Starvation mode is a myth, so why do we keep saying it exist

There is enough real science, trainers and nutritionists out there that with a little research, everyone should be able to make up their own mind. Nothing being said here will change any minds, and I do believe all of our bodies are so different that we can never be 100% sure how each of us will respond to huge caloric deficites. That being said....good luck. I wouldn't lie and say I didn't think the odds are against you if you want to drop cals dramatically, thay I think you'll lose muscle tone, drive, stamina, and a myriad of other things, but what can I say to convince you otherwise? Good luck.

Not everyone responds to a calorie deficit the same way, which is why you have such variances in anecdotal evidence (on top of the fact that we people cite their own experiences, they are often wrong about what exactly "caused" their "effect").

Some people show little or no decrease in resting metabolism, others can see a notable decrease.

In addition, it has been shown that, people who reduce their calories often reduce their overall activity level. This also occurs when people begin exercise programs. Those people end up offsetting much of the effect of their calorie deficits because they decrease energy output.

And lastly, some people take a long time to effectively respond to a diet/exercise program--usually due to their overall hormonal response.

Because of these and other variables, the whole topic of "starvation mode" usually turns into an elaborate exercise in tail-chasing (which unfortunately doesn't burn as many calories as you'd think.).

Sarauk if I lose weight and don't hit a plateua does that prove that there is no metabolic damage? I'm not being facetious but what does that say about me? I really must be a freak.

Depends how you go about it, if you had a moderate calorie deficit and didn't hit a plateau it means you where at a good deficit. If you cut down to lets say 500 calories and didn't plateau... well you will. Everyone plateaus at a specific weight, people don't just dissapear to infinity.

The 500 calorie thing works, because even if your metabolism has slowed down to a grinding hot lets say 800 calories, you're still eating below that.

People who have alot of excess fat are not going to be having a BMR of 800 calories/day just because they eat too little calories. Before they get anywhere near that, they would feel so terrible they'd go off the diet anyways. Why is it that in metabolic wards people don't plateau like they do on MFP?

Yet on MFP we have these amazing cases of people who do 5 days of week of intense exercise and eat 1200 calories and aren't losing weight. So what their BMR is now 700 calories and they burn only 500 in an hour workout each day.

I think more realistically, people underestimate intake and overestimate expenditure. Or they don't understand the concept of water retention.

read my post above. 2nd, it's the BMR, that's why gastric bypass, and VLCD work, they are BELOW their AMR even if their AMR is only 800 calories

Sorry you lost me here. I was really commenting on the possibility that someone with excess fat drops to a BMR of 800. No way these people on MFP who have been dieting for a month and stop losing weight on 1200 calories a day have dropped their BMR or BMR + AMR to below their 1200 calorie intake.

Eating more? complaining? why there is no weightloss? the economy?

"Starvation Mode" Is an excuse....Everyone is different do what works for you! I did the research to. It is difficult to budge you metabolism to such an extreme.

An excuse for what?

The economy. :happy:

Starvation mode is kinda how the Adkins diet works.

I guarantee the majority of MFP members who don't lose weight on 1200 calorie-ish diets are either 1) retaining water or 2) completely underestimating the number of calories they are eating.

I agree, great post.

Eh, I disagree, I've had my own personal experiences with it. I have an ED, at once point I dropped down to a few hundred calories a day and lost nothing at all and even put on a few pounds. Now I'm sure if I had continued down that path for an extended period of time, I would have ended up losing weight, but at first I definitely put some on.

I had and ED as well, ate once a day if that and even when I had way more than 10% body fat. I "Starved" myslef to be thin, size 16 to 0 and weighing 97 lbs in about 3 months or so...

Who cares if it's a myth. This is semantics. The body needs fuel. The body is built to burn fuel. The body then needs refueling. I don't understand why this is so difficult to comprehend? There's no way around this. Anything else is not in the order of taking care of your body. Hey... not in order... OH, yeah, a disorder.

Who cares if it's a myth. This is semantics. The body needs fuel. The body is built to burn fuel. The body then needs refueling. I don't understand why this is so difficult to comprehend?

We fatties can also supply part of the daily fuel from the fat reserves we put on eating too much fuel in the past.

Hence we don't need to put gas in the tank and the same rate as the motor burns it 'cos we're running down a big tank too.

Your body is extremely adaptable- if you drop your calories to an amount that the body cannot handle, it will stop burning fat because it knows that it has to preserve every bit of energy that it can get!! If you don't fuel your body right your metabolism immediately slows down as a way to keep energy levels up. Of course you will lose weight eventually, but to punish your body like that is something that isn't maintainable, and will just result in a sad and even unhealthier lifestyle in the long run!!!!

If I'm not hungry, I'm not going to eat. Plain and simple. Eating when you are not hungry is a big no no, so if I'm below whatever calorie goal I may be pursuing... I don't really give a flying f**k.

yup