Starvation mode is a myth!

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  • k_nicole87
    k_nicole87 Posts: 407 Member
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    If starvation mode didn't exist, how did Hurley stay so fat on the island on LOST?! :tongue:

    why do you think people kept "disappearing"?

    :drinker:
  • Chevy_Quest
    Chevy_Quest Posts: 2,012 Member
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    So if starvation mode really doesn't exist why do so many people stop losing weight after periods of eating low levels of calories? There are many answers. My belief is a lot of people suck at counting calories. Many people measure solid foods in things like cups and tablespoons.

    QFT Right on ! :drinker:
  • Jenni129
    Jenni129 Posts: 692 Member
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    Great post, OP!

    To those who don't agree, watch Naked and Afraid on Discovery Channel.
  • ottermotorcycle
    ottermotorcycle Posts: 654 Member
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    TL;DR
    starvation mode isn't easy to get into
    but you can really harm your health if you consistently undereat

    namaste
  • SapiensPisces
    SapiensPisces Posts: 992 Member
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    Interesting commentary and post.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
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    I have a guy at work who loves to remind me every day that he is on a low carb (10 carbs or less a day) diet. He also loves to tell me that my continuous cardio will stop be from burning calories. IE being on an ARC machine for 30 minutes means after 10 my body will no longer burn calories.

    Well damn, then what we should do is have people get on a ARC machine for 30 min everyday and then after 10 minutes they can turn a crank on a generator. Since they are no longer burning calories turning that crank requires no energy and yet produces energy. Free sustainable energy for all. Glad we solved that problem, I was beginning to think perpetual motion was bunk.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    TL;DR
    starvation mode isn't easy to get into
    but you can really harm your health if you consistently undereat

    namaste
    While I agree that eating very low levels of calories for very long periods of time can have negative longterm consequences, a mythical mode where fat loss stops and the body fuels itself on unicorn tears and good intentions simply doesn't exist! If you don't eat for long enough, it will kill you, but you'll lose weight until it does.
  • k_nicole87
    k_nicole87 Posts: 407 Member
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    a mythical mode where fat loss stops and the body fuels itself on unicorn tears and good intentions simply doesn't exist!

    :laugh: :drinker:
  • albertabeefy
    albertabeefy Posts: 1,169 Member
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    TL;DR
    starvation mode isn't easy to get into
    but you can really harm your health if you consistently undereat

    namaste
    While I agree that eating very low levels of calories for very long periods of time can have negative longterm consequences, a mythical mode where fat loss stops and the body fuels itself on unicorn tears and good intentions simply doesn't exist! If you don't eat for long enough, it will kill you, but you'll lose weight until it does.
    I'll never understand why people even came up with the phrase "starvation-mode" ... and why so-many have differing ideas of what it is.

    The body never really stops utilizing fat-stores. True, depending on your diet and chosen exercise you can burn varying levels of fat - some more, some less ... and it's true you can catabolize lean tissue if you're uninformed, but you won't stop burning fat.

    Even with adaptive thermogenesis you don't stop burning fat, you simply burn less overall than if you ate more and increased your BMR/RMR.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
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    I'll never understand why people even came up with the phrase "starvation-mode" ... and why so-many have differing ideas of what it is.

    The body never really stops utilizing fat-stores. True, depending on your diet and chosen exercise you can burn varying levels of fat - some more, some less ... and it's true you can catabolize lean tissue if you're uninformed, but you won't stop burning fat.

    Even with adaptive thermogenesis you don't stop burning fat, you simply burn less overall than if you ate more and increased your BMR/RMR.
    :bigsmile: YUP!
  • Yagisama
    Yagisama Posts: 592 Member
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    From what I understand the following seems to be the colloquial definition of "starvation mode."

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/974888-in-place-of-a-road-map-2k13

    Tom Vanuto covered this info in his book "Burn The Fat Feed the Muscle"

    "The chief fat storing enzyme is called Lipoprotein Lipase (LPL). When you drop your calories too low, your body will produce more LPL and less fat burning enzymes. In other words, when you don’t eat enough, your body changes its chemistry to make it easier to store fat in the future."

    He continues with…

    "The Thyroid gland is largely responsible for the regulation of your basal metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories at rest). When your body senses a severe reduction in calories, there is a corresponding reduction in the output of active thyroid hormone (T3). The result is a decrease in your metabolic rate and fewer calories burned."
    From Burn The Fat Feed the Muscle Page 27.
  • Yagisama
    Yagisama Posts: 592 Member
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    The guys credentials? An expert of negative energy balancing acts. :wink:
  • LaneB89
    LaneB89 Posts: 93 Member
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    My calculated TDEE is 2500, and that's with conservative estimates of height, exercise, etc. If that were remotely accurate, I'd be losing nearly 2 pounds a week. Based on my diet and actual weight, my calculated TDEE is off by at LEAST 500 calories. I did see initial strength gains, but now 6 months into my exercise routine, my newbie gains have been more or less exhausted. Some days I find I can't even lift as much as the previous week.

    TDEE calculators aren't 100% accurate they are mearly guesstimates based on population averages and assumptions. The fact that you maintain at a level that is calorically lower than what an online calculator tells you just means that the online calculator is wrong, it does not mean that you have been metabolically "damaged" by losing weight.

    Sorry for the delay, but what's your suggestion then? I'm more or less maintaining at 1600 a day or less. Actually according to MFP my net average calories per day is 1400ish, and yes I do weigh everything on a kitchen scale and I log everything down to my vitamins and the seasoning I use on my rice. You're saying I should drop to 900-1000 to create a 500 deficit because the calculator's wrong? Doesn't sound healthy. Also doesn't sound like something an otherwise healthy 6 ft young male should have to do to lose weight. Seems like something is going on, but as you say metabolic slowdown can't halt weight loss.
  • PeaseblossomRN
    PeaseblossomRN Posts: 2 Member
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    Very true: The so-called "Starvation Mode" is a myth perpetuated by those entities (especially dieters doing 'formal' diets like Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, etc.) who simply CANNOT reduce their calorie intake for a good rate of weight loss. Diets like the British "Lighter Life" prove that one can safely do 500 calories a day, be healthy, lose weight quickly and keep it off. Doctors have ALWAYS recommended less than 1,000 calories a day (and this for ACTIVE people) for those who need to reduce. Now, however, that number has magically risen to maybe 1,500 to 2,000 because most people are completely unable to lower their daily calorie intake to an adequate level. The idea is that the higher amount of "allowable" calories will enable dieters to stay on the diets longer. Wrong. Slow weight loss is the NUMBER ONE REASON that people drop off of diets. One's body doesn't go into "Starvation Mode" unless it's so emaciated that the metabolism slows down drastically, and even THEN it still won't just "stop" weight loss. It also cracks me up when people who are dieting claim, "I'm exercising more so I need more calories". What?? No.....you are burning more calories and losing more rapidly, as well as building muscle and that's a GOOD thing.

    Seriously - people will do or claim just about ANYTHING to be able to shove more food in. "Starvation Mode" does not exist.
  • bokaba
    bokaba Posts: 171 Member
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    I agree that starvation is probably exaggerated here. There may be some metabolic depression when calories are severely restricted and some non-fat tissues consumed, but the extreme starvation that is discussed here is more likely what occurs near death when one is stranded, living in extreme poverty, or otherwise deprived of nearly all nutrition. I think people here and elsewhere don't want people to feel uncomfortable because they may give up.
  • stevenlcopeland
    stevenlcopeland Posts: 57 Member
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    Love it that someone was brave enough to start this thread amongst a group of self proclaimed experts ! You hit it on the nail head and quite frankly out of the park. Love the replies on how it will eat the muscles first.....really. I believe the body will break down what it needs nutritionally first whether it is fat, muscle, our maybe it will just take some glycogen from the muscles. I always wondered why I could go two days and eat nothing (Saturdays and Sundays) and hit the gym on a Monday and perform some of my heaviest lifts or have one of my best cardio workouts and my muscles have disappeared according to the rules implied by "the experts". Like I said, the bravery of the originator of this post I admire and I +1 your post.
  • stevenlcopeland
    stevenlcopeland Posts: 57 Member
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    I think I feel my body digesting my eyes due to starvation mode.....never saw that one coming.

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