Starvation Mode

We have all tried every diet in the book and it has been beaten in our heads that if you don't feed your body enough it will go into Starvation Mode and you will stop losing weight.  Well with the Sleeve you are restricted in how much you can eat and incouraged to eat very little.  How does your body not go into Starvation Mode and keep losing?  Getting close to my date (8/6) and trying to gather all the information that I can.

 Your body won't go into starvation mode as long as it has fuel to burn. Fuel=fat. We have a lot of stored energy to go through before it's a concern. 

EXACTKY right.... Morbidly obese and even obese folks need to get the term Starvation Mode out of their vocabulary until they get closer to being normal BMI

My date is 8/6 too!  I'm very excited!  What time is your surgery?  I was wondering the same thing!!!

julie

Not sure yet!  My doctor does not call with surgery times till the Friday before your surgery!  Ready to get this over with and get back home and start losing again. 

Read this, it's written by one of our fellow sleevers.. it may be helpful :)

http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.ca/2009/03/mtyhbusters-starv ation-mode.html   And the rest of her posts under Science stuff are pretty informative too:
http://fattyfightsback.blogspot.ca/search/label/science%20st uff
 

I think that starvation mode is a BIG, FAT, myth. If you along the journey you're not losing, its just a plateau. There really is no rhyme or reason for it. I
All weight loss is starvation. You're eating less food so that your body takes it from your fat. PERIOD.

I disagree    Starvation mode is a definite thing, its just that its a non-issue for morbidly obese folk...
When you have a high BMI, there is enough fat in reserve for it ( Starvation mode) to not be a factor
When you are at a lower BMI it goes into starvation mode because there is no fat to get

I'll pass along what my nutrition and surgeon said on this topic.  First, the surgeon said that I would be surprised how little food the human body needs.  Second, the nutritionist said that I need to be prepared for a lifetime of restricted eating.  My body will only require about 1,000 or so calories (at maintenance stage) to maintain my weight and if I go over, I can expect a gain.  She suggested that many WLS patients have to be very conscious of their daily calorie count, even years after reaching goal. 

I can't speak from experience because my surgery is not until 8/15.  Just passing along what I was told.  I'm also in that information-gathering stage. 

Good luck with your sleeve, I'll be a week behind you!

Those of us with lots of fat don't starve on very few food calories.  Just my opinion and true for my own experiment of me (N=1).  My body wants for *nothing* nutrition-wise as fat can be broken down into glucose if necessary (hence, ketosis) and it's got the fat part covered.  The only thing fat can't be is protein, water or micro-nutrients.  As long as I've got those covered, there's of fuel for my body.

What I *do* believe in absolutely is that the body is a complicated, living machine that we do not fully understand and therefore cannot fully control.  I lose weigh on its own time table, not mine.

You do not need to worry about not being able to eat very much for the long term.  Our capacities all increase and I haven't heard of anyone more than a year out that can't eat the same amount as a thin person with a smaller appetite.

Right after surgery, you will not want to eat as much and will have the smallest capacity you will ever have.  Eat as little as satisfies you.  Don't worry about calories if you are hitting your protein, water and vitamin goals.  This to me is why it's a "honeymoon" period, not some magical metabolic thing.  Just not wanting to eat allows us to follow a restricted food plan and drop a big chunk of the weight.  Sooner than you might expect, your body recovers and starts asking for more food. 

Also, if you read here, more people report problems with regain, or slow weight loss, or insufficient went loss further out; almost everyone loses really well during the first 6 months.  These problems do not normally happen with people who are on a more restricted calorie plan.  I just mean, I've not seen any evidence here that people eating more calories lose better.  Of course, it's not a valid scientific study.  I just mean, I haven't seen a lot of bad outcomes for people that eat 800 calories a day until they lose the weight.

That phase of not wanting or needing to eat much doesn't last that long, so my advice would be to not worry - ride that train for as long as you can.