Yep, starvation mode is a thing. But it doesn’t have to halt weight loss.
Cutting back on calories but not losing weight? You might wonder if you’ve gotten stuck in the twilight zone of so-called “starvation mode.”
Everyone from your personal trainer to your grandma may have warned you about this metabolic frenemy that keeps your body holding onto weight. But is starvation mode really a thing — or just an urban legend?
The concept of starvation mode is that when you restrict calories, your body has a “hold it right there” response. To prevent you from losing weight rapidly, your metabolism slows, conserving energy by reducing the calories it burns.
Research shows starvation mode — formally called adaptive thermogenesis or metabolic adaptation — is a legit phenomenon. It’s well documented that sometimes, the more weight you lose (and the more rapidly you do so), the more your body resists the process.
Evolutionarily speaking, this may be a holdover from when humans faced food scarcity and needed a mechanism for self-preservation. But in today’s world, starvation mode can be a frustrating roadblock to weight loss.
What does this metabolic hiccup look like? These symptoms may indicate that starvation mode is becoming a problem for your health:
- fatigue
- hair loss
- irritability
- constipation
- extreme hunger
- feeling unusually cold
- decreased muscle mass
- a weight loss plateau with no change in diet or exercise habits
Starvation mode isn’t the same thing as actual starving. In today’s modern food environment, true starvation is rare. If you’re eating regularly, you won’t experience life-threatening starvation.
However, your body might exhibit some of the same early signs as real starvation. These include the symptoms listed above.
Most commonly, though, starvation mode involves stalled weight loss. You may have hit the wall of adaptive thermogenesis when restricting calories and increasing physical activity without losing weight.
Getting into starvation mode can take just a few days, especially if those days involve severe calorie restriction.
So what counts as severe calorie restriction? Many experts advise not going below 1,200 calories per day for women and 1,500 calories per day for men unless supervised by a doctor. Anything below these numbers could land you in starvation mode faster.
Fortunately, getting your body out of starvation mode isn’t complicated.
First, there’s the obvious solution: Eat a few more calories. But we don’t mean just any calories. By adding a few more nutrient-dense foods (especially those with fiber and protein), you may find weight loss becomes easier, not harder. Both of these nutrients have links to weight loss — so they might help you get out of starvation mode without gaining weight.
If you’re feeling extremely depleted, you might take a temporary break from a weight loss diet to replenish your nutrient stores.
Choosing the proper exercise could also bump you out of starvation mode. Resistance exercises like weightlifting, yoga, push-ups, squats, and others build muscle, which increases your metabolic rate.
According to a 2014 study, people who participated in a 9-month resistance exercise program increased their resting metabolic rate — aka how many calories they burned at rest — by an average of 5%.
Weight loss is a balancing act. It’s normal to experience physical and emotional ups and downs.
That said, it’s time to see a doctor if you’re noticing symptoms like extreme fatigue or lethargy, constipation that lasts more than a few days, sensitivity to cold, or unusual mood changes. Your healthcare team can help you hit the sweet spot of weight loss without lingering in starvation mode.
Despite its name, being in starvation mode doesn’t mean you’ll starve. Instead, it’s a state in which your body has adapted to your weight loss efforts, giving you pushback on how many calories it burns. With strategies like tweaking your calorie intake and adding strength training, you can get out of this mode and back on the path to sustained weight loss.
