Another non-believer of "starvation mode"?

After 31 months and losing 295 lbs. and all the trial and error that I have went through and I am speaking from my own experience of course there is such a think as creating such a huge deficit between your diet and exercise that your body responds by slowing down your metabolism and start retaining nutrition that you are feeding it because with the deficit you are giving it , it has no idea when the next meal is going to come hence the term starvation mode effect get thrown around. I don't necessarily like the term in its general form but the effects are real.. believe me..... I have lived and learned the hard way. just my 2 cents........

First well done on your weight loss! AMAZING!

I've heard a lot about starvation mode, it seems to make sense, as the body is very good at survival. I have kept my calories at 1200 and have eaten at least part of my exercise calories back. I'm only a few weeks in so I am listening to a lot of advice on here!
I have to say looking at your weight loss, you obviously have this down, and any advice you give will definitely be top of my list!!!
xx

Thank You, I too would have to say that reading an article or a website isn't quite the same as living through it and I am not saying what has worked for me is the end all be all but I do know that I have been through about every scenario possible over the last 32 months. After I was able to walk again and support my own weight my exercise kept increasing but my mentality to eat more didn't. I thought the bigger the deficit of calories the more weight I could lose. So I got to the point where I was consuming under my BMR and burning well over 1000 calories a day and I now know because of this my body started cannibalize muscle as well as my remaining fat stores and it cost me alot of time and wasted energy cause I hit plateau's like crazy and really screwed up my metabolism. It took me awhile to wrap my head around the fact I either had to exercise less or eat more... Once I figured this out though it was lights on for my body, My current BMR is 2450 and I split train now most days and now consume 3200-3400 calories a day (I eat back 85% of my exercise calories) and am losing 1 to 2 lbs. a week weightloss. So I am firmly in the camp of believing in what starvation can do to your body if you don't follow a proper caloric deficit.......

EdD,

Just read your profile. Amazing results - "half the man I was"!
Very impressive.

Did you find starvation mode was a problem when you were starting out and much higher BF %? I.e. where you eating much more when you were much bigger (say 2400-3000 cals NET per day) as supposed to or did you just drop straight down to 1500 cals NET?

I understand you must do alot of exercise to be still eating 3400 cals per day now but what is your NETs?

Cheers

I hate the term "starvation mode". It is the most overused, overabused word on this site. However, I do believe that if your deficit is larger than your body can handle, you risk losing muscle mass along with fat. This in turns decreases your metabolic rate and makes it harder to lose weight and easier to gain it back.

The more fat reserves you have, the larger the deficit you can have.

It's science, guys. You metabolism does slow. It becomes so very hard for your body to break down food when it's not used to breaking down certain amounts. Look at recovery from eating disorders - they're put on meal plans that are only around 1200 calories, if at that, yet they still experience weight gain. Why? Because their bodies weren't used to it.

I think everyone needs to remember that "starvation" refers to less than 600 calories a day, I believe. 1200 is the recommended weightloss calorie intake (for women), just because you're going lower than that, doesn't mean you're starving. Also, people need to remember that other things will boost your metabolism, thus speeding up a metabolism that may have been slowing down from decreasing intake. Things like exercise, muscle mass, green tea and caffeine etc. all help boost the metabolism.

Whilst in the depths of my ED that was what I used to 'maintain' a 'normal' metabolism. I lived off tea and black coffee, and exercised ridiculously; convinced that this was speeding my metabolism up, balancing the fact that body was starving and basically destroying itself. Of course, these tactics didn't help when recovery was forced upon me. 15kg went on very, very easily. Had I perhaps maintained the 1200 calories and done everything by the book; my weight probably wouldn't have gone back on in such a fashion. Because I wouldn't have mucked my metabolism up so much.

Also, when you are starving (in terms of the medical definition; i.e. 600 odd calories), your weight loss will slow. You will have to step up your calorific outtake in order to maintain steady loss. This goes for people who are in the 'healthy' BMI section. Those who are in the overweight or obese categories experience faster weightloss. I think of it as perhaps their bodies thanking them, as most of us have that one weight that we stay at or sink to. Once you meet that anchoring weight, then things become harder. Perhaps that's your metabolism going "stop, we're good here", and hindering you from losing more weight.

The less you weigh, the less calories you need to fuel your body. So if you are thin, lowering your calorie intake below 1200 won't necessarily put your body into starvation mode and stop your metabolism. Plateaus are natural, and will happen, but starvation mode is actually a myth.

Starvation mode happens when you don't eat ANYTHING at all...that's your body's way of coping with NO food. Eating less than you should on a daily basis won't cause your body to shut down.

sorry to say i disagree.......:yawn:

I've become a non-believer after years of swearing by it! In my first year of weightloss, I didn't know about starvation mode and lost 60 pounds. Then I became educated and changed things around to avoid starvation mode. After two YEARS of diligently logging what I eat and working out 1-2 times a day after everyone telling me I'm not eating enough and accommodating starvation mode, I have not lost a single pound. And DEFINITELY not for a lack of trying. I'm frustrated to the point of tears and cutting back on my calories significantly to see where that gets me. Maybe it works for some people but two years of it tells me that it doesn't work for me.

Here's some numerical evidence about my own body.

I started the journey in July at 245 lbs. I lost 20 lbs or so really fast on 1700 calories. Around December I plateaued. I was running at the time 6-10 miles a day 4x a week plus weights (in reality I was overtraining) and sticking to 1700 calories.

I couldn't lose a damn thing all December and up to 10 days ago. I stuck around 220-223 lbs. Overtraining, undereating, my body gave me the high middle finger.

10 days ago I got with a nutritionist and a personal trainer. I upped my calories to 2200 a day and slacked off on the exercise. I still work out 5x a week for 60-90 minutes a day. I've lost 8 lbs in the past 10 days.

Do what works for you. "Starvation Mode" may not apply to some of you but for many people, to include myself, limiting my calories and working out harder doesn't achieve anything visually or on the scale after my body throttles back and gets used to it even though by the math I should be 195 lbs today.

"Starvation mode happens when you don't eat ANYTHING at all...that's your body's way of coping with NO food. Eating less than you should on a daily basis won't cause your body to shut down"


I must admit that i agreed with this statement a 110%

I personally don't believe in starvation mode, take a look at annorexic/bulemic people.. they practically never eat, and look how thin they have become. I don't condone the annorexia or bulemia part, but I was more so speaking about the saying that you should have atleast 1200 calories or your going to fail. Bull, I have a strict calorie intake set at 890/ day, and before exercise, I ususally have about 150-200 calories to spare. Since January 22, 2012 I have lost 12 lbs. That's 12 lbs in ten days. So, if the saying was correct about HAVING to take in 1200 calories to be sucessful, then why have I lost 12 lbs ? Just a thought for everyone to consider.. I didn't mean to start a riot or a fight about who's right or wrong.