I hear this from time to time. If you cut your calorie intake too much your body with assume food is scarce and initiate its ‘starvation mode’ which will prevent you losing weight so quickly. Is that actually true or is it a story told to stop people following unhealthy diet regimes?
And, if it is true, how can the body do this? If the body can suddenly run on fewer calories then why doesn’t it do that all the time? I guess it must have to stop burning calories on certain activities?
In: Biology
Yes and no.
No, if you stop eating you will not maintain or gain weight. Your body runs on energy (calories). It has to have energy or you die. Those are the options. You can’t beat the laws of thermodynamics. Use mass for energy, lose weight.
Yes, there is a severe sort of self-destruction that happens during true starvation.
The body gets energy from carbohydrates (glucose & glycogen), fat, & protein (muscle).
It “prefers” to use them in that order, though it’s always using some from each category.
Once you’ve used up the quick-access blood sugar (glucose) the body switches more to glycogen (carbs stored in the liver & muscles), then fat, and if you still haven’t found/eaten food once that’s pretty much gone it will start tearing down muscles.
This. Is. Bad.
Your heart is a muscle. You breathe using muscles. You move (find food, eat) using muscles.
Burning muscle to stay alive in hopes of finding food before you die is starvation.
Latest Answers