starvation mode

I can not stress this enough. Eating enough to fuel your body properly is EXTREMELY important. There are many consequences to eating too little or too much. This link here will show you EXACTLY what to do. Personally? I eat 1900 calories a day to lose weight. Please, I encourage you to read this post, it will answer all of your questions, and then some, and will set you up for long lasting healthy success.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Feel free to message me if you have any questions.

Right, I think I read that you have to be like 7% body fat to actually be in starvation mode, so the majority of people don't have to worry about this.

My TDEE is 3200 and I eat around 1200, which I know is too low, but I am just not hungry and I don't know how to force myself to eat more. Isn't that how I got this way in the first place?

I'm not going to answer this under the broad interpretation of "starvation mode" but there are endocrinological adaptations that occur if one chronically assumes a calorie deficit. Among those are a declined Resting Metabolic Rate and serum leptin concentration levels. One year of chronic calorie restriction would be long enough to notice significant alterations to one's metabolic state and the hormones associated with it. There are countless studies on varying populations which demonstrate these changes.

Leptin is your satiety hormone. When at normal levels, the mechanisms responsible for energy balance via thyroid axes operate as intended and you feel full eating an optimal amount of calories. Chronic calorie restriction, however, alters the thyroid axes in a way that the signaling is greatly impaired, resulting in one feeling full while eating less and less over time. Thus, if you operate via the idea of eating only when hungry while maintaining an increasing deficit, you will continue to provide less energy to your body - ie less than what it truly needs. The longer one assumes chronic calorie restriction, the longer it will take for serum leptin concentration levels to return to near optimal levels. In cases among recovered anorexics, leptin concentration levels were still significantly lower compared to normal, healthy women who did not engage in disordered eating long after weight recovery ended.

Resting Metabolic Rate is one of the four components of one's Total Daily Energy Expenditure and assumes the largest percentage, up to 65% to 70%, of total energy demands to aid in basic biological function. During calorie restriction, RMR slowly declines, even when lean body mass loss is minimized. The degree of decline depends on many factors including length and degree of deficit and rate of weight loss. Basically, the lower one's RMR gets, the slower their metabolism becomes and less fat is oxidized. Several studies exists where very obese subjects experienced reduced RMR in the neighborhood of 10% after 5 weeks of VLCD and a range between -244 +- 231 and -504 +-171 kcal/day, from week 6 to week 30, respectively, despite preservation of lean body mass. I'd link the study but it's available via subscription only although the abstract can be viewed if anyone is interested.

The key is to try to begin weight loss - or restart - when both RMR and serum leptin levels are at maximal levels to the individual. Once values for both have declined significantly below baseline, it's best for the person to reduce the deficit by upping calories to adjusted maintenance intake and/or reducing additional physical activity to allow both to return to more optimal levels.