Starvation Mode

katelyngodino
katelyngodino Posts: 5
edited September 20 in Health and Weight Loss
Almost everyday after I log my daily food, I am under my calorie goal. I do not understand why. I am eating 3 meals, a generous portion, and 2 snacks. I am completely full after eating all this and there is no way I can eat any more. I do exercise a few a times a day and get more calories added because of that. I just don't get why or how my body can be "going into starvation mode". Am I really not going to lose any weight because I am eating under my calories?

Replies

  • kgasser
    kgasser Posts: 333 Member
    What do you mean by I exercise "a few times a day"? 10 minutes at a time or 30-45 3 times a day? You could be overdoing it, and yeah, you could go into starvation mode.
  • katelyngodino
    katelyngodino Posts: 5
    Right now the only kind of exercise I am doing is walking. I walk my son to school in the morning, and home in the afternon. And then I walk my dog 2 times a say for about a half an hour each time.
  • LittleSpy
    LittleSpy Posts: 6,754 Member
    It all completely depends on your body and how many calories it needs to be comfortable with functioning.

    There are a million and one ways to get more calories in. Natural nut butters and milk are two calorie packed very nutritious foods that don't take up much tummy space. They're also delicious, especially together. :wink:
    2 tbs natural peanut butter, 1 slice of whole grain bread, and 16oz milk is easily 500 calories. You telling me you don't have room to replace one of your low calorie snacks (or even one of your meals) with half of a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk? Didn't think so. :wink:

    All that having been said, the rules are different for those of us who are obese, so keep that in mind. From what I understand, our bodies are highly unlikely to venture into "starvation mode" because we have *so much* extra fat to use as energy.

    If you make your food diary public we may be able to offer up even more suggestions.
  • Ezzie
    Ezzie Posts: 665 Member
    From what I understand....if your NET calories ( calories minus your exercise calories) are under 1200 your body could be doing the starvation mode thing...

    If you are having problems getting enough calories try more calorie dense foods like peanut butter, meat, or cheeses. You could even look at (heaven forbid!!) sauces and gravies, even some sweets such as good chocolate. In reasonable amounts, of course.

    Sometimes your body will also be building muscle so weight won't change as much as measurements.
  • ViktoriyaZ
    ViktoriyaZ Posts: 2
    I'm confused about this myself. I am 19 going on 20 and my goal is to loose about 40 pounds. Everyday I am also below the 1200 goal and reading this starvation mode stuff confuses me. I thought that eating less calories will help me loose weight. Does anybody know anything about this?
  • LittleSpy
    LittleSpy Posts: 6,754 Member
    I'm confused about this myself. I am 19 going on 20 and my goal is to loose about 40 pounds. Everyday I am also below the 1200 goal and reading this starvation mode stuff confuses me. I thought that eating less calories will help me loose weight. Does anybody know anything about this?

    Read these:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/23912-links-in-mfp-you-want-to-read-again-and-again
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10665-newbies-please-read-me-2nd-edition
  • jbuffan218
    jbuffan218 Posts: 275 Member
    I'm not a nutritionist dont pretend to be BUT I can just tell you from personal experience what happened to me
    Take it for what it's worth.

    I have only been doing this since Tuesday Jan 5th, I weigh in on saturday so my first "week" was really only 5 days. I lost 3 lbs. Flippin' fantastic! I'm not obese but do want to loose 23-28 lbs. So I guess what I'm saying is I dont have a tremendous amount to loose, so 3 lbs my first week was unexpected for my body.
    I am allowed 1200 cals BEFORE exercise, that week I was not eating even close to my cals, just wasnt hungry, not used to eating 3 meals so I averaged about 800 cals a day or so. Drank 10 waters everyday, started exercising about every other day.

    Week 2 continued with the under 1200 cals routine, anywhere from 700-900cals not counting the 2-250 exercise cals.
    Exercise 5 out of the 7 days this week, 10 waters every day . All good............GAINED back the 3 lbs I lost!!! Now I'm frustrated and whiny.

    Week 3 made a new friiend on the board jlb123, :flowerforyou: she was patient with me and listened to my whining and excessively long letter, she suggested that I make it a point to get in ALL my calories. At least the 1200, I'm not eating my exercise calories, just cant do it. Why exercise my balls (figuratively of course, I'm a girl) off then eat the all that I just tryed to burn off?? HUH?
    So I did as she suggested, got 1200 or very, very close to it almost everyday that week. Really paid attention to my sodium, continued with the water and missed exercise 3 days.........LOST the 3 I had gained AND another 1/2 lb.!!!!

    So I am going to focus on eating the 1200 even when I'm not hungry ( like today) dont really feel like eating really. But I made myself eat a light breakfast and lunch, still have 815 cals left and it's already 3:30 pm

    So EAT YOUR CALORIES! and just see how it goes. I'm just sayin;.....
  • LittleSpy
    LittleSpy Posts: 6,754 Member
    Glad to hear you're having more success, jbuffan218.

    But I would like to state for the record I'm not a professional. Not a(n) MD, dietician, not even a "nutritionist" (which I recently learned doesn't even mean anything at all), not professionally an anything related to weight loss. I'm just someone who's spent a good chunk of the last 4 months reading about developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And someone who has had decent amount of success in the subject over the last 4.5 months.

    So, just because I give out advice doesn't really mean I know what I'm talking about. Treat everything I write as a very gentle suggestion to see if it works better for you than what you've been doing. I'm sure I get things wrong and misunderstand what I've read and I know for sure I mistype and don't explain my thoughts clearly sometimes.
    So what I'm saying here is although I'd like to think you can put more weight (ha!) in some of my posts than in others', really everything everyone posts here is nothing more than opinion, educated or not. So, try it if you want, but nothing you'll read here (or anywhere, really, I guess) is written in stone.
  • courtney_love2001
    courtney_love2001 Posts: 1,468 Member
    I find that if I am way under, I'll have a tall glass of milk or some almonds or peanut butter. They're calorie dense, not too filling, and generally good-for-you foods. When I first started I was under a lot too, but this fades with time as you learn what you can eat and how to fill your day properly. Good luck! :flowerforyou:
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