This whole "Starvation Mode" Kick

Mc_Queen

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mcarter99

All these years of The Biggest Loser, they manage to rack up double-digit losses week after week after week eating well below their BMR and not adding back their exercise calories. They burned off their body fat in place of their food calories. Their metabolisms didn't grind to a halt. I'm not advocating that method but there must be a hundred or more examples there.

Just Google "biggest loser past participants" and you'll see that many of the people who participated on that show have gained back significant amounts of weight because the way they originally lost is completely unsustainable in the real world. Of course a person will lose weight if someone else makes your food and they're working out all day long.

I know a lot of them gain it back because they didn't all really address the issue of doing it right AT HOME, forever. But if it was true that eating below your BMR and not adding back exercise destroys your metabolism and results in gaining all your lost weight right back, that would be true of all of them. It would mean none could maintain it healthfully.

Behaviorally, it's very hard to maintain after any weight loss. 95% of us don't. Extreme and fast loss dieters, even less. But it's hardly physically impossible to maintain unless you do it super slowly. Most dieters give up long before getting a good result on the super slow plans. That's not good, either.

Morganrcb1

I'm actually, doing the CMWL, weight loss program. It's more of people like me, who have a serious medical issue, that need to loose the weight fast. It's not all just here eat this shake and then gain it back later. It's about jump starting you, to motivate you to loose weight and your metabolism, based off of other medications causing you to gain weight. Then it modififying your diet slow adding foods back in, so you train yourself to eat better. You detoxify all the chemicals, and soda in your body and starting adding more water. It's about them teaching how to cook healthy meals, and balancing out your suppliments each day, so you are getting what you need. I eat 2 shakes, a snack and a 550 calorie dinner, i've lost the first week. So it's not all about the weight loss, as it is about starting over and having their support, and guidelines to help you. clearly many people out there eat healthy and aren't overweight too.. so why not start over? You people are nuts..

Morganrcb1

oh and it's a 12 week program, so you loose 2-3 lbs a week. So after the program, you will be prepared to reaching your goals.

ValkyrieFD

I am on the Optifast 70 diet which is a medically supervised weight loss program at Kaiser Permenete and is a liquid diet. I have done a ton of research and even though we are only on 400 cal diet (I actually get an optional mean now since I have been exercising so much that allows me to go up to 600 cals but I rarely do) we are not in starvation mode.

We are in a state called ketosis, which is a fat burning mode, meaning we are burning our fat as fuel. The shakes are nutritionally balanced and contain all the vitamins and trace minerals you need but we also take extra fiber and potassium. The shakes have a ton of protein, and the program is very muscle sparing (if you didn't have everything balanced right you WOULD go into starvation mode which eats muscle and fat).

Anyway, everyone is correct though, that while this is a very fast and effective way to lose weight, if you don't change your lifestyle and habits, you will gain it right back. This is why I have used MFP every day and have started compiling list of healthy recipes and substitutions WHILE I am doing this program.

I will be on this diet for 6 weeks come Monday and have lost close to 27 lbs already, although it is slowing down now. I am half way to my goal of 125lbs. I take pics and measurements every two weeks, this was my 1 month update 2 weeks ago at -22lbs loss. I had just qualified as "obese" according to my height and weight , 5.375 in. & 180lbs when I started this program (I was actually at my heaviest of 185 right before I started but I lost 5 lbs just logging the two weeks prior), which is what lit the fire under my *kitten*.



Anyway, yes this is the fast and easy way to lose weight (easy if you have the WILLPOWER) and I absolutely love the program. We have weekly group meetings that focus on education, changing lifestyles, addressing breaking habits etc, and there is slow 6 week transition back on food with a nutritionist as well. After that, there is a year of monthly support meetings to continue to be successful. But in the end, it is up to YOU to stick with being healthy after all is said and done. Otherwise you are just wasting time and money.

I highly recommend this type of program for fast weight loss IF you can commit to changing your lifestyle, your habits, and your outlook on food and health.

Cheers and good luck!

georgeyacoub

Once you decide to stop the cutting phase you should increase your caloric intake gradually as recommended by Tom Venuto in "Burn the Fat, Feed the muscle". Great book by the way.

jennyct10

You most certainly can gain weight on 1600 calories a day. If you overeat (or remain sedentary) by any amount you will gain. By just eating 35 extra calories a day on average, you can gain 15 lbs in 5 years or 30 in 10!