Starvation Mode

Starving yourself is the reason you’re holding body fat.


Said by some cockwomble on SM This is the typical non nuance BS social media spits out. Along with people saying the reason you’re not losing weight is because you’re not eating enough? holy cockwombles

Ok let’s break it down.


In a starvation event your body’s immediate response is to preserve everything it can. It’s trying to survive. So yes hold onto fat, down regulate everything . BUT.. you’re still going to lose body fat plus other things like muscle etc. Because your body is still requiring energy to function and if you’re not bringing it in via food and fluids it's going to use up what its got. So no. You’re not going to continue to hold onto fat and not lose weight. The Minnesota experiment, African famine events, Auschwitz and Gaza situation all show what happens in a starvation situation.


Now the not losing because you’re not eating enough. Similar concept but what's shown is not that you’re not losing because not eating enough. Because if you weren’t eating enough as in below your body's energy requirements or TDEE. Your body will still need the energy and dip into energy stores. Which is within areas like your muscle, liver and stored body fat. Therefore losing weight.


What’s happening in these situations is they’re not eating enough. Then they blow out on weekends or at night due to the unsustainable approach of eating very little. Negating any energy deficit and therefore ending up in a neutral or excess energy balance.

Of which gets stored.


Whats never happening is that someone is maintaining or gaining weight in a negative energy balance. Excess weight cannot be stored from thin air. Coaches need to stop with the BS reference to their clients now losing weight because they’re eating more.

They were never eating less in the first place.


There’s one other area to cover in these scenarios. Following on from the starvation mode BS. Another reason it raises its head is when people have been dieting for a while and have lost a lot of weight over time.


Then they’re not losing anything, plateauing yet nothing has changed.

But that's the issue, nothing has changed.


They’re eating the same but now their physique is a different body composition and weight. It has different goals to continue with weight loss.

So the original calculations no longer work.

They were a deficit at say 100kg but not for someone at say 75kg.


In all these scenarios nobody has ever gained or maintained weight in a calorie deficit. Mass cannot be created from thin air. Excess body fat is created from excess energy. Regardless of your hormones or your feelings.