Starvation mode

[Gridlock1]

Traditional diet advise has it that if you cut your calories to low then your body actually goes into starvation mode and your basal metabolic rate actually drops - at least that is what every person with half a GCSE in PE wants to tell me.

Having never seen any scientific evidence of this I would like to have it confirmed or debunked.

Frankly it sounds unlikely.

Not the basic idea of the body conserving energy if it thinks you are starving, that sounds logical but it raises another assumption that I doubt. For the body to be able to shift to starvation mode then that must mean that under normal circumstances the well fed body has a default mode of being inefficient. That is the body normally burns calories it doesn't actually have to.

That sounds incredibly unlikely. 20 million years of evolution during which lack of food was almost certainly always an issue, surely your body would have developed to work with maximum efficiency at all times, during feast and famine. Surely that is why it is so easy to put on fat and so hard to get it off?

What are these extra non-essential processes that the body does when you are well fed that it can stop when you are starving, where does it skim off the extra calories? Apart from digestion in what ways does an overfed person use energy that a starving person does not?

Anyone know about this? Can anyone point me to any evidence based reviews on the matter?

[Scott]

interested to see what you find out. I dont buy into the starvation mode that is thrown about.
From my own dieting I havent seen any evidence of it at all, quite the opposite.

I posted this article : http://www.spartan-warriors.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4733 which isnt totally the starvation mode thing but along the same lines, it has some interesting points that goes against most of the stuff Ive always been told.

[Cookie]

Traditional diet advise has it that if you cut your calories to low then your body actually goes into starvation mode and your basal metabolic rate actually drops - at least that is what every person with half a GCSE in PE wants to tell me.

Having never seen any scientific evidence of this I would like to have it confirmed or debunked.

Frankly it sounds unlikely.

Not the basic idea of the body conserving energy if it thinks you are starving, that sounds logical but it raises another assumption that I doubt. For the body to be able to shift to starvation mode then that must mean that under normal circumstances the well fed body has a default mode of being inefficient. That is the body normally burns calories it doesn't actually have to.

That sounds incredibly unlikely. 20 million years of evolution during which lack of food was almost certainly always an issue, surely your body would have developed to work with maximum efficiency at all times, during feast and famine. Surely that is why it is so easy to put on fat and so hard to get it off?

What are these extra non-essential processes that the body does when you are well fed that it can stop when you are starving, where does it skim off the extra calories? Apart from digestion in what ways does an overfed person use energy that a starving person does not?

Anyone know about this? Can anyone point me to any evidence based reviews on the matter?

Oh good question.

Calories are going to be burnt by all through the basics, digestion, breathing, bodily movements, heat regulation, brain activity etc. A well muscled individual would then burn more calories at rest than a fat person because of the extra calories required to move/keep the extra muscle mass.

On the flip side of that both individuals weighing the same but with different body fat percentages would still burn "similar" amounts of energy when moving their bulk bodies around. this was something a program debunked a few years ago about fat people being fat because their metabolisms were "slower". Scientists came back & proved that it was false, just as many calories burnt/used because the body had to work harder to move the larger individual around.

As for switching to starvation mode well I would have thought that for the body to kick something like that into action then an individual would have had to have been on a very low calorie diet for an extended period of time. I would hazard a guess that this "starvation mode" is yet another thing that has been taken out of context from any original studies & manipulated via the usual channels of media, manufacturers & body-builders to justify the need to eat every 3 hours on the dot or they will waste away.

[Cookie]

interested to see what you find out. I dont buy into the starvation mode that is thrown about.
From my own dieting I havent seen any evidence of it at all, quite the opposite.

I posted this article : http://www.spartan-warriors.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4733 which isnt totally the starvation mode thing but along the same lines, it has some interesting points that goes against most of the stuff Ive always been told.

That was a good thread

[Gridlock1]

I would hazard a guess that this "starvation mode" is yet another thing that has been taken out of context from any original studies & manipulated via the usual channels of media, manufacturers & body-builders .

My eyes were opened and I became very sceptical the day I heard a professor on the radio.

You know the old statistic 90% of all communication is non verbal? (Or whatever), endlessly bleated parrot fashion by 'motivational speakers' 'sales trainers' 'management consultants' etc etc

Well, this guy actually conducted the original study that the number of taken from (I am too lazy to find the references now) anywayn guess what? He said it is complete bollocks, and that he will go to the grave with that study as his biggest regret, basically the number applied to a very specific set of circumstances for very specific types of communication and message under certain laboratory conditions. It has absolutely nothing to do with real life, with selling or marketing or management. It has been lifted completely out of context and has spread like chinese whispers, none of these 'gurus' could name his study if they were called on it, they just use it because it is supposed common knowledge.

He posed the very illuminating question, If only 10% of communication is non verbal - then why do books exist?

[samurai69]

there is definately a starvation modein a matter, maybe some have lost part of its use through modern life, but there are small things that we do that show it to happen, but not in the way it is bandied around in the "diet"

my own theories still hark back to the "stoneage" diet rather than paleo which is supposed to be "hunter gatherer" evolution also leaves remnants from those times

but i think like everything there are many variables including climate, country of origin even down to town of origin, also mixed blood lines modern living and levels of excesses

look at what happens in animals that hibernate..........again all the hibernation patterns vary

bodies adapt and change

fat people get lazy.....lazy people get fat


.

[Scott]

I was reading a few things about this earlier today, this was from a running forum where someone had been put on a low cal diet / exercise prog :

Right, as a medic I feel I have to dispel this myth about going into starvation mode once and for all, weight plateaus are normal but there is no such thing as your body going into starvation mode by being on a severely reduced calorie intake, if that were the case, how do people become anorexic?, yes at some point your body will start losing muscle and not fat but this is why this Dr has recommended the exercise to keep the metabolism going, everyone has a BMR irrespective of the exercise you do and even if you were just lying in bed all day everyday and not eating anything, you would lose weight, you wouldn't go into 'starvation mode' and stop losing weight.

Weight watchers actually had a decent article on it :

While there is no biologic evidence to support the 'starvation mode' myth, there may be behavioural reasons why weight loss stops when calories are severely reduced.

I remember someone telling me I'd be in starvation mode if I skipped a meal and went over 4 hours without food

[tomato]

i agree that a lot of research is misinterpreted especially by newspapers and magazines, sensationalising findings without having an understanding of what it actually means and wheer they stand amongst all the other research out there.
its always worth findng the primary source and making your own mind up