"Starvation Mode"

‎"STARVATION-MODE?" Time to re-think the common myth that the intake of “too few” calories will cause your body to go into "starvation mode", causing your body to “think it’s starving”, therefore burn only muscle as fuel, holding on to “all” its fat-stores.

Also, let’s stop buying-into the notion that to get out of “starvation mode” you’ll need to consume MORE calories to 'kick start" your now sluggish metabolism. Most people believe this, probably because they’ve have heard it so often, they guess it MUST be true, but like most other dieting myths, it’s false.

You cannot "eat more" calories to force your body to "lose weight". The laws of physics and thermodynamics will simply not allow it. Let's say a person claims to be eating only 1000 calories and not losing weight. A well-meaning friend then tells them that they are in starvation mode, and in order to lose weight they must eat more to “jump-start” their metabolism.
My question is: What if instead of eating more, what do you think would happen if instead they just stopped eating altogether? Would they then go further into starvation mode and continue to stay at the same weight or maybe even "gain" weight? Clearly, they would lose more weight if they stopped eating altogether. Dumb, I know - I’m simply illustrating a point.

So, where did this myth come from, and how did it begin.

Like many myths, they can be born out of semi-truths. There actually is a well-documented and true phenomenon known as the “Starvation-Response”. However, it only happens in humans when they lose so much body fat that they fall below fat-levels essential for “survival”. For men this would be below around 5%-fat and in women, just above that. This hardly applies to the average “Dieter” reading this post, or bodybuilders dieting for their next competition.
My “Bodybuilding” friends usually like to jump in right here and say, “But, if we consume to-few calories we’ll be burning muscle instead of fat, right?” Wrong again. This is another case of a slice of truth being blown-up into a major exaggeration. We always burn or lose some muscle (amino-acids) when we diet, no-matter how sensibly it’s done. But, before it actually amounts to anything significant (or an amount that is noticeable in one’s visual musculature), the body will first exhaust most of its fat reserves.

BOTTOM-LINE: if you are “over-fat” and NOT losing weight, regardless of your efforts to do so; the most important thing to do is re-evaluate your own “Energy-Equation”. Yes, I mean “calories-in vs calories-out”.
Outside of a special medical-condition, “weight-loss” WILL ALWAYS BE the on-going balance of HOW MUCH YOU EAT vs HOW MUCH YOU MOVE.
The best way to do this WILL ALWAYS BE to focus on “food-portions” and to maintain a healthy level of activity.

I hope you will share this with your friends.


These aren't my words .They're from a facebook friend who's a nutitionist!