March 29, 2024

A starvation diet in my mind is any diet where you are starving yourself. I know that when we are dieting usually we will restrict our calories so that we are burning more calories than we eat but on a starvation diet we are actually restricting calories to such a point that we affect our metabolism and force our bodies to jump into a phase below dieting where we are not able to lose anymore.

To understand a starvation diet we need to look at what we are doing to our body when if we decide not to eat at all for a few days. First of all our bodies will think that we are just between meals and our body will start to use up blood sugar and then start burning up carbs until they are gone.

Once we have run out of carbs our body should use fat and muscle tissue for energy but instead will start to lower our metabolism in a fight to protect our bodies…this is the starvation phase. Eventually if we did not eat our bodies would start to burn off our fat and muscle and our metabolism would slow to a point where we would become very lethargic and our organs would start to slow down and eventually shut down and we would die.

There are not many people that would go this far bad as we see in people with bulimia this definitely does happen sometimes.

Instead of using a starvation diet to lose what most diets tend to do is to confuse the mind and body so that our metabolism well stay up and will continue to burn fat while at the same time hopefully not burning the muscle that we have nearly as quickly. If we look at bodybuilders in their dieting phase before a competition they must lose all of their fat so they have to diet fairly hard and expect to lose some of their muscle – actually quite a bit of muscle.

When you are looking at a diet and do not want to starve look at the following points.

1. What is the goal of your diet? Usually the goal is to lose fat

2. What are you going to do to lose that fat? If you diet your body needs to stay a little bit comfortable and if your try to lose too fast you will go into starvation mode.

3. What are you going to do to raise your metabolism? Most people will use exercise for two reasons, firstly the exercise will burn calories to help you lose weight, but even more importantly getting exercise will force your body to raise your metabolism so that it can be ready when more exercise is going to happen.

In reading this hopefully you will see your body as I do, and that is that our bodies are machines that adjust to stimuli fairly quickly. Your body will speed up and slow down it’s burning of calories and storing of fat. I hope this will help you a little bit in learning to control your body using diet and exercise.

11 thoughts on “Starvation Diet

  1. I tend to lose , for sometimes I am determined but sooner or later I get bored and returned to what I usually do when I get bored , I eat a lot…..

  2. i started to go on a fad diet at the beginning of the year when i weighed in at a heavy 78 kilos or 172lbs (im only 165 cm or 5’5 which meant that i was over). everyday i would limit myself to 400 calories a day MAX. and would vigorously exercise everyday (jog or skip) for an hour.

    this went on for 3.5 months and i had lost 25 kilos (55 lbs), everyone thought i was sick because i had lost so much in such a short period of time. Though i had lost so much i was miserable. I barely had any energy and i was unable to focus on anything. all my energy went towards that one hour of exercise. It was hell but the only thing pushing me to go through was the results.

    after my goal of 55 kilos had been reached (infact i was lighter than my goal ) i started to binge. i had stopped my exercise routine and just continously binged on junk food. i regained 8 kilos in a short 1.5 months! Once i had realized what was happening i knew i had to stop binge eating and try to lose again.. but this time the healthy way. So ever since May this year, i have been eating healthy, consuming 1300-1900 calories everyday (i made my calorie consumption range wide so i wouldn’t feel too bad if i dont meet my daily calorie target) , im back to exercising but only 4-5 times a week of cardio exercises and 1-2 15min strength training a week. Now im back to my goal of 55 kilos and the best part is i can maintain my without feeling starved or tired and its not just a diet for me anymore but a lifestyle change.

    also.. i agree with D… apples ARE your bestfriend. they are like fat burning spheres of goodness.
    and if you want to treat yourself.. a scoop or two.. or three 97% fat free icecream works WONDERS. 🙂

  3. Okat its september and I want to loose for my senior prom in upcoming may I need to know the best way to loose and look great for prom. I really want my arms to look good and I want to show my sides my back and maybe even my stomach in my dress, HELP!!!

  4. I starved myself for 3 days and excercised vigourosly and l lost a lot of , now l am eating healthy and still losing l think fad diets work but they need self control.

  5. No I think 1200 is quite OK for long term results. The whole point of a diet is to get long term results that keep you healthy. You really need to be taking it over a period of months. That said I remember doing about 1200 a day, and a LOT of cycling, a while back and I lost was losing 2lbs a day for 2 weeks. I then had to go back to work and could not cycle as much and that loss ended.

  6. No, 1200 calories is way too many if you’re dieting. Start out cutting your calories to as little as 150 a meal and make sure you dont go over 10 grams of fat a day. You’ll lose like crazy and can keep it up. Apples are your friend! Eat at least 2 a day as snacks. Learn to love baked skinless chicken breast and the 90 calorie bars from Kellogg’s.

  7. you should try eating 6 meals a day and cut what you normally eat in half and eat slower and in between meals drink lots of water if the water doesnt fill your stomach then eat a fruit.

  8. I tried to lose for a long time and nothing seemed to work. I would start off good and eat four small meals a day. But by the second day or if I was lucky the third day I would be so hungry and give in. I’d just stuffed like food was going out of style. I guess it’s all about self control, which I have none! So in a desperate attempt to lose my big belly I didn’t eat for a few days. I would eat three meals a day about 3 days a week the others I would avoid all food. I lost , fast too. But not only did I lose some fat my muscle was going too. I didn’t care at the time because I was getting new “smaller” clothes. Twenty seven pounds lighter and people started worrying. It had only been two months. Neighbors asked my mom if I was sick and if she had been seeing me eat. She talked to me and I denied everything. She suddenly started making me meals and making sure I ate every day. In two weeks I gained nine pounds back. I realized that what I had done before was coming back to bite me in the butt twice as fast. I’m trying to eat normally now and I’m going to try a diet that’s healthier.

  9. The simple answer is you are not eating enough!

    You need to eat a balanced diet, at least 1200 calories, 30 minutes cardio a day and you should start losing.

  10. Hello

    I have put on 2 stone in the past 5 months and want to loose this FAST!

    I have only been eating about 200 calories a day and i have lost no .

    Please advise me as to why

    Thanks
    -–

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