Starvation mode

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DarkLuca
DarkLuca Posts: 58 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey everybody, obviously this subject is about Starvation mode, Because a lot of my friends keep telling me that I'm starving myself for eating 1000-1200 calories a day, I actually don't believe that I'm starving myself because i ate enough, eating more than 1200 calories is what got me fat in the first place, and then people say you gonna lose more weight if you eat more than 1200 calories But If i did eat more than 1200 calories and lose weight I wouldn't be fat in the first place.
Any ideas? :)
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Replies

  • schell81
    schell81 Posts: 187 Member
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    were you tracking calories when you were gaining weight? How many calories were you eating?
  • DarkLuca
    DarkLuca Posts: 58 Member
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    were you tracking calories when you were gaining weight? How many calories were you eating?
    I wasn't.
  • getitgirl11
    getitgirl11 Posts: 18 Member
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    I hate to break it to you, but your friends might be right! It is dangerous for your body to consume under 1200 calories a day.When we eat too-few of calories, our bodies enter starvation mode. The thyroid hormones needed to fuel your metabolism can’t be produced and our metabolism starts slowing down, meaning the weight starts to creep up on us! Our bodies start clinging to fat stores as a source of energy and we become sluggish, which is NOT what you want.

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    Here is a great site for figuring our caloric intake based on your height, age, weight and activity level.

    For example, I am doing Insanity: the Asylum and should be consuming around 2100 calories a day. However, because I want to loose a little weight and tone up, I subtracted 500 calories from that (it explains it on the site) so my daily intake is around 1600 calories. I maintain a daily intake of 40/40/20, meaning 40% from carbohydrates, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat. This allows your body to burn fat and gain lean muscle while maintaining a fuller feeling and high energy level.

    I usually don't "eat back" the deficit whenever I log in my workouts from my HR monitor. A healthy target is a calorie deficit of about 500 – 1000 calories a day to lose 1-2 lbs a week.

    I hope this helps answer your question--and yes EAT! ( :
  • dianita01
    dianita01 Posts: 19 Member
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    Honestly, if there's one thing that irritates me, it's generalized advice. Everybody's body is different.

    The important thing to do is to listen to your body. Do you feel full with your current diet? Energized enough to work out? Any health issues arising? I run for varying periods of time and on the rare occasion that I've burned too much and haven't eaten enough, my head starts hurting by late afternoon/early evening and that's my body telling me "Eat, stupid!". If you were putting yourself in a dangerous situation there would be several signs to alert you (like dizzy spells, headaches, etc.) but if you feel great and are getting results than you're on the right track.

    I think the key is to learn how to read our bodies instead of forcing ourselves to fit a certain bill- just because it's perceived as being "healthy". Making yourself eat food that your body doesn't need is what usually makes us gain weight in the first place (like a child who can't leave the table until he/she eats everything on their plate. It's not a great mentality and it's a slippery slope.)

    Hope that helps :) I've gotten similar comments in the past and it truly bothers me when people make statements about things they don't fully understand. My rule is, if you feel good, then you're good. Because if you weren't good, I think you'd probably be the first to know.
  • ClaireM8
    ClaireM8 Posts: 26
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    ...but your food diary has no veges and a lot of fried/junk food. Calorie count is not the only thing that matters - you need some nutritional content also.
  • wibutterflymagic
    wibutterflymagic Posts: 788 Member
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    Honestly, if there's one thing that irritates me, it's generalized advice. Everybody's body is different.

    The important thing to do is to listen to your body. Do you feel full with your current diet? Energized enough to work out? Any health issues arising? I run for varying periods of time and on the rare occasion that I've burned too much and haven't eaten enough, my head starts hurting by late afternoon/early evening and that's my body telling me "Eat, stupid!". If you were putting yourself in a dangerous situation there would be several signs to alert you (like dizzy spells, headaches, etc.) but if you feel great and are getting results than you're on the right track.

    I think the key is to learn how to read our bodies instead of forcing ourselves to fit a certain bill- just because it's perceived as being "healthy". Making yourself eat food that your body doesn't need is what usually makes us gain weight in the first place (like a child who can't leave the table until he/she eats everything on their plate. It's not a great mentality and it's a slippery slope.)

    Hope that helps :) I've gotten similar comments in the past and it truly bothers me when people make statements about things they don't fully understand. My rule is, if you feel good, then you're good. Because if you weren't good, I think you'd probably be the first to know.

    I would agree. Also, I don't believe you would be placed at a 1200/day plan if it would endanger you. And, if you are exercising then I would hope you are actually eating more then 1200 because you do need to take some of those calories back.
  • time4changexx
    time4changexx Posts: 103 Member
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    Don't worry about it.

    If you have x amount of calories to eat a day and your still hungry eat darnit! If you have more calories to eat to hit that magic number but your full don't eat!!! Simple. If your stomach is growling and your doubled over with hunger pains I think what you should do. You would know if you are starving.
  • jcr85
    jcr85 Posts: 229
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    I hate to break it to you, but your friends might be right! It is dangerous for your body to consume under 1200 calories a day.When we eat too-few of calories, our bodies enter starvation mode. The thyroid hormones needed to fuel your metabolism can’t be produced and our metabolism starts slowing down, meaning the weight starts to creep up on us! Our bodies start clinging to fat stores as a source of energy and we become sluggish, which is NOT what you want.

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    Here is a great site for figuring our caloric intake based on your height, age, weight and activity level.

    For example, I am doing Insanity: the Asylum and should be consuming around 2100 calories a day. However, because I want to loose a little weight and tone up, I subtracted 500 calories from that (it explains it on the site) so my daily intake is around 1600 calories. I maintain a daily intake of 40/40/20, meaning 40% from carbohydrates, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat. This allows your body to burn fat and gain lean muscle while maintaining a fuller feeling and high energy level.

    I usually don't "eat back" the deficit whenever I log in my workouts from my HR monitor. A healthy target is a calorie deficit of about 500 – 1000 calories a day to lose 1-2 lbs a week.

    I hope this helps answer your question--and yes EAT! ( :

    I have to agree. Your body works like a machine if you just consume one less calorie than 1200 your body starts to shut down and die.
  • meredith1123
    meredith1123 Posts: 843 Member
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    Hey everybody, obviously this subject is about Starvation mode, Because a lot of my friends keep telling me that I'm starving myself for eating 1000-1200 calories a day, I actually don't believe that I'm starving myself because i ate enough, eating more than 1200 calories is what got me fat in the first place, and then people say you gonna lose more weight if you eat more than 1200 calories But If i did eat more than 1200 calories and lose weight I wouldn't be fat in the first place.
    Any ideas? :)

    I personally think that if you have done this for awhile and you know your OWN body - then do what you think is right for your body. I am doing the same thing. I know my body better than anyone and i've battled weight and exercising my entire life. on that note i consume no more than 1200 cal and thats a MAX for me and i still exercise and burn 400-700 calories a day - about four days a week - sometimes five days. I think this is what is good for my body and for someone else maybe it would be that they are starving themselves but for me it works....

    Are you finding that you are hungry often? if not - then your body is fine. I think you know yourself better than anyone else and you should listen to what you think is right for your body. =>
  • FitBeto
    FitBeto Posts: 2,121 Member
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    I hate to break it to you, but your friends might be right! It is dangerous for your body to consume under 1200 calories a day.When we eat too-few of calories, our bodies enter starvation mode. The thyroid hormones needed to fuel your metabolism can’t be produced and our metabolism starts slowing down, meaning the weight starts to creep up on us! Our bodies start clinging to fat stores as a source of energy and we become sluggish, which is NOT what you want.

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    Here is a great site for figuring our caloric intake based on your height, age, weight and activity level.

    For example, I am doing Insanity: the Asylum and should be consuming around 2100 calories a day. However, because I want to loose a little weight and tone up, I subtracted 500 calories from that (it explains it on the site) so my daily intake is around 1600 calories. I maintain a daily intake of 40/40/20, meaning 40% from carbohydrates, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat. This allows your body to burn fat and gain lean muscle while maintaining a fuller feeling and high energy level.

    I usually don't "eat back" the deficit whenever I log in my workouts from my HR monitor. A healthy target is a calorie deficit of about 500 – 1000 calories a day to lose 1-2 lbs a week.

    I hope this helps answer your question--and yes EAT! ( :

    I have to agree. Your body works like a machine if you just consume one less calorie than 1200 your body starts to shut down and die.

    Osama Bin Laden ate 1199 calories a day and look what happened to that guy!

    If starving doesnt get you, the good ol SEALS will!
  • crystalflame
    crystalflame Posts: 1,049 Member
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    I hate to break it to you, but your friends might be right! It is dangerous for your body to consume under 1200 calories a day.When we eat too-few of calories, our bodies enter starvation mode. The thyroid hormones needed to fuel your metabolism can’t be produced and our metabolism starts slowing down, meaning the weight starts to creep up on us! Our bodies start clinging to fat stores as a source of energy and we become sluggish, which is NOT what you want.

    Sigh, this myth again. You're NOT going to GAIN weight eating too few calories. Your metabolism WILL slow down, but not enough to overcome your caloric deficit. You'll lose weight, but if you do enter starvation mode and your metabolism slows, you'll pile weight back on when you increase your calories again.

    OP, everyone's caloric needs are different. It depends on how tall you are, how much you weigh, how active you are. The BMR/TDEE calculators are a good starting place, but they're still estimates not gained through actual testing, so if you use those you'll have to adjust based on how your body responds to that amount of food. It also sounds like you don't know how much you were really eating when you were gaining weight - maybe eat "normal" for a week and find out how many calories that really is in a day. Then base your deficit off of that.

    Starvation mode doesn't automatically happen at 1200 calories. Your BMR could be 900, could be 1500. Do some homework and figure out what works for you.
  • gingerjen7
    gingerjen7 Posts: 821 Member
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    I hate to break it to you, but your friends might be right! It is dangerous for your body to consume under 1200 calories a day.When we eat too-few of calories, our bodies enter starvation mode. The thyroid hormones needed to fuel your metabolism can’t be produced and our metabolism starts slowing down, meaning the weight starts to creep up on us! Our bodies start clinging to fat stores as a source of energy and we become sluggish, which is NOT what you want.

    http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

    Here is a great site for figuring our caloric intake based on your height, age, weight and activity level.

    For example, I am doing Insanity: the Asylum and should be consuming around 2100 calories a day. However, because I want to loose a little weight and tone up, I subtracted 500 calories from that (it explains it on the site) so my daily intake is around 1600 calories. I maintain a daily intake of 40/40/20, meaning 40% from carbohydrates, 40% from protein, and 20% from fat. This allows your body to burn fat and gain lean muscle while maintaining a fuller feeling and high energy level.

    I usually don't "eat back" the deficit whenever I log in my workouts from my HR monitor. A healthy target is a calorie deficit of about 500 – 1000 calories a day to lose 1-2 lbs a week.

    I hope this helps answer your question--and yes EAT! ( :

    I have to agree. Your body works like a machine if you just consume one less calorie than 1200 your body starts to shut down and die.

    Osama Bin Laden ate 1199 calories a day and look what happened to that guy!

    If starving doesnt get you, the good ol SEALS will!
    Gross, or net?
  • this1bigdog
    this1bigdog Posts: 350 Member
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    it's simple calories in and calories out. . .
    to loss weight 1. be accurate 2 eat less then you burn . .
    if you want to lose slowly eat close to what you burn..
    if you want to lose fast don't eat close to what you burn. .

    if you aren't hungry . .dont eat
    salt bad . .water good

    end of story
  • HallerFitness
    HallerFitness Posts: 56
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    http://www.fatnutritionist.com/index.php/food-and-exercise-are-not-matter-and-anti-matter/


    I hate to break it to everyone on this site but scientists still don't understand why some people gain weight easily and others don't, or why some people can lose weight and keep it off and other people struggle, or why two kids in the same family who always eat the same foods can have really different body types.

    Don't starve yourself. Eat with moderation. Find exercise you enjoy so you do it because you like it and not because you are a drill sergeant to your body. This is the only body you will ever have. Spend time loving it. It deserves that. It carries you to school. It keeps you healthy. It gives you arms to hug your loved ones. Your body is a beautiful amazing machine and deserves tenderness and respect.
  • sarahisme18
    sarahisme18 Posts: 574 Member
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    Honestly, if there's one thing that irritates me, it's generalized advice. Everybody's body is different.

    The important thing to do is to listen to your body. Do you feel full with your current diet? Energized enough to work out? Any health issues arising?


    When I was on a very low calorie diet, 1200 or less, I felt full and content and energized. That doesn't mean it was good for me. Seriously.


    You should definitely be eating more than 1200. How much more? That depends on you—your height, weight, age, and activity level.

    If you don't know how much you were consuming when you gained weight, you don't know how much is too much. If you don't know what your Total Daily Energy Expenditure is, you don't know how much is just right or how much is a deficit.


    Check out eatmore2weighless.com.
  • aakaakaak
    aakaakaak Posts: 1,240 Member
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    While this isn't a hardened scientific study it does have some excellent information on the myths of starvation diets, including verifiable reference links.

    http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.com/2009/03/mtyhbusters-starvation-mode.html

    Basically, the magic 1200 calorie starvation mode thing is crap. Yes, if you're on a less than 1200 calorie diet your metabolism will slow down. The worst metabolism drop after SEVERAL months was 40%, but they still lost weight. What you MAY end up doing is hitting 1200 calories long enough to slow your metabolism to maybe 10% and end up binging for a couple days your body is going to try and hold onto those calories a bit more. But its not the fact that you were on 1200 calories that was the culprit. It was the binging that screwed you.
  • lynns27
    lynns27 Posts: 7
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    There is no such thing as "starvation mode" in the strictest sense. When you eat too few calories, you probably aren't getting all of the nutrients you need along with your calories, and different hormones and enzymes may be slowed in production - while this isn't good, the "rule" that you need 1200 calories or more to effectively lose weight is completely made up. We know this for two reasons:

    1. Anorexics and actual starving people don't "hang on" to their fat - people with a calorie deficit over a long period of time are going to lose weight, period.
    2. Everyone is different and has different needs - how can anyone possibly say that "yup, that's it, 1200 calories is the norm and everyone needs it before going into the zone of 'starvation mode'"? BS!

    That said, be kind to your body and don't starve yourself. You may be able to get away with 1000 calories (I do this a lot and it has been working pretty well for me - 10 lbs off!) but eat healthy while you're at it - 100 calories of protein or a banana goes a lot further towards keeping you healthy than 100 calories of reese's cup (all of which I ate yesterday, but it's okay because I kept it in balance, right? :P )

    If you're really concerned, go and see your doctor - they can tell you if you're getting all of the necessary nutrients. If you do keep up with 1000-1200 calories every day and you do see stagnation, let me know because I'd be interested to hear of one case where that actually happened.

    Good Luck!!

    P.S. I think the stagnation often happens naturally when people reach a very low weight by "starving" themselves, simply because at that weight it becomes harder to shed more poundage. :) Hope this helped!
  • WendyTerry420
    WendyTerry420 Posts: 13,274 Member
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    Hey everybody, obviously this subject is about Starvation mode, Because a lot of my friends keep telling me that I'm starving myself for eating 1000-1200 calories a day, I actually don't believe that I'm starving myself because i ate enough, eating more than 1200 calories is what got me fat in the first place, and then people say you gonna lose more weight if you eat more than 1200 calories But If i did eat more than 1200 calories and lose weight I wouldn't be fat in the first place.
    Any ideas? :)

    Your profile says that you are an 18 year old male. Are you severely obese? (Like, over 275 pounds) If so, did a doctor or dietitian put you on this restrictive plan? If so, then listen to them. Someone who is severely obese can survive for a while on a very low calorie diet, but it's a good idea to talk to a doctor before you eat lower than your BMR.

    If not, then you probably aren't eating enough and could do harm to your metabolism. Generally, and 18 yr old young man would be consuming around 2000-2500 calories if they are not very active.
  • Carrievaught
    Carrievaught Posts: 25
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    One thing I noticed when I started working on myself is, I've been eating the same calories as I was before I started MFP. My problem was what I was eating. I wasn't eating breakfast, and hardly ever eating dinner. So basically all my calories were going into one meal, and I also consumed a lot of sugar. Not healthy. I just started eating breakfast, and cut my sugar 5 days ago, and I'm already seeing results. I can't go without at least 1000 calories a day, but I'm lazy. I do my housework, and don't work out. (Though I'm hoping to change that soon.) If you are active, you do need to eat more. Like others have said, if you are hungry, eat. But be careful, and watch what you're eating.
  • DanaDark
    DanaDark Posts: 2,187 Member
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    Follow the numbers and quit the whole "Im a special snowflake that simply turns into SATURN is I even have a piece of lettuce."

    Find your TDEE. Find your BMR. Eat in between there.

    NEXT!

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