Starvation Mode

breeshabebe
breeshabebe Posts: 580
in Food and Nutrition
What's the arguments for/ against this? Does your body freak out if you eat too low of calories? If you eat at a deficit are you guaranteed to lose weight?

Replies

  • jkowula
    jkowula Posts: 447
    I'm going with guaranteed.. but I am no expert.
  • GothicaAdore
    GothicaAdore Posts: 82 Member
    From what I have heard, you will lose weight but when you move to eating to maintain you will put weight back on. I am also interested in this as I would like to move up from 1300 calories I eat now to a higher amount as I reach closer to my goal without gaining.
  • Rays_Wife
    Rays_Wife Posts: 1,173 Member
    Try typing in "starvation mode" into the search feature on here. Hundreds of results pop up as this has been asked over and over. The search feature is great :smile: For example here's a good one I picked off the second results page:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/761810-the-starvation-mode-myth-again
  • TheVimFuego
    TheVimFuego Posts: 2,412 Member
    If you burn more than you consume then the energy has to come from somewhere, fat or lean tissue.

    The trick being to maximise the fat loss, obviously, which I try to do by eating lean protein and some resistance work.

    There is thread around here about adaptive thermogenesis which is a very good read about how your body adjusts to big deficits.

    My take is that the risks of 'Starvation Mode' are overblown unless you are really hitting a deficit hard for a long time.

    I prefer to zig zag my calories and make sure I put a spike in weekly if I've been particularly low during the week, which I tend to be as I am a lazy office drone who wouldn't know a 'work out' if one was presented on a silver platter complete with dancing girls. ;)
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
    What's the arguments for/ against this?
    What is "this"?

    To answer your question, you need to specify which of the many definitions of "starvation mode" you are referring to.
    If you eat at a deficit are you guaranteed to lose weight?
    Yes.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    if you use the handy dandy search feature you will get a million hits on this one..

    But here is the cliff notes version …If you eat nothing for a period greater than 72 hours than yes, you will go into starvation mode. Typically, it will take longer than this but at, or after, 72 hours of eating nothing is pretty much accepted as going into starvation mode..

    chronic underrating like eating 1000 cals a day/700/whatever will not put you into starvation mode, but you may suffer metabolic damage...
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    If you eat at a deficit are you guaranteed to lose weight?

    is there any other way to lose weight?
  • breeshabebe
    breeshabebe Posts: 580
    K thanks. Search.. Got it.

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