Fat Camp is where we sit on a log around a fire, roasting marshmallows (metaphorically speaking) and I talk about diet or weight-loss issues in general. Today I wanted to re-post something I wrote on a different site about starvation mode.

Everybody is concerned about “starvation mode.” They tell you that you have to eat breakfast or you’ll go into starvation mode. They tell you to eat every three hours or you’ll go into starvation mode. Don’t skip meals. Why? Because you’ll put your body into starvationmode. Uhm, no you won’t. It’s bullshit.

Have you ever seen a person who has been literally starving? Like someone afloat at sea for 40 days or an anorexic on Dr. Phil? Do these people look like they’re having trouble losing weight? Not exactly. They look emaciated; they’re walking skeletons. Why didn’t “starvation mode” kick in to help these poor people out? Well, because it doesn’t exist, at least not like you think.

Yes, if you are stranded on a desert island with nothing to eat, over time your metabolism will slow down tremendously. But that’s over a significant period of time. And it happens because your body is shutting down because you’re slowly dying. But nobody eating 1200 or even 1000 calories a day is dying because of it. There are people who live long, happy lives who never eat much more than that a day.

Does your metabolism go down when you don’t eat? Yes, a little. But that’s because your body isn’t digesting and breaking down the food. When there’s less work to do, your metabolism isn’t as high. But it’s not a significant amount. Look at it the other way; when you have a big meal your metabolism goes up, so if you think metabolism is the biggest factor in weight loss, then why not just have a diet where you eat a big meal every two hours? Because you’d be fat as a house, that’s why.

Let’s say your diet is 1200 calories. You can certainly eat 4 meals of 300 calories throughout the day. You may find yourself more even tempered and less hungry if you do it that way. That’s fine. You should do what works for you. But don’t wake up and force yourself to eat breakfast just because you think you’re supposed to. On days when I’m not doing one of the fad diets, I eat a third of my calories at lunch and two-thirds at dinner. That’s what works for me. I’m not generally hungry in the morning and a small lunch usually carries me over until dinner, especially when I have the knowledge that my dinner is going to be somewhat significant. Now, because I have a larger dinner than I would if I spaced my calories more evenly throughout the day, my metabolism is higher after I eat dinner than it would be if I ate smaller meals throughout the day. But if I ate breakfast my metabolism would have been slightly higher in the morning. Do you see what I’m getting at? It all averages out, so forget metabolism and forget about the starvation mode.

I’m certainly not suggesting you just become anorexic until you get to your goal weight. That’s obviously unhealthy. And yes, if you do that you will gain the weight back but it’s not because your body is in starvation mode, it’s because your entire diet was about deprivation and you never learned to eat in moderation.