Can anyone explain starvation mode

[emma-louise]

I'm confused...

It seems nobody can answer this question...
Why is it when we are watching calorie intake we are told not to eat "too less" as you go into starvation mode.
And the body holds onto its stores and therefore weightloss stops.
But....when we have a bypass done,
calorie intake is hardly anything and we lose weight...
Surely this is starvation??
Why is it any different?
I'm confused

 

[tealovingsleever]

Many medics don't accept there is any such thing as starvation mode!

 

[penelope1008]

Hi, I'll give it a go but don't clearly understand all the medical & physical bits myself. But here goes. We reduce our intake pre-op to use up the sugar store & water stored in our liver to shrink it for ease during surgery. Post surgery we continue to lose due the extreme reduced amount of food intake. However our bodies once we start to move around more & return to our normal activities realises it needs more energy & starts to use its fat stores to give us the necessary energy. Our bodies however gradually realises its not getting the extra food it needs & we aren't answering its calls for more food as the connection is severed somehow as a result of our surgery. So our body goes on strike ( or starvation made) & clings to every last ounce of fat so we stall in our weight loss. We compensate by trying to eat even less & so set up a cycle fighting our bodies determination to hang onto its fuel stores & ours to burn it off. If we instead fool our body by upping our intake even a few calories our bodies decides it's won & is satisfied it's not being starved & uses its stored fat to give us the calories it & we need. The fact our re-plumbed intestines absorb little of the nutrients, fats etc means we continue to lose weight. As our pouches heal & we naturally increase our intake although still many times less than our old intake, our body goes through bouts of this starvation mode challenge. We tweak our diet & the intake without always having to increase our calorie intake gradually we learn the tweaks we need to do to keep things moving change what we eat a little, increase our fluid intake, exercise whatever we find suits us & our bodies to kick start things again. It gets harder the farther out we go & the less we have to loose if we increase our intake or return to old habits we risk regaining & that is when the long term maintainance of our new shapes & weight. Its a roller coaster ride with a steep learning curve & the malabsorption side of our surgery triggers many questions with out full understanding of the how's & whys by us & how our bodies react we will forever walk a tightrope of our new eating regime to stay at our new weights. This surgery as you know is a tool to be used on our fight against obesity. Just now we are fighting our body not our head hunger although our body throws that card in to as we learn to eat healthily & face those demons that lead us to our heaviest & the need for surgery. Our minds take far longer to see & accept the changes we create on ourselves physically & is the same mentally & emotionally we need to be strong & learn to fight old habits & temptations wether that is alone with counselling through our providers or gp's pre & or post op or both.
I'm not sure if this helps you at all but hope it answers enough questions for you. Perhaps others can explain it better than I've managed.

 

[carebear1]

I'm not sure but when I was in a stall(eating between 300-500 cals just after my op) my dietitian said keep doing as you are because your body will lose the battle with trying to hold on to the excess fat.

If it was true how come someone suffering from Anorexia eats so few calories and still losses weight? wouldn't they be in constant starvation mode? also in some countries people die of starvation and that wouldn't happen would it?

 

[mr97]

It's strange one this starvation mode. Only the other a friend of mine told me that if starvation mode prevented further weight-loss why is it that those with eating disorders such as anorexia or those abstaining from eating such as 'hunger strike' etc do not seem or appear to be hindered by this starvation mode.
I've always thought that it made sense that the body would slow metabolic rate during fasting, whenever I've read about it, but it does seem to be a bit of a phenomena at best.

 

[mr97]

penelope1008 - great explanation! I'll cut n paste that for my friend if you don't mind? I will not disclose where or who I got the info from.

 

[fjsinc]

From what I understand, it's a been a bit mythologised. There is a process whereby your metabolism adapts to low calorie intake, and slows down weight loss. But it does not, and cannot stop it. For example,. I might be eating 1500 calories less than I need to sustain my weight, that should mean that I lose 3lbs in a week. But I am more likely to loose 2.5 lbs, because the metabolism has adapted. Largely people are warned again starvation mode, because very low calorie diets lead to overheating (we all know that right), but it doesn't really apply to us post op peeps.

 

[penelope1008]

You're welcome & no problem with them knowing who or where it came from. There's no medical knowledge behind it as such just what I've learnt & read since joining here & personal experience. I'm now 21mtgs post op & fighting to lose the last 7lbs to goal & have been for 9mths now. I've lost 8st 2.5lbs from my heaviest but have made some false turns & bad choices in my post op time due to family crisies & not dealing with those personal demons but I will get there & stay there one day.

 

[Yvessa]

"starvation mode" is a bit of a lie really. What happens is that the body needs a certain amount of energy to break down fat stores, because fat is quite hard to break down. If it hasn't got the energy to break fat down, it breaks down lean muscle which is why some of us can get muscle wastage and why we need to keep our protein up. If we go too low, our muscles will waste and then organ damage begins as the body no longer has the fuel to keep our bodies functioning, let alone breaking down fat. Anorexics generally are a normal weight to start with and so don't have that much fat on them.

Hope that helps.

 

[bex j88]

I can highly recommend reading the book by mr johnson "the alternative day diet" - although this diet might not be appropriate to follow after surgery, it massively changed my way of thinking and understanding of how the body works with fat storage. Not only that, but it goes into the scientific research and different methods etc tried & tested- I was thoroughly impressed by it.

Just a suggestion if course and obviously other people may not agree with the thinking behind it but for me it was a huge "lightbulb" moment !

Love Bex x

 

[emma-louise]

Thanks for all your answers,but I'm still confused..lol.
Did I read right..
Your body can go into starvation mode...but cannot maintain it,so therefore moves onto fat?

 

[penelope1008]

That's about the long & the short of it.

 

[emma-louise]

Its all very confusing..I think I'm just hoping I've lost weight tommorow,as I've gained a little.
And just over thinking everything..

 

[penelope1008]

Yep we are so focussed on not failing we get bogged down & over think things. Try to relax explore new foods textures & flavours as you are tempted & find lovely things to tempt you that are healthy & nutritious let the weight loss take a back seat as such & things will fall into place.