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Question about starvation mode.

So i have gotten "bashed" on here for not DISAGREEING with starvation mode, like if it really exists...i've done my research and im starting to see things differently.

My question:

I'm eating about 900 calories per day (IM 5'4...132 lbs..wanna be 115) I'm loosing about 3lbs a week. which is NORMAL! especially for a 20 yr old, i was told that it might come off faster since im at a younger age. i exercise 3x per week for 30 min. I do the eliptical as i had knee surgery while back and leaves me unable to run from the pressure. i'm eating 3 meals a day...i start off with cereal/milk for breakfast (which i've done my whole life) and i eat maybe an omlete with cheese/veggies/turkey....with a side of fruit. then for dinner i will heat up on of those "smart ones" meals or "lean cuisine" things...i'm in college so i dont really like to cook. This together will generally add up to about 900 cals. i know its not alot, i realize that...but i dont feel ANY side effects.

I'm not even hungry!!! I'm scared i damaged my metabolism or something because someone not hungry from only 900 cals??? Like its notl ike im doing it on purpose..its just the way it is. OH and i ALWWWAYS treat myself to 1 girlscout cookie at the end of the night (they just came in and im always ordering from them!) So really...i AM eating and its like if i am hungry..i will eat. Could i have "ruined" my metabolism?? should i be worried?? should i force myself to eat 1,200 cals?? or is "ruining your metabolism" from SERIOUS calorie defecit (like 300 per day!) I mean...i feel like the weight is coming off healthy...i'm loosing 3 lbs per week which is what is recommended (well 2lbs per week, but 1 more...big whoop!)

Hey. I think as long as you are eating a balanced diet with enough nutrients, you dont feel deprived AND as you say you are eating the same as before pretty much? Then if you can LIVE like that after the weight goes, and you are getting ENOUGH nurtients (a readymeal should probably be replaced with fresh fruit and veg). I would say, the weight is coming off yes, BUT in the long run, you might not be as healthy as you could be if you maybe had a few more hundred cals a day, regardless of how hungry you are. Hunger isnt everything, nutrients and longevity is. At the end of the day your body can get past hunger fairly quickly, but if you do damage now, like not enough calcium, vits and mins, you may regret it when you are an old lady and have all sorts of problems.....just a thought.

I believe the advice says 1 - 2 lbs per week.  That extra lb is pretty damn significant, makes me think you're going too hard. 

I messed up my metabolism doing what you're doing, though it was unintentional from undiagnosed mono.  If you get your body used to being deprived, it will stop telling you that it feels hungry.  That doesn't mean you're eating enough.

I have to deal with this all the time.  I don't feel hungry when I should anymore.  Then I forget to eat.  Then I get so hungry I feel sick and start to gag on food.  It's not pleasant.  I'm sure that over time I'll be able to feel hungry again.  But I didn't know what I was doing to myself for 5 years and I've been trying to correct for the past 6 months, with limited success.

 

I agree!! i'm just very conserned i'm doing damage to my body by eating what i am. I could prob. up my calcium intake...i'll get on some calcium pills. it was suggested by my Nurse practitioner actually because i have VERY healthy family lines with the exception of osteoporsis. I've always been very carefull with my health...i get yearly exams, i eat healthy (for the most part) i used to exercise about 1 day a week for an hour, now im doing 3 days a week for about 45 minutes give or take. and i'm very concerned because i read all this stuff and im afraid im damaging my metabolism cause im just not hungry at all!! seems werid to not be hungry with only 900 cals??? I'm very happy with the results i'm seeing (3lbs per week) so its not like its shedding off like 8lbs a week of muscle. i feel perfectly fine!

Just wondering if i should continue this or not...i guess i could force myself about 100 more or so...but does 100 really make THAT much of a difference??

in response to just was what said:

i appriate what you said! i really do. but normally wouldn't you feel hunger like the first time you "starve yourself?" i didnt even feel it the first time!! it wasnt like i planned out "oh im only going to allow 900 calories" it was just...the MAX i was oging to allow was 1,200 but only eat when i'm hungry. i do tend to get hungry around lunch time...stomach gurgles...and i have classes till 1 pm so eat around 1:00 when i get home and again around 6:30 and have a small snack at 8 (yes, my girlscout cookie!...its the peanut butter ones so thats why i only ave 1 :) )

I'm sure it wasn't an overnight change for you.   I don't know how you might have gotten to this point.  I know a lot of people can get so busy that they forget to eat for very long stretches of time.  Do that often enough and your body stops signaling.  It doesn't have to start with full days of starving.

I had mono and was literally too tired to cook for myself, order a pizza or do much of anything.  Yes, at first I was hungry.  But eventually my body got used to not having the food and stopped whining at me.  I dropped to 120 lbs which, at 5'7" is extremely bad.

Once I was able to eat even a little bit more I gained a lot of fat. 

As my mom says to me, "I know you're not hungry.  Eat it anyway."  Today for instance, I had a migraine so felt sick all day.  I totalled up my cals and came up with about 800 - and I'm not hungry.  I'm currently 3/4 of the way through a glass of chocolate milk, just because I need the calories.  It's not pleasant, but it's necessary. 

 

i'm pretty sure i can tell when i'm hungry and when i'm not. So why would i lie about the fact that i'm hungry? doesnt make sense...i just was not hungry the first time i did it...i did NOT purposly allow myself only 900 calories that day i just only ate when i WAS hungry and stopped when i was content...that was about 900 cals. I just dont feel its necessary to FORCE myself extra 200 cals. when its not needed.

I'm a nurse (well nurse intern as i have 1 yr left), i know squat about nutrition to tell you the truth...i know what things to look out for, its my job!!! and i KNOW my biology as im a bio minor. (nutrition does not fall under biology) and i DO know for a fact that your body tells you what it needs-when your body needs more energy it will tell you your hungry. if it doesnt need it-it won't tell you your hungry UNLESS there is some sort of disease process in the way. This you can not argue with. i'm not stating starvation mode is not true...because it is!!! im confused as to why i should force myself if i don't FEEL like i need it. i'm not purposly doing it...all i'm doing is eating when im hungry till im content, its not like im depriving myself of any nutrients. i've probably eaten more veggies in 1 week than most people have ina life time...i eat LOTS of fruit and eat things like beans, and i love munching on peanuts here and there for protein...i eat egg white omelets! i do get ft in my diet too, dont get me wrong. But if i'm getting the nutrients i need...why force more?

I am self educated in nutrition from the last year and a half of studying it.  I'm a far cry from a professional, but I seem to know more than the average person does.

The problem with starvation mode is that there isn't a specific point that you start triggering it, if there were, then we could have you go right up to it and then just stop before you go into starvation mode.  Every person and their metabolism is different.  However, as a general rule, we can say that a person who doesn't eat enough (1200F/1500M +300teen + %exercise) for a period of time (not a day or two) is either in danger of it or already in it.  We can say that losing more than 1% of your body weight per week puts you in danger of it.

When it comes to restricted calories diets (those less than recommended by CC), you should be under the care of a physician who can run test to weigh the risks of your weight loss versus the need to lose weight.  Of course, if you don't have a whole lot of weight to lose a doctor is likely to think you're crazy to go on that type of diet.

Losing 3 lbs a week is just fine if you're around 300 pounds or more.  Part of it is going to be water, part of it is going to be fat, and part of it will be muscle (any weight loss will involve a bit of all three).  The same is true when you weigh less, but you will be more likely to lose more muscle and less fat, you have less fat to lose.  Muscles are the good tissue for most people, they make you look lean and in shape, it's the fat that most of us are targeting.  As you come closer and closer to your goal weight, you will need to maintain a lower calorie deficit in order to keep losing fat but at the same time lose as little muscle as possible.  Please note that muscle mass and strength are two different issues.

We can say that not getting a sufficient balance of nutrition can put you in danger of being malnourished (~20-30% protein, ~20-30% healthy fats, ~40-60% carbs).  There's a lot of leeway in these numbers and some people have medical conditions or allergies that require them to use different parameters.  What tells you that you're getting the nutrients that you need?  By your own statement, you apparently do not know a whole lot about nutrition.

There are all kinds of things that supress hunger.  For me, exercise suppresses hunger...kind of counterintuitive and definitely counter productive.  Drinking water can supress hunger, so can eating low calorie foods.  Of course, sometimes you feel hungry when you need water...the brain does not always get it right.  Your brain doesn't have to interpret the hunger signal correctly, you may be hungry, but are just not paying attention.  You might also not be hungry but still need calories.  Counting your calories helps you to reestablish the correct connection without seesawing back and forth.

Firstly- 3lbs a week is NOT normal unless you have a huge amount of weight to shift as smwhipple has said.

You are depriving your body of essential nutrition by eating less than your body needs- its that simple. How do you know you're getting the nutrients you need? You said yourself you rely on ready meals for dinner- how is that good for you? The only veg you mention is in an egg-white omelette? You may 'feel' fine, but you won't know the long-term effects until they become apparent. If you think can survive on 900cals a day for the rest of your life, then carry on, but know that you are screwing up your body by doing it. It's that simple.

Oh, and you don't 'feel' hungry because your body has gone into a kind of self-preservation mode- your brain is sending signals to your metabolism that theres a famine on and the lack of 'hunger' is a result of that.

You sound like you want people to tell you this is fine- well, we've spelled out why its not, and no-one is going to tell you it is, so its up to you what you do from here. I suspect I already know the answer though...

I can tell you from personal experience that starvation mode does exist and it can mess you up. If you are eating 900 cal a day, guess what, your body is consuming more. If you stop eating, your body eats your body and there is not allot of vitamins in eating muscles and cell walls. I messed up my eyes big time and had to go under doctor care. I also was not hungry and thought all the people were just blowing smoke. I had the hardest time eating 1400 or 1600 and thought I would explode with all that food. Then I got into starvation mode and I could not lose an ounce no matter how low I went in calories.  It the end, after two doctors told me I was killing myself, I found a web book that made allot of sense. Now I eat 5 times a day and I am always hungry, but have energy and in the last month I lost 5% of my body weight without losing any weight. I am trying to maintain at my current weight and just shift the weight from fat to muscle. It seems to be working. The trick is to eat every three hours, it is like keeping a blast furnace going around the clock. Each meal you eat a protein and a carb. As soon as I started, I began losing weight again and when I reached my goal, I kept it up and cut back on the cardio and now I am working on muscle mass. I really hope you up your calories, because if you don't, you will be going to the doctors soon.

Thank you,

You said that you're concerned that you're damaging your body, but then you argue against anyone who tells you to eat more. Losing 3 pounds a week is a sign that you're doing something wrong. That's 150%-300% HIGHER than you should healthily lose in a week. Which means you're probably losing muscle, not fat.

Maybe you've seen these numbers:

-The heart needs 12% of the calories (144 cals)
-The kidney needs 12% of the calories (144 cals)
-The Liver needs 23% of the calories (276 cals)
-The brain needs 23% of the calories (276 cals)
-The skeletal muscle needs 30% of the calories (360 cals)

That's the minimum amount that you need in a day, or else you're starving your vital organs. So, yes, even though you might not feel like you're harming yourself, you are.

I'm just going to echo what most people are telling you and say that you're not helping yourself by eating so little.  A lot of people here have crash-dieted I'm sure.... which is why they're here now... overweight as a result.  Balloon weight-gain after crash-dieting is a phenomena known as 'dieting yourself fat'.  Crashing the metabolism down to something so slow that every extra scrap of food starts to turn to fat.   Disordered eating behaviour often starts life as a innocent diet that goes too far.... not nice.

You're 20 years old which means you could do quite a lot of abuse to your body before it would start to complain or you'd feel the side-effects  But that doesn't mean it's a smart thing to do.  When a living creature stops feeling hungry and stops eating properly it's usually a bad sign.  Prolongued malnutrition is terrible on the hair, skin, nails, teeth.... not very attractive.

Hope this is just a temporary fad and that you see the light quickly.

 

 

 

i know all that stuff already. and i appretiate the feedback. i have done a what is claled "healthy diet" before and lost 10 lbs. i did loose 3 lbs the first week and after that it bounced around from 1-2....this is my first week.! i didnt like the results of it last time...it took me almost 3 months to loose just 10 lbs!! there were times i lost nothing. I worked out 4 days a week for an hour, i cut back on junk food and just ate healthy foods...10 lbs in 3 months is a little discouraging when your trying to get to 115 by end of jan.

What is the rush? You say you want to lose 17 more lbs by the end of January, but you probably didn't put it on that fast. Just as you didn't gain weight overnight, you are not going to lose it all overnight either. Ideally the slower you lose it the longer you will keep it off. By cutting down to 900 calories you are slowing your metabolism way down which can end up making you weigh more. You said you just started and you lost 3 lbs this week, but as you continue to undereat your body will definitely go into starvation mode and your weight loss will continue to slow until you end up losing 0 lbs a week. Less than 3 months to lose 10 lbs is a fine rate of loss.

If you up your calories, it may be hard at first to eat more but I have a feeling once your metabolism kicks in you will feel your appetite returning and it won't be hard at all.

Original Post by jay2daq:

 

i'm pretty sure i can tell when i'm hungry and when i'm not. So why would i lie about the fact that i'm hungry?

I never said that you were lying to the forum about whether or not you feel hungry.  I'm saying that when you're in starvation mode for any significant amount of time, YOU WON'T KNOW WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY. 

You may still have occaisional hunger pains.  Those pains are an indication that your already starved body is really hurting.

You don't have to intend on dieting or starving yourself to get to this point.   I didn't set out to diet.  I love eating.   I was in starvation mode for years and didn't know, I couldn't figure out what was wrong.

Original Post by allnaturalgirl02:

What is the rush? You say you want to lose 17 more lbs by the end of January, but you probably didn't put it on that fast. Just as you didn't gain weight overnight, you are not going to lose it all overnight either. Ideally the slower you lose it the longer you will keep it off. By cutting down to 900 calories you are slowing your metabolism way down which can end up making you weigh more. You said you just started and you lost 3 lbs this week, but as you continue to undereat your body will definitely go into starvation mode and your weight loss will continue to slow until you end up losing 0 lbs a week. Less than 3 months to lose 10 lbs is a fine rate of loss.

If you up your calories, it may be hard at first to eat more but I have a feeling once your metabolism kicks in you will feel your appetite returning and it won't be hard at all.

 okay so yesterday i ate 1,100. still less than 1,200 i know...but i work in a hospital 12 hour shifts and we were super busy and didnt have time, i forgot to even eat lunch but i managed to cram it in.

The rush is...in January for my christmas break my boyfriend of 5 yrs and i are going to this huuuge indoor water park area we got free weekend tickets too with his friends. His friends have girlfriends who are still super in shape....i used to be!!! I gained 20 lbs now i want to loose it by January...i hate being compared to them. Well my boyfriend doesnt compare me, but i do.! doesnt sound like a huge deal to anyone but when you see these girls (5'6 115 lbs at most...and me 5'4 132 lbs) i kinda stand out.

Eat enough 1200-1500 calories it sounds like, start a weight lifting routine.  You'll look and feel better and have more muscle than stick thin girls.

A better term for "starvation mode" is adaptive thermogenisis.  It does exist.  Here's some information from our nutritionist, Mary Hartley.  Mary's articles can be found under the Advice tab.

Answer

Observations by scientists and lay people show that the "starvation mode" exists, but there is no clear explanation for the phenomenon and it is difficult to measure in the lab. In scientific terms, “starvation mode” is called “adaptive thermogenesis". In relation to weight loss, it is the decrease in calories burned by an individual following a low calorie intake, that is beyond what could be predicted by individual’s age, gender, weight, and activity. In other words, the person is burning fewer calories than the calculations predict. The composition of diet, duration of dieting, the exercise output, and the individual’s muscle-to-fat ratio all affect the adaptation. Unfortunately, obese individuals may be more prone to adaptive thermogenesis.

Am I in starvation mode if I am eating 500 calories a day?
Asked by anonymous on Mar 24, 2008 in Eating Disorders

I eat 500 calories a day or less.  Is it possible for me to loose weight if I keep eating 500 calories?

Answer

On 500 calories a day, you will become malnourished and your body will breakdown.  Your immune system won’t work; you will lose your muscle mass and lower your metabolism; you will lack energy, and then you will binge and feel badly about yourself.  Don’t do it!   Use the Burn Meter in the Tools section to calculate your calorie requirements at a decent activity level.  Eat a balanced diet at that calorie level and keep food logs.  Take it slower and practice new ways of eating and moving that can last for the rest of your life.

Original Post by jay2daq:

okay so yesterday i ate 1,100. still less than 1,200 i know...but i work in a hospital 12 hour shifts and we were super busy and didnt have time, i forgot to even eat lunch but i managed to cram it in.

The rush is...in January for my christmas break my boyfriend of 5 yrs and i are going to this huuuge indoor water park area we got free weekend tickets too with his friends. His friends have girlfriends who are still super in shape....i used to be!!! I gained 20 lbs now i want to loose it by January...i hate being compared to them. Well my boyfriend doesnt compare me, but i do.! doesnt sound like a huge deal to anyone but when you see these girls (5'6 115 lbs at most...and me 5'4 132 lbs) i kinda stand out.

If you want to lose weight healthfully by January you NEED to start eating more, end-of-story ... but you know this already.

Calorie Count's mission is to promote healthy and sustainable weight management. Please help our moderators follow this vision and respect the following guidelines.

• Promotion of starvation diets or habits that exhibit signs of an eating disorder ("pro-ana", "pro-mia", etc.) is prohibited.

Calorie Count cannot and will not support those who are undereating or advocating starvation diets. 1100 calories for a 20 year old woman 5'4" tall is too little and is a starvation diet.

Believe me, I know what it is like to be busy in a hospital. I know there are normally little cafes in most hospitals. Grab a bag of almonds (prob around 200 cals) or a snack bar (Kashi makes great ones for about 100-200 cals) to get your cals up during the day, it can be eaten on the go.

Why eating only 1200 calories or undereating doesn't work to lose weight

http://caloriecount.about.com/wont-lose-faste r-eat-calories-q3127

In the long run, you won’t lose weight faster by eating 1200 calories a day.  Under-eating deprives your body of essential nutrients and leads to muscle breakdown to provide energy.  With less muscle, you require fewer calories and you reach a weight low plateau more quickly.  Restrictive dieting also places you at risk for binge-eating which can lead to weigh gain and a life of yo-yo dieting.

Original Post by michaelinitaly:

I can tell you from personal experience that starvation mode does exist and it can mess you up. If you are eating 900 cal a day, guess what, your body is consuming more. If you stop eating, your body eats your body and there is not allot of vitamins in eating muscles and cell walls. I messed up my eyes big time and had to go under doctor care. I also was not hungry and thought all the people were just blowing smoke. I had the hardest time eating 1400 or 1600 and thought I would explode with all that food. Then I got into starvation mode and I could not lose an ounce no matter how low I went in calories.  It the end, after two doctors told me I was killing myself, I found a web book that made allot of sense. Now I eat 5 times a day and I am always hungry, but have energy and in the last month I lost 5% of my body weight without losing any weight. I am trying to maintain at my current weight and just shift the weight from fat to muscle. It seems to be working. The trick is to eat every three hours, it is like keeping a blast furnace going around the clock. Each meal you eat a protein and a carb. As soon as I started, I began losing weight again and when I reached my goal, I kept it up and cut back on the cardio and now I am working on muscle mass. I really hope you up your calories, because if you don't, you will be going to the doctors soon.

Thank you,

 Michael- I too screwed up my metabolism from restriction.... can you please tell me a sample day of your diet if you don't mind? Like what foods you will eat, and when? I'd like to start reversing this. Thanks!

hey there,
i lost about 30lbs in 4 months from eating 1,000 calories a day. I had three meals consisting of 300 calories each, and then a 100 calorie snack at night, and I never felt deprived. I'm now trying to eat about 1,200-1,400 calories a day, but it is hard if you only eat healthy foods because you can eat a lot of them without eating a lot of calories. The only problem I had with a 1,000 calorie a day diet is that whenever I splurged and ate more calories, I seemed to put on weight instantly. So, I do wonder if it had a negative effect on my metabolism. Anyway, I would say- try to get up to about 1,000 or 1,100 calories a day. Just eat an extra girl scout cookie each night. They're delicious anyway. :] Write to me if you have any questions. We have similiar stats, so I might be able to help you with any other problems as well. :]

-Adrea