omg - sooooo frustrated

[momtodane]

Will somebody please clearly explain or give me a link to a reputable site that explains "starvation mode." My husband, who is other than this quite intelligent btw, does not believe starvation mode exists.

We just got in an argument about this and I am not good at arguing - I just get frustrated because I know I'm right! I'm the one who has done tons of reading on all this "diet" stuff but he doesn't believe me. I told him people's experiences of not losing weight due to eating too few calories and he said they must be lying. ACK! Somebody help me here, lol.

[lady_elyria]

MOM,

he is a link you can cut and paste to web MD it talks about metabolism...
http://www.*****.com/content/article/117/112435.htm


I would have never belived that you need to eat more but it is true I have started eating between 1300 and 1400 calories a day ( more than I ever ate before and have lost 5 pounds and not water weight. hope he gets it....

[DebiAZ]

www.bodyforlife.com/nutrition/articles.asp?cmsId=291

Q: I have really been restricting my calories, but I just don’t seem to be getting anywhere with my fat-loss program. What’s wrong?

A: When anyone severely restricts their daily caloric intake, their body rapidly goes into a starvation mode—a reaction we have all inherited from our distant ancestors who were forced to survive through long periods of famine. There is absolutely nothing that you or any of us can do to prevent this from happening except to never allow our caloric intakes to drop below 1,200 calories for women or 1,800 calories for men. When calories are restricted below these levels our bodies go into action to keep us alive by protecting us from starvation. In other words, the body instinctively kicks in all of its survival mechanisms to prevent death.
The first thing to happen when we enter the starvation mode is our basal metabolic rate begins to slow down. This occurs primarily by a reduction in the release of thyroid hormone from our thyroid gland. With severe caloric restriction our resting metabolic rate can drop by as much as 40 to 50 percent.

Next, our bodies begin metabolizing our own muscle tissue, converting it into glucose for its primary energy source in order to preserve fat stores that are essential for survival. That’s right—all that hard-earned muscle starts disappearing. And as if all of this isn’t bad enough, the activity of our fat-storing enzymes increases and our fat-burning enzymes decrease so we become very efficient at storing fat. This is the exact opposite of what we are trying to achieve!

The key to avoiding this all-too-common scenario is to stay out of the starvation mode by creating a small caloric deficit of only 500 to a maximum of 1,000 calories a day below your maintenance level—as long as you don’t go below the 1,200 or 1,800 I mentioned above. This will assure a 1- to 2-pound weight loss per week—the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommendation for a safe weight loss. Remember, this is just a guideline. If you have a low body weight or you don’t exercise much, a 1,000-calories-per-day deficit may be too much. And inally, we must be sure to eat about every three hours. Our bodies will interpret any missed meal as starvation.

The bottom line is, the more slowly we lose weight the easier it is to hold on to our lean muscle mass and take the fat off!

Hope that helps. If not, do a search on the internet for starvation mode....there's tons of info on it.

Have a good night,
debi*

[momtodane]

Thank you both!