The Bay Is Blue

I have been thinking lately about the concept of ‘starvation mode’ in dealing with nutrition and getting enough calories for effective fat loss.

If you haven’t heard of it, starvation mode- is a theory that says if you don’t eat enough calories in a given day your body will go into this starvation mode and will turn to its muscles to make up for the deficit in calories, causing you to lose lean muscle tissue as well. I mean, it made perfect sense to me and I bought into it, and taught my clients this theory and it worked in getting them results.

Despite the fact that clients got great results, I think it has more to do with the make up of the food eaten rather than the total amount (provided it is a calorie deficit).

Let me explain: Client A takes in 1300 calories daily with a breakdown of 50% carbs, 30% protein, and 20% fat.

Client B takes in 1300 calories daily with a breakdown of 40% carbs, 40% protein, and 20% fat.

For starters Client B has a higher thermic effect of food (amount of energy taken from food eaten to aid in digestion), than does Client A. If you don’t know what the thermic effect is, think of it as a value placed on a food based on how difficult it is to digest by the body; or how much energy or calories it takes to digest a particular food. Client B also has a larger amount of protein intake which will help safeguard against this starvation mode because it will aid in muscle growth and repair post exercise.

I’m just scratching the surface on this but I truly think there is something here. I still think starvation mode exists, but I only think it is in extreme cases. And I only think it happens over a prolonged period of time rather than over the course of one day. Prolonged exposure to extremely low calories without the presence of adequate protein intake is most likely the cause of a decreased metabolism and an increased chance of ‘starvation mode’. And I think there are so few cases of true starvation mode, that even if I did come into contact with someone with this condition, I wouldn’t be treating them myself…I would be sending them to the hospital for an I.V.

So should you be afraid of starvation mode? Well, yes and no. I think if you are consistent with your efforts of eating every three hours in small portions and are getting a balanced amount of nutrients, then no there is no worry. But if you find yourself going long periods without eating and when you do eat, tend to make poor choices, then I would highly consider reworking your nutrition plan so that you can optimize it, prevent muscle loss and boost your thermic effect of foods you eat. Basically make the food work for you.