stomach flu/starvation/observations

IvoryParchment

I had a stomach flu recently and ended up being a lab environment for starvation response. I weight myself daily, so I got some interesting data.

Day 1. Started to get a little loose, began running a temperature in the evening, up to around 101-102 F. Began having watery diarrhea. Had a liquid dinner
Day 2. Weight down 5 lbs from the day before. No surprise. I drank orange juice alternating with bouillon all day, stayed in bed near the toilet. Had about a cup and a half of rice as my only solid food. Still fevers and watery diarrhea every time I eat or drink. Rice went through me essentially unchanged
Day 3. Very dry mouth in the morning, hard to get the digital thermometer to register. Weight has gone UP a pound. Still watery diarrhea. Had orange juice, canned broth, ate a banana that also went right through me, temp broke in the evening
Day 4. Even dryer mouth, but weight up another pound. Diarrhea slacking. Had rice, broth, juice and soda.
Day 5. Not too dehydrated anymore, weight up two pounds. Noticing increased abdominal fat. Ate relatively normal diet, bowels only soft, had sushi, bell peppers, rice, skim milk cocoa.
Day 6. Weight went DOWN slightly

So during the time I was having about 300 calories a day and absorbing very little of it, I gained weight, and it wasn't just water weight -- I had a noticeable increase in abdominal fat. Once I was getting normal food at regular intervals and sufficient protein, my weight went down instead of up.

It makes sense. One of the hormones the body makes in response to physical stress is cortisol. If you're starving, it helps keep your blood sugar from dropping too low. If you have a disease that causes too much of it, you get diabetes and abdominal obesity.

If you're trying to lose weight by abusing your body, if you feel like your weight loss program is an endurance contest, you're working against yourself by possibly triggering the release of stress hormones. Your body is adapted to resist starvation, but there hasn't been a lot of evolutionary pressure to adapt to overfeeding until very recently.