Does anyone know what 'starvation mode' means?

chubberlang · March 2012

I have heard a lot talked about eating too few calories and your body going into 'starvation mode'. I'm interested what this means and what actually happens. For example if my BMR is say 1000 calories (this is the amount of calories that my body will burn performing basic body function, breathing heartbeat digestion etc) and i burn an additional say 500 cals a day my starting point to break even is 1500 cals. So if i reduce intake by say 300 cals a day i will slowly lose weight. If i instead reduce cals intake even more what happens to BMR? How many cals does my BMR reduce to and how? I still need to perform basic funtions as before so how does my body do this and run on reduced calorie consumption? Where is the balance & can it be calcualted?

Rikjames · March 2012

Starvation mode is your body's defense mechanism in times of drought/crop failure. The brain tells your body there's not enough food available so it should run lean for a while.
Too few calories can therefore prevent weight loss for a while due to your bodies metabolic rate reduction . Additionally you will lose muscle mass (not good).

ladyraven68 · March 2012

have a read here - http://www.burnthefat.com/metabolic_damage.html

bugaboo2503 · March 2012

Your body starts to store the little bit of foods you do eat and there for makes loosing weight impossible!! Just eat your calories an you will be fine. If your a few under thats ok or just a few over 10-35 calories will be fine also just make sure your not leaving out hundreds of calories or thats what happens!!!

Good luck with your weight loss journey!

scottc561 · March 2012

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Starvation_Experiment

crystalwelshroberts · March 2012

I think this is a great read:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/208407-how-to-repair-a-damaged-metabolism-stavation-mode

Crying_In_Color · March 2012

Explains it all http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/weight-loss/truth-starvation-mode

ladyraven68 · March 2012

Explains it all http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/weight-loss/truth-starvation-mode

My favourite bit in that piece -

"My opinion is, you should not go below your goal weight maintenance calories to lose weight, and you should do adequate research and dietary analysis to ensure you are getting the best nutrition you can for your calories.

If reducing your calorie intake to goal weight maintenance creates greater than 1000 calorie a day deficit, then I strongly suggest that you do a value half-way until you have lost some of your weight"

Which follows the same principles as Heybales' "Eating for the future you", and the calculations on http://www.fat2fitradio.com/tools/bmr/

chubberlang · March 2012

Thank you all for your comments. The articles you refered to are a great read and very informative.

Does anyone know what 'starvation mode' means?

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