ANSWERS: 2
  • Depends on the person. If you have been over eating for a longish period of time, then reducing to your "needed" calorie intake could trigger the body to respond as if you are eating too few calories compared to what you were eating. Thus the over weight (fat) people who suddenly drop their caloric intake to "normal" levels find weight loss to be harder than if they reduce their intake by 1-500 calories per day or by increasing their caloric burn by as many. Calorie intake as a "rule of thumb" notion just does not work. metabolism, when you eat, what you eat and what you do each day all affect your "caloric needs". Also eating habits play a roll. The stomach does not store food. It is a temporary container that catches food, but food is immediately put through the processor. thus eating only one meal a day (although it may contain 5000 calories) can trigger starvation mode simply because you have starved the body the rest of the day making it react to a famine that is not. Ideally we are grazers - hunter gathers who spent a good deal of time "snacking" through out the day. 3 Big meals are a convention to allow us to do other things. The stomach is not like a gas tank where you fill her up and drive until empty - the stomach is just the initial step in the digestion process and actually should not accept more than what would amount to a closed fist of volume of food at any one time. People who "graze" on "good foods" like veg and fruit through out the day could and do potentially eat not only more per volume, but also more calories. The body basically discards the excess and acts as though all its fuel needs will be met, thus the body does not store fat as readily as those who eat one big meal each day. Calorie calculators abound. The more complex it is, or the more things it considers the better it is and the closer to "actual" caloric needs it will find for you: http://www.stevenscreek.com/goodies/calories.shtml is a decent one - it takes into account several things. However it is one mostly for exercise programs. If you do a search for calorie calculators you will find there are many options. Calories are not the only thing that can trigger "starvation mode". If you eat nothing but proteins and fats with no carbs, you can trigger starvation mode. In this case the lack of carbohydrates (which are converted into sugars - sugar is the energy source our body runs on) fakes the body into increased hunger, forces the body to "burn fat" simply trying to keep its energy up - it also causes the body to turn on itself - even though you are eating proteins, the body is behaving as though there are no proteins being taken in. Certain deficiencies in diet (like vitamins and minerals) not only cause illness and diseases such as scurvy, but also have a secondary reaction of triggering "starvation mode" sending the person into hunger mode. "starvation mode" would kick in if you try to lose more than 2 pounds a week. This is what most crash diets aim for (plus). Ideally one should seek to lose something on the order of 1 pound per week (on average) Yes if you are 50 pounds over weight that means you would be on a reduced calorie diet for nearly a year. So what you need to do is calculate your NEEDED caloric in take per your activity - then you need to reduce that as much as needed to lose 1 pound of fat per week. We are talking on the order of around 100 calories for most people - to put that in the exercise terms, that means walking a mile extra per day. In broad and wide averages "normal" people who eat about 2000 calories a day or need about 2000 calories a day enter into starvation mode around 1,000 to 1,2000 calories a day. http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/burning_calories/starvation.htm Is an interesting article - goes into better (greater?) detail then what I did (maybe not ;-) )
  • I'm not sure, but people who starved in consentration camps consumed around 80 calories a day (4% of a healthy diet's) and those who went into "starvation mode", as you call it, consumed 250-400 (400 being the most recorded in a death camp)

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