to wonder why people say starving yourself won't make you thin?

[Ibelieveyoubutmytommygundont]

Just read an article about Matthew Mcconaughey losing a ridiculous amount of weight for a film role - by just surviving on a very small amount of food a day.

I lost a stone in 2 weeks because it was an extremely hectic time and I just didn't get chance to eat properly.

Yet so many people say starving yourself doesn't make you thin, it slows down your metabolism and you won't lose any weight.

(I don't and would never recommend that anyone starves themselves to lose weight as its obviously not healthy)

This thread is horribly triggering.

I also understand starvation mode in this sense has been dismissed as hooey, and that starvation repsonse, whilt it exists, is at a far far lower calorie level for a far longer period of time than we're talking about here.

I can't eat when stressed and the weight falls off, it usually goes back on but no more than my original weight.

The thing that people tend to forget is that food isn't just fuel, it's nutrients too. Our bodies need a certain amount of protein and fat, along with vitamins and minerals, just to use as building blocks for repair and general maintenance which also requires energy. A large proportion of what we eat goes towards this sort of thing. If you haven't eaten enough e.g. protein or fat to do everything that needs doing then some of it won't get done which lowers the amount of energy you need that day. You could easily eat 1200 calories worth of ryvita and fruit without losing any weight because you aren't eating enough protein and fat.

The whole "your metabolism will slow down if you don't eat enough" thing is a complete myth.

If you cut your calories drastically - literally concentration camp starvation level - your metabolism would drop a tiny percentage. But that's it. To say that your metabolism drops when you're on a "normal" diet is ludicrous.

"Ooh, you've stopped losing weight? You need to eat a bit more!" - potty.

literally concentration camp starvation level

Tasteful

This is a bizarre thread!

Sorry but I couldn't think of another way to put it.

What I find REALLY distasteful is people on diets who think that they're deprived enough for their metabolism to drop

I know what you meant Kate.

The way I understand starvation mode is that your body doesn't stop losing the weight but the weight loss stops matching the calorie reduction and stops being worth it:

eg:
calorie deficit of 250 a day might lead to 1lbs weight loss a week
calorie deficit of 500 a day might lead to 2lbs weight loss a week
calorie deficit of 1000 a day might lead to 2.5lbs weight loss a week

So starving yourself becomes fairly pointless when you could eat a healthy, moderate diet and only lose .5 of a pound a week less.

The other problem is that, especially if you are exercising, your body will burn its lean muscle mass and not its fat. So you will get lighter and smaller but you will left 'skinny fat'.

I am in no position to preach to anyone as I have been anorexic since my early teens and have been maintaining a weight of 6st (but I'm short so it's not serious anymore!) for the past 8 years by eating 1200 calories a day and exercising.

However, I don't beleive I would gain massive amounts of fat by increasing to say 1800 calories plus eating extra to compensate for exercise gained. As long as I lifted heavy weights and did moderate but not excessive amounts of cardio I would build lean muscle mass, my wrecked metabolism would recover and, although I would get heavier, I wouldn't get significantly bigger.

Thanks sparkling :)

I was just trying to differentiate between ACTUALLY starving and "I'm on a diet and on the verge of eating this cushion" starving.

Exactly Kate.

All this talk of slow/fast metabolism - I was under the impression that actually the bigger one is, the faster their metabolism, in order to "process" the higher calorie intake by converting to energy - or summat?!

QueenStromba could you explain that again, it sounds really interesting but I didn't fully understand?

I also wonder why ballerinas and jockeys reputedly starve to maintain a required low weight, when they are incredibly active and must burn many more calories per day than the average. Any ideas?

I've been between a size ten and 20 in my adult lifetime. When I ate less, I was thin. When I ate loads, I was fat. When I ate a moderate amount, I was medium sized. Never has me not eating much resulting in me being fat.

I changed my lifestyle last year and began lifting heavy weights. Initially I lost weight but not any fat. This was because my body was eating muscle rather than fat - I wasn't eating enough. You have to eat enough to fuel your bodies activity. There is a difference between losing fat and water weight (most dieters lose this not fat) and muscle.

Cells only live a certain amount of time and so are being constantly replaced in the body. Amino acids (the constituents of proteins) and fatty acids do break down in the body so you can't just keep recycling the same ones. We can make most of the amino acids and fatty acids that we need from their constituent parts but some, known as essential amino acids and fatty acids, need to come from the diet. Replacing damaged and dead cells in the body uses a lot of resources and energy but if the resources just aren't there then not all of the cells are replaced and the energy that would have been used there is used elsewhere or stored as fat. Meanwhile, you're muscles and organs are atrophying which makes the scales go down. In the end you are slimmer but have lost a lot of lean tissue (organs and muscle) and not that much fat making it all the easier to put the weight back on plus some extra.

The low fat, mostly plant-based low calorie diet that most people follow when they want to lose weight is the perfect diet to make this happen because it's low in the stuff that your body actually needs to replenish itself and high in carbohydrate which is only useful as an energy source.

The best diet for losing weight is one high in animal protein and omega 3 and low in the stuff that we don't actually need i.e. carbohydrate (that includes fruit).