Starvation mode?

[annal041]

I have cut my calories this last week and have been eating less than 650 a day. My weight loss has not sped up but has slowed down alot. I am only drinking supplements so I know exactly how many calories I'm having. I've read that your metabolism slows down when you don't have enough and it can halt weight loss. Should I eat more to lose weight? If so, how much should I eat? And I don't want to gain any weight that I've lost.

 

[overlandflyer]

it's not as much how much you eat, but when you eat. reduced calories should not be spread out over the day. this will lead to a metabolism slowdown. search YouTube for lectures on intermittent fasting. for your body to enter a fat burning state it must get out of glycolysis and into ketosis. that occurs from 12-14 hours after you stop eating. please don't take my word for it, but you will certainly find a number of qualified nutritionalists to back this up. with weight loss, the smarter i got, it easier it got.

at 21:16 in this video, there is a good explanation of "starvation mode"
Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting

 

[dhi67540]

Starving yourself is not a solution - your body will simply adapt (to a point) before medical issues start to arise. This is why a balanced diet AND exercise is always recommended. If the energy you expend in a day exceeds the calories you consume then, on average, you will lose weight.

 

[Tiki1]

Hi annal041

Using starvation to lose weight is neither sustainable nor a good idea. It might actually lead to more issues along the way. How? Well, replacing food sources that your body is naturally adapted to (aka the veggies, fruits and other products humans have consumed over time) with shakes might not give you all the beneficial ingridients like vitamins and minerals that your body needs to function properly.
And then of course there is the issue of going very low with calories. In doing so you will actually primarly trigger a loss of muscle mass since your body is going into crisis mode (your body doesn't understand a low calorie diet it will treat it like starvation). This will lead to more problems since your muscle tissue needs energy and helps you burn body fat. It will also have an effect on your weight after the diet (you are very likely to regain the weight plus a bit more since your body will have less to store sugar and burn fat with).

What should you do instead?
Try to focus on real food, make sure you get some weight training in to regain a bit of muscle tissue (don't worry you won't look like the Hulk) and make sure you find something that is sustainable over a long time (hint, starvation is not it).

 

[overlandflyer]

.... If the energy you expend in a day exceeds the calories you consume then, on average, you will lose weight.

sorry, but not always. eat the wrong sort of calories at the wrong times and i will guarantee you will never lose a single pound.

Hi annal041
... This will lead to more problems since your muscle tissue needs energy and helps you burn body fat....

body fat IS stored energy. the problem with badly planned reduced calorie diet (starvation mode) is never entering a ketogenic state where you body can actually access that fat store.

 

[Tiki1]

body fat IS stored energy. the problem with badly planned reduced calorie diet (starvation mode) is never entering a ketogenic state where you body can actually access that fat store.

Yes, body fat is stored energy. But to reduce these stores you do not necessarily need to be in ketosis (which doesn’t mean it won’t help). If so, diets camps who advocate low fat and high carb intake like the Ornish diet or even diets low in carbs (not low enough to enter ketosis) like the paleo diet would never work for anyone (which they do). And while I am personally not in any particular “diet camp” (especially not in the low fat ones) when it comes to nutrition, there are many ways to achieve weight loss and lower body fat levels besides fasting and ketosis (again it doesn’t mean that these are not valuable, which they are).

Starving yourself is not a solution - your body will simply adapt (to a point) before medical issues start to arise. This is why a balanced diet AND exercise is always recommended. If the energy you expend in a day exceeds the calories you consume then, on average, you will lose weight.

Technically dhi67540 is right when it comes to saying that you have to spend more calories than you take in to lose weight. It’s a basic law of thermodynamics. You consume any of the three macronutrients (fat, carbs and protein) in excess amounts of your needs and your body will store them as body fat. However, this is not as straight forward as eat less and move more since there are many factors that influence the complex processes in a dynamic system like the human body. Digestion (gut microbiome and gut health), sleep, hormones (like your thyroid hormones T3 and T4, estrogen and cortisol), your daily activity level and even the way you prepare your food are just a few of the factors relevant to how many calories your body absorbs and how your body deals with its energy stores. Counting calories is therefore not an exact science but similar to a shotgun approach where you shoot in the direction of the target and hope you hit something. It may certainly help some people in certain situation to keep track of their calories, but it is in no way an exact science.

You have to exceed your intake to get your body to tap into the stored energy that we call fat cells. If you go too low with your intake it will be perceived as a threat to your survival and therefor trigger the deconstruction of muscle tissue among other negative effects. The focus should be on a sustainable approach with natural food sources, not shakes.

 

[overlandflyer]

Yes, body fat is stored energy. But to reduce these stores you do not necessarily need to be in ketosis ....

i probably use the wrong terms as i tend to relate the two type of energy production as either glycolysis or ketosis. i'm sure there can be a mix of the two processes (though technically not in those states) when demand is high. years ago when i was biking more seriously, i was eating a high carb diet and had no problem maintaining a healthy BMI. but now in my senior years, with joint replacements, i have to count on diet much more than exercise, especially since it is the failure to maintain that high energy level and lower caloric intake that leads to regaining weight. i am not trying to fool my body, i'm simply taking advantage of built-in nutritional processes. if i do eat poorly, i try to be as smart as i can about it.