Starvation Mode Mythbusters
Starvation Mode Mythbusters
Starvation mode.
How to tell if your body is in starvation mode?
Does starving yourself make you gain weight?
Can starving make you lose weight?
All of this, and more, will be answered in today's article.
So get comfortable wherever you may be, and let's get started.
Starvation Mode Mythbusters: What is Starvation Mode?
According to Livestrong, 'starvation mode' is the following:
"When you eat fewer calories, your body worries that it will not get food soon. Your body overcompensates for this lack of food by burning fewer calories and holding onto fat stores. So, you hit a weight loss plateau instead of shedding pounds like you want to."
This theory has become increasingly popular over the last few years.
But is starvation mode real?
What Happens if I Starve Myself: How You Lose, Gain and Maintain Weight.
Firstly, it's crucial to establish how you can lose, gain and maintain your body weight.
So, does starving yourself make you gain weight? Well…
Wanna lose weight? Then it's a calorie deficit.
Wanna gain weight? Then it's a calorie surplus.
Wanna maintain your weight? Then you'd eat around maintenance.
That's put extremely simply.
But if you have no idea what any of that means, then to quickly explain it, if you need to eat around 2,200 calories daily to maintain your weight:
Then consistently eating 1,950 calories would be a calorie deficit and eventually result in weight loss.
Whereas consistently eating 2,450 calories would put you in a calorie surplus and eventually result in weight gain.
Note:
If you want more information about a calorie deficit and how to lose weight, then click here.
Note 2:
If you want to work out your calorie goal for losing, gaining or maintaining, click here for my calorie calculator.
Starvation Mode Mythbusters: Is Starvation Mode Real?
From my experience of coaching online for several years, most people are convinced they're in 'starvation mode' and start to Google "How to tell if your body is in starvation mode" or "Is starvation mode real?" due to one of three scenarios:
Because you've been seeing steady and sustainable weight loss on your journey so far, then your weight loss abruptly stops. You may gain some weight and then see it hover around maintenance.
You attempted something aggressive, e.g. cut out an entire food group, witnessed yourself lose a tonne of weight within one or two weeks, only for you to see it rapidly spike back up again.
You're just straight up not seeing any weight loss progress.
If one of these scenarios sounds familiar, you'll find out what's happening.
Starvation Mode Mythbusters: Proof Starvation Mode Doesn't Exist
Firstly, you need to realise that starvation mode doesn't exist - and saying 'starvation mode' is a myth isn't my opinion either - it's a fact.
Two solid examples instantly come to mind when it comes to the question, "Does starving yourself make you gain weight?"
The first is an unfortunate but valuable example of disproving starvation mode. You can look at pictures of prisoners of war and see that many are extremely skinny due to the severe neglect of whoever was 'in charge'.
The second example is the 'Minnesota starvation experiment', which started in March 1945 and lasted nine months.
So what happened in the Minnesota starvation experiment? And we're going to speak specifically about body weight because the main focus of this article is starvation mode and does starving yourself make you gain weight.
Well, as you can see - they became extremely skinny.
None of the participants gained weight or even held onto body fat.
So if these people lost an extreme amount of weight due to their starvation, why would you?
Overall:
Is starvation mode real? Definitely not.
It should be made extremely clear that I'm not condoning starvation in any way for weight loss - far from it.
If anything, this would be extremely unhealthy and unsustainable - and remember, health goes way beyond just body weight.
These examples of starvation are purely to prove that eating too little does not result in weight gain.
Does Starving Yourself Make You Gain Weight: Proving What's Happening
This section is going to answer each of the scenarios mentioned above.
Scenario 1
"You've been seeing steady and sustainable weight loss on your journey whilst being consistent. Then your weight loss abruptly stops, where you may even gain a little bit of weight and then see it hover around maintenance."
Sound familiar? Well, firstly, this isn't unusual. In fact, it's entirely normal.
Meaning you can stop listening to the starvation mode guru talking about how to tell if your body is in starvation mode - finishing with his one-off offer for his "starvation mode real plan" at 'only' £499.99.
This means that aside from your body not being in 'starvation mode', it'd be strange if this plateau didn't eventually happen. This plateau is called metabolic adaptation - a real thing, but it's not "starvation mode".
Nor is this some complex starving weight loss secret - it's simply because as your body weight decreases, there's less need for as many calories. After all, you're carrying less weight around.
Think of it like this; if I were to diet on 1,400 calories, which is about half of what I need to maintain my weight, there'll eventually be a day when the 1,400 calories would stop working for me for fat loss.
Although in the initial months, and maybe even year - I would lose substantial amounts of fat.
With that, I'd inevitably become lighter, therefore burning fewer calories when I move.
Months of being in a calorie deficit would also hamper my performance and ability to exercise for long periods. Therefore impacting my NEAT (everyday movement that isn't working out, e.g. walking, going upstairs) and EAT component (conscious exercise).
So from eating less, I'd reduced my thermic effect of food, or my TEF (digestion process), and having become a lighter and smaller version of myself, overall impacting and decreasing my BMR (the rate your body uses energy to live).
All of this contributes to my overall daily expenditure (TDEE), meaning that what was once a 50% deficit (1,400 calories) would eventually become a 0% deficit with sufficient time.
Image used from @ELFitness
Avoiding a plateau entirely is extremely unlikely; it's normal and part of the process. All you have to do to get back on track is make minor adjustments to your nutrition and exercise.
Although when you find yourself plateauing and slowing down, you need to remember factors such as psychology, attitude, and environment are all coming into play too.
Note:
The "make slight adjustments with your approach to nutrition and exercise" solution only works if you are at least 85% beforehand.
I've seen many scenarios where people, potentially you included, will have poor levels of consistency and then start wondering about made-up scenarios like "how to tell if your body is in starvation mode?" then try to make up for it by further reducing calories.
Listen up.
Stop trying to make up for your lack of consistency by tweaking things to make your plan even more challenging.
If you struggle to be consistent with your current calorie goal for weight loss, what makes you think you will be consistent by trying to aim for even less?
Only go ahead with the solution mentioned in the 'scenario 1 section' if you can truthfully say your consistency has been at least 85%.
If your consistency needs to be improved, you must step it up first. Because worrying about how to tell if your body is in starvation mode means your priorities are in the wrong place.
Scenario 2
"You attempted something aggressive, e.g. cut out an entire food group, witnessed yourself lose a ton of weight within one or two weeks, only for you to see it rapidly spike back up again."
This is an essential scenario for why you may claim to be in 'starvation mode', but in reality, you're most likely in a 'binge/restrict cycle', and this happens a tonne, so read closely.
Let's say you aim for an aggressive calorie goal of 1,200 calories per day because you try to borderline starve yourself to lose weight. You're consistent with this calorie goal Monday to Thursday. But on weekends, you want a break from tracking calories, but "still do your best to be in a calorie deficit."
Although what if I told you this is precisely where you're going wrong?
Because here's what's likely going on right now:
Monday - 1,200
Tuesday - 1,300
Wednesday - 1,100
Thursday - 1,200
Friday - 3,800
Saturday - 4,000
Sunday - 3,600
The end of the week is filled with guilt, and you promise yourself that you're "going to get back on track".
Eating 1,200 calories four days a week to try to starve yourself to lose weight only ends up backfiring because you eat closer to 4,000 on the other three days.
This aggressiveness at the beginning of the week is easily why you struggle.
But you don't notice how much you're overeating at the end of the week either because you're so mentally fixated on the restrictiveness you're following between Monday and Thursday.
Even when you're going way over 1,200 calories, it doesn't click because 24/7, your head is still thinking about the 1,200 calorie goal you're "meant to be eating".
So to conclude with this second scenario, you're eating way more calories than you think.
Don't believe me? Start tracking your weekends.
Scenario 3
"You're just not seeing any weight loss progress."
Again, the reason isn't because of whatever some online TikTok guru tells you about a made-up, overcomplicated, starving weight loss theory.
But if you're just not seeing any weight progress, I've written an entire article about why you're in a calorie deficit but not seeing weight loss progress.
To summarise that article in just a single paragraph wouldn't do it justice, as a handful of potential variables come into play. You can click here to read an article that could change your life.
The article also mentions one of the thought processes eventually noticed by Kairos Online member, Anca, on her own fitness journey.
Starvation Mode Mythbusters: "So if it's Not 'Starvation Mode', Maybe my Metabolism is Just Damaged"
Again, listen up.
Your metabolism isn't damaged, and anyone who tells you it has no idea what they're talking about.
So what on Earth is going on? By this point, you already know the answer to "Is starvation mode real?" Because it's simply the fact that you're eating and drinking more calories than you think, either that or your physical activity levels have declined.
If you genuinely believe the above sentence isn't the case, then:
Make and follow a consistency calendar.
Or get a check-up with a doctor to check your thyroid.
Either way, by the end of each point, you'll be 100% certain of what's going on.
Starvation Mode Mythbusters: Ending
I do hope you enjoyed reading this starvation-mode mythbusters article.
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Speak soon,
Leo
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