Too few Calories diet doesnt put you in starvation mode?!

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  • Russellb97
    Russellb97 Posts: 1,057 Member
    For example lets take an average person, that burns 2,500 calories a day. They eat 1200 calories daily for their diet. Mathematically you'd say they'd lose 2.6lbs a week. 1,300 daily caloric deficit X 7 days = 9,100 calories or 2.6lbs of fat.
    Truth is they'd probably lose closer to 5lbs the first week because of glycogen depletion and water released when glycogen is burned up.
    Now week two they'd probably be right around 2.6bs lost because glycogen is already depleted. By week 3 their body has already starting adapting and they are no longer burning 2,500 calories but lets say around 2,100 cals a day. So week 3 they now lose 1.8lbs, still very good.
    Then week 4 their metabolism has slowed down even more and are now burning 1,900 a day and lose about 1lb a week.
    Are those numbers made up or do you expect an average person's metabolism to slow down 24% in 4 weeks? What are the differences in metabolic change over time on a 1300 calorie deficit versus a 500 or 1000 deficit?

    Ok so I didn't take the time to figure out the proper mathematics. It's just to prove the point that metabolism will slow , but slow gradually while dieting. Then even if we are still losing weight, once it begins to slow down we get frustrated and tend to quit.

    I am not saying metabolism will slow by 24% over 4 weeks but it will slow and frustration will increase.
  • ninaxviii
    ninaxviii Posts: 4
    But what do I know? I'm only one of the .5% of people to lose over 100lbs without drugs or surgery and keep it off for more than 10 years. You can choose to listen to the mainstream, that has been selling us garbage and lies for the past 30 years while the world gets more and more overweight despite their suggestions.

    I totally agree with this post, particularly the final line. I feel we are inundated with supposed 'new' and 'revolutionising' information about weight, calories and food antichrists, but we still get fatter as a first world community. Do the math.

    By the way that is an unbelievable achievement! Well done!
  • inside_lap
    inside_lap Posts: 728 Member
    Dearest OP,

    Please do not make it a habit to eat much fewer than 1000 calories per day. Regularly and/or obsessively eating too few calories (I believe the magic number is 800/day) is deemed an eating disorder.

    It is called ANOREXIA.

    Yes, you are losing weight. Yes, you are losing fat. Yes, you can see the changes in your body. Yes, it is happening very quickly.

    Forget about "starvation mode". You are literally starving your body of the nutrients that it needs to function properly.

    Please seek medical and/or psychological assistance if you find yourself experiencing any of the following:

    Significant weight loss
    Fear of becoming fat, even when obviously too thin
    Excessive dieting and exercising
    Abnormal food preoccupations, such as counting all calories or obsessively studying cookbooks
    Constipation
    Dry, sallow skin
    Dental decay
    Fine, downy hair growing on the face and arms
    Menstrual periods that become irregular or stop completely
    Mood swings and anxiety
    Suppression of sexual desire
    Cold hands and feet at normal room temperature
    Sleep difficulties
    Hyperactivity
    Frequent digestive problems, infections, or other illnesses.
    Physical problems that include anemia, heart palpitations, bone loss, and tooth decay.

    (Symptoms of anorexia courtesy of WebMD.)

    There's the fast and easy way to lose weight, then there's the healthy way. Consult your doctor if you are having a hard time reconciling the two options, and please, for the love of God, yourself, and your family, eat more than 1000 calories every day (again, I've been told the magic number is 1200).

    Best wishes,

    MlleKelly***

    ***not a doctor

    Good intent. Medically wrong. Eating disorders are not defined by calories. In fact the new version of the DSM has just started to mention that energy intake should be considered in the equation for anorexia and even then it needs first to lead to significantly low body weight. Old DSM (prior to May of this year) defined anorexia in terms of being less then 85% of minimum expected standards and other symptoms like amenorrhea (loss of period). Now Eating Disorder NOS has a much broader definition. Your hearts in the right place but medically incorrect information can lead someone to justify bad decisions (I see it all the time sadly). OP, please consider healthy weight loss options that are maintainable. Good luck.
  • segovm
    segovm Posts: 512 Member
    I don't buy the whole starvation mode thing (or the books of people who want to tell me how to avoid it). Clearly a person's metabolism is going to slow down when they eat less food - but the idea that you are going to "trick" the body is just silly and counter-productive to the reality that moving more and eating less is a really simple and 100% effective way to lose weight.
  • aedreana
    aedreana Posts: 979 Member
    I believe that long slow dieting impairs metabolism. I attribute my fast metabolism to the fact that when I diet, I drastically cut calories, and it's only for a few weeks because I lose the weight fast. I am not a scientist or doctor. I have no other explanation for why I can eat close to 4000 calories/day and only gain about 2 pounds/month. I don't exercise, so that's not why.
  • zagrath769
    zagrath769 Posts: 44 Member
    Thank you for all this helpful information. My whole life I've went through varying eating phases. For 2-3 weeks I'll go not eating much of anything and not being motivated to eat. Then that phase is over and I go back to eating as normal (normal for me is one meal a day....but usually a large one). I've been in the not eating phase for about 2 months this time. I don't know how much really I'm taking in every day. I'm just starting to track on here today. I'm guessing around 500-600 calories at most per day. My friends keep throwing out the "Starvation Mode" thing at me. I was happy to read all your information about it.
  • hiraethed
    hiraethed Posts: 26 Member
    I think the concept of starvation mode was originally conceived to explain some common sense logic in an understandable way. The way people have come to understand it is a myth. The laws of thermodynamics apply, always. If you are burning more than you use, you will lose. If you are burning much more, you will lose a lot. However, your body isn't a fat-burning machine. How well would your lights work on a backup generator? Not as good as energy from the plant. Same applies to your body. If you aren't giving yourself energy, you'll feel like crap and you won't run as good. It will make you sluggish, greatly reduce your motivation to work out or move in general, and lead to you burning less calories. This is "starvation mode" and it's just a normal reaction to having less food - you feel like crap, and you want to do things that conserve energy.
  • Pete1964AK
    Pete1964AK Posts: 85 Member


    For example lets take an average person, that burns 2,500 calories a day. They eat 1200 calories daily for their diet. Mathematically you'd say they'd lose 2.6lbs a week. 1,300 daily caloric deficit X 7 days = 9,100 calories or 2.6lbs of fat.
    Truth is they'd probably lose closer to 5lbs the first week because of glycogen depletion and water released when glycogen is burned up.
    Now week two they'd probably be right around 2.6bs lost because glycogen is already depleted. By week 3 their body has already starting adapting and they are no longer burning 2,500 calories but lets say around 2,100 cals a day. So week 3 they now lose 1.8lbs, still very good.
    Then week 4 their metabolism has slowed down even more and are now burning 1,900 a day and lose about 1lb a week.

    Weight loss is still happening but the elephant actually entered the room weeks ago when "Metabolic Adaptation" first occurred. The elephant is the massive increase of food cravings. Mentally when we go from losing 8 pounds the first 2 weeks to 1lbs a week we get frustrated and those food cravings become harder and harder to ignore. So what happens? We fall of the wagon and have a bad meal or a bad day and eat a ton of carbs and junk food. then we gain weight! Sometimes a few pounds or more and our frustration grows and stress becomes extremely high so we go back to food for comfort. The kicker is he few pounds we gained from "falling of the wagon" was mostly all water weight from glycogen being restored. But all we see is the scale and the scale makes us all act like crazy people.

    This is the viscous cycle I followed year after year and I believe many people follow. Your odds of success will increase tremendously if you know what to expect and understand how the body burns and stores calories. This leads to the most important factor for success which is a positive mindset and control. If this is all a mystery to you, then you won't have control and if you don't have control, you will be an emotional wreck. I know that if I can do it then anyone can do it. I was destined to live a life of obesity, I was headed to the 400lbs mark, but I beat it. I've kept it off, and it's actually getting easier and easier to maintain it every year since.

    Sorry for hijacking the OP's thread but I was really interested in this and the above quote.
    It was the numbers used in the example ( I know the author has come back and said they were used for portrayal and not necessarily directly attributable) but they so mirrored my 4 weeks on here that I was a little stunned.
    Week 1, lost 8 pounds, Week 2 lost 2.5 lbs, Week 3 lost 0, Week 4, lost 1 lb

    MFP has me eating 2160 a day aiming for 1.5 lb a week to come off. Now I'm a little freaked out that the "elephant" is going to get me back into my bad habits.

    I guess my question is, if I keep at my mfp target ( and I've managed to be under it every day - even if has only been by a few cals some days), am I eventually going to see the losses I want?
  • trinatrina1984
    trinatrina1984 Posts: 1,018 Member
    I believe that long slow dieting impairs metabolism. I attribute my fast metabolism to the fact that when I diet, I drastically cut calories, and it's only for a few weeks because I lose the weight fast. I am not a scientist or doctor. I have no other explanation for why I can eat close to 4000 calories/day and only gain about 2 pounds/month. I don't exercise, so that's not why.

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  • segovm
    segovm Posts: 512 Member

    Sorry for hijacking the OP's thread but I was really interested in this and the above quote.
    It was the numbers used in the example ( I know the author has come back and said they were used for portrayal and not necessarily directly attributable) but they so mirrored my 4 weeks on here that I was a little stunned.
    Week 1, lost 8 pounds, Week 2 lost 2.5 lbs, Week 3 lost 0, Week 4, lost 1 lb

    MFP has me eating 2160 a day aiming for 1.5 lb a week to come off. Now I'm a little freaked out that the "elephant" is going to get me back into my bad habits.

    I guess my question is, if I keep at my mfp target ( and I've managed to be under it every day - even if has only been by a few cals some days), am I eventually going to see the losses I want?

    Yes, as long as you weigh and measure your food and properly account for exercise you'll lose weight just fine. The thing that is PAINFULLY easy to overlook is that the number on the scale does not represent the fat you have lost in any given period of time but instead a combination of a little fat and much more water weight.

    For a lot of people who only change their diet the first thing that happens is a ton of water weight drops off and they imagine they lost 5-10 pounds of fat in a week. As their body adjusts to the new diet, water and fat can start trading places even though the scale hardly seems to move.

    Despite claims to the contrary, if you eat less and move more you are 100% guaranteed to lose weight. Anyone claiming otherwise is a disingenuous fraudster that probably wants your money for some magic potion, a book of spells you can cast or they are simply in denial of human physiology.

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