If "starvation mode" exists then....

During my random reading/research it came cross to me that there are doubts on this so called "starvation mode". it exists but may not be like what we understand or imagine.

I remember reading someone listed a few studies as sources. Also someone used POWs during the second world war as an example to proof the point: your metabolism may not stop or slow down as much as we are told. The question here is if you can survive...

People talk about starvation 'mode' like it's some kind of switch that you flick and you stop losing weight.

It's progressive. Absolutely nothing your body does happens instantaneously unless its a direct conscious command to move or something like that.

It's a complex relationship; something I'd really like to see though, would be a direct equation or statement saying that your metabolic rate will slow by x calories a day for every y calories you are under your energy balance.

Exactly is a gradual decline. It doesn't happen over a day, and it won't happen because you didn't eat back your exercise calories.

The difference is starvation MODE vs. ACTUAL starvation.

This. Starvation mode is where your body is trying to prevent starving by adjusting to low calorie intake. You can still push it into actual starvation where it feeds on muscle

Starvation mode is temporary where your body stops burning calories because it's not getting enough. But taken to extremes the body will eventually begin feeding on itself...muscle first. Just like anything else, first it tries to conserve energy, but if that doesn't work it will burn whatever it can get for the basic required minimum fuel.

The body never stops burning calories......................energy has to be consumed for the body to function, therefore calories are always burning...................

Bump - I find this fascinating!

Me too! I'm learning so much today :happy:

I guess I do question the 1200 calorie magic number.

I think people keep getting the starvation mode and proper nutrition confused when tossing this number around. Before I started using MFP I went to my doctor who sent me to a nutritionist and a dietician. We did some research to come up with the suggested numbers that I use to get me out of the conservation mode hole that I had gotten into. No I wasn't starving, but anytime that I ate anything above what my "normal" caloric intake (around 900 per day most of the time) had become, I gained weight and held onto it. During the research we set some macronutrient goals, not calorie goals. It is very difficult to get the proper NUTRITION your body needs and be under 1200 calories per day. I am not talking about losing weight here, just nutrition. If you are more active you have to increase the macronutrients in order to keep your body performing at optimal levels, which in turn increases your caloric intake. If you are a smaller person your needs go down. If you intake MORE than you need it will be stored and you gain weight. If you eat a bunch of stuff that adds calories and provides NO NUTRITION, you will tend to store that as fat and use what your body already has stored (muscle or non used lean tissue) to get the nutrition to keep you functioning.

I guess I do question the 1200 calorie magic number.

I started questioning it a long time ago.................Then I found that there is no need to count calories when you take out all the processed foods and learn your body to eat intuitively.

There is no *magic* number for anyone................That is why everyone does well at different levels. The key is to learn your body to find what works for you.

Starvation mode isn't what the misconception some people on here have. Sure, if you eat less, your body becomes more efficient at using what it can get, but you don't put on weight by eating too little. It simply isn't physically possible. You just lose weight at a slower rate. And start losing other things too, like muscle and bone mass. And hair.

Hm. I disagree. How come when I eat 2000 calories for a week straight - I slowly gain weight, but as soon as I go back to my normal 2200-2500, the weight comes right back off and I maintain. I maintained 150lbs for MONTHS consuming only 2000 calories a day. As soon as I upped my calories, I dropped down to where I currently am (143-145lbs) and as long as I am in that range - I will maintain (I weigh everyday, so I KNOW I am maintaining it). If I drop too low for more than a couple days, the scale creeps right back up.

Not everyone's body works the same. Plain and simple. I've learned in this journey to never say ANYTHING is completely impossible because we all work a little differently and what may SEEM physically impossible to you -- may actually be happening to someone else.

I have to agree my body does the same thing...if I have more than a 1000 calorie deficit I GAIN weight. If I eat below 1000 cal deficit I lose. Don't know why but its frusterating trying to find that magic number.

This has got to be very frustrating. I don't think this is starvation mode though, it takes more than a day for it to be an issue.
I fasted for lent about 10 years ago. I lost 10lbs! which sounds cool, but I lost all of those pounds over the first 2-3 weeks then I stopped. After lent I gained 15lbs over the next month.
This i just one example, but this has happened to me dozens of times when I was dieting. This is why as soon as an "expert" call's SM a myth I stop listening. I know from experience it is very real.

I agree that starvation is the wrong term, when people are literally starving throughout the world.
I like conservation mode, or metabolism slow-down, but SM is what it's called.

I don't mean to make it sound like it happened in a day, it happens over a few weeks. The most recent scenario went like this ...wk1 down 3 ponds...wk 2 down 1 pound wk 3 gain all 3 pounds BACK!

It doesn't happen to me overnight. It takes longer than that. One day of being under my calories doesn't affect my body one way or another. It's when I have day after day after day of being under that I see the slow gain (and it is a slow gain -- not boom! it's all back. I may see a .5 or 1lb gain after being too low for 3 or 4 days. If I keep going, I'll see another .5lb gained after another few days and so on until I am right back up to 150lbs. I don't get it and trust me I've read A LOT about it - it's just some weird reaction my body has.

I know these things for a fact (for me - no one else - just me):

2000 calories a day = 150lbs

2200-2500 calories = 143-145lbs

2600-2800 - 140-143lbs

When I hit 3000, I see it go lower but I can NOT stand eating that much. So, I keep it right around 2200-2500 and happily maintain my weight.

I know when I was borderline anorexic when i was 18 I couldn't lose weight even unless I ate less than 1000 calories a day. I then got better and ate normally-well about 1200 calories a day, and didn't lose weight. I gradually increased to 1400-1600 calories a day-and didn't lose weight. I actually gained 2kg in a year although was eating very few calories.
As I was 50kg (and am 5'9'') it didn't matter but if I had been overweight and only eating 1200 calories a day and NOT losing weight...depressing thought.
Now I am on 1200 calories a day plus eating back some or all of my exercise calories (depending on how hungry I am) and losing weight. But for a while when i was 18, I could not lose weight unless eating less than 1000 calories a day, so to be THAT was my body in starvation mode.

For the purposes of this article, let us ignore the multiple and complex factors in the metabolism of an average human, and stick to the basics. On this basic level, there are a few vital principles that must be understood.

Starvation mode:

If your food is digested then your body goes into starvation mode. If your body becomes lethargic during this time it will slowly shut you down to cannibalize itself and try to store what it has. "Homeostasis". The longer the time between eating, the stronger the homeostasis is.

Burning mode:

Your body burns what you put in it. It all breaks down into something called 32ATP, or "Glucose" and other acids and enzymes. Glucose is the brain and muscle energy source. Giving your body the right nutrients and micronutrients maintains your muscles and gives you an abundance of energy.

Storing mode:

Too much glucose, (food) and the pancreas gives you insulin and stores the excess food as fat storages. It doesn't matter what you eat its the amount of food/calories/glucose. that you put into your stomach. Eat more than your body burns, you get fat. Simple.

Eating chemicals or poisons, (food additives) causes the body to store fat when it working too hard trying to maintaining homeostasis. It stores the poisons in fat so that it will get back to it when homeostasis has a chance too. An over indulgence in these types of poisons, makes homeostasis store fat/poison cells in your body. Certain minerals and vitamins will wash those out.


1. If you take in less calories than you use, you will lose weight. This weight loss can be from fat or muscle. Naturally, if you take in more calories than you use, you will gain weight.
2. Your energy needs differ every day and are made up of three factors – around 70% is your Basal Metabolic Rate, or BMR (the energy you use whilst resting,dependent on your lean mass/muscle, changes very little each day without extreme changes in environment); around 10% is from Thermogenesis (heatproduction, changes a lot each day depending on what foods you eat, how cold you are etc); and around 20% is from Specific Dynamic Activity (movement,changes a lot each day depending on what foods you eat).
3. Your body is either in a build up (anabolic) mode, or a breakdown (catabolic) mode.There is no ‘middle’ zone and you will be switching between anabolism andcatabolism at various different points during the day.
4. Your body still operates as it did in caveman times. It will defend its fat stores to improve survival chances in times of starvation and, upon sensing a deficiency of food, will adjust metabolism to match food intake. Hence your cold hands on the days you don't eat much. This negates the impact of dieting.
Unfortunately, most diets and diet clubs only take notice of Principle Number One. This is a very narrowminded view as it ignores the complex systems that make up or biologicalstructure. Blindly persevering towards an end destination of a Calorie Deficit at the end ofthe day is, in the main, a very pointless exercise as our bodies have a built in ‘fat defense’system to help us survive in leaner times; this must be taken into account if you are going to work around it, and get results beyond the first week or two of a diet (until the fat defense system activates). Generally speaking, any extreme change be it a drop or increase in food intake, temperature or activity levels – will necessitate a change in thebody’s function. Bearing in mind Principle Four, it is extremely important to maintain a normal body function if you are going to lose fat. Unfortunately, diets that blindly caloriecount almost always see your body going through sustained starvation (a very stressfulinfliction on the system) and this is the perfect recipe for kicking in the FatDefense/Metabolism Adjustment.

These diets are normally poorly arranged to direct a particular calorie intake over a 24 hourperiod. Although I accept that you need to have some period to measure intake by, a wholeday is simply too long a spell to work to, and you can significantly overeat at breakfast and be hungry at lunch – here you will be building fat stores at 7am and then breaking downmuscle at 12noon, both of which will have negative impacts on your body composition. A 24 hour clock will simply not cater for switches in our metabolic functions that happen from hour to hour.
Some weight watching clubs (you know who you are!) issue ‘points’ to different foods with the motto ‘no food is a sin’. You can actually fit in with the ethos of this eating plan by starving yourself all day until 7pm, when you use up your 15 points in one go on a wellearned plate of Mars Bars. From 7am - 7pm, you have kickedin your fat defenses (PrincipleFour) and so have created the tiniest of calorie deficits. Then from 7pm -bedtime, you have caused a massive calorie excess, which will result in definite fat gain. So traditional dieting can actually make you fatter! Not to mention the problems caused by hunger, like nervous system stress, poor mood and concentration. To illustrate the problems with this approach, imagine you are restricting yourself to 10,500 calories per week (a typical level for caloriecounting dieters). Because you have eaten 2 takeaway pizzas on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, each with garlic bread and Coke, you have now reached your limit. Would you now not eat until the following Monday? This is exactly what is happening in the diets of many people, the only difference is this 168 hour rhythm has been replaced with a 24 hour time scale.
Naturally, monitoring your food intake on an hourly or 3 hour basis is also quite inconvenient. But there is no need anyway. The only time you will get the results you needis if you deliver the right balance of food to ensure that you are in a Catabolic(breakdown)mode, as per Principle Three, but without activating your Fat Defences. This occurs whenyour body is put into a state of stress, which results in the release of cortisol; this cortisolrelease then activates your fatstorage (lipogenic) enzymes.
So what controls whether we are building up fat or muscle stores or breaking them down?This is all controlled on the say so of a number of hormones that circulate throughout ourbody, such as testosterone, growth hormone and glucagon. However, the most poweful effector is insulin. Insulin is intrinsically linked to our blood sugar levels. The amount of glucose (blood sugar) in your bloodstream is constantly varying. It is increased by foodintake, released mainly from your intestines into the bloodstream, and decreased by muscle cells that ‘grab’ energy to replace that which they have used up in the process of living. If your blood sugar becomes too high, insulin is released and this will bring down your Blood Sugar Level – however, this energy has to go somewhere and your body‘cleverly’ stores it as fat. (Some insulin is always required however, and in a normalstuation situation it is mediated within the blood stream by its opposing hormone, glucagon). In any case, these sharp rises in insulin – 'insulin spikes' are undesirable.Throughout the course of the day, your Blood Sugar Level will go up and down and its leveldictates the activity of your metabolism. So it is very important to become at one with!
Whilst the levels of antioxidants, metalloenzymes and specific balance ofprotein/fats/carbs have dramatic effects on the way your body processes energy, it is important to understand the metabolic behavior instigated by your Blood Sugar Levels. Whilst there is naturally less defined borders between some zones, there are four distinct
(NOTE: Although this is often not the case, the following outline assumes that muscles are recovering from exercise and that there is a sufficient supply of proteins/fats/carbs, and each cells is not suffering from any metabolic obstruction or micronutrient deficiency.)
Excessive Anabolic Zone (Buildup Zone) – your blood sugar is too high. Your muscles have plenty of energy available to work with and build in size and strength, but there is too much energy on top of what is required for this and so your body will release Insulin to reduce the level. Result: Fat and Muscle Storage.
Moderate Anabolic Zone (Buildup Zone) – your blood sugar is above the level required for maintenance of living function. This moderate excess gives the muscles plenty of energy to work with and build in size and strength. Result: Muscle Storage.
Moderate Catabolic Zone (Breakdown Zone) – your blood sugar is below the level required for maintenance of living function. This moderate deficit means the body has to‘dip into’ its spare energy stores, fat stored under the skin, but there is enough energy to maintain normal metabolic function. Result: Fat Breakdown.
Excessive Catabolic Zone(Breakdown Zone) – starvation. Your blood sugar is too low.This severe deficit means the body has to steal energy from its stores, but because yourbody is now in a starvation state it tries to preserve its longterm fuel source for as long as possible it will burn more muscle than fat. From a caveman perspective, the choice to break down muscle preserves the most valuable resource, fat – which improves capability to walk to the next village/source of nourishment, therefore improving survival chances. Result: Fat and Muscle Breakdown. Increase in fat storage enzymes.
Clearly, the two moderate zones will improve body composition, whereas the two extreme zones will be detrimental to body composition. Moderate Catabolism is extremely beneficial to anyone looking to burn fat. If you stay within this Moderate Catabolic Zone(Fat Burn Zone) all day you will cause your body to ‘skim off the top’ of its fat reserves –the fat stored beneath the skin, also called subcutaneous fat. On a minute by minute basis, you are not using a lot of fat, but over the course of a day/week/month, this all adds up to significant progress.
Is this concept that much different from the calorie counting plans? In terms of the desiredend result, no – you still achieve a calorie deficit (the target, mentioned as Principle One),but the difference is that you are not ‘guessing by numbers’ and instead responding to your body as you go along, without activating your body’s Fat Defences. By providing your body with sufficient proteins/omega 3s/micronutrients required to maintain a full metabolic rate,but only providing the carbohydrates it actually needs, you will constantly be running at an energy deficit and so achieve a finite calorie shortfall at the end of the day. Most importantly, this will have been done in a healthy way that improves body composition, as the reserve energy sources broken down will be almost exclusively fat. Remember that spending hours carefully counting calories will see you disrupt your body’s metabolic function, when in reality you just need to keep your blood sugar at a level where you will be breaking down energy stores, but without starving. A more general summary of how to spend the maximum amount of time in this Zone is to ensure that you are ‘Never Hungry, Never Full’ means 6+ small meals/snacks in a day, not ‘three square meals’.
Balancing your blood sugar levels involves more than just eating smaller meals. You cancreate an insulin spike with a small meal! Problems occur when you eat something that destabilizes the amount of energy in the bloodstream. If you consume sugary or processed food – be it anything from chocolate and sweets to white bread and white rice – it is brokendown extremely quickly in your digestive system and, as a result, released into your bloodstream too quickly. Your Blood Sugar Level rises rapidly (pushing it towards the top of your Excessive Anabolic Zone) and, in response, a surge of insulin is released; this avoids sending the body into a sugar induced coma and takes the energy out of the bloodstream.But this energy is dumped as fat around the body, and you are now in a Catabolic zone once again. This is referred to as a Sugar Spike (due to the swift up down effect it has on your Blood Sugar Levels) and is best avoided as, on top of the extra fat you have now stored subcutaneously, you will now be more tired, more hungry and will need to eat again soon – a double whammy. It is a good idea to stick to foods that do not cause a sugar spike, and to make sure all your carbohydrates are consumed in the presence of fats,proteins and fibre.
So what foods should we be eating? Generally real and natural foods, with plenty of proteins, good fats (eg seeds, nuts and oils) and complex carbohydrates, as these are broken down slower. All foods are broken down and released into your blood stream at varying speeds, and the slower this happens the more stable your Blood Sugar Levels willstay..
The other way problems occur is when we simply eat too much in one meal, thinking we are hungrier than we really are. Due to unnatural eating patterns and processed junk that now regularly replaces food in our diets, most (but not all) of the population have a very poor appetite control function. There are numerous physical, mental and emotional factors that can influence the appetite of an individual, some beyond the scope of this article, but two important physical aspects should be understood. When your stomach is full, itcommunicates this message with the brain, which in itself turns off the appetite. So a feeling of fullness in the stomach is important. But this is itself more of an indication of whether you are hungry or not – a more real measurement is fed back more centrally by your Blood Sugar Levels. The concentration of glucose here is measured by your hypothalamus, which then sends an appropriate hormonal signal to let you know if you are 'full' or 'starving'.
This means it should be very easy to judge how much or how little energy you need to move up a zone or avoid slipping down a zone, but the feedback is not instant. Food has to be broken down in the stomach and absorbed through the intestines before it has an impact in your bloodstream; this typically takes 15.25 minutes. To improve the accuracy of these hunger indicators, you could try drinking water with each meal to avoid inaccuracy from the physical sensation in the stomach; to counter act the delayed reaction in your Blood Sugar Levels, you should try eating the French way – this means very small courses separated by 1520 minute breaks, avoiding eating a big plate of food and then being overcome by bloating (‘Xmas Day Syndrome’).
Once you have understood the basics, you have removed one more obstacle in your way of progress. Making sure you are well nourised with vitamins and minerals and creating a more caveman balance to your protein/fat/carb intake complete the starting points forgetting trim. Essentially, what works within this scientificallybased plan is the exact targetof the calorie counting plans, but by overcoming the pitfalls it avoids the innefectiveness that comes with disrupting the metabolic functions of our bodies, bodies that have been carefully sculpted by evolution to produce what we have today – a perfect survival machine. Unfortunately, our lifestyles are so out of sync with the daily struggle and sustained hunt for food that they became so adapted to that our biological systems now appear to malfunction. Meanwhile, whilst we continue to drive everywhere and sit behind ad esk for eight hours a day, obesity remains rampant.
Appetite, hunger and survival are, by nature, very closely linked. Modern lifestyles have separated the link to some degree but our bodies still function in exactly the same way. It is by understanding the basic sciences involved in the mechanisms that control these necessities to life that we can establish what methods work for fat loss and what methods do not. Keep it naturally moderate, whilst using the basic principles and progress will follow on its own accord. The harder you push it, the more likely you
are to take the body into an unhelpful reaction, so settle for realistic but steady improvements. It makes the difference between long term success and short term disappointment.

I never understood how they managed to get past 'starvation mode' either... cos I'm struggling to lose weight from been on too low too long... so if they are on lower for longer I don't get how the weigh shifts so fast either.

Wish mine would shift fast, problem is my weight goes up if eat more and if don't eat enough it doesn't budge so I'm not sure what I should be, here says 1200... my body fat scales show numbers in the 1400's and other calorie counters online have me at 1670. .. just wish I knew what my 'magic number' was for the weight to drop off!

Adross3, excellent post. If that is your own words, kudos. If not, can you provide a link? Thanks in advance.

I don't remember the link. I do searches and read the article. If it is what I am looking for, I copy and paste. I eventually come up with my own thesis. I then use this information in my daily life. If it works for me, I keep the strategy. This so far has worked for me very well.

When I eat a bit more carbs before my strenious workouts, I have plenty of energy and my scales tell me that I am loosing fat and gaining muscle. In my opinion this is a success no matter what any scientific report guru on here tells me.

I guess we all have to find our own equilibrium. And for the record I know mine is under the 1200 calorie mark due to medication I am on which lowers metabolism. We need to become the experts on our own bodies, and learn to trust our own body. Which can sometimes be the hardest part of the puzzle.

You are 100% right

I can feel what I need, because I've been doing this so long I know what to look for.
Before starvation mode kicks in, leptin drops. When leptin drops your cravings should go up. This was how accidentally started having spike day's.
After dieting for a couple of months I was in a 3 week plateau and was having huge food cravings. Like dreaming of food! After convincing myself I'd be fine if I just took a day off and ate everything I was craving I ended up eating around 5,000 calories of junk food in a single day and went on to lose 3lbs over the next week.

It can also work in reverse and we can eat too much when we are eating on timed schedules. Like forcing a meal every 2-3 hours, or forcing extra calories. I don't eat if I don't feel hungry, I think it's a good rule when I want to lose weight. Except on Spike Day when all bets are off.

I spent years teaching myself to eat only when I was hungry. When I started MFP and tried upping my calories from 1000 to 1200 I stopped feeling hungry. and I stopped loosing weight, I was eating for reasons other than what my body was asking for, I got so frustrated that I went back to 1000 calories. Now I get hungry before meals and I am loosing weight again. So I will stick to what my body likes what works. Obviously the 1200 is an average that may work for most people, but not all.

bump..Very interesting topic