Can You Gain Fat By Eating Too Little?

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camille97
camille97 Posts: 91
in Health and Weight Loss
Can you actually gain fat by eating too few calories? When your metabolism slows, does that mean it stores fat for the calories you eat instead of properly digesting them?

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  • frzr71186
    frzr71186 Posts: 14 Member
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    Yes
  • Leslietheriot
    Leslietheriot Posts: 303 Member
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    Yes
  • lausa22
    lausa22 Posts: 467 Member
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    Yes it does, your body will keep fat instead of burning it when you don't eat enough for a long time because it goes into starvation mode.
  • Twasney
    Twasney Posts: 186 Member
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    YES!!!
  • uniqute1888
    uniqute1888 Posts: 182 Member
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    By eating too little you body essentially goes into starvation mode and holds onto all you feed it... Even if its all healthy or all junk... which can keep you from expelling water weight as well... Hope this helps
  • NoAdditives
    NoAdditives Posts: 4,251 Member
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    Technically, no. As your body starts to starve it will do its best to store as much nutrition as it can, but it also burns fat for energy. The reason a lot of people gain weight while starving themselves is because they binge occasionally. When that happens, the body gets flooded with more calories than it's used to and since it's in a storage mode it will store those excess calories.
  • merimeaux
    merimeaux Posts: 304 Member
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    Speaking from experience: YES. Starvation mode is a real thing.
  • dannylives
    dannylives Posts: 611
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    Yeah, you're body's like, "Where the heck is all the food, I'm gonna save all this crap for later!"
  • camille97
    camille97 Posts: 91
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    Thanks everyone! I will try to increase my calories (even though they ARE about 1,200, I promise!)
  • Happy0326
    Happy0326 Posts: 159 Member
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    YES!!!
  • hvnlysinger
    hvnlysinger Posts: 7
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    Yes! If you're not eating enough, your body (like others said) goes into starvation mode, and it stores what you DO eat as fat.
  • hvnlysinger
    hvnlysinger Posts: 7
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    :)
  • onegr8legend
    onegr8legend Posts: 8
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    You can lose fat by taking eating "little".

    By spacing your meals out to every 3-4 hours at 5-6 meals per day you will actually train your body to burn calories thereby increasing your metabolism. Example, if your body burns an estimated 1,500 - 2,000 calories per day (before exercise) and you only take in 1,500 calories for the day you will lose weight. Your diet should focus on a higher percentage of fat intake and less carbs. Believe it or not you will actually lose fat by taking in fat. Keep in mind that the fat should come from good sources (i.e. fish, chicken and nuts).

    So, eating too little will work if you mean eat small portions more times per day.
  • sarah44254
    sarah44254 Posts: 3,078 Member
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    Technically, no. As your body starts to starve it will do its best to store as much nutrition as it can, but it also burns fat for energy. The reason a lot of people gain weight while starving themselves is because they binge occasionally. When that happens, the body gets flooded with more calories than it's used to and since it's in a storage mode it will store those excess calories.

    ^ And my body is proof of this. I still have a bit of weight to lose because for many years I would only eat one small meal a day (I was pretty poor) - and then suddenly a family would feed me and lo and behold, I'd gain, and gain, and gain.
  • AI1108
    AI1108 Posts: 488 Member
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    You can lose fat by taking eating "little".

    By spacing your meals out to every 3-4 hours at 5-6 meals per day you will actually train your body to burn calories thereby increasing your metabolism. Example, if your body burns an estimated 1,500 - 2,000 calories per day (before exercise) and you only take in 1,500 calories for the day you will lose weight. Your diet should focus on a higher percentage of fat intake and less carbs. Believe it or not you will actually lose fat by taking in fat. Keep in mind that the fat should come from good sources (i.e. fish, chicken and nuts).

    So, eating too little will work if you mean eat small portions more times per day.

    Yes your body will gain fat if you eat too little because it will not want to let go of any of what you feed it. It is not being given enough to support it's daily functions so it holds on. It messes with your metabolism and you when you do eat more your body will store it as fat.

    The whole eat more times per day though is a myth and has been scientifically debunked many times. Your body will learn to burn the same amount of energy no matter what time you eat. I went through a month where I would eat one meal at 8 pm and lost 4 lbs in a month, and was eating the same amount of calories as I eat now.

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