Starvation Mode: Excuse or Reality?

This is a request for a professional opinion about "starvation mode." We lay folk exchanged opinions on the lapband board about whether starvation mode really exists.  The people in my surgeon's practice put no stock in the idea, and recommend eating as few calories as possible while getting enough protein and not going insane.  Some on the lapband board believe that's self-defeating because it will trigger starvation mode. As you know, those of us who are trying to shed pounds are open to any excuse there is to devour more calories.  Starvation mode strikes me as a nifty excuse to eat more than we should. Is there any peer-reviewed scientific research that indicates that starvation mode is real?  Is the evidence empirically sound, or is it based on clinical anecdotes?  If starvation mode is real, how low do you have to go before your trigger it? I'm a lapband patient who has always marveled at (and envied) the rate at which RNY patients lose right after surgery.  If there's a starvation mode, shouldn't they be iencountering it at 600-800 calories a day?

Very good question. Most of the research comes from people who were on "very low calorie diets" - which was the radical alternative before WLS became more available.  There is also some research from exercise physiology. Let me do a little homework & I'll give you some facts.  Then you too can decide if it's real!

http://www.calorie-count.com/forums/post/28742.html http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2007/11/is_starvation _mode_a_myth_no_i.php I'm no RD/NUT, but the above sites are my favorite. I had open RNY and my surgeon and NUT recommend around 600 calories per day.  They state that as long as I keep my protein above 60, I should not worry about starvation mode. Starvation mode studies have been sparse and their results can be somewhat misleading.  If you read the entire study, extremely pertinent information is omitted.  So you don't know whether or not the resulting statistics actually even mean anything. For example, in one study, calories were restricted to 40 or 50% (I forget which.)  of what the subjects' bodies required.  However, no mention was made on the nutritional value of the calories ingested.  For example, did the subjects increase their protein intake as we are instructed to do?   Starvation mode is sometimes called metabolic adaptation.  Just food for thought.   I've not done enough research on the subject because my surgeon and NUT told me that as long as I got in 60 grams of protein and around 600 calories, I didn't NEED to worry about it.  Still an interesting subject though.

Here is my question.  If you get in the right amount of protein and approx. 600 calories, but when you exercise hard for an hour burning 420 calories, now do you fall into starvation mode?  Are you required to consume even more calories due to the calories burned from exercise?  I worry about starvation mode due to this issue.

Stay tuned for more information on starvation mode.  I'm doing a bit more research on this within the nutrition and exercise physilogy realm.  

Thanks Melania.  This topic seems to be a source of much talk but little real knowledge.