Obsession with starvation mode...

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  • Emancipated_Tai
    Emancipated_Tai Posts: 756 Member
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    Let me point out the fact that most of us are overweight not just from eating too much, but consuming foods with gross amounts of calories/fat/carbs etc. You could have eaten 2000 of unhealthy calories a day before and gained from too much fat. Now, we are deciding to lead a healther lifestyle and change our eating habbits. The change in food consumpiton can still be 2000 calories, but the totals on calories/fats/carbs are much lower. What does that mean? You need to eat more food than you did before! DUH :grumble:

    Basically, it is hard to eat 2000 calories of healthy/clean foods vs eating 2000 of crap. This is why it is hard to meet that gross goal you speak of. I'm set at 1700 calories a day and I'm still figuring out what to do with 126 of them.
  • Louise12
    Louise12 Posts: 389 Member
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    If you are eating the calories mfp has reccomended for you then you are already eating at a deficit .So even if you were to eat some/all of your exercise cals back you would still be at a deficit .
  • debzeeU2
    debzeeU2 Posts: 99 Member
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    *read later*
  • Emancipated_Tai
    Emancipated_Tai Posts: 756 Member
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    I thought MFP was more of a guide/log to let you track exactly what you are putting into your body. I didnt know that everyone was a certified dietician or nutritionist for that matter.

    ^^^THIS^^^
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
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    That makes perfect sense and I lose weight when I follow that rule. I gain weight when I eat my exercise calories.

    Thank you!

    Thank you. I was very confused about this because some people were saying to eat the exercise calories. I didn't understand this, because to me, it defeats the whole "purpose" of exercising in the first place. I may go over my BMR by 100 or 200 but if I do it's a peice of fruit or something light so that I can still have a little "treat" but save a lot of those calories I burned.

    I am really confused how people who eat all of their exercise calories are actually losing weight. Makes no sense to me.

    I was losing next to nothing on 1200 calories a day NET.
    Now my NET is around 1470. Most days my GROSS intake is 2000-2300 calories. I am now losing. Not only am I losing, but my body shape is changing, in a good way. On 1200 calories, my body was getting even softer some how.
  • lizzzylou
    lizzzylou Posts: 325
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    This is rather entraining to read....I agree people don't actually understand what real "starvation mode" is. Uneducated people use it as a scare tactic to make them sound more educated. How it's being thrown around on MFP, I personally don't think it's being understood correctly.

    It's like 'pink slim' give it a derogatory name and people go nuts.
  • lizzzylou
    lizzzylou Posts: 325
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    I thought MFP was more of a guide/log to let you track exactly what you are putting into your body. I didnt know that everyone was a certified dietician or nutritionist for that matter.

    ^^^THIS^^^

    Yes ma'am!!! Thank you. Apparently on MFP everybody is an expert
  • illecl
    illecl Posts: 30 Member
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    I absolutely agree!!! I've thought of leaving MFP over the obsession with "starvation". I see a dietician regularly, and she laughs at the idea of eating back exercise calories. The one exception is if you're training hard and are terribly hungry a lot. Then you should eat a little more protein. I've provided my body with healthy food all day long. This nourishes it while it's there. It's a never-ending tail-chase to keep eating because you've burned some calories. The 'starvation mode" issue is for folks a whole lot closer to goal weight than I am. Way to go!
  • Texmom_2003
    Texmom_2003 Posts: 79
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    Does this mean that we cannot eat our exercise calories to match the calorie goal set for you by MFP? Can you please reply, If I do so will I not loose weight?
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
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    To summarise, BMR requirements are GROSS not NET.

    I'm not sure that's even true if you are talking calories consumed. Your body can use fat to burn BMR calories the same as it can to burn activity calories.

    I would bet there are plenty of thin people who have never heard of BMR that eat under it on a fairly regular basis without damaging their metabolism.
  • MelKut
    MelKut Posts: 167 Member
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    Eat what you want.... BUT what BOGGLES my mind is when people try to find excuses to EAT LESS :indifferent:

    When my weight loss stalled, I immediately thought about eating more :laugh:
    ALSO, read this

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html?pagewanted=all

    yeah its not proven (nothing in science can be lol) but it should make you all THINK about how your BODY will react when you are finally at your goal weight and start eating more. I can personally say I have lost and gained the same 10-15 lbs for years by restricting calories (1200), then going back to what I thought my maintenance was (1700-1800). So I can't agree with what the OP posted because I DON"T BELIEVE IT.
  • ElHombre23
    ElHombre23 Posts: 126 Member
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    Ahhh the daily starvation mode topic...where would my day be without it...
  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
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    Does this mean that we cannot eat our exercise calories to match the calorie goal set for you by MFP? Can you please reply, If I do so will I not loose weight?
    Thats what the OP is implying, but it's not true. Your deficit is baked into your daily goal and mfp increases you calorie goal when you exercise to keep the deficit the same.
  • Coyla
    Coyla Posts: 444 Member
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    Yes, you can eat your exercise calories back! Try it and see if you lose weight. If it doesn't work, try another tactic. If it does, keep with it and ignore all the naysayers.

    Losing weight successfully is more about how YOU can handle your diet and exercise program than how quickly Johnny Big Pants lost 80 pounds. If the diet is too restrictive, and you know you won't be able to stick to it, then you won't be able to sustain it. It's that simple.
  • csheltra26
    csheltra26 Posts: 272 Member
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    So...I am overweight. have been for years. I did lose 80 pounds at one time, gained back 50 of it. here is the deal. a couple of years ago I felt HUNGRY constantly. STARVING. No one believed me. I went to a doctor who asked if I thought about eating before I ate to make sure I was really hungry. I was so PO'd. I was eating probably 1500-1600 calories a day, maybe less and burning at least 2500 calories a day. I couldn't LOSE A POUND! the scale wouldn't budge but if I did eat a cupcake or ice cream I packed on 5 pounds in a few days. It was ridiculous!!
    Alas, I thought I'd try eating more. And miraculously I am not starving anymore, I haven't gained weight and have actually lost 2 inches!! That is after eating maintenance for 4 weeks, and only exercising 1 week of those 4. So I'm at a slight decrease to see how it goes for the next 4 weeks.
    Moral of the story - you need to fuel your body. You need to eat to build muscle. I'm with the eat more group - if you can eat more and lose weight - why wouldn't you want to do that????
  • huntindawg1962
    huntindawg1962 Posts: 277 Member
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    So...I am overweight. have been for years. I did lose 80 pounds at one time, gained back 50 of it. here is the deal. a couple of years ago I felt HUNGRY constantly. STARVING. No one believed me. I went to a doctor who asked if I thought about eating before I ate to make sure I was really hungry. I was so PO'd. I was eating probably 1500-1600 calories a day, maybe less and burning at least 2500 calories a day. I couldn't LOSE A POUND! the scale wouldn't budge but if I did eat a cupcake or ice cream I packed on 5 pounds in a few days. It was ridiculous!!
    Alas, I thought I'd try eating more. And miraculously I am not starving anymore, I haven't gained weight and have actually lost 2 inches!! That is after eating maintenance for 4 weeks, and only exercising 1 week of those 4. So I'm at a slight decrease to see how it goes for the next 4 weeks.
    Moral of the story - you need to fuel your body. You need to eat to build muscle. I'm with the eat more group - if you can eat more and lose weight - why wouldn't you want to do that????

    If you were still in a calorie deficit there is NO WAY you packed on 5 lbs of fat - more likely water retention from sugars or something else. And if you stopped working out for a period of three weeks - you may have started losing lean tissue accounting for the movement again on the scale.
  • christenwypy
    christenwypy Posts: 335 Member
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    I do not see how eating back exercise calories can possibly make you gain weight (if you already have a deficit).

    Myself as an example. I need about 1700 to maintain the weight I am. So MFP gave me a 1200 calorie diet so it would create a 500 calorie deficit to lose 1 lb per week. So then I work out and burn like another 500 maybe. Now if I don't eat that back I have a 1000 calorie deficit, right? If I eat it back I should be fine still maintaining my 500 calorie deficit.

    It depends on the person and where they are coming from. If you are overweight and have been eating 3 or 4 thousand calories in big macs per day, for years, you sure are not going to gain weight if you eat back 500 exercise calories in clean food when you already have a deficit even without exercise.

    Maybe a thin person whose body is now used to such a low amount of calories would gain a half or a whole pound if they increase their calories by 500 per day, at least in the beginning. But if it is clean, healthy food and they are working out it would probably be muscle anyway, right? And then once the metabolism speeds up I would think they'd fall right back into where they need to be

    I really think it is all about healthy common sense choices and listening to your body cues.
  • SHBoss1673
    SHBoss1673 Posts: 7,161 Member
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    I have to post because my entire diet revolves around me being on starvation mode. It's what is making my diet WORK.

    Pre-diet, I'd eat about 1500 calories a day. But it was ONE meal a day. I was so busy with my kids that I wasn't eating. Then at the end of the day my husband would bring home dinner and that greaseball would be enough to fulfil my calories, but my body was still STARVING.

    Right now I'm actually only eating maybe 1000 calories a day. ***BUT*** I am eating it through 5-7 meals a day to let my body know that I'm NOT starving, I have food available I'm just keeping the meals small. And it's worked! Over the past 45 days I've lost 21 pounds!

    so the state you are in is something called LTU (Long-term underfeeding) or the starvation response.
    It's an ominous term, but it's easily correctable. See here for a laymen description of it that does a pretty good job.
    http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/burning_calories/starvation.htm

    Although they completely gloss over metabolic homeostasis, which can lower metabolic rate without the degradation of muscle mass, but that's besides the point. the main point is accurate.

    what they don't tell you is why it's such a devious situation to be in. The body will adjust to lower feeding and since hormones tell you when you are hungry and/or full, long term underfeeding will cause changes in how your body releases these hormones, so not only are you underfeeding, your body is telling you "everything is fine" which leads people to believe they aren't actually in "starvation mode". This is the reason why I cringe when people say "listen to your body", while that's fine for a healthy person who is eating close to or at their maintenance, it might be a bad idea for someone who is constantly far below their normal TDEE (note the term normal, not current).
  • shan_0517
    shan_0517 Posts: 88 Member
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    Read later.. must get to work! Besides, I need some popcorn for this!
  • cruzanna
    cruzanna Posts: 12 Member
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    I totally agree. For the past two months, I was trying to follow all the advice I had read on these forums about eating more for success. That does NOT work for me. I am short,, 5'2', and nearing 48 years old. I work out 5 days a week and stalled or gained following that plan. Now I am going back to exactly what you said. I am going to eat about 1300 cals per day, period. I hope and am confident that will work for me. Thanks for posting this!!!

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