How can I get out of starvation mode?

kelkir

I'm in a similar boat. I've been eating around 1000 calories for maybe two years, mostly because I don't have time to eat! But the past three weeks I've upped my calories to about 1400-1500 calories of healthy calories. And I can barely fit into my biggest pair of pants. I'm hoping*wishing*praying that this will subside soon and my body will adjust to the new amount of fuel. I'm not sure if it's water weight or what, but how long will it take my metabolism to adjust to the new amount of food I'm eating? Should I keep eating this amount despite gaining?

whatsleftofmeisyours

Thank you all for the support. While I am for sure not willing to fan any weight I will try to up to eating 1200 a day.
On a related note, what if I work out? Today I was able to eat about 1200 but I also burnt off 500 calories at the gym because I'm trying to turn fat into muscle right now. I've heard some people say basically that I should eat the 500 back afterwards and have an intake of 1700 but I've heard some say if you burn 500 eat back 250? What's right?

whatsleftofmeisyours

Gain* not fan. Darn autocorrect.

SofaKingRad

*sighs *

MyFeistyEvolution

Ok first things first.....weighing yourself every day can just be frustrating. You're body will fluctuate day to day...pick one day a week...same time, same clothes or no clothes, first thing in the morning is good after you first wake up...and track that number.

Also, when MFP gives you a number of calories, it's already figuring in your deficit for exercise. If you don't eat back any of the calories, you may be eating way less than necessary and that in itself can slow down weight loss. You really need to eat good heatlhy whole foods, up to your calorie goal, and strength train to minimize your muscle loss and focus on how you look and feel. The scale is nothing more than just one way to track but there are times that a measuring tape will be so much more accurate.

LorinaLynn

You won't be able to gain muscle eating so little. That's the suckiest part of "dieting" is that when you have too large of a calorie deficit, your body loses muscle. And when you lose muscle, you might weigh less, but you look bigger. Years ago, when I lost weight by eating under 1000 calories a day, I got to my goal weight, but wore clothes two sizes bigger than I do now at that same weight. The difference? This time around, I ate around 1800-2000 calories a day.

The absolute best you can hope for while losing weight is to keep as much of your muscle as possible. Doing that, you need a very small calorie deficit. You shouldn't be aiming to lose any more than a half pound a week at this stage, plus most of your exercise calories. You don't have enough excess fat to support a larger deficit. Plus, to keep muscle, you need a LOT of protein and to strength train with heavy weights.

But really, the best thing I did was to take loads of photos from every angle, and gauge my progress through pictures, measurements and how clothes fit, rather than on the scale. The scale doesn't tell the whole store, and can really mess with your head. I know it's messed with mine.

Aineko

Now this is all getting too overwhelming. I just want to stop gaining and lose weight. Pretty much all I care about to be honest.

I thought long and hard about replaying to this thread. The reason being - I completely understand you when you say "all I care about is losing weight", but I am still going to tell you what you won't like to hear. I apologize in advance for the long post, but I think it could do me good as well to put some things 'on the paper' and out there. I understand you because for my whole life I never cared about being fit, about being toned, being healthy - I did't need to. I looked good, I've been attractive/sexy/hot/name it (not as good as some toned models, but pretty good anyway) without ever setting my foot to the gym and eating a typical Serbian diet (which would send 99% of this website running for their life , or, to put in the perspective - my partner, who is from New Zealand, spent 12 days in Serbia and gained 9lbs. do I have to add I didn't gained anything, although I probably ate more than him). Also, I've never been disgusted by the fact that a simple climb up the stairs sends my heart rate through the roof, but I am disgusted by some waves of fat that landed on the back of my thighs in last few years. And, same like you, I am aiming for the lower range of the "healthy" standard - I see many 5.7 women here aiming for 130 as their ideal weight, and I am 5.8 aiming for 125-126. And me too associate certain weight with the greatest level of self satisfaction (not just that but it is a significant factor).
Then came a 5 years period of unhappiness with some choices I made, ending up with a depression and a 7kg gain. Now, I knew my body change, but a real wake up call came few weeks ago when I was buying some t-shirts online and for the first time in years took a measurement of my waist. 8cm more than 5y ago. that was it. So for the first time in my life I decided become REALLY serious about my fitness and my body. And here is the story so far: I started in mid March by doing P90X and following their recommended diet without counting calories, just their recommended portions. Then the inevitable happened - whenever I start eating less I lose my appetite very quickly. So I stuck to the exercise regime but was eating less and less because I wasn't hungry. The stupid scale didn't move at all in two weeks. I knew I needed to up my calorie intake if I were to use P90X properly (and also, I had no energy at all). Then I went for a 2 day trip and said "wth, I know that few chocolate cakes will bring me my appetite back". so I did it . when I came back the scale was still stubbornly at the same number like before. so I decided to forget P90X diet but to come back to MFP (I tried using it once last August when I thought I might do P90X but I got injured in very quickly so gave up on this site as well), set up my goals, track all I eat and all I exercise (I use a heart rate monitor and then calculate Cals burned) and do it properly. I started, of course, with a 2lb per week goal. MFP spat out some number very close to 1200 and for a couple of days I was netting close to that. During those two days I read more about weight loss, calorie deficit etc. and decided to lower my goal to 0.5lbs per week, up my calories to ~1520 and of course eat everything I burn (even if it means eating chocolates, just to get to a calorie deficit not larger than 250 per day ). This morning, for the first time in my life, my scale moved because I consciously did something about it. I didn't lose 0.5lb, I lost about 1kg. I am still not believing it and I'll wait another week before I record my weight here.
Now, why did I up my calories fuor days ago, despite my brain screaming "I might be doing it wrong! this may not work! I won't lose any weight and in a month I'll be sooooooo disappointed and lose all my motivation instead of losing weight!"? Well, because everything I read about high calories deficits and their consequences made perfect sense. I know for many people "the less you eat, the more you lose" seems like a common sense, but common sense is a tricky thing - it works only with the information it has at the moment (common sense was telling us for a very long time that Earth is flat). And I majored in molecular biology and physiology, and did a PhD in molecular genetics, and all this talk about metabolic response, storing fat on a low intake etc. simply made sense based of everything I know about biology (well, made sense for the rational part of my brain - the emotional one was still screaming "nooooo, you should be eating lessssss!". it finally shut up this morning when a scale showed below 63kg for the first time in a very long time. ).
Why am I telling you all this? Call it a 'starvation mode' or however you want, metabolic and hormonal response to very low caloric intake (but not low enough to kill you) is as real as your body is. It will manifest itself at a different time period/caloric deficit for different people, but you can't escape it if you persist. It is an evolutionary burden that we got from millions of years of living on unstable, unreliable food supplies. Your body simply doesn't know the difference between dieting and starving, and it couldn't care less about how you want to look; it only wants to survive. You pushed it too hard and your body is fighting back - you lost your period, you stopped losing weight. The sad truth is: you can't win this battle by force, you can only outsmart it. The same way you can't change, say, a concentration of certain hormones in your blood just by wishing for it to happen - the same way you can't 'explain' to your body that you are just dieting and there is no mortal danger due to the lack of food available to you. You have to make it 'think' that all the food it needs is freely available out there. You can only do that by upping your calories. Maintain some 200 - 300 deficit but give it more food. Again, I fully understand your fear of gaining, and another sad truth is: it will probably happen for you initially (since you've been on such a high deficit for too long). But every battle has it's loses (ironically, in this case it will be the gain ), so prepare yourself for it. Be strong and persistent to go through it - weight loss requires many will powers, not just a self control to restrain form eating; or forget about your scale for a while.
and feel free to add me if you want. good luck!

Hoakiebs

See audio clip 2 @ www.fat2fitradio.com

jeepzilla

I know it sounds pretty harsh what everyone is telling you but look at it this way everyone here cares enough about you and wants you to be healthy. Even though we don't know you were all family here.. we all look for support at some time in our travel of weight loss maybe some of the comments were a bit harsh but they see the red flags and want to help you just as all of us do..

eat more lose more eat less lose none.....

ironanimal

Thank you all for the support. While I am for sure not willing to fan any weight I will try to up to eating 1200 a day.
On a related note, what if I work out? Today I was able to eat about 1200 but I also burnt off 500 calories at the gym because I'm trying to turn fat into muscle right now. I've heard some people say basically that I should eat the 500 back afterwards and have an intake of 1700 but I've heard some say if you burn 500 eat back 250? What's right?

Unless you are God, Jesus or a similar entity, you will not achieve that. It is scientifically impossible. And as you completely ignored my post, I'll post it again;

Step by step;
1. Go to www.fit2fatradio.com/tools and use the Military Bodyfat Calculator, and then the Calories and Basal Metabolic Rate calculator.
2. Scroll down on the Calories calculator results page to see your suggested Calorie Intakes at different activity levels. There is a deficit factored into this already. Choose the appropriate activity level and the corresponding calorie intake.
3. Here on MFP, go to Home > Goals > Change Goals > Custom > Change Net Calories Consumed to the calorie recommendation given by fat2fit on their Calorie calculator.
4. Change carbs to 40%, protein and fat to 30% respectively.
5. Hit Change Goals.
6. Over the next month, gradually increase your daily intake to meet your new Net Calorie goal.
7. You will probably gain. Hormonal changes take time, but after a few weeks your weightloss should start to happen.
8. If after two weeks of being at your goal net calories you find you are maintaining, drop your calories by 100 a day and stick to that new goal for another two weeks.
9. Rinse and repeat 8.
10. Enjoy a greater food allowance and a body working for you rather than against you.

Don't be ignorant. Lowering your intake further isn't going to help you. Unless you're going to properly work out what you need, eating 1200 calories a day is probably a token gesture and will have about as much effect as pissing in the ocean.

CoderGal

5'7" and 122 pounds is considered underweight. You are flirting with an eating disorder and serious damage to your organs. Get some psychological help, as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more disordered your thinking will become. You are living on almost no nutrients, and your brain can no longer distinguish right from wrong apparently.

this was my thought. you need to start eating more and figure out what your maintenance calories are and yes you will gain weight but you are underweight and i agree with the person who suggested an ED. I think you may already know that and hopefully this is a sign you are trying to break free from it.

Stop telling me I'm underweight. This goes to everyone who has. I'm not. Even if I'm in the low end of the healthy range bmi wise, I'm still healthy. I know I have some sort of eating disorder but I'm just not that concerned about that, I just want my weight back down. In all honesty I was happiest when I weighed 110 back in November.

I also find this fairly irritating since Im at the same height and weight and eat 3 times as much food and know that my bmi is in the healthy range according to the calculation. In other news Im back because for you 1200 is still starving yourself and is still under your bmr. You should be eating 1660 if you are sedentary which you are obviously not since you just said you burned 500 cals...but you should start at 1660 and eat some exercise cals back.

Kimgetinshape

bump

whatsleftofmeisyours

I've just just just started exercising. If I exercise that day I'll eat more than 1200. If I'm not, I'm
Aiming for 1200.

ironanimal

Sigh.

vade43113

I've just just just started exercising. If I exercise that day I'll eat more than 1200. If I'm not, I'm
Aiming for 1200.

It is a good plan atleast. I wish you luck on getting back to your wanted weight

Glucocorticoid

I've just just just started exercising. If I exercise that day I'll eat more than 1200. If I'm not, I'm
Aiming for 1200.

It is a good plan atleast. I wish you luck on getting back to your wanted weight

No it's really not.

CoderGal

I've just just just started exercising. If I exercise that day I'll eat more than 1200. If I'm not, I'm
Aiming for 1200.

It is a good plan atleast. I wish you luck on getting back to your wanted weight

No it's really not.

^This

LorinaLynn

It's a plan that makes things harder than you need to. You don't need to eat so little to lose weight. Your body doesn't have enough excess fat to support that much of a calorie deficit, and it will fight you tooth and nail.

abatonfan

I know you might think this is next to impossible, but try bumping your calories needed to "maintenance" for a week or two.

I, too, was recently hitting starvation mode and/or a weight loss plateau. Seeing the next week was when I was going to be in Disney World, I bumped my calories to 2200, maintenance for me. When I measured myself last Wednesday, roughly a week and a half to two weeks since my last weigh-in, I noticed I lost four pounds and the size 14 jeans I recently bought are not as snugly as before. I am assuming that my body figured out that I wasn't in the middle of the famine, therefore losing a bit of the stored fat.

nixirain

Thank you all for the support. While I am for sure not willing to fan any weight I will try to up to eating 1200 a day.
On a related note, what if I work out? Today I was able to eat about 1200 but I also burnt off 500 calories at the gym because I'm trying to turn fat into muscle right now. I've heard some people say basically that I should eat the 500 back afterwards and have an intake of 1700 but I've heard some say if you burn 500 eat back 250? What's right?

Hey hun! I am sorry about all the backlash from all the other posters! I guess I read another article, or maybe I just kinda understand what you have going through.

I heard in your post that you are smart and know that 600 calories a day or even a 1000 is too low to maintain and be healthy. That's great! That means you want to make a change and be healthy, no just skinny in my opinion!!!

I went through the same thing the first time I lost a ton of weight, and boy do I wish I had (only a few) lol people from this site to show me the error of my ways!!

When I lost 70 lbs 9 years ago I was told I was underweight and stop counting calories. I did so and now I am back to the way I was before. I was terrified to stop counting before because that was all I knew!!! I was under eating and eventually got down to a very small number (89lbs at 4'11") If I had changed my eating habits correctly, I feel like I wouldn't be trying to lose weight now. I would have never gained it back!!!

When I started my journey this time I started doing the same thing. Netting under 1200 calories until I stalled. I switched and did the method from fat 2 fit that was posted earlier and I am losing again.

I would recommend to go with the fat 2 fit post earlier. This will help you repair your metabolism. Will you gain? yes. Will it be fat? a little, but mostly water weight. Will it take a while? kinda I took me about 4 weeks to see a change in the scale. Does it work? yep!

Anyone who watches their weight a little too closely and eats a a dangerous level has potential for an ED, but I think you have the ability to change it based on you reaching out for help and knowing that you want to be healthy! If you feel like you are being controlled by your weight, it won't hurt to talk to someone though.

last thing! Since you are so little you should maybe look at your weight loss track differently! I would suggest to measure your inches and body fat instead of relying on the scale. You will probably see more results that way!

Good luck on your journey!!

If you want some support feel free to add me!