Starvation Mode

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  • smoofinator
    smoofinator Posts: 635 Member
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    Please read this. It's under the "Read this first newbies" section of this forum (which no one bothers to read). Yes, your metabolism can slow dramatically EVEN IF YOU ARE OVERWEIGHT:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    It's just not healthy to eat 700 calories. This will deffinitly slow down your metabolism, making your body store fat. Plus, if you're working out then you won't even have any energy. AND you will lose your precious muscle too! :( And it's sooo much harder to gain muscle then lose fat.
    What about making yourself a shake to drink during hot days?? It's much easier then making yourself eat food. I like to make my shakes with almond milk, ice, protein powder, frozen kale, frozen berries, flex or chia seed. Try it! very refreshing, healthy and filling.

    Adaptive thermogenesis will slow down her metabolism so much that she will have fat gain at 700 cals?
  • MissSaturday
    MissSaturday Posts: 784 Member
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    http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/weight-loss/truth-starvation-mode


    EVERYTHING ABOUT STARVATION MODE FOR HEALTHY AND NO HEALTHY PEOPLE
  • IronPlayground
    IronPlayground Posts: 1,594 Member
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    I think "starvation mode" is a poor term. Metabolic Damage may be a better way to describe it. I wouldn't say you'd have to worry about that right now. However, as others have mentioned, hormones would be your biggest concern at very low calories for extremely long periods of time.
  • razz02
    razz02 Posts: 36 Member
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    Yeah, we really have a HUGE problem in society regarding starvation mode... that is the BIG issue- not obesity... thanks for keeping our priorities clear.
  • AbsoluteNG
    AbsoluteNG Posts: 1,079 Member
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    I think "starvation mode" is a poor term. Metabolic Damage may be a better way to describe it. I wouldn't say you'd have to worry about that right now. However, as others have mentioned, hormones would be your biggest concern at very low calories for extremely long periods of time.

    Metabolic adaption is a better term. People who have done true damage to their bodies are diabetics.
  • Eandretta96
    Eandretta96 Posts: 119
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    No such thing as starvation mode. It's just a slow metabolism. I was at a point in my dieting where I wasn't losing weight eating 1200 calories and burning 500 calories. I know, I was an idiot. When I added a refeed day, I suddenly started dropping again.
  • beatleschic87
    beatleschic87 Posts: 260 Member
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    I have those days too when I just can't eat anymore... I'm either full or not hungry at all. To help get some extra calories in, use extra virgin olive oil when cooking, eat nuts or avocado... High (good) fatty foods will help you with calories but not jeopardize your health... just be wary on the nuts. Some of them can have a lot of cholesterol.
  • deus3xMachina
    deus3xMachina Posts: 4
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    Yeah I would not worry about it love. At 244lb if you are in a deficit you may start bumping out some Fatty acids into your blood stream, maybe even some mild ketosis, which will be a good thing and protect your muscles form excessive breakdown.

    Yes your metabolism will go down when you don't eat, because eating increases your metabolism, because energy is required to break down the food and then get a net gain. Protein breakdown from food into energy (amino acids --> sugars) is the most wasteful metabolism spiking eating habit, at 25% of the energy gained is used to break down the macronutrient in the first place, so even with this metabolism 'spike' you will still gain three calories for each gram.

    As others have said, it probably does not do any harm short term, however it may cause you to have psychological and limited physiological urges to binge in the next couple of days. Avoid the temptation.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,020 Member
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    So is that a fat joke or are you saying that larger people can't be in starvation mode?
    No, sorry if it came off that way.:flowerforyou: But yes, when someone has a lot of body fat the oxidation from that body fat more than covers most deficits, even severe ones. There is an adaption that can effect our metabolism but it's pretty small in comparison to most deficit, unless it's a very small deficit, like 10% where the weight loss lowers metabolism to match that new weight, anyway there should never be a plateau basically...........that's more of a miscalculation of the in/out numbers.
  • jayrudq
    jayrudq Posts: 475 Member
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    Personally, I think you will be just fine. There is nothing wrong with shaking things up a bit and it sounds unlikely that you

    1. Will continue with 750 calories a day

    2. The short amount of time you do under-eat your calories you will stall

    3. And even if you did, once you returned to your normal amount your loss should continue.

    I think you may be pleasantly surprised and see a greater drop in weight. I personally respond better to a variety of approaches and find that NOT doing the same thing day in and day out is actually quite effective.

    Good luck and I hope it cools off.
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
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    There are documented instances of obese humans undergoing medically supervised fasting for over a month with only water and multivitamins being consumed. Take from that what you will.
    Here's a 382 day fast: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/?page=1
  • razz02
    razz02 Posts: 36 Member
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    There are documented instances of obese humans undergoing medically supervised fasting for over a month with only water and multivitamins being consumed. Take from that what you will.
    Here's a 382 day fast: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2495396/?page=1

    I read about the 382 day fast many years ago, since then I abandoned the idea of the body retaining calories when fasted. Metabolic rate will alter beacause one doesn´t consume any food hence the bodytemperature will get lower hence less energy will be consumed. Lower bodyweight will consume less energy than a higher one. That is all.

    Starvation mode is the food industry´s way of keeping the consumption up. The fatter we get the more money they earn and then we go out and buy their weightloss products.Nothing wrong with that just a way of keeping the economies going.

    So please proceed with the big starvation mode scare- it keeps the economy going around the globe.

    Keep on eating and feeding. I certainly don´t buy into it.
  • CaitAdkins
    CaitAdkins Posts: 1
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    So this is my first reply and post ever! Go me!

    Anyways, I think a lot of people posting on this had a really dysfunctional reaction to terms used and didn't really offer much help to this probably, very nice person, who had a simple question. So maybe instead of arguing over terms used, you take it with a grain of salt and help her out!

    Of course 750 calories is way too little to take in and I found myself having the same problem earlier this month. I was exercising and burning like 500-600 calories and this caused me to have a net calorie total (on average) of 900 to 1000. Even then, I felt like I was eating in excess ( 1600 calories, all healthy however so many fruits, vegetable, and chicken = always so full all the time). I step on the scale two days ago and I've lost about 5lbs (which isn't that bad), however it's nothing like the weight loss I've previously experienced in my life. So I looked at what I was doing, asked for advice from those around me, and read some great articles on "starvation mode or whatever you like to call it" and what I could do to help boost my metabolism.

    I think a big thing that wasn't mentioned here was eating small meals throughout the day, instead of larger ones. Someone mentioned snacks and the like, however I think the "big" meals are what you are talking about, I'm like you with that. I hate eating "meals" like lunch or dinner during the summer. Very recently though, I figured out if I ate 200-300 calorie "snack" meals once every 2-3 hours, I could easily maintain the amount of calories I needed and increase my metabolism to boot!

    I personally cut back to a 30 minute all inclusive body workout as well so I wasn't needing to eat so much all the time. Jillian Michael's 30 day shred was really great, I lost a lot of inches. This gave me a little bit of time to retrain my body and digestive system into processing healthier foods. It's all about not overwhelming yourself.

    Every couple hours, just eat like a cup of fruit and some nuts, or even half a chicken wrap. You can also make frozen yogurt drops (look on pinterest, they're awesome!) if you want something cold. If the water thing is overwhelming as well, maybe you a glass every hour, and then do 2 full ones 10-15 minutes before you workout.

    This is what I've been doing the last week and honestly, I feel so much better for it.
  • 1Larken
    1Larken Posts: 8
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    I don't think that that person meany any harm. I think they just didn't explain how they came to that conclusion. Everyone that responded explained that when you have higher % of bf that it takes longer for your body to into starvation mode and that person just didn't explain themselves. So don't worry, I don't think anyone was making a fat joke. We are all on here to reach a goal. You're beautiful! :-)

    Have a good week and let's all keep making progress. :-)
  • tanyalevan
    tanyalevan Posts: 182
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    Why not eat foods that are high in water content? Such as pears, spinach, watermelon...Just to keep you hydrated with the heat?

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