Is there REALLY a "starvation mode"???

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Replies

  • dolfn1972
    dolfn1972 Posts: 84 Member
    From what I can tell eating too few calories will not cause you to gain weight. However, you may lose the weight but what else might you lose: feeling good, health risks, not thinking straight, low energy. All because you are not giving your body the proper fuel it needs to survive correctly.

    Yes, we are all here to lose weight. But dont let the weight lose be your only focus. You need to stay healthy, keep your body active and and maximum operating levels. The more weight you lose the easier things will become ...from not lugging that weight around., but dont let other things fall to the waste side in the process.

    Also, why 'starve' yourself. Why force yourself to not eat ..even when you are hungry so you might lose an extra pound or 2 or cut off a month till you reach your goal. Slow and steady wins the race.

    My last thought on this, if you drastically cut your calories now to lose weight, what happens when you reach your goal weight and you start eating normally again? Or more calories because 'now you can'? You will be right back on the diet rollar coaster. Remember ....do something that you will be able to maintain even after you hit your goal.

    Good luck
  • Bentley2718
    Bentley2718 Posts: 1,689 Member
    Your metabolism WILL slow down if you're not eating enough.

    However, until I see some fat anorexics running around, no one will convince me that weight loss will stop or reverse by eating too little.

    have you seen a HEALTHY anorexic?

    The diagnostic criteria for anorexia includes failure to maintain a normal body weight, so by definition, there cannot be a fat anorexic.
  • _VoV
    _VoV Posts: 1,494 Member
    The diagnostic criteria for anorexia includes failure to maintain a normal body weight, so by definition, there cannot be a fat anorexic.

    Ginger put quotes around the word 'anorexic.' I think people can still have anorexic thinking or tendencies which can get triggered by stress, anxiety or challenging life events they can't control. So, I think you can still be 'anorexic' in your head, but your body isn't actively manifesting the weight devastation. Of course, under the DSM, I would guess that controlled conditions aren't listed. There are barely enough resources to serve the needs of people in active disease.

    I messed up this window, and my posting. Techno-challenged this morning.
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
    They've actually told me to try not to eat the calories I've burned because eating the calories will not lead to weight loss.

    Then you didn't correctly explain to them how this site works. You already have a deficit created through diet alone. So when you exercise, MFP adds those calories back to maintain your original deficit. If you don't eat those extra calories you are not fueling your body correctly for your actual activity levels, and as I said in my first response, you run the risk of creating too large of a deficit and hampering your efforts.

    Most Doctors, Dieticians and Nutritionists are well aware of this site and knows how it works. The majority of them still advise against eating back exercise calories because it is counter intuitive to losing weight.
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
    From personal exp I can tell you that eating too little can cause you to gain weight. Granted I was eating all the wrong things, alot of fast food, but I was only eating once a day, maybe twice (not on purpose ~ I dont have an eating disorder ~ I would just be so busy that I'd forget to eat. Yes thats possible :p Or I'd get hungry, go in the kitchen, not see anything I wanted and just fix a glass of mt.dew to calm my stomach down til I figured out what I wanted. Which usually took hrs) I was at 202 at one point (found that out from a recent dr's visit.) Once I started eating GOOD calories, several times a day AND exercising I started dropping weight. I'm one of the few people I've seen on here that has trouble eating all my calories daily, again usually cause I'm too busy to think about food, but I'm working on that. Slowly :p and with a few set backs cause by a very hectic life.

    I have a big problem with eating enough calories, I don't eat if I'm not hungry and the two snacks a day thing just annoys me. I dont understand how 5 or 6 small meals a day helps. I get the point that yes your body will burn more because you're feeding it every 3-4hrs but sometimes i just don't feel like eating anything :(

    The body burns no more calories eating 5 or 6 times a day than it does eating once or twice.

    As a matter of fact, most people that engage in Intermittent Fasting are losing fat weight effortlessly. It doesn't matter when you get your calories or how many times a day one eats.

    Those are all myths that have been debunked a million times over.
  • Grokette
    Grokette Posts: 3,330 Member
    I would HIGHLY suggest you read this article, and all the other ones on his blog, he is a genius and is excellent with words. His posts really make you go hmmmm. I have just started going "Paleo" Jan 2nd and have never felt better, plus this is the first time weight is coming off. Its pretty simple, you dont eat grain, processed, or fried foods, legumes (beans), and you do eat LOTS of veggies and grass fed meat, some fruit and nuts, & only eat when you are hungry. if your not hungry - dont eat! What a concept, huh?

    http://www.gnolls.org/2181/the-breakfast-myth-part-2-the-art-and-science-of-not-eating-breakfast/

    People will never understand and will bash because so many are brainwashed to think we "NEED" grains, and we don't.
  • NomNomCupcakes
    NomNomCupcakes Posts: 135 Member

    Bodies are not perfect mathematical equations - they are fine-tuned to keep you alive in the face of limited resources. So when you have a lot of weight to lose, you are probably not going to be in starvation mode in the face of a large deficit because your body sees that it still has a lot of fat reserves to draw from. When you are already at a reasonable BMI and only have a little bit of weight to lose, too large of a deficit makes your body say "OMG all the antelope are gone and there's no berries within walking distance of my cave - conserve conserve conserve!" So your body will adapt itself to hang on to every bit of fat it can, since it doesn't know when you will be getting adequate calories again and its ONLY goal is to keep you alive until that happens.

    This is completely true. From my personal experience, once you stop eating like that the things you DO decide to eat make you gain sooooooooooooo much weight from it. Your body is like, well, we're prob not going to get fed again for a WHILE better make this meal last us a few days *fattyfatness*
  • MissBettyBoop2
    MissBettyBoop2 Posts: 32 Member
    Ask someone recovering from anorexia who eats a cube of cheese and gains weight because their body is struggling to hold onto any energy it can.

    And that would be water weight.

    Ask people that have had weight loss surgery. They're consuming anywhere from 300-800 calories a day. They're dropping their weight. And supplementing with protein drinks and vitamins and minerals.
    I do believe in starvation mode, but I don't think it kicks in for the average dieter. And probably not until they have a very low fat percentage..
  • tammy510
    tammy510 Posts: 32
    What amazes me it that most of the people who disagree with this are men! No offense, but a man does not store or calories the same way a woman does. You have more muscle this is a scientific fact, therefore it takes more calories to fuel your body. Weight Watchers, Nutrisytems and Jenny all have men on higher calories and protein than women. That is why I am having issues with men telling women we should never drop below 1000 calories,
    Also that is not the only article on Starvation mode, there are thousands of scientific studies done on Americans and how we are not able to starve ourselves, unless we already have a very very low amount of body fat to begin with, and really, show me an American where food is easily obtained who is starving!
  • stormieweather
    stormieweather Posts: 2,549 Member
    Starvation MODE and starvation are two separate things. Starvation MODE is simply when your body has begun to adapt to the reduced calorie intake. Starvation is what you see in third world countries.

    Starvation MODE happens via hormonal changes with leptin and ghrelin (which can cause cravings/extreme hunger) as well as lowered energy (if you move less + sleep more, you burn fewer calories). It takes a long period (weeks or even months) of eating less than 50% of your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure).

    It does not happen after one day of eating less than 1200. 1200 calories is simply the recommended (by the W.H.O.) daily intake for the average woman in order to avoid malnutrition. It is not a one-size-fits-all calorie floor.

    You will not stop losing fat, even in starvation mode, unless your binges obliterate your deficits (possible). But you may not be able to sustain such low calories and give up (which most certainly causes you to stop losing fat).

    After crash dieting (severe calorie reduction), when you reach your goal and start eating normally, it's common to gain back all the weight you lost (plus some) as your body has been deprived and is behaving in conservation mode (and will store excess calories, excess being more than it is USED to getting). The only way to avoid this is to get back to maintenance by very gradually increasing calories over a long period of time. VLCD should always be done under medical supervision.

    But every time you crash diet (by eating extremely low calories), your metabolism permanently slows down a little bit. It never recovers to it's original state completely. So yo-yo dieting is detrimental to your metabolism as each occurence further slows your metabolism a little. Over years, this can be fairly significant. Thus, the recommendation to lose no more than 1-2 pounds a week.

    And no, most doctors are NOT aware of how MFP works. They generally assume it is a calorie counting site (which it is), but don't understand that the deficit is built in and already deducted when you enter your weight loss goal. No other site does it this way. Even the "experts" who show up here to give advice often have no idea how MFP works as they haven't bothered to actually go through the steps to set up their goals. So be sure you understand and explain the entire process to your medical professional.


    Here is a great explanation of the starvation mode - http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/230930-starvation-mode-how-it-works?error_user_id=184201&error_username=stormieweather&hl=starvation
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
    They've actually told me to try not to eat the calories I've burned because eating the calories will not lead to weight loss.

    Then you didn't correctly explain to them how this site works. You already have a deficit created through diet alone. So when you exercise, MFP adds those calories back to maintain your original deficit. If you don't eat those extra calories you are not fueling your body correctly for your actual activity levels, and as I said in my first response, you run the risk of creating too large of a deficit and hampering your efforts.

    Most Doctors, Dieticians and Nutritionists are well aware of this site and knows how it works. The majority of them still advise against eating back exercise calories because it is counter intuitive to losing weight.
    If your maintenance calories for your current weight are, for example, 2200 and you tell MFP you want to lose 2 pounds a week, MFP will tell you to NET 1200 a day. The 1000-calorie per day deficit is already there. Tell me why it's then a good idea to exercise for an hour, burn another 500 calories, ignore them in your dietary planning, and net only 700 calories? How is eating those 500 calories to bring you back up to a net of 1200 and maintain your 1000 calorie deficit "counter intuitive to losing weight"?
  • tammy510
    tammy510 Posts: 32
    Stormiewhether you are sooooo right!
  • merzback
    merzback Posts: 453 Member
    I have known many previous anorexics who are now overweight because they screwed up their metabolism due to starvation MODE- not just starvation. Once they eat normal, they metabolisms are so screwed up.
    For the person who says NOT to eat back exercise calories, this is my math equation:
    If I get 1300 calories a day, work out and burn 300 calories, that takes me to 1600 calories I can eat to lose 2 lbs a week.
    If I get 1300 calories a day, and don't work out, I can eat 1300 calories a day to lose 2 lbs a week.
    They are both working off of the same deficit. If I burn 300 calories a day, and don't take the exercise calories, MAYBE I will lose faster, but that's not my goal...my goal is health.
  • tammy510
    tammy510 Posts: 32
    Symptoms of Anorexia
    There are many symptoms for anorexia, some individuals may not experience all of they symptoms. The symptoms include: Body weight that is inconsistent with age, build and height (usually 15% below normal weight).
    Some other symptoms of anorexia are:
    Loss of at least 3 consecutive menstrual periods (in women).
    Not wanting or refusing to eat in public
    Anxiety
    Weakness
    Brittle skin
    Shortness of breath
    Anorexia is an eating disorder where people starve themselves. Anorexia usually begins in young people around the onset of puberty. Individuals suffering from anorexia have extreme weight loss. Weight loss is usually 15% below the person's normal body weight. People suffering from anorexia are very skinny but are convinced that they are overweight. Weight loss is obtained by many ways. Some of the common techniques used are excessive exercise, intake of laxatives and not eating.
    Anorexics have an intense fear of becoming fat. Their dieting habits develop from this fear. Anorexia mainly affects adolescent girls.
    People with anorexia continue to think they are overweight even after they become extremely thin, are very ill or near death. Often they will develop strange eating habits such as refusing to eat in front of other people. Sometimes the individuals will prepare big meals for others while refusing to eat any of it.
    The disorder is thought to be most common among people of higher socioeconomic classes and people involved in activities where thinness is especially looked upon, such as dancing, theater, and distance running.
    Obsessiveness about calorie intake is a totally different subject, low calorie diets are not the same, anorexia is also a mental condition! When you are eating at least 1000 calories you can not be anorexic, you are getting nutrients. Anorexics eat hardly anything to keep them alive,
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