat A LOT more if only for your health!!
I don't even think my breakfast is 600 calories sometimes!

MinkyMoo13

I read on the live strong website you should should have a blow out day to help your metabolism..

http://www.livestrong.com/article/247150-how-to-get-your-body-out-of-starvation-mode/

MinkyMoo13

I'm in a rut at the mo as i starved myself for months and lost a stone then i went into a binge/starvation cycle and am now overweight! Now i have managed to control the binges but am still restricting and not loosing anything. In fact I don't think i've ever looked this fat! i eat approx 600 cals a day. I'm thinking from reading this i need to up this and my metabolism should kick in and i should start to lose? I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and have done so for the last 6 weeks but still haven't lost anything. I try and burn a minimum of 300 cals a session at the moment just cardio but will be throwing weights into the mix from this week also.

You already recognise that 600 is too low, so well done for trying to change..

There is no easy way to say this but when you increase your calories, you will gain a little weight initially but it will mainly be water weight from the replacement glycogen. http://www.justinowings.com/understanding-bodyweight-and-glycogen-de/
Don't panic when it happens and drop straight back to 600, just give it a little longer.

What are you planning to increase it to?

Have a look here - work out your BMR, your TDEE (to get your current figures not your future goal figures just put your current weight as your goal weight) and then deduct 15-20% from the TDEE they give you.

Good luck. :flowerforyou:

Thanks that's really helpful will have a look on there. I've really messed my body up. I just want to be healthy and fit now.

MinkyMoo13

I'm in a rut at the mo as i starved myself for months and lost a stone then i went into a binge/starvation cycle and am now overweight! Now i have managed to control the binges but am still restricting and not loosing anything. In fact I don't think i've ever looked this fat! i eat approx 600 cals a day. I'm thinking from reading this i need to up this and my metabolism should kick in and i should start to lose? I go to the gym 4-5 times a week and have done so for the last 6 weeks but still haven't lost anything. I try and burn a minimum of 300 cals a session at the moment just cardio but will be throwing weights into the mix from this week also.

You eat 600 calories a day??? :noway:

You definately need to eat A LOT more if only for your health!!
I don't even think my breakfast is 600 calories sometimes!

Since using MFP i've been trying to eat more.. I've really screwed up I will get there.. just got to stick it our and eat more and carry on exercising.

millerll

Lyle McDonald has an article on his site discussing heavy exercise loads coupled with a low calorie diet. In this instsnce, the person being interviewed (BL) is a former, unnamed contestant from the Biggest Loser show. Here's an outtake from that interview:

"BL: Our goal was to lose 1lb per day (3500 calories). Our particular trainers philosophy was that she was going to BURN it off you in the gym and if you had a poor day in the gym the VERY first question that was asked was “Did you eat”. It had to be pounded into us that we had to eat. It seemed counter-intuitive for many of us in a weight loss contest but it proved itself out when a teammate of mine upped his workouts to 6 hours per day and shrank his food to 500 calories per day (on his own) and only lost 3 pounds in 7 days while everyone else averaged 7-10.

My (Lyle's) comments: This is an interesting idea as it’s something I noted years ago and have commented on previously. The combination of lots of exercise with big caloric deficits tends to work extremely poorly and seem to slow instead of hasten fat loss for some reason. This is part of why I strongly recommended against lots of exercise in the Rapid Fat Loss Handbook; the deficit inherent to the diet is already large enough to the point that adding a bunch of training seems to cause more harm than good.

I don’t know if the issue is simply metabolic slowdown or if there’s something else going on (this my current new project now that the protein book is finally done) but I’ve seen it happen time and time again: excessive caloric deficits plus excessive amounts of exercise seem to do more harm than good. If you are burning a lot of calories through exercise, you have to eat. If you want to cut calories hard, you have to reduce activity."

Now, in this case, the person was very obese to start. But, Lyle does say that he's seen many instances where low calories with lots of exercise just don't work. Interesting.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/biggest-loser-feedback.html

As for calorie restriction increasing life span, Tom Venuto had this quote from Jay Phelan, a biologist at UCLA:

“There is no current evidence that lifelong caloric restriction leads to increased lifespan in primates. It’s certainly tantalizing that things like blood pressure or heart rate look as though they are a lot healthier and I believe they are. Whether or not this translates to a significantly increased lifespan, I don’t know. I predict that it doesn’t.”

I don’t quibble qualitatively with their results. Yes, it will increase lifespan, but it will not increase it by 50% or 60%, it won’t increase it by 20% or 10%, it might increase it by 2%. So if you tell me that I have to do something horrible for every day of my life for a 2% benefit – for an extra year of life – I say no thanks.”

You can read the whole article here: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2009/04/calorie-restriction-for-life-extension-dr-oz-on-oprah.php

kattbyrd67

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=35501

veromancha

Myth or not - my weight was stuck at exactly the same weight for three weeks whilst I was eating 1200 cals a day and working out, just increased calories to 1400 & lost a couple of pounds, no cheating or fiddling the figures I followed the same plan and had upto 200 cals extra a day.

No idea why it worked but it has

Me Too!!!!!! :drinker:

jacquiroxx

As a recovered anorexic, I can attest to the fact that you *do* lose weight (and quite quickly) by eating very very low calories. However, you have to keep it up to keep the weight off. After recovery, I gained weight extremely fast because my body was preparing for me to starve it again.

Just something to keep in mind. The pure reason I joined this site was to help me make SURE I was eating enough calories and not too few, as old habits die hard.

@Pu_239, those children don't have round bellies because they're fat; they have round bellies because they lack protein in their diets.

robdahlgren0506

The WW article is a little confusing. Outside of labeling starvation mode a "myth" it does nothing to actually refute it. The only studies it cites actually shows a slowing of weight loss (not necessarily a complete stall, but something is happening) and says that the metabolism will return with time (something he starvation mode theory does not refute).

We should also remember that WW is focused on diet, not exercise. Exercise can buy you a few extra points, but it is not a "hard wired" part of the program.

I have some respect for WW, my wife does it and has lost weight with it. I just think these simplified calorie counting programs are outdated now that we have computers with access to all the nutritional information and sites like MFP. It's not like in the 70's when everyone had to use notebooks and a calorie counter's bible to track calories.

kwest_4_fitness

I would just like to say congratulations to everyone who has lost weight in this thread, no matter your method. It sounds as though, even with differing opinions and methods, you have each found a healthy lifestyle alternative that works for you. I applaud that - loudly.

And while I don't advocate telling someone else to do exactly what you did to lose the weight, it warms my cockles when everyone shares their experience in a positive light without using their success to put others on a different path down. MPF is all about support and motivation and not about cliques and high school drama, right?

magelan

point I tried to make..,.....was stop using the starvation myth as an excuse to eat...if your bmr is 2500 calories and total deficit ( calories - exercise) is 700 calories you will lose more weight if this deficit is 800 calories ..and eating that extra twinky ( will get flak for that too) and bringing the deficit to 400 calories, will not make you lose weight quicker...p.s. you will still lose weight...as you are still in a deficit ! that is why the extra calories SEEMS to help...it's all about long term lifestyle changes ....

EAT WHAT YOUR BODY NEEDS...not what you want.

don't forget to smile...that will be 2 extra calories... you can thank me later.

laurastrait21

just to add to the controversy


"Calorie restriction without malnutrition[1] has been shown to improve age-related health and to slow the aging process in a wide range of animals"

"CR is one of the few dietary interventions shown to increase both median and maximum lifespan in a variety of species,"

This is true (and is proven in actual scientific journals) But calorie restriction does not equal starvation mode. I'd venture to say that is just anything under your TDEE.

duffydog1

This topic always causes widespread debate ( and a few people seem to loose the plot and throw their toys out of the pram too)! The interesting thing is, everyone has an opinion - some taken from here, or their own fitness guru, but most peoples opinions ( when you read the posts) reflects their own experience. A lot of people who have had a lot of weight to loose find they don't need to go anywhere near starvation mode to continually loose weight - so they support the starvation mode argument. Other people (who may have had less to loose in the first place, but not exclusively these people) seem to reach a plateau and find that unless they really drop the calories they can't seem to loose the last bi so these people don't beleive in such a thing as starvation mode because their own experience disproves the theory.

At the end of the day people deprived of calories loose weight ( take your average concentration camp for example . . .)
Of course you also loose muscle etc and no one is saying it's healthy!

I fall into the latter calorie - and beleive me, I have tried the old upping my cals by a couple of hundred a day to see if I start loosing again and it doesn't work for me. I have been dieting and tryingthings for several years.

We should just accept that perhaps, different things work for different people. It is not an exact science and just becasue a particular way of doing something has worked for us individualy doesn't make it fact or universal law and it doesn't mean it will work for someone else - we are all different.

MinkyMoo13

don't forget to smile...that will be 2 extra calories... you can thank me later.

Makes me smile everytime i read that :happy:

watboy

Agree 100%

The Starvation Myth
The idea that "not eating enough" causes the body to stop losing weight because it goes into "starvation mode" is a popular myth among dieters.
Article By: The Weight Watchers Research Department

ECA67

I joined Mfp to try to get my body out of this" starvation mode". While mourning the death of a close loved one I could not eat. This went on for over three years. I literally ate less than 2000 calories a month. I'd go weeks without nothing but water and my parents had to try and force me to eat soup and Gatorade because I couldn't even sit up in the bed without passing out. I ruined my BMR and still after joining had to try hard to eat just a few hundred calories. My pals on here kept urging me to eat for my health and to feed my muscles. Slowly with the advise of my fitness pals I added protein shakes because I could down that and get it out of the way. I hated to eat. I still have many days I literally have to choke my food down. My diary is getting so much better and I'm gaining strength back along with my hair. I have been fluctuating in weight but I know this is the only healthy way to get my body back on track. My goals will just have to take a little longer but I'm doing myself a great service by being nutritionally contious and feed it to live healthy. Thankyou to all my fitness pals some of you have really had an impact on me. I love this site. Thanks Mfp !

Crying_In_Color

The Starvation Myth
The idea that "not eating enough" causes the body to stop losing weight because it goes into "starvation mode" is a popular myth among dieters.
Article By: The Weight Watchers Research Department

If you're going to post stupid ****, at least post pictures of kittens or something.

[img][/img]

WorkoutMaine

Peer-reviewed and unbiased scientific studies say otherwise. I'll trust them over WW.

Bwahahaha
Peer-reviews used to say the world was flat and the planets revolved around the Earth and not the Sun. You go ahead and believe your peers. And no scientific studies are unbiased. Everyone willing to spend money on something has an agenda of some sort. I am not saying I believe or don't believe something from weight watchers but they hold as much water as any other study and more so then a bunch of people yapping on a forum.

Toddrific

Peer-reviewed and unbiased scientific studies say otherwise. I'll trust them over WW.

Bwahahaha
Peer-reviews used to say the world was flat and the planets revolved around the Earth and not the Sun. You go ahead and believe your peers. And no scientific studies are unbiased. Everyone willing to spend money on something has an agenda of some sort. I am not saying I believe or don't believe something from weight watchers but they hold as much water as any other study and more so then a bunch of people yapping on a forum.

The scientific method was formalized around the 17th century. Flat earth theory was prior to that, along with many other notions. At the time those ideas came about they were from philosophers and such.

I really fear for the future of the human race when verifiable fact is trumped by belief.