Hey Kelly, I have a question. Almost every piece of diet advice I’ve ever read says to reduce your caloric consumption enough to lose weight, but not so much as to make your body go into starvation mode. Most of the time, they say not to eat less than 1,000 calories a day. I usually do this easily, but some days I’m just not hungry enough to want to eat that many calories. How often can I eat, say, 700-900 calories without “going into starvation mode”?
Thanks!
Rebecca
First, I have to say that to get a scientific answer for this question, yoo’d have to talk to a nutritionist.
Calories are fuel for your body. If you don’t give your body enough fuel, it will start to slow down your metabolism to conserve evergy because it thinks your starving. When your metabolism is in the slowed state, its called starvation mode.
Your body doesn’t recognize time. Days are made by man, so your body doesn’t know when one day ends and one begins. The second it starts to run low on energy, your body slows and enters starvation mode. Some days you burn more calories than others- you work out more one day, walked around more oftne than usual, or perhaps you aid down all day because you were sick. Perhaps you conserved energy (calories) on that day you were sick, but used them up, plus some, on the day you started feeling better. Even though you ate 1500 calories on that day you worked out, you only consumed 500 calories the day you were sick (Im guessing you ate some bad sushi.) It is still possible for you to enter starvation mode on the day you ate 1500 calories, because you burned 4,000 calories through your BMR and activity.
This is why it is important to eat consistantly. You want to get about equal calories everyday, above 1,000 (or more like 1600-1800, I think) to ensure that you never reach starvation mode.
This is also why restrictive diets, or having binges and then restricting severely to make up for it are such a bad idea. It slows your metabolism but then you eat a massive amount of calories, causing you body to hold onto them for dear life.
It is entirely possible that you aren’t very hungry because you are already in starvation mode. Your body weakens your appatite so that you don’t waste calories to go try and find something to eat (think back to caveman days when we had to actually hunt our food.)
Im not saying force feed yourself, but try and not dip down below that 1,000 no matter what. Its important to keep your body running as efficiently as possible.
Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog, starvation mode
Hey Kelly, I have a question. Almost every piece of diet advice I’ve ever read says to reduce your caloric consumption enough to lose weight, but not so much as to make your body go into starvation mode. Most of the time, they say not to eat less than 1,000 calories a day. I usually do this easily, but some days I’m just not hungry enough to want to eat that many calories. How often can I eat, say, 700-900 calories without “going into starvation mode”?
Thanks!
Rebecca
First, I have to say that to get a scientific answer for this question, yoo’d have to talk to a nutritionist.
Calories are fuel for your body. If you don’t give your body enough fuel, it will start to slow down your metabolism to conserve evergy because it thinks your starving. When your metabolism is in the slowed state, its called starvation mode.
Your body doesn’t recognize time. Days are made by man, so your body doesn’t know when one day ends and one begins. The second it starts to run low on energy, your body slows and enters starvation mode. Some days you burn more calories than others- you work out more one day, walked around more oftne than usual, or perhaps you aid down all day because you were sick. Perhaps you conserved energy (calories) on that day you were sick, but used them up, plus some, on the day you started feeling better. Even though you ate 1500 calories on that day you worked out, you only consumed 500 calories the day you were sick (Im guessing you ate some bad sushi.) It is still possible for you to enter starvation mode on the day you ate 1500 calories, because you burned 4,000 calories through your BMR and activity.
This is why it is important to eat consistantly. You want to get about equal calories everyday, above 1,000 (or more like 1600-1800, I think) to ensure that you never reach starvation mode.
This is also why restrictive diets, or having binges and then restricting severely to make up for it are such a bad idea. It slows your metabolism but then you eat a massive amount of calories, causing you body to hold onto them for dear life.
It is entirely possible that you aren’t very hungry because you are already in starvation mode. Your body weakens your appatite so that you don’t waste calories to go try and find something to eat (think back to caveman days when we had to actually hunt our food.)
Im not saying force feed yourself, but try and not dip down below that 1,000 no matter what. Its important to keep your body running as efficiently as possible.
Every Gym’s Nightmare, fitness, health, yoga, pilates, strength training, personal trainer, cardiovascular, cardio, exercise, wellness, weight loss, blog, blogging, fitness blog, weightloss blog, starvation mode