"Starvation Mode"

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  • Alloranx
    Alloranx Posts: 51 Member
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    sigh.
    i don't know the science, i don't understand the math.

    here's what i do know:
    Week 1 on MFP: tracked every single bite. cut out caffeine, pop, processed food, and aspertame. Stuck to 1150-1200 calories a day, 3 litres of water.
    Gained 2lbs.

    Week 2 on MFP - all of the above, only I ate 1400-1500 calories a day.
    Lost 3lbs.

    The reason we rely on science is that little anecdotes like this have too many variables to tell us much, if anything. 1 week is not enough time to evaluate any diet plan. The fact that you did these two back to back also skews the results, we don't know what holdover effects from the first week might have affected the second week. We don't know what your BMR or weight or BF% is. We don't know what your diet was before you began this little experiment. 3lbs is a kind of a huge amount of weight loss, and so is 2 lbs of gain in a week. It makes me wonder if you were weighing at the same time of day each time. 3 liters of water is a lot in addition to your food intake, so water weight variances could be at play. We have no idea of your activity levels during these two weeks. You also sound like you radically altered your diet composition during the first week, so who knows if it just took time for your body to sort things out....about a week, perhaps?

    Way too many variables. Anecdotes are next to worthless.
  • sarahsedaii
    sarahsedaii Posts: 39 Member
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    I agree. I haven't eaten more than 1400 cal in a day in almost 2 weeks. I eat until I am not hungry. I have plenty of energy. I have found that once I take out sugar from my diet, I stay at about 1000 cal a day. You cant tell me that I need to eat a reese or my body will go into starvation made!
  • piratepiet
    piratepiet Posts: 45 Member
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    For all the people saying that starvation mode is real: science means testing its not about what you believe. There are some reasons why you can hit a plateau, maybe the lowest weight was after using the toilet and the weight 5 days later was before, or after workout (sweat makes about 2 lbs when i was walking for one hour) and so on... but if you eat less calories than you burn there is no way, no way, to gain weight or don't loose weight in the long run. I meassure my weight daily and sometimes i go up 2 lbs in one day or down 3 the other,

    Just like Alloranx said - there are too many variables for one week or even one month, but if you really calculate the true calories you will get rid of that belly.
  • M3CH4N1C
    M3CH4N1C Posts: 157
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    I think the biggest problem is our diets are so depleted of nutrients, minerals, vitamins, etc., that maybe our bodies are in some sort of starvation mode and so we keep eating to the point of obesity, because the food we keep eating is junk. Just about everything in the store is man made, high process in one way or another. It's no wonder why diabetes, and pancreatic cancers, and other gastro-intestinal problems are continuing to rise. I like a website called healthranger.org which starts to explain whats really going on in the world, and that there are actually people who benefit from other peoples health problems. Bottom line is you are what you eat. It boils down to reading labels, researching food, and being an activist in your own life.
  • beckie4442
    beckie4442 Posts: 132
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    Thanks for that, I was having this discussion with my husband just today, it's cleared up a few questions that we had.:smile:
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    I don't agree with this.

    According to all the calculators, my BMR (which is supposed to be how many calories I would burn if I did nothing but rest) is over 1800. I never eat more than 1800 calories in a day unless it's a day that I have worked out, but my net is always way under 1800 calories. And I work out (usually an hour of zumba) 3-4 times a week, which I've been told that for a normal weight person, which I am over 100lbs overweight, burns at least 800 calories. Plus I work full times, a single parent with 2 kids, yadda yadda, so the only rest I get is my sleep at night which is only 5 - 7 hours.

    I would say you are massively overestimating your exercise cals. Zumba doesn't burn anything like 800 cals an hour. More like 400-500 from what I have seen on here.
    Also the amount of sleep you are getting may be a factor. I hit a 5 week plateau over the summer and it was because I was only getting 5 hours sleep a night. I had a few nights of 8 hours sleep and dropped 5 lbs in a few days. I water retain hugely when I don't get enough sleep.

    Exactly my point! It's not just about calories in and calories out! And even if I didn't do any zumba at all, just "living" and "moving" grocery shopping, walking to the office building, walking up and down the stairs, I still wouldn't net any where close to 1800 calories a day. I should be losing something, not gaining!

    If I net 1800 cals a day, I would put on weight at a rate of 1 lb a week or thereabouts. I think you are massively overestimating the amount you should be eating.

    I am currently maintaining on 1500 cals day plus exercise cals of 480 cals per hour of fast running on the days I run. Just for comparison.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    sigh.
    i don't know the science, i don't understand the math.

    here's what i do know:
    Week 1 on MFP: tracked every single bite. cut out caffeine, pop, processed food, and aspertame. Stuck to 1150-1200 calories a day, 3 litres of water.
    Gained 2lbs.

    Week 2 on MFP - all of the above, only I ate 1400-1500 calories a day.
    Lost 3lbs.

    So...yah.

    And yet......I started out on 1200 cals a day - lost 0.6 lbs a week, exactly what MFP predicted.
    Near goal raised to 1360 cals per day - lost 0.2 lbs a week - as MFP predicted.
    At goal switched to 1500 cals a day - and have maintained for 3 months now.

    I didn't see any great drop in weight from eating more. Quite the reverse, my body has done exactly what was predicted.
  • M3CH4N1C
    M3CH4N1C Posts: 157
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    Speaking of calories, I think it's time to eat. ;)
  • FelizMi
    FelizMi Posts: 79 Member
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    I don't agree with this.

    According to all the calculators, my BMR (which is supposed to be how many calories I would burn if I did nothing but rest) is over 1800. I never eat more than 1800 calories in a day unless it's a day that I have worked out, but my net is always way under 1800 calories. And I work out (usually an hour of zumba) 3-4 times a week, which I've been told that for a normal weight person, which I am over 100lbs overweight, burns at least 800 calories. Plus I work full times, a single parent with 2 kids, yadda yadda, so the only rest I get is my sleep at night which is only 5 - 7 hours.

    I would say you are massively overestimating your exercise cals. Zumba doesn't burn anything like 800 cals an hour. More like 400-500 from what I have seen on here.
    Also the amount of sleep you are getting may be a factor. I hit a 5 week plateau over the summer and it was because I was only getting 5 hours sleep a night. I had a few nights of 8 hours sleep and dropped 5 lbs in a few days. I water retain hugely when I don't get enough sleep.

    Exactly my point! It's not just about calories in and calories out! And even if I didn't do any zumba at all, just "living" and "moving" grocery shopping, walking to the office building, walking up and down the stairs, I still wouldn't net any where close to 1800 calories a day. I should be losing something, not gaining!

    If I net 1800 cals a day, I would put on weight at a rate of 1 lb a week or thereabouts. I think you are massively overestimating the amount you should be eating.

    I am currently maintaining on 1500 cals day plus exercise cals of 480 cals per hour of fast running on the days I run. Just for comparison.

    The difference is I weigh over 250lbs where you only weigh 130lbs. My body takes more just to function because of my higher weight.
  • chevy88grl
    chevy88grl Posts: 3,937 Member
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    Best post ever.
    just got told off after a poster said he/she wasn't losing weight on 1200 cals and would he/she GAIN weight if he/she ate 1000 calories....believe the starvation mode people
    When I pointed out people in famine stricken countries aren't GAINING weight and I sometimes ate 1000 calories a day i was reported for encouraging eating disorders.
    Um. Right.
    Idiots.
    Best post ever.

    I gain weight when I don't eat enough. So, call me an idiot, tell me I'm stupid or whatever... but, I know my body and I know that I gain weight. I consume 2200-2500 NET calories a day (yes, net) and I am maintaining my weight (143-145lbs). When I drop below 2000 calories for too many days, I start to see a slow gain on the scale. If I continue with it for a week or more, I will watch as the scale jumps back up to 150lbs (which I maintained from Sept 2010 to May 2011, when I decided to up my calories to see what happens... and I dropped those 5-7lbs to bring me into the mid 140's). So, say whatever you want to say. Our bodies are all different and there is no exact science to explain why some bodies respond one way and others respond a different way.

    I think it is ignorant of people to assume that just because something works for YOU it'll work for EVERYONE. I know that there are people out there who consume 1200 calories a day, workout like crazy and are losing weight. If *I* did it, I know I would gain weight. Just like I can eat carbs all day, everyday and don't have any issues with them but other people look at a piece of bread and gain weight. Ditto to sodium - sodium rarely affects me whereas other people have horrible side effects of it.

    I personally do not care what study you can find that will disagree with me nor do I care about the science behind it all. After almost 2 years on this journey, *I* know MY body and *I* know what works and what doesn't work for me.

    BTW, my BMR is 1338. My TDEE is around 2100 calories. So, I'm certainly in the "normal range" for my body and activity level. There is just so much that you have to take into account when it comes to weight loss or maintenance.
  • FelizMi
    FelizMi Posts: 79 Member
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    Best post ever.
    just got told off after a poster said he/she wasn't losing weight on 1200 cals and would he/she GAIN weight if he/she ate 1000 calories....believe the starvation mode people
    When I pointed out people in famine stricken countries aren't GAINING weight and I sometimes ate 1000 calories a day i was reported for encouraging eating disorders.
    Um. Right.
    Idiots.
    Best post ever.

    I gain weight when I don't eat enough. So, call me an idiot, tell me I'm stupid or whatever... but, I know my body and I know that I gain weight. I consume 2200-2500 NET calories a day (yes, net) and I am maintaining my weight (143-145lbs). When I drop below 2000 calories for too many days, I start to see a slow gain on the scale. If I continue with it for a week or more, I will watch as the scale jumps back up to 150lbs (which I maintained from Sept 2010 to May 2011, when I decided to up my calories to see what happens... and I dropped those 5-7lbs to bring me into the mid 140's). So, say whatever you want to say. Our bodies are all different and there is no exact science to explain why some bodies respond one way and others respond a different way.

    I think it is ignorant of people to assume that just because something works for YOU it'll work for EVERYONE. I know that there are people out there who consume 1200 calories a day, workout like crazy and are losing weight. If *I* did it, I know I would gain weight. Just like I can eat carbs all day, everyday and don't have any issues with them but other people look at a piece of bread and gain weight. Ditto to sodium - sodium rarely affects me whereas other people have horrible side effects of it.

    I personally do not care what study you can find that will disagree with me nor do I care about the science behind it all. After almost 2 years on this journey, *I* know MY body and *I* know what works and what doesn't work for me.

    BTW, my BMR is 1338. My TDEE is around 2100 calories. So, I'm certainly in the "normal range" for my body and activity level. There is just so much that you have to take into account when it comes to weight loss or maintenance.

    AMEN!!! :heart:
  • PB67
    PB67 Posts: 376
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    You don't break your metabolizm from eating to little, nor do you "trick" your metabolism by eating more.

    For those of you that plateau from eating too little, and/or break your plateau from eating more, the explanation is most-definitely a spontaneous decrease/increase in NEAT (Nonexercise activity thermogenesis).

    Simply put, if you eat too little you have an unconscious tendency to move less, while increasing calories can have the reverse effect.

    http://ajpendo.physiology.org/content/286/5/E675.long
  • lisasdoinit
    lisasdoinit Posts: 216 Member
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    chevy88grl - i think i love you ;)
  • adtrevors
    adtrevors Posts: 21 Member
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    hate to break it to you but most nutritionists are pretty clueless beyond what they were taught in school. Maybe your friend is different, but I don't buy it as "this is true b/c my nutritionist friend said so".

    Really? I'm not a nutritionist, but I am a registered dietitian. I could not tell you any of the things I learned at university (although, they may be similar to the things I am still learning about now), since I have learnt so much more since I started working. I am legally required to document a certain amount of continued professional development each year... I'm not sure how you would get away with not knowing anything beyond what you were taught in school!

    Good for you! (no sarcasm). Most nutritionists I have heard are still toting around "if you eat cholesterol you'll die of heart disease" and "eat more complex carbs"! so I have little respect.

    Regarding the prof development, my wife is an OD and she has to as well. What qualifies as prof development though is fairly easy to game. If you are actually keeping up on the literature (and not just the stuff that the food industry puts out) then I applaud you b/c you definitely are not the norm.
  • adtrevors
    adtrevors Posts: 21 Member
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    I personally do not care what study you can find that will disagree with me nor do I care about the science behind it all. After almost 2 years on this journey, *I* know MY body and *I* know what works and what doesn't work for me.

    Exactly! The human body is immensely complex and the only way to figure out what works for you is to try something and gauge the results. N=1 experiments rock, but only for that N :D
  • DesertSunsetRain
    DesertSunsetRain Posts: 194
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    From personal experience, I once was pretty much in "starvatiion mode". Eating fewer than 500 calories a day and working out an hour and a half to two hours a day.

    I got into a program to get back to a healthier weight. I can say, my metabolism and so did everyone's metabolism, skyrocketed. I was eating about 2500 calories a day, walking for 15 minutes a day and they were continually having to bump up my calories because I would sometimes lose weight. I think I was around 3000 calories a day to gain a pound a week.

    I haven't ready much of the arguments concerning this topic. But I can say that when I was eating 500 calories a day and burning 500+ on the elliptical it was hard as **** to lose weight after a certain point. But as soon as I started eating more, my metabolism DID get faster. Then when I dropped back down to normal calories the weight dropped off at the snap of a finger.

    I would imagine that the same concept could apply to others. Your body sometimes needs a jump start.
  • BikeNut5
    BikeNut5 Posts: 57 Member
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    I'm sorry I misrepresented the profession oif my friend .He is not a nutritionist.These are his credentials:

    Author, Freelance Writer, Workshop Presenter at Body Coaches of AmericaStudied Certified Personal Trainer at American Council on Exercise
  • adtrevors
    adtrevors Posts: 21 Member
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    Stop talking about things which you don't understand.

    troll or food industry shill, not sure which yet
  • oswaldbowser
    oswaldbowser Posts: 164 Member
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    Over estimating calories burned is 100% true.....I was using the treadmill and it told me that i had burned 750 calories...and before i get shouted at yes it did have all my details like weight, age etc.......but my Ki fit or body bugg in the u.s.a which is very accurate said I had burned only 330.....now if I had "EATEN BACK" my calories i would be well over by 420 calories, add that to under estimating calories in food and result = weight gain !
  • M3CH4N1C
    M3CH4N1C Posts: 157
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