Starvation mode again...

Hairspray

Heya its me once again ,i was wondering how long till your body gets out of starvation mode?Im currently 4 weeks out of starvation mode and still seem to be gaining weight easily!Im sarting to wonder wheather or not the starvation mode state is just a myth or something.

If anyone could give me any info ,it would be great.

Just so ya guys know ,i got to the gym 5 days a week and do weights everyy second day ,im a girl who has gone up from 9st 7 to 10 st 8 since coming out of staravtion mode and would dearly love to be able to get down to 10 stone in a month or two!

thanks

Dragan

What exactly do you mean by "starvation mode"?

It can mean a lot of things to a lot of people.

Hairspray

I meant that by eating less than 1200 cals a day ,i was living on about 600-700 but made the decision to try and eat more since i was sick of treating my body like crap and never having any energy and a crap metabolism to boot!

Traditionally (sorry about the bad spelling) has meant that eating anything less than 1200 cals a day means your body goes into famine mode where it begins to store everything as fat ,what i'd like to know is there any truth to this claim ?As im still putting on weight 4 weeks after increasing my caloire intake.

rubadub

you dont just turn on an off a switch for "starvation mode", and there is no magic number where it begins or ends. You need to figure out your daily calorific needs

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=50956807&postcount=4

If you start eating less your body gets used to it, so your metabolism slows down. The more extreme you do it, the more it slows, so when very slow they just tag is "starvation mode" It is no myth, if you looked at an documentaries or live aid etc you would see them delivering food packs to countries and they had low calorific amounts but enough for them to survive.

People enjoy eating so many view a slow metabolism as a bad thing, but really your body is more efficient with its fuel. Conversely people value a car that uses little fuel, cheaper to run. Well if you get by on fewer calories you are also cheaper to run! but a problem is getting in enough nutrients from this small amount of food.

As you start to eat more you might put on wieght even if sticking to the figures calculated from the link above. All forumlas are estimates. Eating 6 evenly sized evenly spaced meals per day will increase your metabolism (breakfast should be the biggest meal), lifitng heavy weights will add muscle and also boost the metabolism.

Sleepy

Hairspray - post your typical daily nutrition and your exercise plan and I'm sure you'll get some great advice here.

amazingemmet

If you go to your doctor and get a full blood panel done and make sure they look for T3, T2, T4, TSH and the bound versions when they are in normal ranges then your metabolism is roughly in the right place, though your dr can give more advice on this.

Hairspray

Woza!!!Just did that boards caluclator thingy i need like
2359 cals a day!!.Im currently on 1200!How should i go about increasing this?

A typical days diet would be
Breakfast:3tbs porrdige,300ml milk ,2tsp sugar ,and some mueslie and branflakes into that to make it more filling.

Midmorning snack :Fruit and Yoghurt.

Lunch:Yoghurt ,Half a piece of wholemeal toast ,protein burger,Fruit

Post workout:2 x Low carb protein drinks ,300 cals ,50 g protein ,4 grams carbs

Dinner:2 qourn sausages ,veg ,small bit of potatoe ,or qourn chicken pieces with
veg.

Late night snack:300 ml milk supermilk. and low fat yoghurt

Im a vegetarian lol.

Generally at the gym i would do weights first do them for about an hour or so
Then do 18 mins crosstrainer ,4 min warm up ,25 mins bike followed by 10 mins rower.

Im currently trainig for a triathlon so hopefully my training program will look something like this
Weights
35 min bike or 20 mins jogging
18 mins cross t
15 mins rowing
4 min warm up.

I also go swimming sundays and i do 25 lengths then.

Im 5ft 6 ,18 a student and currently 10st 4 or 10 st 8 since i need my glasses for the weighing scales in the gym:p

Any advice you could give me would be super awesome thanks!:D

hardtrainer

If you're only eating 1200 cals a day you're really putting yourself in a very dangerous state and I wouldn't expect you to be able to complete a triathalon on that kind of calorific intake.

Regarding 'starvation mode', this is only true in the initial stages of a calorie intake drop, i.e. in the first few weeks following a dramatic reduction in calories. Following this, your body begins to breakdown muscle to reduce your calorie needs and reduce the gap between what you're taking in and what your body needs. If you continue to eat so drastically below your body's needs, you can do permanent physiological damage and develop some very nasty complications, including neurological impairments, reproductive damage among others.

Hairspray

Guys its paying off!!Yesterday it was my 18th and i managed to get into a medium sized skirt even on the first day of mrs visit something which 3 weeks ago or so i wouldnt have been able to manage .

I think my metabolism is picking back up since i've been out of starvation mode almost 5 weeks now ,i plan on increasing my cals by about 200 a week till i get to 2000 since i do about 2 hours of excersise (weights and cardio included )5 days a week.

Guys its a been a tough journey so far and there was times when i almost reverted back to not eating as much out of fear of getting fat again .

Btw would anyone have any information on the truth about metabolism boucning back properly?Or shall i forever have a slow metabolism.

Aslo is two protein shakes a day a good or bad idea?

I'd love any info ,thanks