Starvation Mode - Adaptive Thermogenesis and Weight Loss

This is the probably the single most informative, well researched discussion and article I've stumbled across in 18 months. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to research and post this information.

I started a massive weight loss journey in 2010. I was over 350 lbs and 40% body fat. The first 18 months were one success after the other. At one point I had lost 93 pounds and was at 24% body fat. Then I plateaued. The last 18 months I have been on that plateau. Last year I tried several extreme nutrition changes to break this plateau (paleo, low carb, low cal, high cal) and over a 3 month period from March to May a certified nutritionist put me on an 1800/day plan with minimal protein intake and I gained almost 20 lbs as a result. I've struggled physically, mentally and emotionally with the stalled progress and this post gives me hope. I rededicated myself in January and set my intake to my BMR with a focus on protein and will know the results of this first month on Saturday. Without knowing it I may have started what will be a prefect real-world test of several of these theories, with 3 years of measured data to support the results. I have considered through my own observations that there are limits on the amount of fatty acids that can be metabolized and this discussion has given credence to those observations. I have often discussed with my best friend, an doctor, that there MUST be something larger at play for a man who has lost a substantial amount of weight versus a man who has just started, that my body is coping with physiological changes now that weren't in play during the first 18 months. I can't believe that I found this post today, and the knowledge it has given me.

Thank you again.

Would some of you say that adaptive thermogenesis affects teenagers?

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Holy Science Batman. I love this stuff.

psulemon


How is it that you've just found this thread? :laugh:

Holy Science Batman. I love this stuff.

psulemon


How is it that you've just found this thread? :laugh:

I know.. I need to hang my head in shame... my post whoring skillz as lacking..

BUMP!!!!

Have any studies been done to determine whether adaptive thermogenesis is greater in people who lose more LBM than people who lose predominantly fat? If muscle uses more energy than fat and one loses more muscle than fat wouldn't that contribute to the 10 to 15% discrepancy in TDEE?

Have any studies been done to determine whether adaptive thermogenesis is greater in people who lose more LBM than people who lose predominantly fat? If muscle uses more energy than fat and one loses more muscle than fat wouldn't that contribute to the 10 to 15% discrepancy in TDEE?

Models show that LBM calorie use is somewhere between 10-20 cals/kg/day at BMR. The discrepancy in TDEE goes beyond the part relative to LBM loss. It's related to changes in hormonal and the relevant neuro and metabolic downstream functions.

Thank you.

“Maintenance of a 10% or greater reduction in body weight in lean or obese individuals is accompanied by an approximate 20%-25% decline in 24-hour energy expenditure. This decrease in weight maintenance calories is 10–15% below what is predicted solely on the basis of alterations in fat and lean mass. Thus, a formerly obese individual will require ~300–400 fewer calories per day to maintain the same body weight and physical activity level as a never-obese individual of the same body weight and composition. Studies of individuals successful at sustaining weight loss indicate that reduced weight maintenance requires long-term lifestyle alterations. The necessity for these long-term changes is consistent with the observation that the reduction in twenty four hour energy expenditure (TEE) persists in subjects who have sustained weight loss for extended periods of time (6 months – 7 years) in circumstances of enforced caloric restriction in the biosphere 2 project, bariatric surgery and lifestyle modification.”

Wait, what? Repeat that?

Whether you go and live in a cave, get surgery or just change eating habits that 10% weight loss results in lower energy needs for 6 months to 7 years

Great post OP, I seen it today as it's been resurrected in a link, in another thread.

I haven't seen the study you quoted, only read that small part but I think you've got the wrong idea from the findings? (Like I say, I've only read the part you quoted so forgive me if your conclusion comes from the study, as a whole, and not the part you quoted). From the quote, I think the drop in metabolism comes from people who have used a 10% deficit from 6 months - 7 years - not that people who have used the deficit suffer a 6 month - 7 year drop.

That's how it reads to me. I have also noticed, since bulking, that the amount of calories you need to be in surplus creeps up, pretty quickly. And from other threads, other people see this upward trend pretty quickly too.

Hopefully that's the case anyway as my cut is coming up soon and I'll be hoping to drop the fat I've gained pretty quickly. So, from my understanding, if I keep my cutting periods below 6 months, I should suffer little, to no, ill effects metabolism wise.

Thanks for posting though, it totally helps to make sense of the fact that it gets harder and harder to drop the fat if you get into the way of yo-yo dieting, which I seemed to have before discovering MFP.