Any peer-reviewed, objective evidence for "starvation mode"?

ashesfromfire

Though not a scientific research study - I have personal experience:

A few years ago I was eating ridiculously low calories, maybe a couple hundred a day - maybe. I kept this up consistently for over a year.
When I started eating normally again my weight shot up through the roof.
To me, that would be evidence to the way "starvation mode" effects your metabolism.

BinaryPulsar

Though not a scientific research study - I have personal experience:

A few years ago I was eating ridiculously low calories, maybe a couple hundred a day - maybe. I kept this up consistently for over a year.
When I started eating normally again my weight shot up through the roof.
To me, that would be evidence to the way "starvation mode" effects your metabolism.

I understand that you were eating too few calories, but when you started eating normally again...are you sure it was "normally" and not a swing to the other extreme of overeating because that would explain this.

I went through a very brief time when I was a teenager when I was eating too few calories (I was under stress at the time growing up in an abusive home), and it was disastrous to my health because I was already small and have a fast metabolism and I'm very active. My weight dropped dangerously below the healthy limit, I stopped menstruating for 6 months because my body fat was so low (and it took me time to be able to regain it to a healthy level), and I experienced many serious symptoms of malnutrition. But when I started eating normally again (by my own choice) I regained my normal, healthy weight and fully recovered. The weight loss happened quickly. The weight gain happened normally and brought me right back to my healthy weight. And I've been healthy ever since. Luckily, it was short enough that my body was not harmed permanently (and I was young and resilient).

Bob314159

The main problem with so called starvation mode in MFP is the claim of short term instant effect. LIke if I don't eat my exercise calories today, I will immediately enter SM.

There is no way that happens. Even in the one study I found that showed a possible effect it was extreme calory deficiency of a test group over a period of many months and a year later, any changes on their BMR were gone.

I do have the feeling than many members love to believe in it, it goes well with undercounting food eaten and overestimating exercise burn to make life comfortable and keep the food coming in.

(BTW in case someone looks - my exercise burn yesterday was probably grossly overestimated by MFP and Fitbit so I'm not planning on eating another 2800)

mjhedgehog

bump

RainHoward

Energy metabolism after 2 y of energy restriction: the Biosphere 2 experiment1,2
Christian Weyer, Roy L Walford, Inge T Harper, Mike Milner, Taber MacCallum, P Antonio Tataranni, and Eric Ravussin
+ Author Affiliations

1From the Clinical Diabetes and Nutrition Section, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Phoenix, AZ; the Department of Pathology, the Center for Health Sciences, the University of California, Los Angeles; and Paragon Development Co, Tucson, AZ.
Abstract

Background: An adaptive decrease in energy expenditure (EE) in response to 6 mo of severely restricted energy intake was shown in a classic semistarvation study—the Minnesota experiment.

Objective: Our objective was to examine whether such adaptation also occurs in response to less severe but sustained energy restriction.

Design: Body composition, 1-wk total EE (TEE), 24-h sedentary EE, and spontaneous physical activity were measured in 8 healthy subjects (4 men and 4 women) at the end of a 2-y confinement inside Biosphere 2. Unexpectedly, the food supply was markedly restricted during most of the confinement and all subjects experienced a marked, sustained weight loss (9.1 ± 6.6 kg; P < 0.001) from the low-energy (7000–11000 kJ/d), low-fat (9% of energy), but nutrient-dense, diet they consumed.

Results: The TEE inside Biosphere 2, assessed 3 wk before exit, averaged 10700 ± 560 kJ/d (n = 8). Within 1 wk after exit, the adjusted 24-h EE and spontaneous physical activity were lower in the biospherians (n = 5) than in 152 control subjects (6% and 45%, respectively; both P < 0.01). Six months after exit and return to an ad libitum diet, body weight had increased to preentry levels; however, adjusted 24-h EE and spontaneous physical activity were still significantly lower than in control subjects.

Conclusions: In lean humans, an adaptive decrease in EE appears to occur not only in states of life-threatening undernutrition, but also in response to less severe energy restriction sustained over several years.
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/72/4/946.short

Metabolic and Behavioral Compensations in Response to Caloric Restriction: Implications for the Maintenance of Weight Loss
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004377

Malnutrition, extreme lack of energy and other health issues will arise long before "starvation" becomes an issue. It is a general lack of health caused by severe calorie restriction. However, the level at which this occurs varies great from person to person and also depends greatly on the quality of calories consumed.

monty619

if you cannot see your abs... you are not anywhere close to starvation mode.

SuperSexyDork

Bump for reading later.

funkycamper

you will not find peer reviewed articles R/T starvation mode because it is not a medical term try a broader search. I you find anything check out credentials.

I think it's odd that your write this just a few posts after SHBoss1673 listed numerous peer-reviewed studies that shows it does exist.

No, it doesn't happen if you just eat extra-low for a few days here and there, or if you skip a few meals here and there, but if you chronically underfeed, over time, your body does adapt and make hormonal adjustments that lower your metabolic burn.

tysonian

I'm not sure if this was posted already, or if this is what you're looking for, but I've read several articles about an obese man who ate nothing* for a year, and lived, and was fine.

Here's one: http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm

*The short version, if you don't feel like reading the article, is that a very obese man, under the vigilant watch of doctors, ate no food for an entire year. He was given very strong vitamins for his heart health and whatnot, but he didn't eat any physical food. Five years later, he had only gained a tiny proportion back.

Now, the article isn't suggesting everyone should do this, or that it isn't dangerous, it details some of the issues you can have not while fasting, but while breaking the fast. I wouldn't recommend anyone do what the man did, but I pretty much think the 1200 rule is bull****. I regularly eat under 1200 and feel fine. I say, eat when you're hungry, and don't panic when you're not.

I saw someone else mention it but in either case it's news to me, fascinating, thanks for the link.

miss_grad

From my personal experience, it's real. But I only know from being afflicted from a health enigma that prevented me from keeping down solids.

My weight loss journey began over a year ago, I was 205lbs. Lost about 65-70bs the "right way". Then when I got down to 135, I got hit with that health condition... Lost about 30, even as I was struggling not to (didn't want to lose all the muscle mass I had worked my *kitten* off for).

We're talking... I was barely getting 500 cal's a day within a period of 3-4 months. And if I was getting in more than that, it was a good day for me. Meant that whatever I was eating, stayed down. End result? My metabolism was shot. My hair fell-out. I looked sickly. I was ultimately put on a liquid diet (a drink called Boost, usually given to chemo patients so they can receive adequate nutrients via liquid form).

I am still in metabolic recovery, and thus have gained about 30lbs back. Happy to report that I seem to have leveled off, and have kept any extra weight away through exercise and diet. But losing weight right now is at a crawl.... As expected. Frustrating, but it feels nice to be a semi-functional human being again.

AnninStPaul

From a motivational POV, it's a nightmare. I remember reading about an older study in which subjects fixated on food in both the short and long term. One subject's satiety levels got totally messed up and would not stop eating once released.

Are you referring to the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, during WWII? 36 conscientious objectors (out of 200 volunteers) were sequestered for over a year, and underfed for much of that time, to learn the effects of starvation and what would need to be done in Europe after the war was over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

in addition to the physical effects, the subjects experienced significant psychological effects including depression, a fixation on food, lack of sexual interest, and social withdrawal.

From a weight-loss perspective, I can't see the psychological effects as being worth a faster loss.

monty619

As the title implies I'm looking to see if anyone has any documented, tested, objective data to support the existence of "starvation mode" outside of the actual occurrence of literal starvation. I've been exposed to mountains of anecdotal claims regarding the function of metabolism on levels of caloric intake and have yet to find any solid, supported, scientific evidence to support these claims. I recently took a nutrition class and the topic was discussed, from my research I can only find documentation of very minor changes to calorie usage anywhere in the normal range but there was no significant change to the curve until extreme deficiency. For most of us this would mean worrying about starvation mode should warrant as much worry as actually starving to death, dieting is not going to have an impact on how our body consumes calories.

I suspect this is total fiction but I'm open to other points of view. If there's good information out there to the contrary I'd love to hear it.

-T

idk about "starvation mode" but if you eat less calories the metabolism slows down. end of story.