Starvation mode and being hungry !

Starvation mode isn't something that happens on a daily basis. (If it even exists) it would take days or weeks or longer of eating super low calories to enter starvation mode.

I look at it like the boogieman, or one of the urban legends passed around to keep people in line.

But there's a ton of people who would probably argue with my view on it.

Try to have 3 healthy meals a day. You will find that you have renewed energy and can get more exercise. My hunger pains went away after the first couple of weeks. I am no longer hungry at lunch time, but make myself eat something healthy. A salad, vegetables or even just a granola bar.

starvation mode absolutely exists. There's TONS of clinical evidence to support it. But no, it doesn't happen in 5 or 6 or even 12 hours. It depends on how much you eat, and how often you eat but generally the first beginnings of an alteration of metabolic rate and body chemistry happens when glycogen stores are low enough that they can't provide the difference between incoming food plus fat reserve energy, that usually takes between 24 and 72 hours (24 hours would be more like you don't eat at all and have high energy demands), at that point the body BEGINS making the slow process of lowering fat burning, raising fat storage and the scavenging of protein from existing but underused lean tissue (mostly muscle).

Here's the problem, there's no flashing neon sign to tell you when this starts, and there's no "line in the sand" with calorie deficit to adhere to (1200 calories has little to do with this, it's a warning about MICRONUTRIENTS I.E. vitamins and minerals, and even then that's only an average for WOMEN)

So how do you tell? Common sense, if you don't have a lot of fat to lose, then you can't have as large of a deficit without hitting this point.

And yes, the effects are cumulative, I.E. the longer you stay in this pattern, the worse the effects are on your body.

I write all about this specific principle in my blog entitled "Short and Long term underfeeding" here:

http://bankshealth.wordpress.com/2011/02/19/inaugural-blog-short-and-long-term-underfeeding/

My job is 60% manual labor and if I don't snack between meals I feel horrible. I get so tired and have no energy. But once I put some protein in my body I am ready to go. Yes eat something throughout the day. Even if It is a small bag of almonds. As other posters said don't mess with the metabolism. Why two meals in a day? especially if you are hungry? You are setting yourself up for failure. It seems you don't have much more to lose maybe you can add more calories in. I bumped my calories from 1200 a day to 1500 and I am finally losing weight again.

If you are feeling hunger you probably have not hit starvation mode. When you DON"T feel hungry when you haven't eatten much for days and have had a good bit of activity, then it is a good bet you have dropped your metabolism and are in starvation mode.