The starvation mode lie

Yes, and you are to eat back your exercise calories - according to MFP
If you are going to cite the program, don't be selective in your interpretation. MFP expects you to eat back your exercise calories and net 1200. And I suspect you set your goals for 2 lbs of weight loss per week which is NOT what MFP recommends.
Am I correct?

My impression is that you *can* eat back your exercise calories, not that you have to. And MFP sets me at 1200 no matter what, at .5 lbs or 2 lbs, so for some people, the deficit being built in is not always the case, because MFP won't go lower than 1200. The highest MFP puts me at is 1330 calories, and that's if I was at the highest activity level, which I don't come close to, with or without exercise.

Sorry, if you're following MFP recommendations, you eat them back. Period.
And you set your goals for 1 lb per week.
If not, you're on some other program, so do whatever.
It really just doesn't matter.
I do wish you luck. And maybe you might want to take a peek at my food diary and see how it could be for you following the MFP methodology.
I eat a lot and love every bite.
LIFE IS TO BE LIVED, but again, good luck to you :drinker:

I absolutely and totally agree that it is an untrue lie!! read this article on it : http://www.crudefitness.com/gimmicks/starvation-mode-your-body-will-starve-and-youll-lose-all-your-muscle/

This guy knows what he is talking about..the body doesn't reach starvation mode, if there even is such a thing until the fat level in your body is under 5%!! I don't think many of us have that problem!

All I know is that if I under eat for a few days I feel fine, but eventually I feel tired, irritable, and slow witted. The idea that the body initially compensates but eventually just slows down processes to conserve energy makes sense to me, if for no other reason than that I have experienced it. I also stop losing weight once this feeling happens. One way I'm happy and losing weight, the other way I'm miserable and stagnating. I know what my choice is.

Its somewhat true.When you eat to little your body starts to thinks it will not get any more calories to burn so it holds on to part of the fat in your body.The term used here is incorrect because you would have to be alot under your calorie goal for your body to actually go into starvain mode.:noway:

Thanks

It's worked well and I'm near my goal weight. Once I get there, I'll probably be more likely to play around with maintenance + exercise calories. But for me, the more I eat, the more I want to (over)eat. Not really about willpower--for me, my willpower decreases as I eat more. But most days 1200 is enough. The days it isn't, I just eat more. And most exercise days I eat more like 1500, but that isn't every last calorie my exercise log says I "earned."

Does anyone else agree that starvation mode in an overweight to obese person doesn't exist? Studies have shown that the body can not starve until it reaches low body fat levels below 20 percent.

Didn't read the other comments, but think about this...

Hmm... sure, you are able to eat less without seeing any bad side effects or hunger, if you are very overweight. You can starve yourself and let your body feed off it's reserves. I'm pretty sure that's still going to damage your health, but who cares as long as you aren't in that magical "starvation mode" where you stop losing and start gaining weight because you looked at a cookie.

Your body is still going to adapt to taking in less and your metabolism will eventually slow down.

It's amazingly fun gaining weight on 1200 calories a day. :flowerforyou:

I think the "starvation mode" thing is thrown around too much. The reality is that many people in the obese and morbidly obese category would have to stop eating for quite a while before they noticed starvation mode kicking in. I agree with the person that said that people who are claiming that they were eating less than 1200 calories a day and yet still managed to be obese or morbidly obese are drastically underestimating their caloric intake (possibly not counting liquid calories).

The fact of the matter is that if people could stop eating and still gain weight we would not have people starving in Africa or anorexics would never succeed.

Starvation mode kicks in when people have depleted too much fat and are at critical levels. Even then, in a situation where there is a calorie deficit they will still lose weight although the body will slow down to conserve energy.

The metabolism will slow down, but what worries me more is the study showing hunger will increase. So a person who has just dropped 100 pounds is going to probably feel hungrier than someone who has maintained their weight.

A slowed metabolism is a pain but can be adjusted to. A constant feeling of being famished is pure hell. And I do remember from times after I've lost a lot of weight having that insatiable hunger. I have never maintained a healthy weight in my life. I always regain what I lose. This time I plan to change that.

Listen to your body, for those that can hear it .... it it says im hungry EAT. But eat healthy and smart. Control and good choices is all that needs to happen, and a limit of course.

I just want to put my story out there, because I've seen this topic come up a lot in recent threads.

STARVATION MODE DOES EXIST. And while I'm not morbidly obese, I obviously wouldn't be on this site if I didn't need to lose some weight, my body went into starvation mode. I was working out a lot and hardly, but not really realizing it. For some reason when I work out and eat healthy my body just doesn't want to eat... no idea why. But I would lose 10 pounds, gain 13, lose 9, gain 15. I didn't get what was going on and I wasn't changing anything. I started feeling really sick all time. All I wanted to do was sleep. I felt dizzy, felt nauseous I didn't want to eat I was bloated. So, I went to the doctor who thought maybe I had under active thyroid. Everything came out fine. She then referred me to a dietician, who asked me to keep a journal of what I was eating. I thought I was eating like 1400-1500 calories a day, but in reality I was barely breaking 900 calories..and she said she was being generous with the calories. She told me FLAT OUT that my body went into starvation mode, and that's why my body would lose some weight an gain it back.. and here's why:

When you eat too few calories, you're body sees that you aren't getting the adequate amount of food. Even if you don't feel like you are hungry, your body is. Your organs need certain amounts of calories just to function, even if you were in a coma. So, you're body thinks you are starving, then your body will start using your muscle mass, because it has the most source of nutrients, so your body wants to use that first. Then, every time you eat something, your body automatically stores it into fat because your body thinks you aren't going to eat for a long time or not enough to sustain itself. That is why starving children in Africa, for instance, have bloated bellies.

She told me that it would take about 3-4 months to get my metabolism back on track, and that it did. I was eating a regular balanced diet and eating enough calories but I kept packing on the pounds because my body thought it was still starving. Needless to say, I ended up more fat than I did to start..I went from needed to lose 20 lbs to now needing to lose 50lbs

So PLEASE eat enough. I can't even begin to tell you how really miserable it is. And YES it DOES exist. Don't listen to these people who have never experienced it before. Seriously, just don't. And even if you don't believe me, why risk it??

I wanted to reply to this because I have been wracking my brains trying to figure out what had happened to me.

I was 245lbs and obese. I changed lifestyle (moved out) and started eating one super sized McD meal per day. I was hungry, but I lost 45 lbs pretty fast.

I gained back only 25lbs. I started working at a restaurant. I was working full time. If y'all know, working as a waitress at a busy restaurant is EXERCISE. Also, I was not allowed to eat while working. I worked for freakin' slave drivers, they were harsh. If they saw anyone eating they would throw their food out and make them go home. It didn't even matter if you didn't get a break that day.

While at the restaurant, my school opened a GORGEOUS gym. I decided to go since it was included in my tuition. I started exercising and absolutely loved it. I ENJOYED exercising.
Start weight: 225lbs

At my work one of the girls was studying to become a personal trainer. She finished her goal. She would invite me to come exercise with her. She was basically training me. I did a lot of heavy weights and sprinting with her. She won a body building competition at 2% body fat. She ate ONE chicken breast and ONE can of tuna per day.

I began to get serious about exercising. I had a set routine. I would work out for 2 hours/7 days a week. Running 20+ miles per week, 5000 stairs EVERY MORNING.. before I would start the weights. Afterward, I would go home shower, dress for work and pull a double at the restaurant. I would challenge myself to see how much food I could lift on the trays and had many standing ovations for my ability to carry large amounts of food on one tray.

My food diary was about the same every day: One chocolate slim and trim; no turbinado. Then at break I *tried* to fit in two crunchy tacos. After work I ate a steak nachos. <==All day. Occasionally I would eat an egg plate. (eggs, rice, beans)

I did this for 3 years!!! I did it for this long because, honestly, I loved exercising. And I loved my job.

Then I got pregnant and is when I stopped and changed my life again.

End weight: 225lbs.
Lost: 1 and 1/2 of a size.

I went from 225lbs to 200lbs. I stalled out there for a while, then I kicked my self into high gear adding master's classes and pilates. I went to 190lbs. Then without changing ANYTHING else I started going up. I went to 200, then 215, then 225lbs. But my decreased size did not change. So I stayed the same lower size (which wasn't that much lower.)

My trainer friend both worked with me and went to my gym. We trained at her body building facility together and did a lot of street running. She was stumped. She watched me eat. She told me that all she could figure is that I needed plastic surgery.

So... THIS must have been me being in "survival mode" or whatever.

I've told this to a lot of people and they either say: "You burned out your adrenal glands with all that exercise!" or they say, "You were in starvation mode and you weren't eating enough for what you were doing."
I tend to think it was my birth control, but lots of women lose just fine while on birth control.

So I'm going to have to think that it was the latter.
After my 3rd child was born, I was told by a ND that I had both a thyroid and adrenal condition. Symptoms: Mental fog, severe memory loss, 94 degree body temp, and episodes of narcolepsy. He gave me some NASTY freaking medicine and my symptoms cleared up. He did not OFFICIALLY test my blood, but he said that since half of my eyebrows were missing, and my clear symptoms he was pretty confident.

After 4 children in a row my weight was 245lbs. I started mfp and w/o exercising, I lost 12 lbs in a week. Maybe something is different now. I'm excited to get to exercising again.

Biology doesn't care if you agree with it or not.

The phrase 'studies have shown' is never a valid argument until you show the studies.

someone recently posted a huge long study where this obese man was fed zero calorie nutrients for a year and loss a crazy amount of weight.


science. it can be done. is it healthy to starve yourself without the constant supervision of doctors and IV drugs...probably not lol

I know lots of obese/overweight people who say they only eat 1200 or some ridiculously few calories a day. Many of these people are at the gym working out (I'm an instructor, I see them in spin classes and elsewhere) all the time and they never seem to lose weight.

Either they're lying about how much they're eating, or they're starving.

Living With Obesity At 700 Calories Per Day!
By: David Greenwalt

I want you to consider a common female client. She's a woman about 5'5" and 185 pounds. A combination of a mostly sedentary lifestyle, quick-fix, processed foods and consistent excessively low calories has resulted in an incredibly stubborn fat loss scenario. Not only has it created a stubborn fat loss scenario but her ability to add body fat is remarkably strong.

Most would believe there is simply no possible way she could be 185 pounds eating mostly low calories. While it's true the average obese American created their own obesity by being a huge over consumer, a sedentary glutton if you will, many are able to maintain their level of obesity with the following formula in very precise ratios: starvation + binges + sedentary lifestyle.

An initial review of this woman's calories indicates she is just above starvation level in the 400-700 per day range. The food choices are mostly protein in this case (low-carb is all the rage you know) and there are virtually no vegetables or fruits to speak of.

Five or six days per week the calories remain low in this range, however, there are nighttime binges from time to time and weekend binges where carbs loaded with fat (doughnuts, rolls, cookies, pizza etc.) are consumed.

So while the calories are very low the majority of the time, there are one to two days per week where this isn't always the case. Even so, the nighttime binges and weekend slack offs don't amount to what you might presume would be thousands of extra calories, thus explaining the 185-pound body weight.

Very few foods are prepared from home. There are lots of fast foods being consumed. Convenience and taste rule.

I must say. Early on in my coaching and teaching career this woman was a real head scratcher for me. Isn't it calories in and calories out? Even if she's not active she's starving!

How in the heck does she stay at 185 eating an average, including all binges, of maybe 750 calories per day? She's frustrated beyond belief. She sees her friends and coworkers eating more and weighing less. Is she simply unlucky? Is everyone else blessed? And what in the world is she supposed to do to fix this, if it can be fixed?


Why Is She Not Losing Weight?


First, let me tell you why she's not losing weight. Then I'll tell you what she has to do to fix the situation. With a chronic (months and months) intake of less than 1000 calories per day and a 185-pound body weight her metabolism is suffering greatly. It's running cool, not hot. It's basically running at a snail's pace.

Think of it this way. Her metabolism has matched itself to her intake. She could, indeed, lose body fat but she's in that gray area where she is eating too few calories but not quite at the concentration-camp level yet.

If she were to consume 100-300 calories per day her body would have virtually no choice but to begin liberating stored body fat. This is NOT the solution. It's unhealthy and, in fact, quite stupid.


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Not only has her metabolism matched her intake, her body has maximized production of enzymes that are designed to help store any additional calories as fat. Anytime additional, immediately-unnecessary calories are consumed the enzymes are there and waiting to store the additional calories as fat. Her body is starved nutritionally and it has one thing on its mind - survival.

Being mostly sedentary, her metabolism (hormones play a large role here) can do a pretty good job of keeping things slow enough so that the pathetically low calories she's consuming are just enough to maintain.

But since certain enzymes are elevated, waiting for more calories so more bodyfat can be stored, every nighttime binge or weekend mini-feast will contribute to fat stores.

So on the days she's not bingeing her body does not lose fat, or if it does, it's very little. And on the few days or times she does binge a bit her body is quite efficient at storing fat. So, while she may lose a smidge of fat from starving it is quickly replaced with every binge.

Remember, these binges aren't a gluttonous 4000-calorie feast. Oh no, a binge might be 4-5 cookies worth about 500-700 calories. Nevertheless, since the binge foods are mostly carbs and fat it's very easy for the enzymes to shuttle the dietary fat into stored body fat. It's what they were designed to do.


So, What's The Solution?


Well then, now that we presumably know some valid reasons why she's not seeing a scale change and definitely no body fat change how do we fix her? We have to do something she's going to freak out over.

We have to get her eating more. Not only do we have to get her eating more but more of the right, whole foods need to be eaten. Foods lower in fat that aren't as easily STORED as body fat have to be consumed. And we have to warn her.

A Discouraging Start


We have to warn her that since she's been sedentarily living on protein with binges of carbs and fats she is likely to see a weight gain right away. It's true.
Once we begin really feeding her body with nutritious carbohydrates so she can become more active, her glycogen-depleted body will hang on to some of those carbohydrates (in skeletal muscle and liver) so she has stored energy for activity.

When her body hangs on to those carbohydrates it has no choice but to hang on to more water too. For every gram of glycogen (stored carbs) she stores she'll hang on to three grams of water.

This is not a negative response by the body but it will be interpreted by her as quite negative when she steps on the scale.

It's quite likely she'll see a five to seven pound weight gain when she really starts eating properly again. This weight gain will remain for one to three weeks before it starts moving in the other direction.

For argument's sake let's assume my Calorie Calculator and Goal Setter at Club Lifestyle suggests a 1500-calorie per day average in week one for a one-pound loss per week. First, she is going to freak out about this many calories.

For months she's been eating less than 1000 and usually around 400-700 in one to three feedings total per day. To her 1500 calories is a ton of food. And if she even begins to eat less fast and packaged-foods it will be a ton of food.

There is no doubt whatsoever that she will resist the increase. This resistance may take one to three weeks to overcome. During this period no weight loss will occur. She is too fat already in her mind and believes it will only hurt her to increase her food intake.

I mean, after all, isn't that how she got fat to begin with? In her early stages of fat gain this was probably true. She overconsumed. But as I've said already, that's not why she's staying heavy.

In addition to a freaked-out mindset about adding more food to her already overfat body she will simply find that it's all but impossible to eat four or more times per day.

She's just not hungry at first. Makes sense when you think about it. Why would she be hungry three hours after eating a 300-calorie, balanced breakfast? Her body is used to 400-700 calories per day!

So, even though she gets a plan and begins using my nutrition analyzer to log foods and meals she finds after having a balanced breakfast of 250 calories she couldn't force herself to eat meal number two on time.

It'll take several more days of realizing what is going on and being one-hundred percent honest and diligent with her logging and planning before she begins to eat her meals as planned no matter what - even if she's not hungry.

By now two to four weeks have passed and the only thing she's seen on the scale is it going up--not very encouraging if I say so myself.

Raising The Grade


After the first two to four weeks have passed she's probably beginning to consume her meals as planned although not quite like an "A" student yet. That is coming. She feels better because she's working out and is more active.
And she feels like she has more energy throughout the day because she's feeding her body more calories and the right kinds of calories.

She has finally begun eating the right kinds of fast foods (low in fat, moderate in protein) and less packaged food overall. She is making more meals from home and taking them to work for lunch rather than always grabbing something quick from a vending machine or the break room that always has some treat another employee brought in.

After another two weeks or so she's moved from a "B" grade to more consistent "A"s. She's planning her days one day ahead in the Nutrition Analyzer; she's consuming fresh veggies and fruits on a daily basis.

Her calories are almost ALWAYS in line with what is recommended by my Lean Account and she has seen her first signs of the scale moving in the right direction.

She is now dropping from 190 pounds (her high after reintroducing food and carbohydrates again) to 189.3! "Progress at last!" she says. In actuality, the entire process was progress. But that's not how she saw it in the beginning.






With a total of two to four weeks of increased caloric intake behind her and eating more consistently the right kinds of foods her metabolism has truly begun to rebound.

She didn't kill it as she thought. She only wounded it. And since our metabolisms are like kids (they are quite resilient) and she doesn't have thyroid issues or diabetes or any known wrench that could be thrown into the spokes of fat loss, she will begin, for the first time in months or years, to see results that make sense and that one would expect of someone who is active (30-60 minutes five or more days per week) and consuming a caloric intake of 1300-1500 calories per day.


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Avoiding Sabotage


This process is in no way easy. I think you can see a plethora of ways it could be screwed up, sabotaged, given up on too early and so forth.
A key to success for this very common woman (men too) is not giving up too soon, having faith in the fix, and moving sooner rather than later to the increased, quality food intake.

It's going to take effort to overcome the mental hurdles of eating more food as well as the increase in scale weight that is going to occur in weeks one to three or so. It's disheartening, however, to charge hard down the weight-loss field only to get to the one-yard line and decide it's time to quit.



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Many don't realize they only had one more yard to go and they'd have had a touchdown. You gotta hang in there with this plan. It's going to take some time for the glycogen levels to be replenished and level out. It's going to take some time for mental adjustments to occur.
It's going to take some time before hunger signals are restored to anything close to normal. It's going to take time for the metabolism to rebound and not be in its protective mode.

Giving A Stubborn Body The Message


In certain, very stubborn cases, it may be necessary to eat at a eucaloric (maintenance) or hypercaloric (over maintenance) level for a few weeks to ensure the metabolism does get the signal that everything is alright and you aren't going to kill the body.
Remember, your body could care less about your desire for fat loss. It just wants to survive.


Some Take-Home Points



The most common cause of obesity is Americans are sedentary overeaters/drinkers. Nothing in this article should be construed as to say that under eating is the root cause of obesity. It's not.

It IS common for many men and women to be under eating with sporadic binges as I described here. This creates a perfect environment for continued obesity even if total caloric intake is quite low on average.

Low-carb followers or "starvers" WILL see the scale go up when calories are consumed at reasonable levels again and carbohydrates are reintroduced. Live with it. Deal with it. It's going to happen. 98% of the gain will be water.

The time it takes for mental acceptance and other adjustments to occur will vary but one should expect a two to four week window for these things to take place. Being forewarned with an article like this may speed this process up some.

Once the right types of foods are consumed and the right caloric intake is consumed and the right ratios of carbohydrates, proteins and fats are consumed on a consistent basis, then, and only then, will metabolism begin to be restored and the key to fat loss be inserted into the lock with a noticeable drop in the scale resulting.
This may take an additional two to four weeks to occur. Your metabolism is never dead or broken for good. But it may take several weeks of proper eating and activity for it to be restored.


From day one, until the first, noticeable drop in the scale occurs may be four to six weeks--maybe one to two weeks longer. Those who give up on the one-yard line will never see the scale drop as will occur when intelligent persistence and consistency over time are adhered to.
David Greenwalt

bump

Does anyone else agree that starvation mode in an overweight to obese person doesn't exist? Studies have shown that the body can not starve until it reaches low body fat levels below 20 percent.

What does starvation mode and starving have to do with each other?

Starvation mode is a decrease your metabolism to sustain as much energy as possible when a calorie requirement has not been achieved.

Starving is malnutrition when your body does not have enough calories on a regular basis and starts to catabolise itself.

With enough fat in your body both visceral and subcutaneous you won't starve. How can someone obese starve?