The Starvation Myth

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  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    There is plenty of need to fuel your workouts advice - if you want to actually see improvements from your workouts. But indeed, some people love to feel like they are pushing hard (and with their body not improving, they are) and not get great changes besides some basic improvement from previous inactive state.

    I meant in WW I never heard any "you need to fuel your workouts" advice. Their clientele is admittedly more likely to be walking than pushing at lactate thresholds and such. Which is also true of most people here, I'd imagine. Though I bet they Zumba their *kitten* off before eating back those 1000 calories of carbs they burned.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    You know Mcarter for someone whos......
    ...been haunting diet forums for many, many years.

    Did you do the 1200 calorie diet over the many many years?
    Youve only been here for a few months.

    TBH I plan to make this a career.
    I'm even going back to school for this so I dont misinform people anymore.
    But iof youve been doing this for many many years then obviously something didnt work.

    When i'm contacted by a friend or random person whos had huge success with my help it truly brings a tear to my eye.
    I've helped change their lives for the better.
    I wont haunt these forums because the word haunt brings a sort of negativity.
    Instead i'll be here to steer people in the right direction if they get lost.

    but for someone whos...
    ...been haunting diet forums for many, many years.

    Maybe your 1200 calorie way doesnt work very well.
    Maybe people shouldnt be cutting 1000 cals from their food daily and just walking.

    Take a deep look and youll see the truth.

    Maybe its time to try it another way.
    You wont bash it so quickly once you see that it works.



    BTW folks, starvation is no food.
    Zero.
    You are starving.

    Zero food.

    So next time you see the title on a forum that asks the Starvation question I challenge you to post.....
    beating-a-dead-horse.gif
  • smilesalot1969
    smilesalot1969 Posts: 392
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    omg this stuff all just drives me crazy!! i just want not to be fat is that too much too ask?? :/
  • ChgingMe
    ChgingMe Posts: 539 Member
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    /grabs popcorn

    this should be interesting :)

    ohhhh yea. lmbo
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    On 1200 cals a day and walking, 9 obese women lost 40 lbs in 48 weeks. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2374273

    " Thus, neither dietary regimen, combined with modest physical activity, was associated with long-term reductions in resting metabolic rate that exceeded decreases anticipated with the achievement of a lower body weight."
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    Come on people the word starvation mode is taken way out of context around here... No one is comparing anything to starving kids in Africa.... The way most use this term is that if you run to high of a caloric deficit your bodies metabolism slows to a crawl and your weightloss stalls... So in essence your body tries to protect itself aka starvation mode.... Then there is the other side "Eating more to lose weight" this comes in to play when you consume those calories burned during exercise. You have to fuel your body for the workouts you ask of it to do... It is as simple as that...

    Read the article, though: your metabolism *slows down*, doesn't stop. You will incrementally lose weight slower, but you will still be losing weight at a rapid pace. You don't stop losing weight from fat until you are under 10% bf. and hardly anybody on this forum applies to that.

    Note: I'm not saying that eating more than 1200 calories is BAD for you or will make it hard to lose weight (on a case-by-case basis, of course), I'm just saying that there is nothing wrong with 1000-1200 calories a day for most people. It's just hard and takes some adjusting. You won't stop losing weight if you eat 1200 cals. You won't gain weight if you eat 1200 cals. And it is not an automatic "well you will lose muscle, then", either.

    you have hit the nail on the head thank you for reiterating what the article reads
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    I want to write this in caps!! People over estimate how many calories they burn during the work out. Simple 40 mins cardio is not burning 700 calories i take credit for 200 in 9 for example a zumba class) there is a warm up cool down so right there you are at 45 mins not an hour. There are alot of hard core people who burn alot of calories and may need to eat them back in order to have the energy to train hard. But thise of us who go do a circut and and hour class are not burning in excess of 300 calories.

    This is the biggest issue in "eating back calories". There are many instances where MFP (and other sites) overestimate calories. The elliptical is the biggest villain that I know of. You'll see someone freewheeling on that thing and it says that they burned 600 calories. It's probably closer to 2/3rds of that. Small miscalculations on your portion sizes along with this and it is easy to get nowhere fast.

    Abso-freakin-lutely.

    Spot on.
    could not have said it better myself
  • Bobby_Clerici
    Bobby_Clerici Posts: 1,828 Member
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    The term "starvation mode" is absurd.
    Now, hear this!
    Low cal diets do indeed stifle metabolism. FACT!
    Every study confirms this.
    Don't believe me? Go ahead and crash diet...BE MY GUEST:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
    While you're restricting and miserable, I'll be getting great results eating VERY WELL!
    My diary is open for any and all to check out.
    Answer for yourself. Who's having more fun? Who is getting better results?
    Simple deal.:bigsmile:
  • Bobby_Clerici
    Bobby_Clerici Posts: 1,828 Member
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    I don't know about starvation mode but I do know that I have lost SOOO much more weight eating a healthy amount rather than back when I used to try to starve myself. I think it has more to do with the fact that I have more energy and can go harder during workouts. On top of that, I LIKE eating so screw eating very little haha.
    Right, same here. And who wants to go on some miserable crash diet when they can get better results eating well
    DUH! ?
    Starvation diets don't work.
    Why?
    Because if your calorie deficit is too great, you can easily suffer from
    loss of muscle mass (slows down your metabolism) and impaired general progress.
    You have to find what is right for you but you also need to remember that your body
    is a machine and without the right type and amount of fuel there could be problems
    either with loss of muscle, loss of energy, less weight loss/plateaus, etc.

    Check out this topic:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux?hl=700+calories

    Don't fall into the crash diet trap. Stick with the MFP recommendations.
    Here's a great group right here on MFP:
    Eat More To Weigh Less
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

    Join up and connect with other for support.
    Good Luck
  • splashangel
    splashangel Posts: 494 Member
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    What I find interesting is that there is a lot of discussion about "starvation mode" and "eating back your exercise" on MFP but you don't see it in other forums. Actually I've never seen "eating back your exercise" on other forums (or I can't remember seeing it).
    I have. I've heard it on numorous sites. I've been at this three years and can think of three sites that I've heard it on.
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    Now I'm going to sit back and watch the show...lol.

    The show that I would want to watch would be exercise physiologists and nutritionists and other people who have gone to school for a long time argue about things like this.

    This is where MFP could be so much better. Get some of those people and have EXPERTS giving advice on this kind of stuff. I am in the exercise science industry but not a nutritionist nor a personal trainer (will have that soon tho)...and these threads infuriate me at times. Yes. It is important to gain advice and support from others. But when it comes to things that may in the end harm your body, if you are going to post things about how there is no such thing as "starvation mode" or eating too little then don't write it on MFP...join a pro-ana website.

    if you are in that industry then you know it takes a whole lot to get to starvation you wont get it by eating 1200 calories you wont even get it by eating 1000 calories but people should be smart enough to know that a 500 calories a day is no where they need to be but 500 calorie per day deficit however will not hurt them in anyway
  • ZeroWoIf
    ZeroWoIf Posts: 588 Member
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    I don't know about starvation mode but I do know that I have lost SOOO much more weight eating a healthy amount rather than back when I used to try to starve myself. I think it has more to do with the fact that I have more energy and can go harder during workouts. On top of that, I LIKE eating so screw eating very little haha.
    Right, same here. And who wants to go on some miserable crash diet when they can get better results eating well
    DUH! ?
    Starvation diets don't work.
    Why?
    Because if your calorie deficit is too great, you can easily suffer from
    loss of muscle mass (slows down your metabolism) and impaired general progress.
    You have to find what is right for you but you also need to remember that your body
    is a machine and without the right type and amount of fuel there could be problems
    either with loss of muscle, loss of energy, less weight loss/plateaus, etc.

    Check out this topic:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/238282-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing-redux?hl=700+calories

    Don't fall into the crash diet trap. Stick with the MFP recommendations.
    Here's a great group right here on MFP:
    Eat More To Weigh Less
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

    Join up and connect with other for support.
    Good Luck

    The american gangster at it again! Good stuff bro.
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    The thing that I find ironic is that the person who started the thread called it a myth but quoted an article by weight watchers that actually says that the body does go into a starvation mode. Ironical.

    the reason i named it Myth is not only thats the name of the article but also because in reality you can not unless you eat 500 calories or less a day you will not go into starvation mode like it states in the article your body will slow down but NOT COMPLETELY STOP understand?
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    Starvation mode = adaptive thermogenesis = metabolic slowdown
    Starvation mode =/= Starvation (or any argument involving anorexics or africans)

    There, I just cleared it up for you. Now we can all agree.

    thats great
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    If you must insist on eating at such highly restricted calories please start resistance weight training over cardio.


    Study for the reason I say this and article that sites the study.
    http://www.jacn.org/content/18/2/115.abstract

    http://fitnessblackbook.com/dieting_for_fat_loss/maintain-muscle-mass-on-800-calories-per-day/
    Results for the Dieters Who Did Cardio Only

    The cardio only group lost most overall weight than the resistance only group, but unfortunately lost a significant amount of lean body mass. They also experienced a decrease in resting metabolic rate. So, obviously if someone is dieting hard they need to more than just cardio to maintain their lean muscle mass.

    Results for the Dieters Who Did Resistance Training

    This group didn’t lose any muscle mass whatsoever. In fact they lost more body fat than the cardio only group. Also, you have probably heard that “the metabolism slows down if calories are kept too low”. Well…this group actually had a higher resting metabolic rate than when they started. So resistance training is key when you are dieting.

    Note that this study disproves all the people saying you do not lose muscle mass until low body fat %. You can lose muscle at anytime if your body feels it is not needed and you are eating at a deficit.


    good info
  • ZeroWoIf
    ZeroWoIf Posts: 588 Member
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    plays-hide-and-go-seek_dies-of-starvation.jpg
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    Notice weight watchers says there is no biological evidence to support lower calories produces starvation mode..in fact starvation mode only begins after 3 days of no calories. Even then true starvation (see Wikipedia or medical texts) only exists when all fat stores are depleted.

    good info but i would not trust Wikipedia
  • mcarter99
    mcarter99 Posts: 1,666 Member
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    You know Mcarter for someone whos......
    ...been haunting diet forums for many, many years.

    Did you do the 1200 calorie diet over the many many years?
    Youve only been here for a few months.

    TBH I plan to make this a career.
    I'm even going back to school for this so I dont misinform people anymore.
    But iof youve been doing this for many many years then obviously something didnt work.

    Who said anything about what I eat or what I have to lose? Weight management and fitness are two of many interests of mine.

    I'm not advocating anything except that people not have a mountain of myth to consider in their own decision on how to lose weight.

    If you can't address the information, attack the person, though. Like when you tell me to STFU. Posting cartoons and silly images is a nice redirect, too. As are your 'client' testimonials.
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    Eat until you're full and then STOP. Don't eat just to fulfill some caloric goal of 1500 or whatnot. My opinion.

    yes! i hate people that are like, "oh i'm not hungry but i have 200 cals left for today..what should i eat?!"


    don't eat if you're not hungry!

    both are correct your body knows more than you however you shouldn't wait until you are hungry to eat you should eat 5 times a day healthy balanced meals & you will never feel hungry
  • andreamelo1
    andreamelo1 Posts: 161 Member
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    You know Mcarter for someone whos......
    ...been haunting diet forums for many, many years.

    Did you do the 1200 calorie diet over the many many years?
    Youve only been here for a few months.

    TBH I plan to make this a career.
    I'm even going back to school for this so I dont misinform people anymore.
    But iof youve been doing this for many many years then obviously something didnt work.

    Who said anything about what I eat or what I have to lose? Weight management and fitness are two of many interests of mine.

    I'm not advocating anything except that people not have a mountain of myth to consider in their own decision on how to lose weight.

    If you can't address the information, attack the person, though. Like when you tell me to STFU. Posting cartoons and silly images is a nice redirect, too. As are your 'client' testimonials.

    many people who loose an argument will stoop to attacks just to make them self look better all the while making themselves look bad

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