Starvation Mode

How many calories are you consuming a day? How many are you burning? You should have a NET calorie intake of about 1200 per day to prevent starvation mode.

The‘starvation mode’ claim contains some truth. When you limit your calories a significant amount, your body’s metabolism does take notice. It will slow itself by making all of your body’s processes more efficient. It’ll do more, with less. Where the starvation mode claim goes wrong is in it’s implication that your body will continue to slow its metabolism significantly and indefinitely, making fat loss downright near impossible.To lose 1 pound of body fat, you need to burn 3500 calories (either by eating less, or exercising). Let’s say you need to consume 2000 calories a day to maintain your weight. Theoretically, if you ate 1500 calories a day for a week, you would have a deficit of an extra 3500 calories, thus losing 1 pound of fat that week. If you ate 1000 calories per day for a week, you would have a deficit of 7000 calories, thus losing 2 pounds of fat that week. If you ate 500 calories per day for a week, you would have a deficit of 10500 calories, thus losing 3 pounds of fat that week. Again, this is all theoretical. In the real world, things will look slightly different.

In reality, the first week you would probably lose about 1 pound. The second week you would lose about 1.9 pounds, and the third you would lose around 2.75 pounds. To be clear, these numbers are approximate, the important thing to notice here is that they take into account the fact that as you create a deficit, your metabolism will slow slightly. But, just because your metabolism has slowed, doesn’t mean that your fat loss will grind to a screeching halt, it only means that fat loss too, will slow, albeit only slightly.

I personally believe the term Starvation mode is thrown around like you stop losing weight and the heaven's come down on you..lol...but in reality your body will in fact become more efficient and slow weight loss when you create a calorie deficit, but it’s not really enough to have a tangible effect on fat loss.

Your decription of how you eat, why are you worried about this. A general rule of thumb is if you are not ingesting a minimum of 1200 calories per day you will go into starvation mode. But this won't happen in one day or if you miss one meal. Why are you concerned? Are you below that 1200 cal. mark net calories per day very often?

That is not a general rule of thumb..your weight loss may slow....but if you continually eat below 1200 this will put you in a deficit that will absolutely force your body into losing weight..you just stall it...then it kicks back in to weight loss mode...you will never see an anorexic who is overweight simply because she/he is constantly in deficit mode..the weight will come off...it won't be healthy but it will come off.

starvation mode is an overused term here that is a myth, not scientific fact. If you feed your body enough calories, you will feel enough energy and your body will burn calories more efficiently. If you do not eat enough calories, then you run the risk of things slowing down and not having enough energy. Kind of like a car running on empty. The trick is finding the right amount of calories for you. Play around with eating different amounts of food and see what works for you. There are some people here in amazing shape eating 3000 calories a day because they work out so much. If you eat less than 1200 calories you are not giving yourself much energy to live off of and the quality of the calories count too. Exercise and moving your body helps in this process. Just my non expert opinion but I really wish people would stop flinging the starvation mode term around it is quickly becoming a pet peeve for me.

you know what they say "if it ain't broken, then don't fix it." Let how you feel be your personal guide. Keep on keeping on.

good advice

So is 1000 calories each day going to slow down my weight loss? Because when I was in the worst of my eating disorder, I was eating 200-800 calories a day and after the first fifteen pounds, my weight loss stopped for months. I'm trying to be healthier, but I still want to lose weight

The‘starvation mode’ claim contains some truth. When you limit your calories a significant amount, your body’s metabolism does take notice. It will slow itself by making all of your body’s processes more efficient. It’ll do more, with less. Where the starvation mode claim goes wrong is in it’s implication that your body will continue to slow its metabolism significantly and indefinitely, making fat loss downright near impossible.To lose 1 pound of body fat, you need to burn 3500 calories (either by eating less, or exercising). Let’s say you need to consume 2000 calories a day to maintain your weight. Theoretically, if you ate 1500 calories a day for a week, you would have a deficit of an extra 3500 calories, thus losing 1 pound of fat that week. If you ate 1000 calories per day for a week, you would have a deficit of 7000 calories, thus losing 2 pounds of fat that week. If you ate 500 calories per day for a week, you would have a deficit of 10500 calories, thus losing 3 pounds of fat that week. Again, this is all theoretical. In the real world, things will look slightly different.

In reality, the first week you would probably lose about 1 pound. The second week you would lose about 1.9 pounds, and the third you would lose around 2.75 pounds. To be clear, these numbers are approximate, the important thing to notice here is that they take into account the fact that as you create a deficit, your metabolism will slow slightly. But, just because your metabolism has slowed, doesn’t mean that your fat loss will grind to a screeching halt, it only means that fat loss too, will slow, albeit only slightly.

I personally believe the term Starvation mode is thrown around like you stop losing weight and the heaven's come down on you..lol...but in reality your body will in fact become more efficient and slow weight loss when you create a calorie deficit, but it’s not really enough to have a tangible effect on fat loss.

Awesome post! A very good explanation. To me the real key to continueing to lose weight is to work not just the nutrition side but increase the activity. You can drop calories down but at a certian point you'll get a diminshing rate of return on that side as was so clearly expressed in the above post. Walk for an hour 3 times a week and you'll kick up the metabolism and burn another 2000 calories or so to boot. If you do more vigorous activity sometimes, all the better. You seem to be making good progress. I'd stay the course and maybe increase activity some to kick up the metabolism.

So is 1000 calories each day going to slow down my weight loss? Because when I was in the worst of my eating disorder, I was eating 200-800 calories a day and after the first fifteen pounds, my weight loss stopped for months. I'm trying to be healthier, but I still want to lose weight

You really need to try to get your intake up to 1200 or so, if for no other reason than to get your nutrients. It's ok to do it gradually.