Starvation mode: real, fake or a matter of opinion

Starvation mode largely doesn't exist.

So no, you're not in starvation mode.

This won't end well

http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/

Starvation mode is largely a myth, unless you get down to single-digit, life-threatening body fat.

That said, you can experience plateaus when dieting. I have dieted many times, and always see the same kind of thing - the first 10 pounds comes off pretty easy, and then things slow down four a few weeks and I feel exhausted. I think this is the body's reaction to a calorie deficit. But eating more calories for these kinds of plateaus is not going to help you lose weight.

They say exercise can mitigate it but I never exercised and dieted at the same time until the last month so I can't say for sure.

Here is what my preliminary-diet "plateau" looks like:



The bottom line is, until and unless you are at a dangerously-low body fat percentage, if you eat a calorie deficit you will lose weight. You must.

If you have lots of body fat, then no, starvation mode isn't going to happen. There will be some hormonal down regulation of metabolism, but nothing that would ever come close to the deficits that most people put themselves in. Generally when people complain their in starvation mode most of the fix is in the math.

Eh,metabolic adaption does happen though.
So depends. Will your body somehow magically defy
Laws of thermodynamics and store fat while in a deficit? No.
Will your body adapt and slow down energy use and become more efficient
To adapt to the low amount of calories coming in?
Yea.

As real as muscle memory, lol.

Nothing in science is just a matter of opinion. If there are different opinions, it's because scientists don't yet know the whole picture, or one side is mistaken. In other words, there's stuff we know to be true, and stuff we don't know yet. Among non-scientsts, there's a whole world of pseudoscience and misinformation out there, and if you don't have a background in science, it can be extremely confusing which is real science and which is pseudoscience and which is a mangled and misunderstood version of real science. IMO starvation mode is mostly the latter.

Regarding "starvation mode" - it really depends how you define it. If you define starvation mode the way it gets defined on the internet, e.g. if you eat too little your metabolism stops and you won't lose weight.... if this were true then why on earth did animals evolve to eat anything at all, they could survive instead by halting their metabolisms and just living off of nothing. Shame that breaks the laws of physics and thus hasn't evolved and never will evolve. So no, if that's how you define starvation mode, it's a total myth.

HOWEVER.... if the question is "does the human body try to adapt to an inadequate diet by using less energy (i.e. burning fewer calories) to prolong survival" - the answer is yes. But it won't prolong survival indefinately, if you don't eat enough you will continue to lose weight until you die of starvation. What the human body can do is adapt to lower levels of calorie intake up to a point, by burning muscle mass instead of fat and by decreasing the amount of energy used in non-essential functions (the latter is called adaptive thermogenesis), which enabled our ancestors to survive longer in food shortages... but not indefinitely.

Additionally, there's a whole bunch of behavioural responses to too few calories, like obsessing about food and binge eating. Our evolutionary ancestors didn't know what a calorie was or how many they needed to eat, or what level of food intake constituted a food shortage.... so behavioural responses to insufficient calories, like extreme hunger, increase in food seeking behaviour and obsessing about food, led them to spend more time seeking food, and the binge eating response meant that when they found it they ate as much as they could of it... these are survival responses that generally kick in a lot earlier than adaptive thermogenesis. And for modern people on diets, these responses really mess things up and make it hard for you, because we evolved to try to eat as much as possible during a food shortage, not to just sit around letting our fat reserves waste away. Adaptive thermogenesis is real, your body metabolising lean body mass in preference to fat is also real, and these will happen if you eat too little for a prolonged time. However what screws up most people's diets are the behavioural responses to eating too little like obsessing about food and binge eating. So ignore that at your peril.....

27 lbs in 55 days - thats over 3 lbs a week.

Sounds like a "if it aint broke, dont fix it" situation to me. Keep going with what is working until it isnt working yet. Once you get to or close to a weight you happy with, you can worry about maintenance.

How will testing your metabolism stop you putting weight back on?

This is real!

Have a look at this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

it is a study that was done 60 years ago in minnesota (when research was done without funding by food/diet companies) - it was a very simple experiment - take a group of men, limit them to 1500 calories a day for a period of months, and see what happens...

GAH!!!!!!!

Those people were down to single digit body fat percentages!

Most of the people around here being told to "Eat! You are in starvation mode!" are fat!

Basically, if you are over 20% body fat, you can't be in starvation mode and any calorie deficit will result in weight loss!

Now, this is only talking about weight loss. If you eat an unhealthy diet without enough nutrients for your body to function you may have other health problems besides weight loss.

But the whole "starvation mode" thing around here is when people hit a plateau they get told to eat more and for 99% of people that is not going to make you lose weight. If you are fat, a calorie deficit makes you lose weight.

In the manner in which the term "starvation mode" is thrown around on these forums, it is a myth. In your current shape you do not need to worry about it. You are losing weight very rapidly though, and I worry about your ability to hold onto lean muscle mass in the process. Make sure that you are getting sufficient protein and doing some resistance training to help you retain muscle mass. There is the added concern about the mental effect of depriving yourself as it can lead to binging down the road. Keep in mind that you've only been at this for a couple of months and what you need is something that you can stick with for life so that you avoid the yoyo dieting path that so many find themselves. Stay in tune with your body and how you are feeling mentally in the process and slow it down now or a little later. I certainly would not increase your deficit.

As you lose weight your body's metabolism will slow down a bit though. There are a few good descriptions and discussions of adaptive thermogenesis on here and one is referenced above.

In the manner in which the term "starvation mode" is thrown around on these forums, it is a myth. In your current shape you do not need to worry about it. You are losing weight very rapidly though, and I worry about your ability to hold onto lean muscle mass in the process. Make sure that you are getting sufficient protein and doing some resistance training to help you retain muscle mass. There is the added concern about the mental effect of depriving yourself as it can lead to binging down the road. Keep in mind that you've only been at this for a couple of months and what you need is something that you can stick with for life so that you avoid the yoyo dieting path that so many find themselves. Stay in tune with your body and how you are feeling mentally in the process and slow it down now or a little later. I certainly would not increase your deficit.

As you lose weight your body's metabolism will slow down a bit though. There are a few good descriptions and discussions of adaptive thermogenesis on here and one is referenced above.

Agree with all of this as well.

I'd be more concerned with the issue about loose skin. If you lose weigh quickly you increase the chance that you'll end up with lots of loose skin, poor muscle mass and not liking how you look.

I appreciate that that may be preferable to being overweight, but why not slow down the weight loss and make sure when you hit your goal you look the best you can.

You've done a great job so far, but personally I'd eat more, lose slower and be able to post a kick *kitten* success story when you've hit your goal. :flowerforyou:

And yes this doesn't answer your question but you've had loads of good responses about that, so I thought I'd post another reason to go slower

This won't end well

haha!

First off, 55 days is almost 8 weeks, so rounding that to 8 weeks means that you've lost 3.375 pounds per week on average. Generally most doctors recommend not losing more than 2 pounds per week on average. While I don't see anything wrong with losing more (I have been losing more than 2 pounds were week also), I also don't think your numbers "should be" higher. Over 3 1//3 pounds per week is a very good rate of loss.

As for starvation mode... like most things there is a little truth to it. However, most people who think that is their problem are actually probably experiencing a normal, temporary plateau in weight loss, or have gotten careless in calorie counting.

There is definitely a thing I call metabolic slow down, which is easily remedied by eating more for 2 or 3 days, then returning to your deficit, and by making sure you are including strength training in your plan, and by mixing up your exercise routine a little.