I was reading around and I came across some suggestions that if you lose weight too quickly that your body goes into starvation lockdown, you stop losing weight and it hampers your ongoing weight-loss. Does anyone have any experience of this please?
To give context, over a 29 week period, I've lost 28.5 kg (63 pounds) with around 2kg weekly losses at the start, pretty flat during December (Christmas) and 1.5 kg/week recently as I've started doing 'Couch to 5k'. My diet is a 'light' version of Low Carb High Fat - LCHF (not too aggressive allowing some carbs) and the 'light version of Intermittent Fasting: 14:10.
Am I taking a risk during 1.5 kg (3 pound) weight-loss weeks?
My thanks to anyone who has any thoughts about this.
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SofaJockey
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In not sure what you mean by "taking a risk" Sofajockey but have a look at this article, it might give some food for thought as to why the body takes its own time calibrating as our eating habits change
Starvation mode is the term used when 'dieters' restrict their caloric intake too severely, which the body interprets as a famine. In order to ride this lean period out, it will hang onto its fat reserves and lower its metabolic rate to compensate. This is why maintenance after dieting is so difficult and yoyo dieting so common - the body becomes more efficient in its use of nutrition, so less and less is required to keep it going.
On a proper LCHF way of eating, the body gets all the nutrition it requires and normal signals for satiety are restored, allowing you to eat to appetite and restore and maintain a healthy weight.
Under low carb high fat & IF our bodies choose how fast to lose the weight - so long as we eat when we are hungry, not ignoring hunger or overeating past satiety. You don’t say how many carbs you eat, but even so it sounds like you have got your metabolic hormones under control (insulin, leptin & ghrelin). With these under control, it takes 6-12 months to lose 80% of our excess weight. The fact that you have lost so much so fast, suggests that your body still thinks it has quite a bit more to lose (sorry). As you approach your body’s (not your brain’s) target weight, your weight loss slows down. The starvation mode thing kicks in when we don’t eat any fat & ignore how hungry we are. If you are not hungry, keep going, if you are, eat some more.
Thanks for the helpful replies. My target is 3 portions of carbs (15g) per day, which I normally eat. And yes, I still have around 15kg (2 stone) to go, so I'm still 'overweight'.
The point about hunger is an interesting one. With Intermittent Fasting (14:10) I am peckish later in the evening, but not ravenously so.
Maybe concentrate on your good food choices for now and follow your appetite, rather than setting an arbitrary time scale on your meals. I'm sure you're getting a feel for it and your body will tell you when and how often to eat
I think moreless summarises it well in her reply to you. For me, once I was settled on a lchf plan, I realised I wasn't hungry in the morning so I dropped that first meal and now have two meals a day. Some give that the name "IF" but I just call it eating, eating to appetite. I think the real value of lchf is regaining the signs of hunger and appetite and being able to respond to them, rather than an external plan.
For example, I would have suggested, if late night snacking was a concern, that you looked at how you could boost your meals to reduce any hunger between meals.
Agree. I will add the point that there is value in a stretch of time not eating, as it helps get our metabolic hormones into balance. Every hour we don’t produce insulin is a good one for our health. It is this management of insulin production that gets our appetite under control.
That's right. My emphasis would be on building full, nutritious meals as a way of cutting out eating between meals, to reduce the frequency of insulin production. Once established on a lchf plan, and responding to one's own hunger signals, it's quite likely that one will reduce the number and frequency of meals. I'm not disagreeing about the principle, just suggesting a good way to get there is by sorting out food choices first, eating good, filling meals, then being led by appetite.
I have friends doing IF / OMAD & their plan is to eat whatever they like but in a narrow window. I would not be able to cope with that... I’d be starving...
I'm with you on the late night snacking. I don't eat after about 8pm and then drink sparkling or plain mineral water till about lunchtime is the next day. I was doing this every day last year but it got so I was obsessing over timings so I'm more laid back about IF now.
Starvation mode occurs when you're not eating enough your body doesn't know when next meal coming so hangs on to the fat so got something to live off further down road when no food ie if stranded on a dessert island or out at sea.
Too quick a weight loss I would say is if loose stones in a few weeks. I'd say your loosing at a reasonable rate but may eventually slow down but that's natural near the end. So long as your not feeling hungry your eating enough.
No, I'm not feeling hungry. Maybe a little peckish in the evening during the 'not eating' phase. I'll make sure I'm getting my healthy proteins and fats.
I did have some olives and a yoghurt later in the day, just to make sure I'm good past 'curfew' and I feel fine. This is just fine-tuning I suspect, so my original concerns look to be overstated.
The generous and intelligent advice in this thread has been very helpful. 😊
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