'if you don't eat enough, you won't lose weight' - how does anorexia work then?

[xenabelly]

This theory that everyone says about 'if you starve yourself you won't lose weight cos your body will hang onto the weight' really confuses me and i don't understand how that can be true.

If this was true, why do we lose weight when we're ill (and not eating), or stressed (and not eating) and how do anorexics lose such huge amounts of weight be only eating an apple a day?

Anyone explain?

the theory is totally wrong. if you starve yourself then your body will start to eat itself. if you eat then make yourself sick your body will hang on to some of the food thats why bulimics tend to look okish.

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Ok.

if you starve yourself then start eating normally again - you will have forced your body to slow down to burn less calories. It will take a while to speed up again once you start eating, so it might lay down fat. That, I think, is where the theory comes from. That fad diets don't work because they muck up your metabolism.

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I think the message has got confused: I'm not a scientist but I was anorexic for many years and it is certainly true that when in starvation mode your body seems to shut down its energy expenditure as much as it can. Your metabolism goes right down and weight loss can get very slow. But obviously, you will lose weight.

For people choosing the non-anorexic option, the point is that it is better by far (for many reasons, including sustainable weight loss) to lose weight by eating a good balanced diet with calories restricted to a level that allows you to lose weight but high enough to give you the energy and strength you need to keep physically active and therefore keep burning fat.

or something. Tamum or someone could explain it better than me.

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW MANY SYNS THERE ARE IN THE NEW WEIGHT WATCHERS CHEESY PUFFS AS I CAN'T FIND THEM IN THE FOOD DIRECTORY CHEERS ANGIE

When your body is in starvation mode it will firstly burn muscle tissue for energy rather than fat .Eventually fat tissue will also be burned but usually anorexics end up damaging their heart muscle aswell,hence why they can die from heart failure.