Calorie conundrum

I believe the body goes into famine panic mode and starts clinging on to every possible calorie, hoarding it as fat. Thus upsetting the metabolism. But when that stops and phenylketonuria kicks in I don't know.
My mum always used to attribute her weight problems, after she came to the U.K. and married, to years of an extremely inadequate diet sometimes near starvation in wartime Germany. It certainly contributed to her total inability to waste food or leave an uncleared plate.

Baggs no I can’t explain it because I don’t believe it’s true either. There is too much pseudo science out there.

Think about it. By “eating too little”, do you mean…

Eating less than normal?
Eating less than you’ve been told to eat?
Eating less than feels right?
Eating less than you need to be healthy?
Eating less than your estimated metabolic rate?
Eating less than your actual metabolic rate?

And how often does that apply? Are you…
Eating too little at one meal?
Eating too little on one day?
Eating too little every day?
Eating too little almost every day but too much on some days?

Without clarity on some of these questions, you can see how easy it is to assume you’re “eating too little” but still not eating less than your actual energy expenditure, even if you did some test to estimate your metabolic rate and it seems like you’re eating less than that number.

Most times, the problem is perception.
As human beings, we’re bad at correctly judging how much we’re eating and expending. We tend to think we eat less and burn more than we do — sometimes by as much as 50 percent.

Of course you said ‘eating too few’

Certainly when I was young and a subscriber to a slimming magazine for many years, the theory was explained as MawBroon says - hence they advised never to go below 1,000 calories per day.

I believe that this stems from the idea that the body tries to conserve energy if it is in “starvation” mode.
I think that this contributes to the slowing down of weight loss for a while until the body starts to use up the stored fat.
At the end of the day too many calories will put on weight, too few will lose weight.
Didn’t see too many fat people in Belsen or in Africa when there were famines did we?

I don't think it means you actually gain weight - it just means that your body thinks it's in a famine so it uses every calorie that it can to keep you going. You don't lose as much weight as you want to - but you don't gain either. People often say they lose weight for a while and then hit a plateau - that is when the "famine" mode starts. This is why it's better to use more calories through exercise, than it is to drop your calorie count below the 1,000cal mark.

Didn’t see too many fat people in Belsen or in Africa when there were famines did we

Unfortunately phrased PamelaJI

It's not true.
Fewer calories than you burn means weight loss. In the long run.
How do we find out how many calories we each burn is a relevant question to this OP.

there is a facebook page called nourish by Jane Clarke she is a nutritionalist and answers all food sort of questions, its very useful. Its not a very busy page and you have to wait a day or two for an answer but she'll know.

My first food indulgence of the day is usually towards what most of us consider lunchtime. However I did learn/read the trick of taking a few walnuts with my first cup of coffee to kick the metabolism in. Works fine for me.

The recent work on fasting by Doctor Michael Mosley suggests that the idea of the body going into starvation mode when you consume fewer calories is a fallacy. He suggests that it is good for the body to regularly fast or consume fewer calories. In a recent tv programme people with type 2 diabetes were very successful in reversing their diabetes or lowering their glucose levels by having just 800 calories a day. They also lost a great deal of weight. There is a lot of science to support his ideas.

I know it is hard to take this on board when you have been told for years about starvation mode and that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. However since reading Doctor Mosley’s books I have given up breakfast and only eat between 12 noon and 7pm and have lost 18 pounds.

He also says that we should not set so much store on what the scales say but pay attention to how our body looks and feels. I am trying to wean myself off weighing myself every day as it is discouraging to see I have put on weight when I have stuck to my eating plan.

You would never gain weight. You only need to look at the starving in India etc....

Why Maw?

If you had known anybody who had been in, died in or survived a concentration camp you would not make such a flippant remark.

I didn’t mean it to be flippant. I used it to illustrate that eating too few calories couldn’t possibly make one fat.
Sorry if it offended you.

I am Type 2 Diabetic, I wonder at some of these diets as I need to have a balanced diet ie 3 meals a day to stop me descending into a "hypo" (I was Hospitalised a couple of weeks ago). Also I take medication for various ailments twice a day (approx 12 hours apart) to be taken with or after food.

I did watch the tv programme where they managed to reverse the Type 2 Diabetes on the 800 calories per day, this was done under medical supervision & the liquid drinks sounded awful.

I try to keep my diet "healthy" & am trying to lose weight. My biggest weight loss recently came after I was taken off Metformin, 6 months & I dropped over 2 stone without trying, however my Blood Sugars rocketed so I'm now on a different medication & the weight just slid back on but my Diabetes is now controlled again

Legs55 yes the liquid diet is awful and I don’t understand why they couldn’t have had proper food that totalled 800 calories. I agree that it is a different situation if you are on medication eg Metformin which can have side effects such as weight gain, nausea etc and I believe you have to eat a certain amount of carbs when on this medication. My DH was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in March which was a shock as he had no symptoms and it was found when he was being treated for something else. We both did a lot of reading about it and at his first appointment with the diabetes nurse she had a prescription of Metformin waiting for him. As a result of all the reading we had done he asked if he could try to control it through diet. She looked surprised but agreed. That was at the beginning of March and after trying a few ways of controlling it he decided to go low carb. Michael Mosley’s Blood Sugar Diet book has been a great help. His glucose levels gradually went down and by this Monday he is now in the normal range. He was never much overweight, just a tummy like a lot of men his age - 6 Feet tall and 196 pounds in weight. He has lost 23 pounds and feels fantastic. He has kept a record of his meals, glucose levels, weight BP and the nurse has asked if she can keep it as an example to some of her patients. Mosley suggests that many people can control their diabetes by losing 10 - 15 percent of their weight.

I know such eating plans, I try not to call them diets, are not for some people as you have to change your diet significantly and my DH’s diet before was poor, too much of the wrong foods. When he told a couple of his friends of the diagnosis they both said that once he went on the medication he would be able to eat what he wanted as they did, which caused the problem in the first place. He is now a total convert to low carb eating and is hoping he can continue to keep the diabetes at bay. By keeping his record of food and glucose readings he has learnt which foods cause a problem for him. He has also now been able to stop taking Omeprazole for acid reflux which he has been on for many years and is medication free.

Diabetes is a life changing disease and not an easy thing to live with and I wish you all the best Legs55.

In Weight Watchers they said skipping breakfast was bad as the body's metabolism doesn't kick in and also you are more likely to snack mid morning. Dont know if this is necessarily true!

Polly Perkins this is an outdated idea now. I have always manag ed to waaait until 12 noon for my first meal.

I don't think it is true really, We often think we are dieting but eat or drink hidden calories. I have a friend who has been careful about her diet but is still putting on weight. It turns out she drinks a couple of glasses of wine most days without realising how high the calorie count is in alcohol.

polyp, I don't know if this thinking is outdated or not but I'm a success story even although I didn't do breakfast. I think my total consumption of food nowadays is probably about a third of what it was three years ago and I don't miss the overindulgence one little bit. Feel decidedly good in fact.

Thank you, peeps. Some interesting info.

its not true...

....but.....

some people dont eat enough at meals and dont REALISE the snacky/drinks calories theyre having to make up for it

or

people who go on VERY low/no carb diets & then fall off the wagon are stressing their pancreas & a stressed pancreas can have type 2 diabetes style problems.

also....a lot of people dont track their calories and mentally calculate that theyre way under and still losing weight...but actually they are over... then by eating bigger MAIN MEALS they lose weight...but had they properly tracked they would see they are eating less than before

sometimes exercising less, if someone isnt taking rest days and was working out every day, can help people get toned & lose weight cause it drops stress hormones