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TheRealParisLove
TheRealParisLove Posts: 1,907 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Does "starvation mode" equal staying fat. I've been seeing this term tossed around here for the year I've been logging, and whenever anyone uses "starvation mode" do they mean fat or obese.

I think people who are actually starving (N. Korea for example) would be really offended by a bunch of first worlder's complaining about starvation mode.

When I was in 8th grade, my church youth group fasted for 36 hours and we donated all of the food we would have eaten in that time frame to a local food bank. Guess what happened? No one even fainted, much less had to deal with "starvation mode."

I am of a healthy BMI now and regularly fast. I've never had a more severe reaction to fasting than some mild fatigue. (I only fast for 3 days at a time).

How lucky we are to live in countries where there is so much abundance that we have to deal with the problems of obesity. I've been poor enough to know what involuntary fasting feels like.

All I'm asking is that when you fling around the term starvation, please consider what you are actually saying. Maybe you'd like to try your own fast/ food donation for 36 hours. Most modern 1st worlders have no idea what real hunger even feels like.

Replies

  • Hadabetter
    Hadabetter Posts: 941 Member
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    I agree. Most of us think "hunger" when all we're feeling is "appetite". There is a big difference. However, I do beleive that eating below BMR for extended periods (certainly longer than 36 hours) will trigger hormonal changes in person's body that have collectivly become to be known as starvation mode.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    Starvation mode used on this forum is used to describe a physiological state where you body is actively conserving all excess caloric intake as fat and not burning fat.

    There is evidence that people who've been fad dieting and extreme dieting don't burn fat when they are under their calories like other people do. For example, when you eat too little long term, you stop losing weight because your body thinks you are at high risk for starvation. You can eat 500 calories a day and stop losing weight until (for rats in experimental conditions) you literally starve.

    Whether or not that really works in the kind of conditions people here are talking about - 1100 calories/day for example, in controversial. Even on these forums.

    On a more positive note, people use it to tell people who are eating too little that they'd lose the same amount if they ate in a more healthy manner.
  • JDBLY11
    JDBLY11 Posts: 577 Member
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    I have always thought that starvation mode only applied when you were seriously limiting your calories and only taking in under 1000 calories a day net.
  • Pink_turnip
    Pink_turnip Posts: 280 Member
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    Starvation mode (on here) is when you're eating way too little calories than your body needs, for an extended period of time. Not that you fast for a couple days, not that you weren't hungry and didn't eat enough yesterday.

    If you're consistently eating only a couple hundred calories a day, your body is going to try to hang onto as much as possible whenever you go over your 'normal' amount.
  • Mustang_Susie
    Mustang_Susie Posts: 7,045 Member
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    I agree that it's a stupid phrase to use for what it's being used to describe: weight loss cessation due to lower calorie intake.
    (Which I also disagree with, but that's another can of worms.)

    True starvation is something completely different and has nothing to do with what posters are referring to here on mfp.

    Concentration camp prisoners were starving and were definitely losing weight, hence the cachexia.

    Someone who has stopped losing weight is not starving.
  • 5ftnFun
    5ftnFun Posts: 948 Member
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    Starvation mode gets discussed on MFP quite a bit, that's true, but that is very appropriate given that this is a fitness website. People here are trying to learn how to be healthier.

    The world is full of political, religious, economic and social problems. This is not a site for that.
  • tuckerrj
    tuckerrj Posts: 1,453 Member
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    Starvation mode gets discussed on MFP quite a bit, that's true, but that is very appropriate given that this is a fitness website. People here are trying to learn how to be healthier.

    The world is full of political, religious, economic and social problems. This is not a site for that.

    Well aren't we lucky we have YOU on here, to help determine what is and isn't appropriate for us to discuss!
  • Cp731
    Cp731 Posts: 3,195 Member
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    :huh:
  • 5ftnFun
    5ftnFun Posts: 948 Member
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    Starvation mode gets discussed on MFP quite a bit, that's true, but that is very appropriate given that this is a fitness website. People here are trying to learn how to be healthier.

    The world is full of political, religious, economic and social problems. This is not a site for that.

    Well aren't we lucky we have YOU on here, to help determine what is and isn't appropriate for us to discuss!

    Well, isn't that exactly what the OP has requested? That we think about the starving people in North Korea before we "fling around" starvation mode? Isn't she trying to determine what is appropriate to discuss or how we discuss it? That was the purpose of MY comment to her. Ironic, ain't it?
  • Mustang_Susie
    Mustang_Susie Posts: 7,045 Member
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    OP asked if starvation mode equaled staying fat.
  • PosterGuy1
    PosterGuy1 Posts: 163 Member
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    I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the people here who use the phrase, aren't trying to minimize the fact that there are starving people in the world. Like I said, its just a guess.
  • Jezreel12
    Jezreel12 Posts: 246 Member
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    I agree that the word is thrown around loosely but in our forum and on the diet sites that's the lingo used for something as everyone else above me had explained concerning the body's reaction to the minimal intake of calories. I think we all agree with you in the seriousness of the word and to what it truly should be applied. But when you live in Rome, you speak like the Romans do!
  • Mustang_Susie
    Mustang_Susie Posts: 7,045 Member
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    Then I'll be playing my fiddle...
  • RoadsterGirlie
    RoadsterGirlie Posts: 1,195 Member
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    Does "starvation mode" equal staying fat. I've been seeing this term tossed around here for the year I've been logging, and whenever anyone uses "starvation mode" do they mean fat or obese.

    I think people who are actually starving (N. Korea for example) would be really offended by a bunch of first worlder's complaining about starvation mode.

    When I was in 8th grade, my church youth group fasted for 36 hours and we donated all of the food we would have eaten in that time frame to a local food bank. Guess what happened? No one even fainted, much less had to deal with "starvation mode."

    I am of a healthy BMI now and regularly fast. I've never had a more severe reaction to fasting than some mild fatigue. (I only fast for 3 days at a time).

    How lucky we are to live in countries where there is so much abundance that we have to deal with the problems of obesity. I've been poor enough to know what involuntary fasting feels like.

    All I'm asking is that when you fling around the term starvation, please consider what you are actually saying. Maybe you'd like to try your own fast/ food donation for 36 hours. Most modern 1st worlders have no idea what real hunger even feels like.

    This is a beautiful post. Thank you for sharing this. :flowerforyou:

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