Not eating=gaining weight...propaganda or fact???

Question

OK...I am in NO way advocating starving oneself to get thin, but this has always bugged me. Magazines and health professionals, etc, always say that if you stop eating, or eat very little, your body will start storing fat and you will gain instead of lose weight. However, if you look at anorexics and starving people around the world, I think it becomes apparent that it is OVEReating as we do here that makes one OVERweight. Is there actual science behind any of this, or is it propaganda attempting to insure that less girls will fall into the horrible trap of anorexia??? Just curious if anyone else has any thoughts on this...

And why did answers edit my question to say propag instead of propaganda, lol???

Answer 1

Ummm... I got stressed out and lost 26 pounds in to weeks because all I could eat was crackers. Like, maybe ten a day, and I had to MAKE myself eat them.

I've been told that what happens is you trick your body into thinking you're starving to DEATH and it starts sucking up and holding on to every calorie you consume, which is why people who go on crash diets gain their weight back so quickly when they start eating again...

For the record, I'm eating normally now and I haven't gained back a single pound.

Answer 2

This is a difficult question. Will starvation *eventually* make you thin? More than likely, yes. My mom got down to eighty pounds through starvation and laxatives, however, at 80 LBS she couldn't walk (I was changing her diapers when I was 19) and her insides are now totally screwed up. Basically, if you decide to starve yourself, your body will store anything and everything you put into it, which makes it seem like you're gaining weight. Your body lives on the stored weight and basically eats that fat to keep functioning. Your body doesn't function well while being starved. Certain parts of the brain, muscle tissue, and organs are also affected.
Overeating is one of the culprits to becoming overweight, but it isn't the only thing. My concern is that people have become obsessed with thinking all women should weigh just over a hundred lbs. I'm starting to think that obesity is a propaganda tool. Think about it. The multi-billion dollar health and diet industry would die if people would wise up and eat sensibly and live an active lifestyle and not worry about trying to become a random number on a scale. Heaven forbid we teach our children that it's more important to eat and live a healthy lifestyle rather than look like Buffy.

Answer 3

The basic facts of metabolism and survival apply to everyone, not just girls or anorexics.
If you stop eating, or cut 'way down on the amount you eat (in other words, if there is a drastic change in your diet) the sub-conscious part of your brain, that controls things like heart beat, snatching your hand back from hot objects, and all the reflex actions that you do not consciously control, says to itself, "Aha! Something drastic has happened out there! There must be a famine going on." So it slows down your metabolism and makes your body very, very efficient, using every calorie you put into it. What you don't use immediately in energy output is instantly stored as fat. Then later, when you resume your normal eating habits, the subconscious says, "Yeah, well that's okay for now, but what if there's another famine? I think we'll just continue as we're doing and store all those extra calories coming in, in another wad of fat."
When you talk of starving people around the world, they have never had the luxury of too many calories, so their bodies are efficiently honed to run on as few calories as possible and still support life.
In North America, overeating is a MAJOR problem, and it does indeed make one overweight. But when people who are overweight try to reduce, which is a sensible plan of action, they too often try to starve themselves down to a healthy weight, and that's when the body kicks in with its famine defense strategy and defeats their efforts.
Overweight people have to learn that there is no magic diet, no quick fix for a problem that took years to become visible. They have to reduce their weight as slowly as they put it on, and if it takes a year to lose twenty pounds, that's the rate they should be working at. You can fool the subconscious IF you reduce the rations very gradually. It's the sudden change in diet that kicks in the famine response.

Answer 4

Well, it is true that if you start starving yourself your body will switch into starvation mode and start storing as much fat as possible. But, if you are starving, then you may not be eating enough to have extra sugars to store as fat. And many people do overeat and get fat, so that is a cause too. As for the not eating thing and gaining weight, it really depends on the person and what they are eating to fullfill their basic calorie needs so they don't die (hopefully).

Answer 5

If you starve yourself and then eventually let yourself eat again, this will make you gain weight. when you dont eat, it slows your metabolism because your body is trying to hold onto the only food youre giving it. If or when you eat a normal meal, you will not only become more full, but gain more weight from it due to slowed metabolism. Best thing to gain weight is more meals (smaller and healthy of course) less carbs, exercise. The more small healthy meals you are eating daily, the faster your metabolism will be and then therefore help you digest and process food faster making you loose weight

Answer 6

I've always heard that if you stop eating for a long period of time the body begans to run of of the already stored fat therefore resulting in weight loss. People don't gain when they stop eating. Weight loss is pretty much the result of the body burning more calories than it's taking in...

Answer 7

If you don't eat, you metabolism slows down. Anorexics lose weight because they over exercise along with not eating or eating too little. Anorexics can also be people that just don't eat fats and things in high caloric value, they can just eat fruits and vegatables. Also many anorexics arn't even stick skinny, you just don't notice people are anorexic until it becomes a serious and obvious problem.

Answer 8

it actually take up to three months of not eating for your body to start eating itself and start dropping the weight. It also depends on the persons body type and metabolism whether or not they lose weight by eating more or eating less. either way it needs to be healthy.

Answer 9

Not to offend anyone, but ask any surviver of the holocaust.

The only solution to manage your weight is to eat less and move around more. It's really that simple.

Answer 10

possible..... but will eventually lose weight.....

when the body isn't being nourished it starts to slow metabloism to retain fat. It will burn fat and eventually muscle...... don't let it get to muscle.