Starvation Mode is Real, and ugly

Russell,

I REALLY like the spike day idea!!!

and Marla, I just KNOW that you are going to come out of all of this stronger! (and thin!):flowerforyou:

Donna

She definitely will! She persistent, patient, and has the knowledge to get through it. IMO,being in starvation mode is the worst thing that can happen when we diet. You eat very little, you workout hard, and you don't lose anything. It's like being slapped in face by Mike Tyson.
I compare it to the cartoons with the rabbit on a treadmill being bated by a carrot on a fishing pole. Most of us, including myself quit at that point.
Marla isn't

Thank you for sharing your story.

no offense...but i'd seek more opinions from different doctors... that excuse doesn't sit well with me.

Sorry

no offense...but i'd seek more opinions from different doctors... that excuse doesn't sit well with me.

Sorry

Kdouglas11...I am not sure I understand what you mean by "excuse", can you explain? What would you suggest Marla do ?

D

None of that made sense. No offense to Marla? The "excuse" that Marla is making or the dianosis her doctors are making?

wow!!
I have been there it is an awful place to be. I did the whole starvation thing and it backfired on me as well. I was told so many times what would happen and I thought never I was so diligent on keeping count of everything that went in my mouth. I eneded up with a terrible eating disorder, I can not live that way again it was toture punishing myself for being human and I saw what I put my kids through. I think if we all except ourselves for just being us it will all work out. But funny I know that is way easier said then done. I wish you the beat of luck I know how you feel
Suzanne

Marla, Hope your weekend is less stressful! My kids also drive me nuts but I say that with all the love a mother can possibly have! We have had our best year yet with homeschooling but I think it is partly because I have pulled way back on outside service and because I am now only homeschooling my two girls!

My goal today is to laugh! I thought I would share that! :laugh: j


BTW...babybeans, I think I did misinterpret what the person wrote...the way I was reading it sounded kind of negative towards Marla but I see she must have meant it as a negative towards the MD's.

D

No no no! I wasqustioning that person as well. I hope you didn't think I was questioning YOU! And I'm not sure what they meant b/c the way they worded it, it could have gone either way. :ohwell: Whatever! I don't think we'll be getting a further explanation! Whatevs.

I'm really sorry I didn't read ALL of the posts in the past 10 pages...but I did read the very first post and wanted to comment on it.

I KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL.

I get frustrated as hell at people who whine about starvation mode being a myth. I was there as well.

My profile picture? That was me back in 2008 when I weighed 125 pounds. As you can see from my ticker, that's my current goal weight now because I want to get back to that picture size.

When I was losing all the weight in 2007 (started at 191) I was eating between 1000-1300 calories per day and doing P90X Doubles Plan changing the extra Cardio X's to something more strenuous like Turbo Jam. Yeah, I got down to 125, but I was so effin' hungry all the time and I couldn't gain muscle for nothing. I was a beanpole that wanted to eat.

So I was advised by my doctor, nutritionist, and personal trainer that if I wanted to do that much exercise that I should be eating a minimum of 1800 calories per day. So, I did just that and within, no lie, 2 months I was up from 125 to 155 pounds. That was the middle of 2008. Throughout 2009 and 2010, I adjusted calories, played with carb and fat levels, messed with protein levels, changed up my workouts, did EVERYTHING I WAS TOLD by experts with MD's and PhD's but lost *maybe* 5 pounds total at a time and then gained it back, lost it again, gained it back...all by eating clean, healthy foods and working out???

Yeah, my doctor also told me that I was in starvation mode, and yeah, I was having issues gaining muscle strength because my body had catabolized the muscles after beating it to death with hours of cardio and averaging 1200 calories a day.

Now in 2011, I am *finally* at a point where I believe my metabolism has been restored. I eat around 1575 calories a day and I am finally steadily loosing. It is a slow process, but it is a process that is moving forward.

I am currently at 138 pounds, and I am able to wear some of the clothes that I was able to back in 2008. I plan to get back into all of them by the end of the year, only I am doing it in a healthy way making sure to NEVER cut myself short on calories.

People really do have a wrong view of what starvation mode really is. It does NOT happen overnight, over the course of a week or 2, or so on. I ate very little and exercised all the time like this from July 2007 to March 2008. I lost weight the whole time until BAM in March 2008 the weight loss halted, ceased, and completely desisted. And then the hunger pains attacked like an army everyday, all day. And then the weight started to come back on by changing nothing about my food or exercise routines. It takes a long time for starvation mode to truly set in...but once it does, OMG it is soooo hard to get out of because your metabolism is crashed. You can gain weight, for sure, but losing? Ha! Not without starving even worse than before. So when I started to eat more, I got big again. And by "eating more" I mean, what normal people eat to lose or maintain daily. I was gaining weight like crazy doing what other people did to lose or maintain. It took lots of time and lots of hard work and effort...meaning, playing around with nutrition numbers, studying nutrition until I learned it like a second language, and actually exercising LESS...to get my metabolism revved again. And now that it's "normal" again" I am eating the same healthy food as before, only in the correct proportions, and I am weight training and doing cardio...and losing weight slowly and restoring all over health to my body.

Starvation mode truly does exist...and I hope all the naysayers would read your thread and understand. It isn't the same as what people think (they think if they eat low cals for 2 days, that uh-oh, they won't lose any more weight). But it truly is a real phenomenon.

And Marla, take heart! Your metabolism isn't dead. It took nearly 3 years, but I got mine back. I'm sure you will too. :flowerforyou: