What Starvation Mode Really Is

Blmarlborough

-I thought I'd express some thoughts on this so called "Starvation Mode." It gets thrown around quite a bit these days and I thought I'd explain it to everyone.

-First off, about everyone of you reading this have never been in starvation mode. And probably never will be. Starvation mode does not happen until all of your fat reserves are used up, after the body enters a state of Ketosis, and catabolizes lean muscle tissues for proteins for glucose in the form of gluceogenesis.

-Our body's do not automatically burn up our muscles if we eat to little. We need these muscles to survive, as our body realizes this. Without our muscles how would we be able to move? So why would our bodies all of a sudden decide to catabolize our muscle, which we NEED, where as we have hundreds of thousands of kilo calories in the form of adipose tissue (Or body fat)

-However, I do believe our metabolism does slow down TO AN EXTENT. Am I saying all of a sudden our Basal Metabolic Rate is going to be 3 1/2 calories a day? No. Perhaps it will slow down 100 or so, mainly in the form of not heating the body efficiently. Think about it, actually. If we think about it, I'm sure a lot of us get colder when dieting or cutting up for Summer.

-I'm sure some of you are now saying "But I'm not losing any weight! Wa' Da Faq!" Well Ihave a couple of theories on that. First, possibly a thyroid problem. Secondly, you are not counting your macros and calories close enough. Labels on food counters for measurements and such are often off, and you could be eating twice as many calories as it says for the serving. Third, eating throughout the day. Now, Im sure some of you have heard "Eating 300 meals of a 6.214 calories a day will help with burning calories!" Well no, the body doesn't work that way. Your metabolism burns as many calories as it does to compensate for the amount of food you take in. Plus if your eating all these tiny meals without barely any time in between, how are you able to dip into your fat reserves? Lastly, your eating ALL carbs for your calories.

-Now, Im not a Carb Nazi. I believe their function is for energy. However, what happens to lets say, gas in a car if you dont drive it? It stays there. Lets say you continue to fill the tank, what happens? It fills up and eventually begins to flow out, and some awesome guy with a match catches it on fire and blows the car up. But I diverse. What I'm trying to say is, you need to earn carbs. If your outside at football practice from say... 3-7 PM like I am most days, by all means eat some carbs. Having some pasta and maybe some ice cream. You earned it. However, if you've been on your butt playing Call of Duty all day. Maybe you shouldn't be eating that pizza. As a side note, don't judge how fat you are by your weight. Weight and fat are two COMPLETELY different things. I never measure my weight. I go by how I look in the mirror and how I feel. Remember, our body's are about 70% water

-To wrap things up, don't blame weight stall on starvation mode, it's very hard to enter this, measure your intake more carefully, limit your carbs to your activity level and don't let the scale tell you how sexy you all look.

tishka11

Starvation mode does occur though and it doesnt necessarily have to happen over a long period of time like months or anything.
Without realising i went through a period where i only had 500 cal a day or less (of which in was only having about 20g of carbs a day) and my body actually started to gain weight despite the fact that i was doing enough exercise to burn 800 cal a day!
If your body is starved it will conserve everything and slow down other functions do keep as much energy as it can eg metabolism, body heat, cognitive ability, hormone release, digestion, organ function
Im not saying to blame all weight gain on this, but starvation mode does occur and can quite significantly mess up your body functions

tishka11

Quick qt too - have you actually every been through starvation mode?

kadinlucas

@ Blmarl - Can I assume that you don't believe in calorie cycling or having one day of eating a bit more than usual?

angiechimpanzee

I used to think this exact same way, OP. Until I read about people netting 900 calories a day and no longer losing weight. And then I found out how common this type of stalling was.

And then it happened to me.

I'm now at a point of increasing my nets & I'm going to give it a week or two to see if my weight loss picks back up again. I'm still skeptical about how fast the actual rate of muscle catabolism is when eating too few calories for one's activity level. But I do know, from experience, that weight loss does slow to a crawl when eating too little.

Blmarlborough

I believe calorie cycling is completely normal works for some people, mainly in maintaining a mental stability. And about weight stalling; no matter what, the lower amount of body fat you have, fat oxidation will decrease. This means that body fat will come off slower. I also during cutting seasons, find that my weight will remain the same until one day I just have a dramatic weight loss, mainly in the form of water being expelled from me. How our body's lose fat has never been thoroughly proved, and we have much to learn. But to say to people on 1200 calorie or lower diets are going to enter "Starvation Mode" is just blasphemy. I personally fast 3 days a week whenever cutting, and I get great results. I also fast for 21 days a year, beginning of cutting season, as a way to heal, detox and as a way to cherish life and to be thankful for everything I have in life, whereas people in underdeveloped countries will go much longer without food. It's also a great way for me to burn off some of the added fat from my bulk.

Blmarlborough

Starvation mode does occur though and it doesnt necessarily have to happen over a long period of time like months or anything.
Without realising i went through a period where i only had 500 cal a day or less (of which in was only having about 20g of carbs a day) and my body actually started to gain weight despite the fact that i was doing enough exercise to burn 800 cal a day!
If your body is starved it will conserve everything and slow down other functions do keep as much energy as it can eg metabolism, body heat, cognitive ability, hormone release, digestion, organ function
Im not saying to blame all weight gain on this, but starvation mode does occur and can quite significantly mess up your body functions

Yes you will gain weight. Why? Because your body is holding onto as many of the nutrients and water as it can. Take people in underdeveloped countries for example. Now there is 2 significant details about them. First off, Arms and legs have virtually no fat or muscle. They are just bones and skin. Second, their pot belly. This is due to their body's holding onto EVERYTHING they get in their system. So waste and water and all kinds of stuff builds up in their stomach. This is usually where the weight gain comes from. It is NOT fat however. People need to stop focusing so much on the scale from day to day.