Starvation, Calories, and Adaptations

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Great thing about these threads is that they never get old.

So many threads to work through, with a little nugget from each one :D
 
It's a well known fact isn't it, that if you starve yourself or even try and survive on a bit of tired old carrot here and there, the body will see it as time of famine and hang onto whatever fat it has. All animals do this and we are no different. So why people get so obsessed with weight and almost suicidal if they plateau is a mystery to me. We need fats carbohydrates and proteins for our body to work properly. What we don't want is too much of these things. All things in moderation, and moderation in all things
 
A note I would like to add about doing small, frequent meals.

I don't recall reading the bit that doing this speeds up your metabolism. What I've always read in articles is that by eating small, frequent meals, you stabilize your insulin levels and avoid big peaks and valleys in your blood sugar during the day. This helps you avoid feeling hungry and it helps you avoid binge eating. As your body gets used to frequent, small meals, it also adjusts hormonally to using those calories you consume more readily and isn't so quick to put them into storage (fat) for future energy needs. This is in addition to helping you get the proper balance of macronutrients for your particular metabolism.
 
Well I dont want to mess up my metabolism because it is pretty high. What I do when I have to lose weight is I will go for 2 weeks or soo and lose about
5-10 pounds and then for the next couple weeks I will eat my normal way and maintain my weight. Over the past 6 months or soo I have lost close to 40 pounds and it is pretty easy. It might just be me but I have been able to maintain my weight for the past year or so. The main thing with me is just getting the extra weight off.
 
Steve said:
I replied to someone's post in the Cohen's Forum accidently. I hadn't realized that I was actually in the Cohen's room, a place I like to stay out of. But, just to put my reply into context for you, the original poster was unsure how she could lose weight for weeks and then, simply plateau. It triggered this from me:

People will never get this on this board. Let's pretend your maintenance is 2500 calories per day. This means, you are eating 2500 calories worth of energy per day and you are expending roughly 2500 calories worth of energy per day. Results in a net break-even and theoretically, there is no weight gain or loss. Right?

BTW, 2500 calorie maintenance level would be for someone roughly 170 lbs. The bigger you are, the higher your maintenance level is.

INFORMED individuals looking to lose weight will cut calories by some small margin, say 10-20%. As they begin to lose weight, their metabolism will slow, even though they are going about weight loss in an appropriate fashion. You can't continue losing weight forever at your original deficit. Your metabolism catches up to you and it slows to a point where you won't see results. At this point, depending on a few factors, you could cut calories again to trigger another deficit based on your NEW maintenance level.

There comes a point where this will become counter-productive. You can't expect to continually play the "slashing calories" game and expect to be healthy AND expect to see results. There comes a point where you CAN'T eat any less and ideally, you don't follow the path this far! After a certain point, I recommend starting a cyclical diet where you bounce calories up and down. Or a diet including refeeds of carbs. There are multiple options you can execute once you come to this fork in the road.

Now, around here, most people cut calories originally by some ridiculous amount. Still using a maintenance of 2500 calories, I find many around here will slash to 1200, or something ludicrous like this. Why a 50% calorie slash seems OK to some of you I will never understand. Our bodies are very adaptive, finely tuned machines that are built to survive. And you better believe that you are sending many, many signals to your body that say, "Time to change physiologically because it looks like we are going through some hard times."

One of the greatest, actually, the greatest metabolic studies ever conducted was the Minnesota Starvation Diet. Here, they slashed calories by 50% off of maintenance to realize the impacts STARVATION had on post war and Jewish victims of the Nazis, and how to best go about rehabbing them. The sad thing is, I see a lot of people doing this same thing around here.

When you do this the right way, your body will adapt and progress will slow. What do you think doing it the wrong way does?

I have no idea any of the original poster's stats or how she is going about weight loss, so please don't think I am directing this at you.

But something that is directed at you is this. You say you don't understand how you can lose weight for weeks and then, plateau. That is because you don't understand how your body works. Your body adapts. The same technique, have it be a certain calorie intake, a certain way of exercising, or whatever have you will have to be manipulated and changed if you are going to realize continued success.

And for those of you who do things the least optimal way through starvation* are going to have a long, hard road ahead of you if your goal is actually looking and feeling good, and not just what the number on the scale says.

*realize that starvation does not actually mean eating nothing and being on the verge of death. i mean depriving your body of the basic macro and micro nutrients as well as sufficient calories in so that you are creating a below par atmosphere for your overall health and continued success.

END OF RANT AND THIS SHOULD BE STICKIED, NOT THAT ANYONE WILL.
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I see this is an old post but I'm glad to read someone spelling it out for readers.
Personally I've found that changin the way I eat (paleo mostly, kosher- health reasons, allergies) and still getting my workouts in there's leftover calories. I spend most of my day comfortably full there's no way I could eat 1800 calories a day, not for lack of trying. my calories counter adjusts for calories burned with exercise so it demands that I eat even more, but rest days are about 1800 cal. To maintain current. Anyway just my two cents.
Y'all people need to eat! Just stop with the sandwiches. Lol
 
Yeah, probably been the worst mistake I have done so far. At the beginning, it is very easy to be overly confident that you can sustain just 50% of calories for months on end. It can rapidly cause you to develop a disorder where you binge and then try to make up for that binge with tons of cardio and more starvation.
 
Absolutely agree that starvation can't help in a long term period. It is just about raping yourself. Feed your organism right and regularly and it will not save fat. Being on a diet we usually think, that if we stop eating at all, we will lose weight rapidly. And maybe that’s true. But the catch is in the fact that we lose proteins that needed to build our muscles. And in a situation of stress, our organism starts to accumulate fat, because it doesn’t know how long hard times will last. Next when we realize, that stop eating was very hard or even useless we start eat as usual, and our organism accumulates more fat, because it remembers, that there were hard times.
 
Your brain is more worried about keeping you from starving, making sure that you (and your genes) survive. When you lose a lot of weight, the body starts trying to conserve energy by reducing the amount of calories you burn. It also makes you feel hungrier, lazier and increases your cravings for food.
 
Starving is stupid.

Quick question: Assuming one reduces his caloric intake from 2,500 to 1,800 and works out an hour a day burning an extra 500 calories per day doing cardio and strength training, will that have the same "starving" effect as if the guy cut down to 1,300 calories and did not exercise?
 
I’m not sure how u got the impression I was taking an effortless approach - working my butt off for another month before settling in to my new lifestyle of good healthy eating and much less drinking alcohol. I also discovered the joys and benefits of the morning workout. Boom!

I am very happy u found your answer. I honestly think i found mine. Only took me 46 years - ha!
 
Steve said:
I replied to someone's post in the Cohen's Forum accidentally....
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I really enjoyed reading your post, thank you. I've been guilty of doing the starvation diets. I love food too much though, thank goodness. I think the problem I find in dieting, is I am often worried that I am not getting enough nutrition. I over eat, because I'm trying to get more nutrients. I am constantly thinking about nutrition and my body's needs. When I try to eat healthier I'm constantly worried I'm not getting enough of something... I need help with this.
 
Wow remarkable information.I am one that likes to stay around the 1200
mark for weight loss then when I get to my magnificent weight I will find the calorie range to keep up.
 
sweetheart4romance said:
I really enjoyed reading your post, thank you. I've been guilty of doing the starvation diets. I love food too much though, thank goodness. I think the problem I find in dieting, is I am often worried that I am not getting enough nutrition. I over eat, because I'm trying to get more nutrients. I am constantly thinking about nutrition and my body's needs. When I try to eat healthier I'm constantly worried I'm not getting enough of something... I need help with this.
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once again... fasting can be a healthy part of any diet, but starvation is a condition brought on by specific circumstances. they both involve abstaining from caloric intake, but are not the same thing. many people misuse the word starvation as related to fasting. ignoring hunger during fasting times is quite normal, but it should not be called "starving yourself".
 
overlandflyer said:
once again... fasting can be a healthy part of any diet, but starvation is a condition brought on by specific circumstances. they both involve abstaining from caloric intake, but are not the same thing. many people misuse the word starvation as related to fasting. ignoring hunger during fasting times is quite normal, but it should not be called "starving yourself".
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Is this in response to my original post?
 
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