will i lose weight? or will my body go into starvation mode?

amouraa2016
amouraa2016 Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Everyday I eat 1200 calories and burn 500-700 calories a day. Will my body go into starvation mode and won't lose weight? Or will i lose weight at this rate?

Replies

  • amouraa2016
    amouraa2016 Posts: 5 Member
    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    You will not go into starvation mode.
    How are you calculating your calorie burn?
    I'm not really calculating my calorie burn. I just get up and walk/jog/run everyday. I have a app on my phone which I put on my hip as I run. It tells me my steps and calories I've burned...Is there a problem or something I need to increase or decrease?

  • amouraa2016
    amouraa2016 Posts: 5 Member
    RGv2 wrote: »
    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    You will not go into starvation mode.
    How are you calculating your calorie burn?

    This, and how are you measuring your intake.
    I'm really not measuring on intake by myself. I found a calorie calculator on google and type everything in wanting to lose 2 lbs per week. Is this not healthy? Do I need to increase something?
  • amouraa2016
    amouraa2016 Posts: 5 Member
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If you are truly netting 500-700 calories a day, you will lose weight. However, you will probably feel hungry and run-down pretty quickly. You'll run the risk of not getting what your body needs. You might be more prone to binges. And you run the risk of serious health problems.

    Do you suggest anything to be changed? Maybe my calorie intake to 1,500? And still burn 500-700 calories a day?
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    What are your stats? If MFP is the calorie calculator you used, 1200 is the minimum it will give you (not that you should be eating less than that anyway) so it's unlikely a 2 pound a week deficit is achievable for you.
  • amouraa2016
    amouraa2016 Posts: 5 Member
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    Starvation mode isn't really a worry with a diet like this. Losing muscle, brittle nails, hair loss, fatigue, vitamin deficiencies, mood swings, and so forth would all be concerns, but you'd probably lose weight.

    Can you suggest any healthy tips? Or anything I may need to change?
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited June 2016
    amouraa2016 wrote: »
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    Starvation mode isn't really a worry with a diet like this. Losing muscle, brittle nails, hair loss, fatigue, vitamin deficiencies, mood swings, and so forth would all be concerns, but you'd probably lose weight.

    Can you suggest any healthy tips? Or anything I may need to change?

    Enter your stats here, eat the calories mfp gives you. Weigh your food and enter it all honestly and accurately into your diary. If possible, sync your activity tracker with mfp, start off by eating 50-75% of exercise calories back. Do this for at least a month, if you are losing at your expected rate, all good, if not, you can tweak calories or the amount of exercise calories you eat back.

    Are you very overweight? A 2lb a week loss is really only suitable for overweight/obese people.
  • Citycat2015
    Citycat2015 Posts: 86 Member
    edited June 2016
    You need to eat back at least a portion of those exercise calories so that you net around 1200.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    You need to be netting 1200 calories - your body needs the nutrients and fuel to be healthy.
    And no, you wont go into starvation mode, all you are doing is denying your body the proper fuel and that will have negative effects in the long run - think hair loss/ depleted energy/ tiredness.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    amouraa2016 wrote: »
    diannethegeek wrote: »
    Starvation mode isn't really a worry with a diet like this. Losing muscle, brittle nails, hair loss, fatigue, vitamin deficiencies, mood swings, and so forth would all be concerns, but you'd probably lose weight.

    Can you suggest any healthy tips? Or anything I may need to change?

    Enter your stats here, eat the calories mfp gives you. Weigh your food and enter it all honestly and accurately into your diary. If possible, sync your activity tracker with mfp, start off by eating 50-75% of exercise calories back. Do this for at least a month, if you are losing at your expected rate, all good, if not, you can tweak calories or the amount of exercise calories you eat back.

    Are you very overweight? A 2lb a week loss is really only suitable for overweight/obese people.

    Pretty much all of this.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    amouraa2016 wrote: »
    RGv2 wrote: »
    Asher_Ethan wrote: »
    You will not go into starvation mode.
    How are you calculating your calorie burn?

    This, and how are you measuring your intake.
    I'm really not measuring on intake by myself. I found a calorie calculator on google and type everything in wanting to lose 2 lbs per week. Is this not healthy? Do I need to increase something?

    What we were trying to figure out was how accurate you really were with how much you ate vs how much you burn. From the info, it's probable that you're eating more than you think and burning less, so your deficit isn't that steep.

    So, go ahead and follow Christine's advice and see how truly accurate you are and go from there.
  • Gallowmere1984
    Gallowmere1984 Posts: 6,626 Member
    If "starvation mode" were a thing, those kids in the "send a dollar a day" commercials would look like your average American.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    I'm going to drop this link here. I think it will answer some of your questions: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1080242/a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants/p1

    The problems I see so far are:
    1. MFP is designed for you to eat back at least a portion of your exercise calories so you aren't undernourishing yourself.
    2. 700 calories burned is a lot. Some programs are too generous when calculating calories burned (which is why so many people only eat back a portion rather than all of their exercise calories)
    3. If you aren't measuring your intake (by which I mean you aren't tracking your food, not using measuring cups or a food scale to determine your portion sizes, etc) then I don't know how you can tell how many calories you're eating anyway.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    amouraa2016 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    If you are truly netting 500-700 calories a day, you will lose weight. However, you will probably feel hungry and run-down pretty quickly. You'll run the risk of not getting what your body needs. You might be more prone to binges. And you run the risk of serious health problems.

    Do you suggest anything to be changed? Maybe my calorie intake to 1,500? And still burn 500-700 calories a day?

    If your calorie goal is from MFP, then it figures you will eat back the calories burned through exercise. If your calorie goal is from someplace else, then it's too low because it isn't taking your activity into account.

    But 500-700 calories is a lot (in context, I burned 800 calories last Saturday running 11.5 miles at a 9 minute mile pace -- although there will be some differences because I'm already at goal weight and probably burn fewer calories overall). I would be cautious about that estimate.
  • PS1000tessa
    PS1000tessa Posts: 4 Member
    You could potentially go into a starvation mode if you stay under 800 calories for a prolonged period of time. Look at HCG diet which asked people to eat 500 calories with some bogus claims of a hormone in the supplements which supposedly would help prevent starvation mode. It has been exposed that the hormone did nothing and it would have even been hard to find any traces of it in the supplements promoted. But people did lose weight and granted some suffered from prolonged 500 calorie diet (think not being able to start their metabolism and gaining weight on even small amounts of food ). That makes me think that doing even 500 calories for a month or so would probably not have long term side effects. However it can still make you feel weak, irritable, headaches and so on so on.
  • dbashby
    dbashby Posts: 44 Member
    edited June 2016
    The best article I've seen on starvation mode. http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/
    I should warn you it won't be what you want to hear.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    PS1000tessa wrote: »
    You could potentially go into a starvation mode if you stay under 800 calories for a prolonged period of time. Look at HCG diet which asked people to eat 500 calories with some bogus claims of a hormone in the supplements which supposedly would help prevent starvation mode. It has been exposed that the hormone did nothing and it would have even been hard to find any traces of it in the supplements promoted. But people did lose weight and granted some suffered from prolonged 500 calorie diet (think not being able to start their metabolism and gaining weight on even small amounts of food ). That makes me think that doing even 500 calories for a month or so would probably not have long term side effects. However it can still make you feel weak, irritable, headaches and so on so on.

    no you can't.

    Adaptive thermogenisis maybe aka lower metabolism.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    Starvation happens when you don't eat enough calories to maintain health. When starving, you lose weight, both muscle and fat. When starving, the end of starvation is death.

    Starvation mode is a myth, namely, that you won't lose weight because you're not eating enough. That is back assward hogwash. It is the result of socially politely believing people who say they are eating very little and still gaining weight. The fact is that if they are gaining weight they are eating too much. That, and they are falsely presenting their food eating history.

    In your own case @amouraa2016 , you've gotten good advice from those above with thousands of posts under their name. Heed it. Your life will be better that way.

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