Eat more calories and lose weight- What is really happening

Hey, y'all. I just wanted to make this post to shed some light from my experience as a private practice RD specializing in weight loss on a concept I see posted so often in these forums:

"Starvation Mode"

How is it that people who can't lose weight on say... 1500 calories, drop to 1200 calories and still don't lose weight? Or even yet, someone who is eating 1000 calories increases their intake up to 1400 and they start losing weight. How does this happen?

First, let's talk about some inconsistencies in the whole calorie counting process:
1. Values for foods in MFP- caloric variance in foods with the same name
2. Portion size estimations from user of MFP- there can even be variance when using measuring cups. Food scales are the most accurate.
3. Variance in reported caloric value from restaurants
4. Variance in the BMR TDEE and calories burned from exercise- these are all equations and estimations anyways

So right there, you have a lot of variance. We can safely assume that foods entered in MFP may have some inaccuracies.

Now let's look at the average MFP user
1. Probably not weighing out all foods. Estimates intake quite a bit.
2. May dine out at a restaurant or casserole dishes that are hard to estimate
3. May skip days or meals and have gaps in data from logging
4. May not be aware of extra calories in food, or simply forget to add certain ingredients
5. May not be accurately recording exercise (Choosing wrong intensity or including warm up and cool down time in workout)

Consider some special populations and individuals who are eating VERY low calorie diets, and are losing weight
- prisoners of war
- people with GI or absorption issues (crohn's disease, etc)
- bariatric surgery patients
- medically supervised protein sparing modified fasts
... all these individuals are on severely restricted calories and still lose weight

The ONLY way to sustain a fat loss is to sustain a caloric deficit: big or small

So here's my 2 cents on what really happens in "starvation mode"

Scenario A: Individual cuts calories and doesn't lose any weight
Possible reasons:
1. general inconsistencies in tracking (examples above) means the original or new calorie values were inaccurate to begin with.
2. this individual becomes less physically active after cutting calories
3. individual binges more severely or often from feeling overly restricted
4. individual is unaware of "sneaking" foods or bigger portion sizes

Scenario B: Individual eats more and loses weight
1. Greater accuracy is achieved as person consumes more, he or she pays more attention to accurate portion sizes
2. Individual begins exercising more
3. Eats more simple, single ingredient foods, which are usually easier to track and measure

The take home point is that to achieve a weight loss, you have to sustain a deficit. There's no other way to do it. So to the 200 pound person only eating 1,000 calories and not losing weight, I would say, your 1,000 calories is probably a misestimation OR you are indeed eating 1,000 calories until you binge and eat back your deficit. (Or you need to get your thyroid checked, but this post is in regards to individuals with normally functioning thyroids).

Bring on the flame posts and naysayers! My body is ready!

I just wonder amid all the science and you would know an awful lot more than me.If you eat clean home prepared food cooked from scratch nothing from packets and tins ect,and just ate enough to satisfy hunger would you really need all the science?I think eat well and move more sounds very simplistic I know but it does work!

You're completely correct.

However

I lost 1 lb a week (accurately) eating 1200 calories and I also lost 1 lb a week (accurately) eating 1650 calories.


Black magic? Maybe.

It's not a one-sized fits all answer for ever single individual. Do I want to believe that the mathematical logistics apply to everyone equally? Well, yeah. But who knows why it doesn't.

If I can lose 1 lb a week eating more or less, I choose more. If someone offered me a salary of 100,000 dollars a year, that'd be like me saying "nah, I'm good with 50,000".

The problem I have the large deficits isn't the fact of whether it works or not. Of course it works. When those people gain it all back and have ended up with a huge loss of LBM, THAT'S when they'll look for another way.

Thank you for your post. For some of us eating more to lose weight does not work. However if you are one of those that is able to lose more weight by eating more then I envy you.