Do you believe in "starvation mode"

I found if I eat under 1300 right now I won't lose well if at all. I do not believe that 1200 is the magic number that causes the body to enter this starvation mode. It is totally dependant on each person for their size, daily activity level, etc etc.

Everyone's body functions differently.

I believe in it...but i've actually had it happen after going super low cal for too long (2/4/6/8 diet anyone? I lost over 20 pounds in 5 weeks.) You've lost less than 7 pounds per month, that's a good loss, but you probably could have lost the same amount and still enjoyed fueling your body with decent, healthy foods. You are going to have to finish losing and then maintain. If you need to create a bigger deficit as you lose, are you going to just keep going lower and lower on your cal intake? Probably not, as the cal intake you have now, you wouldn't be able to go too much lower without having ill effects to your health (believe me, i've been there too.) It's good to start out eating as many cals as you and to healthfully lose so that when/if you have to cut cals, you have somewhere to go.

also it is VERY important we learn to eat for the rest of our lives,

we need to learn to make new lifestyle choices,

find your good foods

I think it’s more to do with muscle deterioration . You may be losing weight, but it’s probably muscle. If you fine with that…, go for it.

I definitely do. I've found that to lose weight, I either have to eat like 1400 cals/day or like 600! Which to me obviously suggests that between those numbers is low enough to lower my metabolism, and make me hold onto everything, but enough to have something to hold onto. So obviously I go with the 1400/day!!! there was a day though, where I was pretty sure anything over 500 would make me fat......not good, not good.

To put it simply, no, I don't. It's a term that is used way too loosely.
I found these interesting:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/10/top-ten-fasting-myths-debunked.html
http://fitnessblackbook.com/main/starvation-mode-why-you-probably-never-need-to-worry-about-it/

I do, but not like a switch. I feel when I don't eat enough for too many days in a row, I feel weaker. But, I also don't believe in the 1200 rule, I believe that there is a number for everyone, but related to their own BMR and daily activities etc.

I dont thinl there is anything to 'believe' there is a lot of scientific evidence to show that eating too few calories slows down your metabilism.

it doesnt mean you wont lose weight. it just means it will be slowly and your more likely to put it back on again

No, I don't believe in it. I suppose if I didn't eat for like a few days my body would slow down significantly. You're doing the right thing by exercising and keeping your metabolism going. I have lost 44 pounds and for the most part I ate between 1000 - 1300 calories during the major part of my loss. Fabulous job on your weight loss. Good luck and have a nice day!! :bigsmile:

I dont and I'm getting really, really sick of all the forum posts here lately TELLING us what to do. Everyone is sudenly an expert on complete strangers bodies - even people who are 100lbs overweight and been here for a week are suddenly experts on my body.

Ive stuck to 1200-1400 calories since May, lost 55lbs (25kgs) and never had a gain - during this time Ive also spent 5 weeks on international or interstate holidays too. I dont eat my exercise calories back (well obviously sometimes just 200) and I am so over people telling me to eat more or that my muscles are drying up. I have just 5kgs to go now - and I understand it will slow. I wont be posting a 'help me' post once it slows, or even if I plateau which I know is inevitable soon.

Blah blah, spout your science all you want (outdated and un specific that it is) - but do what you want with YOUR body. Leave me to do mine! (OK, rant over).

"In fact after I read tons and tons of people diet story, the only conclusion that comes is "Listen to your body, being too restrictive is the worst thing to do". "

I apology if I may hurt you brookepenni

No its all good - it wasnt you specifically. I have just noticed these last couple of weeks soooo many posts on starvation mode and people really being quite agressive telling others they MUST eat back their exercise calories. I laugh though when this advise comes from quite clearly obese people who have litteraly been on mfp for 1-2 weeks (who died and made them experts?). What annoys me more is how impressionable people take snippets and run with it as gospel - then you start seeing replies which say "I read somewhere that you need to..." Or my favourite this week was someone claimed that MFP need to take a recent post (by someone who was sharing his experience with the dreaded plateau and starvation mode) and turn it into a FAQ or instructions for new people. Since when is someones experience scientific fact? When did we consider just 1 person to be all that there is. Since when do we ignore science and just take one persons advice?!? Argh!

What you state is exactly right. Learn your own body - dont reply on others opinions or experience. We are not sheep - we are all individuals with different ways of doing things. Unless you do everything perfect, you are not like me. So why should I think I am like you?!

Edited to add: Generally speaking - it is so dangerous to take medical advice from the internet, strangers or unvalidated sources.... And this is what this is - medical advice. We are playing with our bodies, our lives.

But yeah, nothing about you personally Razique!

Not so much the way it's used here, I believe in the body's responses and "feast" or "famine" though, on a long term basis. Not over the course of a day though. Over months? Yes.

I don't think the question is on starvation mode do you loss weight, more what happens when you start eating more calories when you reach your goal? How does your body react? Because it has been deprived does it begin to store or with exercise has your metabolism gotten to a point where you will be burning extra calories.

I suggest a very slow increase of calories when you reach your goal.

With that said, I'm on the mind set you have to feed it to loss. I think your body's overall health is better when it is getting the nutrients it needs and I just don't believe it can from 1200 calories specially if you are also doing an exercise routine be cardio or weight training. That's my 1 cent won't even say it's worth 2

I find if I eat slightly lower than I should I hardly lose much at all but some time ago I was unhappy and ate about 100 calories a day for about 6 weeks and lost 30 pounds in the first month (bear in mind I was only a UK size 12 to start with so weight shouldn't have been falling off me!).

I think that if you give your body a little it hangs on to it, but if you give it hardly anything it has nothing to hang on to. If that makes sense.

P.S. I'm not condoning rapid weightloss, it's so unhealthy and I put it all back on again once I cheered up!

I'm on a 1,000 cal diet. No, I do not believe in "starvation mode". If I lift weights and want to gain muscle, well ya..maybe I would consider it. But, I'm one who is not very motivated to start lifting weights, just yet. Maybe when I lose my 50 lbs first. Only you know your body, what you can and can't do.