"You Are Gaining Weight Because You Are Not Eating Enough". The TRUTH about Starvation Mode

[@lokoflipz5344]

When I was 300 lbs I tried dropping my calories to 1200-1500 and it worked wonders, at first. I was losing weight very quickly but legit over the time of a week it slowed down A LOT. Then the hunger caught up. So I upped my calories to 2000-2200 and started working out. Much more efficient way, do it right everyone is my point.

[@BenCarpenter]

Yeah, this is an example of how there is probably a delicate balance for people to find something that works for them. It’s not always as straightforward as just eating as little as possible, because there are compensatory mechanisms that can pull you back if you push too hard 🙂

[@AlessAbreu]

At the begining, you were losing a lot of water too, so once the extra retention is gone, the scale will go down slower. This inial week is great to dump motivation and get people going, but it is also a double edge sword

[@Frank_Jones314]

I believe that's a great way to accomplish your goals. "Eat more, burn more" is better than "eat less burn less. "

[@justaname999]

This is a very valuable comment and more people should read it. So much sanity and nuance. Thanks!

[@justaname999]

@@AlessAbreu It's partially water loss for a few days but not a few weeks. At 300 pounds, if the person is male, they probably burn so much just by existing and doing the normal amount of walking to go to work and shop and all that that they easily will lose 1-2 pounds of actual fat. 1200 calories is easily a reduction by 1000 calories a day. At 300 pounds, the BMR must be around 2,200.

[@Frank_Jones314]

Excellent video. You're one of the top content provides on youTube. I think most people intuitively understand all this. Nobody thinks people come out of prison camps months or years later heavier than when they entered. In the short term though, I do think people get a little confused for various reasons. You've thoroughly covered all the reasons in your other videos. Unfortunately, I do believe there are some people (some, not all) who just aren't legitimately trying to make the effort or are not willing to make the effort, and want an excuse to stop trying to get healthier. It's easy and satisfying to say, "I have no control over it, nothing I do works". This is not limited to health and fitness and weight loss. Impatient people will say, "I'm just not a patient person; I can't help getting irritable when my time is wasted." People who are not great at math will sometimes refuse to perform basic calculations, using the excuse of "I'm just not any good at math". We all probably do it, and often are not even aware we are doing it. Anecdotally, I have noticed that the people I know who are trying to lose weight tend to do less and less activity as they increase their time at the gym or decrease their calories. Their NEAT drops to near zero. I'm the opposite. I need to continue bumping up my calories on my bulking phase because the more I eat, the more I seem to move around. My friends and family say I am always in motion, pacing, stretching, fidgeting, etc. My NEAT calories must be some crazy high number, because my weight gain can stagnate at 4100 calories a day and 175 pounds bodyweight. So, I do understand and sympathize with people trying to lose weight and finding periods of stagnation. It's a delicate balancing act, and different people will have different responses to calorie deficits.

[@peakf1300]

Love your channel mate. Incredibly informative, no name calling, straight facts

[@BenCarpenter]

Thanks mate, I appreciate that. I do a little gentle name calling sometimes, but I normally reserve it for people I think are deliberately scamming or deliberately sharing misinformation rather than honest mistakes 🙂

[@joshdaymusiced]

See, what I always heard in regard to “starvation mode” wasn’t that you gain weight by not eating, but that your body will store more whenever it does get food. So if you starve yourself enough to loose 20 pounds, when you start eating regularly again, you will gain it back quicker than it went on originally. No idea of there’s any truth to that whatsoever, as it could easily just be people gorging themselves after a diet. 🤷

[@BenCarpenter]

I can do a follow up video, if you would like? 🙂

[@joshdaymusiced]

@@BenCarpenter That would be awesome! Always love seeing your take on these things, especially because of how much misinformation there is regarding dietary and fitness health.

[@zephyrsky__]

That was my understanding, too. Also, in that sense can one 'fuck up' their metabolism?

[@CursedWheelieBin]

Thanks Ben. Would you ever consider sharing what rehab exercises you did to address any lingering bicep tendonitis from that time you ruptured your tendon at the elbow? I had the same injury a few years ago, and it’s still slowing me down. Is it just a case of using bands light enough to accrue volume without any pain? The NHS physio stopped responding to my emails because I was unable to make an appointment one time due to a scheduling issue. Thanks mate 🙏🏻

[@amandanightstar8012]

I didn't lose weight when I didn't eat for 2-5 days, sure if someone doesn't have underlying health issues they would loose weight. I need to be at 2000-2600 calories for my body to start losing weight with workouts at 200-1800 calories I don't lose weight and I often gain weight because I don't have the energy to workout.

[@plant_paradox5663]

Can you please cover loose skin and dr. Boz fasting claims

[@barts6386]

Thank you for another excellent video.

[@BenCarpenter]

My pleasure. Thank you 🙂

[@LeagueOfJacoub]

what about short term, does it have any affect on water weight?

[@BenCarpenter]

Possibly, yeah. For example in this study they noted that participants suffered with swelling from edema. I don’t know how much it matters in terms of scale fluctuations (they still lost weight despite the visible swelling) but it’s worth being aware of. Also it’s worth noting that in this instance, it might not be the calorie deficit causing issues as much as the fact the participants were at a body fat level barely above a skeleton haha 😁

[@EchoFreckle123]

Are you able to talk about the after effects of this type of extreme calorie restriction? Does metabolism ACTUALLY slow down for the long term?

[@justaname999]

thank you for this! I have seen videos on youtube where people claim they had restricted calories to some crazy number like 800 per day for several weeks and kept gaining weight. When I commented that that just cannot be, they answered something about pcos and that I just cannot know... And I absolutely understand that pcos makes weight loss more difficult but at the same time, that does not take away from the very simple fact that *the laws of physics exist* and that you just cannot create fat tissue from air! But it's useless to tell people that, since any such comment results in an outcry of "you just don't get it, this really happened. I gained 20 pounds while eating 800 calories a day"

[@user-ii7xc1ry3x]

0:59 my man lifts

[@00HoODBoy]

glad this channel been wit me for all these years

[@BenCarpenter]

Thank you. I am pleased you are here 🙂

[@discordantduck1808]

the last 30 seconds or so of this video encapsulates what is probably the single most important factor in sustainable weight loss. people just dont understand the extent of the compensatory measures at play. there are plenty of tricks to "lose 5 lbs for that summer bod" but very few means of achieving a sustainable, long term weight loss plan. millions of people fail at it every year because the same bad advice gets dished out: "just eat less, just move more". the balance is in actuality a very fine one and easily put out if whack with results that can put you in a worse place than where you began. people will hear this advice and immediately cut their calories to 1200 a day while trying to up their cardio or weight lifting and we all know how that ends up. you won't stick to it. you physically can't (at least not for long), and then you'll compensate for it by overeating and under-exercising. people would in general benefit far more overall from "eating more" as in 1800 calories long term than they would eating 1200, I feel like the entire industry sustains itself on misleading people into fad diet loops instead of just telling people to eat *slightly* less and accept it's going to take quite a long time to bear fruit.

[@Frank_Jones314]

Exactly, and an additional benefit of eating more and thus enabling themselves to move around more, is that the more calories consumed, the more protein they can easily consume, which is important for muscle retention. On a 1200-calories near-starvation diet, how much protein do people realistically get?

[@EmiLovesShakespeare]

How does this play into this new notion of “reverse dieting”? Ie, continuing in a caloric deficit once you reach your goal weight (knowing that you’ll continue to lose if you’re below your maintenance cals), but increasing your intake by a hundred or so every couple of weeks until you work back up to your maintenance calories, theoretically allowing your metabolism to adjust rather than YO-YOing (esp cited as a common problem as people experience mindset shift from scarcity to abundance with food and can overeat again)

[@CursedWheelieBin]

I don’t see the correlation. Reverse dieting is for people who’ve slowly, consistently and carefully lost weight by tracking their food intake, not people who’ve impulsively starved themselves

[@AlessAbreu]

Reverse dieting was an attempt at not putting too much body fat after a BB prep, it was never aimed at standard people getting down to 12% BF. And it didn't work for BBs, so no point in doing it really

[@EmiLovesShakespeare]

@@CursedWheelieBin not when people began their diets moving from severe overeating to a severe caloric deficit

[@EmiLovesShakespeare]

@@AlessAbreu I’m not sure this is true, and at any rate, it’s being promoted nowadays as the best way to taper off a caloric deficit, and I’d like Ben’s take on this since he knows the science

[@AlessAbreu]

@@EmiLovesShakespeare Ben has a video that's almost 10 years old. It would be good to get an update since there are more up to date studies

[@lowbarbillcraig3689]

ssshhhhhhhh .. speak quietly or Jason Fung may hear you & try to get you fired

[@BenCarpenter]

😂😂😂 If you know, you know 😂😂

[@anabellaparis1]

OMG please listen good, it's not starving but not eating enough that's making one gain weight. It's happening to me whenever I don't eat enough.

[@SamuelSlade-uy6cl]

Starvation mode is real The body slows its self down to keep you alive You can lose weight and over eat cause your body doesnt have to worry about holding on to nutrients

[@johnmole9958]

Just don't be a silly goose!

[@jmh8510]

I’ve had a very different experience. I starved myself in 11th grade. Got skinny for sure. Started eating again and gained. Then went low calorie and gained …and gained and gained. Recently upped my calories a lot a lot very healthily…and stabilized then started losing.