Comments on: What is starvation mode and how does it affect weight loss

By: Zoe

Zoe — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 01:49:00 +0000

Okay–I’ve always been overweight. When eating healthy and exercising didn’t work, I ate less and exercised harder. Got down to 200 cals a day and up to 1-2 hours of intense aerobics and strength-training. But every year, I kept putting on weight. Now I’m in my 20’s and weigh 205 lbs, so my basal metabolism is really high. Now, honestly, I don’t look 205 lbs. I look more like 150 lbs, but I’ve got to lose weight. 205 lbs is just too much to be hauling around, and I don’t know what to do. All my tests come back normal. Now, I think I might have celiac disease. I’ve lost 20 lbs on a gluten-free diet, but the weight stopped coming off at 205. I think after so long of eating hardly anything, and possibly having celiac disease taking even more nutrients and cals away, I’m in starvation mode. My aunt and grandma eat anything they want and don’t have a weight problem; me and my mom hardly eat at all and have always had a weight problem. I’m upping my caloric intake and cutting way back on exercise, but I’m so afraid I’ll gain weight and not be able to lose it. I think I’ve already gain like 5 lbs. It took 20 years just to lose 20 lbs. Please, someone share some encouraging advice or a similar life story that ends happily.
Thanks for reading…

By: dezi

dezi — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:08:56 +0000

Hey question!
I have been doing insanity workout (I dont know if you have heard of it) and this is my second time doing it and I am into week 4. I started thinking I was going in to starvation mode because I was doing the training 2 times a day and resistance training in addition every other day. I don’t know if its my imagination but it seems like my belly has gotten bigger which is very strange because the last few weeks I have been so busy with school and training and work I have had hardly any time to eat and when i do it its all healthy. (I’m also a vegan).
If I’m not in starvation mode can you give me an idea of what might be happening?
any info you could give me would be great.

By: britney

britney — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 08:53:06 +0000

I found this to be fairly interesting. I’m 19, wiegh over 200 lbs, have lost 80 thus far, over the expantion of a few years. I eat twice daily, I grew up and am still fairly broke, And a vegan, so for the past 5 years or so I’ve lived, literally, off of peanut butter sandwhiches and sometimes, plain green leaf salads, and of course- water. I entered my info in to Ediets to set up an account before realizing you have to Pay- and it says with my height (5′ 5″) I should be intaking well over 2500 calories a day, But I’ll eat maybe a sandwhich or two a day, if that. And I drink a ton of water to help fill me up. When I keep track of my own calories, I take in between 6-800 daily, if that. This has been going on since I was 14. Do you have any tips on how I can boost my metabolism and lose weight, regularly? I work out once a day at Anytime Fitness, and go for jogs every other morning- But I don’t see many changes happening. :/

By: Buuggaloo

Buuggaloo — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 22:13:53 +0000

My entire life I have been over weight. I am not a big eater and when I do eat I always put thought into my meals health wise (grilled chicken breast, ground turkey, salads, fruits, veggies etc.) My son who is a powerlifter has yelled at me for years that I do not eat enough and therefore my body is in starvation mode. After two shoulder surgeries from an injury the scale jumped higher than I have ever seen! For the past 6 weeks I have been eating on a regular basis through out the day (good healthy foods) and I have dropped 15.8 pounds. Not everyone who is over weight is an over eater.

By: Nicolle

Nicolle — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 18:45:05 +0000

This is a load of crap. Your metabolism will slow down whether you lower your calories drastically or by 500…the less you weigh the lower your metabolism regardless of how you got there. It is also important to ask yourself how much your metabolism slows down? Not enough to stop weight loss! And once you are in a maintenance phase your metabolism will rise slightly due to the increased amount of calories.

Moving on, you do not have to eat less and less to lose weight. For instance if it takes 1500 calories a day to keep you at the weight that you are and you only eat 900 you will lose weight…let’s say you lose ten pounds and now it takes you 1300 calories a day to maintain your weight..you still have a 400 calorie a day deficit, yes you may be losing weight a bit slower but you are still losing weight. As long as you are eating below what it takes to maintain your current weight you will lose weight, how much and how quickly depends on how much of a deficit you are creating.

Lastly, yes you will lose muscle as you lose weight. There will be more muscle mass lost if you are lean than if you are overweight. The reason that people often gain so much weight back after going on a very low caloried diet is not because they have damaged their metabolism but rather because they have felt so deprived for so long that when they do resume eating what they perceive to be a “normal” diet they gorge themselves and that’s what puts on the excess weight. Not because their metabolism slowed down or because of muscle loss or any of the other things that people would have you believe to make you less responsible for your own weight problem.

Weight loss is really very simple calories in versus calories out. Eat less consistently and you will lose weight. That’s it.

By: Taha

Taha — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 14:33:10 +0000

hey guys ,i need help
i want to lose around 15 pounds in 2 months
i tried in once,i excerised alot and ate upto 1000 caalories per day but nothing happened
frm the previous 10 days ive been eating alot to get out of starvation mode,
hw should i cope up wid this ,i want to start dieting,hw much calories should i eat per day ,my bmr is 1600,thankuu

By: pseudoless

pseudoless — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 10:16:12 +0000

Calorie counting might make for entertainment, however portions and what it is you are intaking makes better sense to learn about. For example, one could take in a meal that has nutrients of a sort and minerals of a kind at a caloric level of low and lack and gain weight. Balanced means balanced and calories, well, a licensed practicing medical doctor needs to explain it all to you, about minerals and vitamins and calories and how you have to have a certain this and that and those to even utilize what you eat.