[HealthPNut]

Does anyone know when starvation mode usually kicks in? I mean how many days of low-calorie eatting does it take for your body to adjust. I like to eat low-cal for monday-thursday (between 600-900 calories) and then eat maintenance level Friday and Saturday, and about 1500 calories on Sunday (just a little below maintenance).
Does anyone know if this will send me into starvation mode? Should I add one maintenace day during the week and take away one from my weekend?
Thanks!

[JamieJo]

Holy crap girl. 600-900 calories a day? Is that a normal range? I could NEVER stick to that! I would assume, but i'm no professional, that this would surly send your body into starvation mode and hurt the metoblism for the long run.

[Glory87]

There's a lot to be worried about with extremely low cal dieting besides "will it stop me from losing weight." How about "can I get all the nutrients my body needs to be healthy if I eat less than 1K calories a day?" The answer is probably no.

I completely understand the "must lose weight as quickly as possible, however possible" mindset because I lived that way for almost 20 years. I can honestly say it did work - SHORT TERM. But I NEVER successfully kept off weight for any length of time until I finally gave myself permission to eat.

Good luck.

[ValRock]

Your body will most definately go into starvation mode if you restrict that severely. I wouldn't recommend going any lower than 1200. If you send your body into starvation mode you risk gaining the weight back very quickly and ruining your metabolism. It's not worth it in my honest opinion.

I'm rarely hungry and sometimes I have to force myself to break the 1200 or 1300 threshold but I know I won't be successful in the long run if I don't give my body the fuel it needs!

[raw23]

I'll so some calorie shifting from time to time... eat 1300-1400 most days, have one day thats 1000 but then another day that week that's 1800. For the week it balances out to 1300-1400/day. But that's the closest I'll get to dropping the calories. I like to think that it keeps my motabolism on it's toes I learned when I first started this thing, that it does more harm then good to cut back on calories.

[PhotoChick]

What you're doing is dangerous to your health. Forget "starvation mode" and losing weight, you're depriving your body of needed nutrients for simple survival. You won't just burn fat, you'll burn lean muscle as well.

Yes, this will send you into starvation mode. It will also make you really really sick.

And whatever weight you lose by doing this will come right back when you start eating healthily again.

Please rethink this strategy. It's not a good one.

.

[kaplods]

This is definitely crash dieting, and oh so dangerous, physically and psychologically. So many reasons not to do this. I did this when I was very young, and I think it did more to contribute to my weight gain than my weight loss. It lowers metabolism, stresses your health, is associated with health problems like hair loss, gall stones, dry scaly skin, and in some cases serious health problems like kidney and heart damage.

I have alot of health problems now, and some of them my doctor tells me are probably a result of the years of yoyo and crash dieting, not just the result of being obese. The stress of gaining and losing many times, and the stress of repeated bouts of poor nutrition. I wouldn't want anyone to go through the craziness I've had to.

In many ways, I crash dieted my way to nearly 400 lbs. This kind of dieting really screws with your head, and can become an eating disorder very quickly.

It may sound like I'm over-reacting, but if there is one thing I could change in my life, it would be to never try to diet at under 1200 calories. I would have saved myself so much misery and I sincerely believe, I would have never reached anything near my highest weight.

[Shannon in ATL]

PNut -
I just reread your post and see that you vary daily, not that you eat 600-900 every day - what is your maintenance level that you use on F & Sa? I'm shorter than you and I got 1700-2000 out of the standard calculators for myself at the weight where you are now.

Lets say the number you are using is 1600 for maintenance, since you said the 1500 cal Sunday is just a little below it - so 600 cals M-T, 1600 F & S, 1500 Su = 1014/day average over the week. Bumping that M-T to 900 = 1185/day. That is still low for your height and weight. I would up that a little - as everyone else has already said, depriving yourself of nutrients is really bad for you in the long run. 1200 is pretty commonly thought of as the bare minimum for a woman, and was 500 less per day than the 1734 maintenance I got from the calculators at 147 pounds with no exercise.

Calorie cycling in itself isn't a bad thing - yes, if I were you I would take one of the maintenance days out of the weekend and break up the long string of low days. Maybe M,T - low, W - Maint, T,F - low, S - Maint, Su - lower than maintenance, not as low as the other days. I would shoot for an average of no less than 1200, and again, at your height, depending on how much you exercise, make sure that you get the nutrients you need at that 1200.

Added: I did read when I started the diet and exercise process that the body will start to adjust to the super low calorie level after 4 days - don't know if that is true, and honestly can't remember where I read it, but there it is.

[walking2lose]

Good gosh, girl! I have to chime in with the others, and say please rethink your strategy. Mon-Thu you need more food -- 600-900 calories is not good! Why don't you add in 400-500 calories of healthy foods - low fat dairy (string cheese or laughing cow), hummus and crackers, lean skinless chicken breast, veggies, fruit, nuts, etc.

[HealthPNut]

Wow, I didn't realize I would get that reaction! Haha... maybe I'm in denial? I also think though that I get more vitamins, minerals, and nutrients than a lot of people that eat even 2000 calories in a day. I recorded everything I ate yesterday which was a standard day for Monday-Thursday...

3 egg whites w/ 1/2 cup spinach, 1/5 onion some brocolli sprouts- ~60 cal
1 mini whole grain wrap- 50 cal/ 5 protein/ 3 carbs/ 7 fiber
1/2 cup watermelon- 25 cal
about 10 spears asaparagus- 20 cal
1/2 cup brocolli and cheese sauce- 45 cal
1 small bananna- 80 cal
1/2 cup light cranberry juice w/ 1/2 cup acai berry juice- 75 cal
1 can tuna- 125 cal
1/2 tomato- 10 cal
1/2 cup spinach- 5 cal
1/4 cup brocolli sprouts (not sure on the calories, not many though)
1 pickle- 5 cal
a little bit of chopped up white and green onion, and red and green pepper
1/2 of a large red potato w/ a tiny bit of soy milk (made into mashed potatoes- 90 cal
8 oz. light vanilla soymilk- 80 cal
1 cup homemade veggie/organic chili w/ tofu- 150 cal
cup of green tea

The total calories is about 820. About 6-7 servings of veggies and 3 servings fruit. The protein may seem low, about 60 grams, but that's because I have a very weak left kidney and protein can be hard on it.

Shannon- on my "maintenance" days I eat about 1800-2500 calories.
I didn't think eatting low cal would be bad for me as long as everything I ate was very healthy. By the way, I love your name! It was my baby sister's.

Do you guys still think this is very unhealthy? I mean we're so focused on daily totals, but aren't weekly more important?

Either way, thanks very much for the replies... they're very helpful. I find it's best to go with what the majority believes in most cases.

[HealthPNut]

Oh yeah, on another note, I used to eat junk food all the time, with healthy food here and there. My idea of getting in my veggies was drinking a glass of v8 every day, which is good, but I don't think it's sufficient. Anyway, since I've been eatting like this my skin and hair look and feel waaay better! I guess that's another thing I was looking at that made me think I was being more "healthy".

[ndnguy85]

the starvation mode myth

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/a...d=35501&sc=801

[kaplods]

Since the article admits that extreme calorie restriction does, at least in many instances, lower metabolism - it's not really debunking, but rather confirming the fact, of what is generally meant by starvation mode.

Most of us when talking about starvation mode, realize that metabolism is slowed, but not stopped by severe calorie restriction (if you're not eating enough to sustain life, you will eventually starve to death, starvation mode does not prevent starvation, it just slows down the process, by reducing your calorie needs - your metabolism).

As we've often discussed here, not everyone seems to experience metabolism reduction to the same degree. A few notice little or no difference, while many of us have noticed a dramatic difference, the more severely we restrict calorie intake, the fewer calories we burn. Research bears this out, some people apparently are more susceptible to metabolic decline than others.

My doctor who doesn't believe anything without peer-reviewed support, told me that there is quite a bit of research to support the finding that crash dieting for many people appears to result in insulin resistance and/or a reduced metabolism with each diet attempt. It's surely been true for me.

What I am eating now to lose weight slowly, in the past, would have resulted in extremely rapid weight loss. My metabolism is obviously extremely reduced. My activity level and aging have played a role, but my doctor (and I) believe that years of yoyo dieting played the largest role in the sad state of my current metabolism.

[ndnguy85]

i agree with you kaplods. whenever i cut, i only reduce it MAX by 500. most of the time it's somewhere around 250-350 calories.

not only are we risking metabolism problems, also muscle mass.

severe calorie deficit + low protein + cardio on empty stomach = disaster! and people wonder why they end up with loose skin and sick looking.