Starvation mode

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anna9102
anna9102 Posts: 56
in Health and Weight Loss
Many many thoughts about this! People say starvation mode(eating far few calories than ou should) slows down your metabolism and stops you losing weight... What about people with ED's(specifically anorexia.) so many cases end up with the person becoming extremely thin... From eating very little... Will someone please shed some light on this!

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  • erin023
    erin023 Posts: 123 Member
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    I do not believe in starvation mode. I have lost a ton of weight when my ED was in full force. I've since recovered, for the most part, but even since then I have eaten way under my calorie goal and still lost weight. You just have to be careful when going back to eating normal so you don't gain a bunch of weight.
  • Rach_Gem_n_Disguise
    Rach_Gem_n_Disguise Posts: 140 Member
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    I'm afraid you may have opened a can of worms. I hope people don't become too hateful to you on here. I once started a forum like this once and it got so bad I had to ask MFP to take it down.

    To your question...here is my theory....starvation mode is possible but only when you eat next to nothing for a LONG period of time. Yes people who are anorexic become extremely thin and nothing but skin/bones .....because they not only lose fat but their muscle as well. I once was anorexic in my teens. It's very dangerous and not worth it, no matter how great people tell you that you look when you first start getting skinny.

    Eating healthy at least 1200 calories and exercising is the key. I am not a fan of eating back all of my exercise calories like most people on here because I truly believe it's calories in - calories out to lose weight. I also believe you need to burn 3500 calories a week to lose a 1lb a week (because one lb = 3500 calories)...so I try to hit that as well.

    I don't know if your question was being asked because you eat a low amount of calories per day and were worried about starvation mode but when I log out every day from my phone MFP tells me I'm under my calories and may enter starvation mode. I by no means am starving or losing muscle mass like some will say. My arms are much more defined...I do Insanity....leg muscles are tighter than ever. So, do what is best for you. :wink:
  • ourwickedlies
    ourwickedlies Posts: 46 Member
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    Starvation mode does exist, but you're not going to go into starvation mode if you don't eat the magical 1200 calories(notice how mfp will scold you for eating under 1200, yet you can have a negative net?) a day every once and a while. If you aren't eating an adequate amount of calories, your metabolism will slow down, and any weight you lose is basically water weight. I lost a ton of weight with my ED too and during my recovery, all of the weight I lost plus 10 extra pounds came back within a couple of months. It took me forever to get my metabolism working properly again, and now i'm trying to get my weight down a bit to something I'm more comfortable with, the healthy way.
  • Chipmaniac
    Chipmaniac Posts: 642 Member
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    There is a slowing of metabolism over time if you eat a small amount. However, the effect is greatly exaggerated by people on these boards. In reality, you will never halt your weight loss long-term if your intake is less than your energy expenditure.
  • gemmalouise85
    gemmalouise85 Posts: 157 Member
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    I think it's not the fact of not losing weight so much but a case of how your body reacts people with ED's get hospitilised and very sick all organs fail and sometimes die!
    Before the losing weight happens in the beggining your body uses all resources it can to stay healthy and retains, then you lose weight and thats when becomes dangerous.

    I wouln't go to the extreme of eating back all my calories, but make sure I eat healthy and if I over do exercising then i eat more veg that day and fruit and drink more water.

    It's about losing weight in a positive healthy way.
  • Maude_Lewbowski
    Maude_Lewbowski Posts: 395 Member
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    Tread lightly here ladies...the wolves will decend. As a former ED survivor...I implore you to not pass along information that is hearsay or baseless. Doctors, Nutritionists, counselors are the proper people to be speaking to about factual information on the matter. If you are looking for a forum war this topic has been played out.

    It'd be much more fun to go and enjoy your weekends rather than drag this old, dead horse out for another beating.
  • anna9102
    anna9102 Posts: 56
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    I have suffered with a mild eating disorder before but I'm back on track. This question isn't to do with my personal eating habits, I'm just generally confused and wanted to hear other people's opinions on the matter!
  • laracroftminx
    laracroftminx Posts: 17 Member
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    There is a difference between people starving themselves and starvation mode. For instance if the body has no or little calories then of course you will lose weight.

    HOWEVER if a person decides to skip a meal the body may not have enough energy and will therefore start to store energy (e.g. store fat).

    Apparently when the body is in "starvation mode" it will choose to burn muscle rather than fat. So people may still experience weight loss but this will be muscle wastage rather than fat loss.

    My advice is................... EAT SENSIBLY, EAT HEALTHILY and allow yourself a little cheat now and again - life is too short and too precious
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    Starvation starts after 3 days of zero food.
    However, if you have excess fat youll live.
    Its what its there for.

    I predict a ****storm on this thread.

    OP its always a good idea to use the search feature in the forum and read previous posts about this topic before posting.


    Personally I prescribe a moderate 20% cut from TDEE if you are into losing fat and maintaining lean mass.
  • MissShancey
    MissShancey Posts: 464
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  • bear44
    bear44 Posts: 2
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    Happy to see posts that reflect my own feelings! I don't advocate Starvation mode but there are days when I simply don't get to eat 1200 calories. I have done BMI calculations on some websites that indicate my intake should be slightly less than 1200 calories per day. I work out daily but work a sedentary job and am not considered "active" by their definition. Basically, I eat all the right foods but don't eat when I am not hungry.
  • zasae
    zasae Posts: 30
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    Starvation mode is and isn't true . At first when you've got a fast metabolism your body will burn it's normal amount even if you have eaten less , that's why a small portion eating person can see a big differance in the first days .
    After a while your metabolism burns down so you start eating smaller portions and your body burns that , that's why you need to do excersize to burn more than you put in .
    With the amount of calories you burn just by being alive , annorexics don't eat enough for their bodies to be able to survive . So their body starts eating not the calories in the food that they don't have but the muscle and eventualy starts eating organs .

    Say I eat in between 500 and 750 cals . I have been eating this little for a long time . So I don't lose weight faster than a person who eats 1800 cals because my metabolism is so slow . Yet people say that I am in starvation mode with that little amount of food .
  • kiminikimkim
    kiminikimkim Posts: 746 Member
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    I have never encountered starvation mode, personally.
  • shiftysheep
    shiftysheep Posts: 44 Member
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    When you crash diet or stave yourself, your body will burn the stored fat for energy, but you won't be taking in enough nutrients & after about 74 hours of fasting (no food) the metabolism slows down (Evolutionary response, imagine a hunter/gather needing to conserve energy after a long time without a kill/find). If this goes on for an extended period of time, when you do start eating normal, your body will store as much as it can in-case you don't get food for a long time.

    Personally I do IF (Intermittent Fasting) it's not a diet, more a way of life based on the way we evolved as hunter/gathers, I eat at -500 under maintenance + exercise calories, but I eat all my food in a four hour window 1PM - 5PM (Just think as we evolved we would go out to gather, track & kill, then come back home to feast, then we would need to do it all over again, also a kill/find wasn't always on the cards), so I fast for 20 hours each day & work out fasted (making sure I'm burning stored fat & not a meal I just digested). Then every 3 days I miss one eating window (ends up a 36 hour fast).
    This makes the most of the fat burning time & produces more growth hormones.

    This allows me to gain muscle mass while also cutting body fat, once I get down to about 7-8% body fat I'm going to start eating at maintenance or 200 - 500 caloriess above.

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