Starvation mode (again probably...)

starvation mode doesnt exist.
ur metabolism goes down =(
but "starvation mode" isnt real.
eat less, lose more.

Um, what exactly do you think starvation mode is?! It's your body decreasing your metabolism to stay alive when incoming energy (food) is low. :laugh:

Sorry, and to answer the OP. Everyone is different. I've been fighting my way out of this mythical (haha) starvation mode for nearly 3 months now! I've gone from eating 1200 cals a day to an average of about 1600-1700 a day and I've still lost weight. After 4 months at 1200 calories (which was about 500 NET calories after exercise most days), my body refused to drop another pound for nearly a month. As I started eating more, it started letting go of more, but I've had to continually increase the amount I'm eating over the last 3 months. And, since I wasn't losing weight at 1200 calories a day and I AM losing weight averaging about 1700 calories a day (around 1200 NET calories after exercise), that right there is proof to me that my body had slowed my metabolism WAY down to cope with how little I was feeding it.

In short, no, I don't recommend eating so little. Nothing good is going to come of it. It will also do you some good to take a break from studying & go for a 30 minute jog or bike ride or walk each day. Relieves stress and gets your muscles working (which increases your metabolism). We can't always trust our bodies to tell us what it needs. When I weighed 270 pounds, I often got up at 7am and didn't eat anything until 10pm. I wasn't hungry. This eating habit kept me a lot heavier than I would've been if I had eaten regularly throughout the day (not necessarily because of the time I ate, but all of the circumstances the situation entailed was probably at least 75% of the reason I had gotten so big). Weighing 270 pounds is obviously not what my body needs, but that was the "natural" pattern it fell into.

Good lord people. Please stop scaring this girl into thinking she's got an eating disorder. :huh:

Bottom line is - listen to your body. If you feel hungry, eat. If you don't, don't force yourself. Make sure you get a balance of fruits, veggies, healthy proteins and fats.

If you have a day or two a week of 500 calories (especially days you don't do anything but sit around) you WILL not go into starvation mode. Everyone loves to throw around that term.

Someone who eats 500 calories every day will eventually stop burning and their metabolism will shut down. Then the body will stop losing weight and you will get sick. But this would take a certain amount of time...it isn't going to happen in a day or two.

My best advice would be to keep doing what you're doing, it is obviously working and you're losing weight. Good for you! Calorie cycling is awesome too - keep changing up the calories and keep your body guessing. Your body will eventually adjust to a steady amount of calories so it is good to keep it changing depending on your activity level, age, etc..

I couldn't have said this better myself! :drinker:

If I'm feeling hungry, I don't check how many calories I have left in the day. I eat something. That's about as basic as it gets.

Telling her she is obsessive and on the brink of an eating disorder is about the worst advice anyone can give her.

She obviously has weight to lose --- she isn't 90 pounds asking how to lose weight --- she was asking why should she eat if she isn't hungry? And she shouldn't. The body will eventually tell her she's hungry again and she will eat.

We (general public) get too obsessive and emotional over every minute detail and I'll tell ya, it isn't healthy. I believe that is why most "diets" eventually fail - we get sick and tired of obsessing and throw in the towel.

I think everyone has good intentions here. Obsessing over counting isn't healthy for some, but listening to our bodies doesn't work for everybody either. Eating when I feel like it is what gets me into trouble. I can't trust my body to give me good info, so tracking is vital for me. For someone else who might obsess, tracking and counting could lead to unhealthy behavior. I don't know if the OP has those tendencies, but I do believe 100 percent that she needs to rely on science right now more than trusting what her own body is telling her if she's eating only 500 calories on a daily basis.

Good lord people. Please stop scaring this girl into thinking she's got an eating disorder. :huh:

Bottom line is - listen to your body. If you feel hungry, eat. If you don't, don't force yourself. Make sure you get a balance of fruits, veggies, healthy proteins and fats.

If you have a day or two a week of 500 calories (especially days you don't do anything but sit around) you WILL not go into starvation mode. Everyone loves to throw around that term.

Someone who eats 500 calories every day will eventually stop burning and their metabolism will shut down. Then the body will stop losing weight and you will get sick. But this would take a certain amount of time...it isn't going to happen in a day or two.

My best advice would be to keep doing what you're doing, it is obviously working and you're losing weight. Good for you! Calorie cycling is awesome too - keep changing up the calories and keep your body guessing. Your body will eventually adjust to a steady amount of calories so it is good to keep it changing depending on your activity level, age, etc..

I couldn't have said this better myself! :drinker:

I could've. "Listen to your body" is pure bs when it comes to food intake. My intention isn't to offend kdiamond here, but seriously.

I'd disagree that it's "pure BS" when my body says "enough is enough, push away the plate." We have natural receptors for hunger and different receptors for cravings (outside of true hunger) - problem is many can't tell the two apart very well.

Listen the brain is not stupid. If you starve it it will take steps to survive, much like it does during hypothermia. Try and eat at least 1000 to1200 calories a day and plan on losing 2 lbs a week. Don't panic if you are full and don't eat that much occasionally, but do not set a goal of 500 calories a day. Use the MBR calculator to estimate the calories your body requires to function at full rest. Take that daily count and multiply by seven days for a weekly total, then subtract 3500 calories for each pound you want to loss per weak (7000 for 2 pounds) and that's your goal. Do try and have different calorie intakes per day so your mind doesn't get in a set cycle keep your mind guessing. Then excersise with some for of resistance training like light weights. Stay away from processed foods and sugars of all kinds. Snack slowly on raw almonds one at a time to kill hunger and eat nut butters instead of processed peanut butter. Remember we didn't put this weight on over night and therefore it must come off slowly by burning fat, not muscle. A pound of fat take 3 times the area as a pound of muscle. Try and get out of the immediate results mode and add each victory to another. Hope this helps. Stay focused it will work!

You know, after seeing all these threads about starvation mode it just makes me think one thing:

JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE UNDER YOUR CALORIES BY A LOT ONE DAY IS NOT GOING TO TRIGGER STARVATION MODE!

I'm serious. It's not an instantaneous thing, at least I don't think so. I mean, I can see it happening if you make a habit of continuously under eating your calories. Just like it takes a while for your body to become dehydrated, or to experience a drop in iron or anything, these things take time and it doesn't happen as quickly as you might think. I think this is just common sense.

I think they put the warning there because they're obligated to because maybe yes, it might be dangerous to not consume that many calories consistently. But think about it, this is a website offering a service and imagine if someone died of starvation because they weren't aware that they were potentially starving themselves? Then this site would be sued. So they have to put in a warning in the script when they see the math doesn't add up. It's a game of CYA (Cover Your *kitten*).

If you are seriously that concerned, talk to a nutritionist!

I think you might be confused about what it means when people talk about starvation mode. Generally, they're talking about the body's metabolism slowing down when it doesn't take in adequate calories for energy, not that someone is literally starving to death.