“Starvation mode” is a common fear among dieters. The claim here is that if you diet too intensely for too long, your metabolism will get damaged. This is caused by your body’s protection system. And as you continue to eat less, you will stop losing weight, and in some cases, gain weight! That is because your metabolism has dropped way too low.

And to make things sound more absurd, the same people claim that to lose weight, the solution is then to eat more, not less! That’s basically telling someone who is struggling with weight loss, “Hey! Stop dieting and start eating more! You’ll then start to lose weight as a result!” Yes, this belief is actually rampant and it is termed as “starvation mode”.

But how true is this? Is “starvation mode” a myth or is it a real thing? More importantly, what should you do if you hit a weight loss plateau? Read on to find out more!

*Will dieting for too long and too hard really make you gain weight?*

Does Starvation Mode really Exist?

Think about the people in poverty-stricken third-world countries who lack food. They are the ones who are really starving. Think about it - are they gaining weight? These are the people who are truly in starvation, and are often extremely skinny with poor health. Some to the extent of death! These people are in a huge caloric deficit, resulting in extreme weight loss, not weight gain!

Now, let’s use science here instead of common sense. The second law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. This means that as long as the calories you take in is lesser than the calories you expend, the energy has to come from somewhere, i.e. your fat or muscle tissue. And so if you are eating less, it simply means less energy taken in, so you can’t be gaining tissue from that since the energy has to come from somewhere. There are some exceptions to this in the short term, like metabolic adaptation, but in the long term, science always wins. So what are the exceptions to this?

*Eating too little for too long will not cause weight gain - think about the people who lack food. You’ll surely lose weight if you’re in a caloric deficit.*

Some Truths in It

The reason why you can still gain weight even though you are eating less may be attributed to the following reasons.

First, if you are dieting aggressively and for a long period of time, your Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) can go down. But what is NEAT? NEAT is basically energy expended for everything else other than sleeping, eating or exercise. Things like walking, fidgeting, typing, moving things etc. are all part of NEAT. By being in a caloric deficit for a long time, you start moving less subconsciously, and your physical activity drops. Your NEAT goes down even though your caloric count stays the same. This results in the smaller deficit, which slows the weight loss down. It rarely gets to a point that you gain weight, but you may get to a point of plateau.

Secondly, water weight. Hormones can play a huge role in affecting your water weight. The longer you diet, the more stress hormones you’ll have. This will result in an increase in water retention. So for the same amount of water you consume, your body stores more of it. This will pass off as scale weight, and might cause you to think that you are not losing weight when you actually are. And when you look in the mirror, it seems like there’s no change to your physique either. That is because water is stored in places where you store fat. As a result, it is hard to tell yourself that you’re making progress. But it is important to know that these ‘fats’ are actually a large part water. And as soon as your hormones go back to normal, you’ll see a huge drop in scale weight and you’ll look leaner.

And it’s not only hormones that can make you store a lot of water. As you start to diet, you’ll naturally want to take in more salt because salty food tastes better. When you take in more salt, you start to store more water because water follows salt. You’ll also want to take in more diet drinks like coke zero because they taste sweet and can alleviate hunger. Diet drinks are great for dieting as they can satiate you without additional calories, but with the increase in fluid intake, your salt concentration falls. What happens then? You take in more salt and water again, and the cycle continues. With the increase in fluid intake of these drinks together with increase in salt intake, the volume of water you store in your body far exceeds your normal water storage levels. This can result in your weight being stable or even going up, though you are losing fat tissue. You may then think that you are in starvation mode, but you actually aren’t.

Lastly, it is vital that you ensure that you are truly in a caloric deficit. Many think they are in a deficit just because they barely ate during the week. But what actually happens is that they go on a huge deficit during the week so they can eat more during the weekends. This results in high hunger levels and cravings. Then comes the weekend. They get radically hungry and go on an insane binge. And it is very easy to do so when you are highly stressed. Delicious foods are unfortunately foods that have the highest calories - pizza, donuts, ice-cream. And if you are honest with yourself and run the numbers, you will realize that you are actually in the surplus after adding your weekend calories in. Remember that these foods have high carbs and salts too, which again stores tons of water. Which is why after a binge weekend, your scale can shoot up in ways that don’t even make sense.

With the high fluctuations in scale weight and storage of water that passes off as fat, many feel discouraged to the point of giving up. So what then?

*Water stored under your skin can easily be disguised as fat, because they are stored in the same places!*

What should You Do Then?

First, don’t go for too huge a deficit. Most people who take too huge a deficit (say more than 1000 calories deficit per day) usually get burnout really quick. A good deficit would be 500 to 1000 caloric deficit per day through reduced food intake AND increased activity. A 1000 caloric deficit per day is about 1 kg of tissue lost per week! Over 12 weeks, that’s 12kg of tissue lost! If you can do that twice a year, over a few years, you can lose any amount of fat you want. There is no good reason to go faster. By going too fast, you’ll only put yourself at a higher risk of binging, cheating and giving up too quickly. And of course with a smaller deficit (less than 500 caloric deficit per day) will just mean getting to your goals much slower. As much as possible, rely on increased activity for the deficit. It is not only healthy, but burns mostly fat instead of muscle and seldom comes with an increase in hunger. For example, drop your food intake by 300 calories and increase your activity by 300 calories. This can result in about 0.5kg of weight loss per week, which is not only fast, but also sustainable.

Second, try not to diet for too long. Do it about 12 weeks at a time. After that, it’ll be good to take a break for about 6-8 weeks by increasing your calories to maintenance (i.e. not losing or gaining weight). This will allow your mind to rest but also prevent metabolic adaptations. Remember that there is no rush into losing weight! Historically, rushing has been the one of the biggest part of rebounding.

Third, track your steps. As mentioned above, dieting will cause your NEAT to drop subconsciously. If you want to make sure your activity doesn’t fall so that you are certain that your deficit isn’t reducing, get a activity / steps tracker. Just get a simple and cheap one and ensure you’re hitting the same amount of steps for the 12 weeks that you are dieting so you know your NEAT won’t be dropping. This makes weight loss more predictable.

Next, although water retention issues are temporary, it can be discouraging to many when you see no difference in scale weight and progress pictures week after week. Some may even cheat and give up too soon. If you want to reduce water retention, try to keep your stress as low as possible and to keep your sleep hours high. Also, standardize your salt, and water intake to some extent. If you find yourself eating tons of salty food, you have a higher likelihood of a more variable salt intake. Instead, try to stick to the same types of foods as much as possible. You can also carry a huge water bottle and stick to drinking 2 of those per day, so you’ll drink roughly the same amount of water, resulting in less mystery. None of these can help you lose fat - it just helps you to track your progress more predictably. But if you’re fine with the temporary water weight, then there is no need to follow these suggestions.

Last, you must be patient with your scale weight. Before making any changes to your diet or activity, monitor for 2 weeks, because the scale can stall for about 2 weeks before plunging down after discharging a huge amount of water. And when that happens, you might wonder what you did differently that caused a huge drop in scale weight. The truth is that it was just water weight the whole time! You have been consistently losing tissue but it was the water weight that was holding on.

*Can you trust the scale? Not on a day-to-day basis! Take your weekly average and compare over a few weeks to be certain of your progress.*

Conclusion

Starvation mode is mostly untrue. Your metabolism may slow down when you lose weight, but if you are doing everything correctly - good deficit, consistent activity, training hard at the gym, be confident that you are losing tissue. You won’t retain your weight if you’re in a 1000 calories deficit - that I can guarantee.

P.S. - still help getting into an optimal deficit for weight loss and ways to break a weight loss plateau? Try out my online coaching! Many have found success in it!