Starving yourself?

Question

Does starving yourself help you too loose weight? I know they say it doesn't. But if you aren't getting food, aren't you loosing weight?

Answer 1

No, your body stops burning calories and instead of using your fat to stay alive, it uses your muscles.

Answer 2

Anyone who has seen pictures of the holocaust know that starving yourself will eventually cause you to lose fat.

However... your body will try to preserve itself by taking more and more drastic measures the longer it goes on.

First thing it will do is starve your muscles. Any calories that are currently going to your muscles to maintain them will be redirected and stored as fat instead. Your body will go into "low maintenance" mode in which it will minimize calorie usage, and store as much as possible.

If that isn't enough, your body will begin to shut down "less important" internal organs. Since you're no longer using your digestive system... it is usually the first to go. Liver and kidneys suffer the most in this. Long time anorexics end up having to eat through a tube because their body is no longer capable of digesting normal food.

Eventually... your heart will starve and stop beating.

If you should begin eating again before any irreparable damage has been done... you will quickly gain a lot of weight in fat. The majority of the weight you lost is muscle, and the weight you gain back will be fat... so not only will you have regained the weight, you will look worse - fatter. You will probably even end up weighing MORE than you did before you starved yourself... and it will all be in fat. And 1 pound of fat takes up more room than 1 pound of muscle.

It will take a LONG LONG time to get your body to start feeding your muscles again. It will remain in starvation mode for long after you have returned to normal eating patterns. That means you will gain weight more easily and will have EXTREME difficulties trying to maintain or lose.

It is not the way to go in the long run... you will end up worse off than before. It's not worth it.

Answer 3

You are. But it's no not worth it. (been there, done it)

If you lose weight eating only 800 calories a day, you will have to eat 500 calories a day to maintain that weight loss. Not sustainable for a lifetime.

Just follow a whole foods program, cut out refined foods, exercise & the weight will come off in its own time.

Answer 4

It will for a little while but after all the fat is gone then your body will start to eat your muscles and you will get very weak. If you survive threw this(some people don't) then your body will start to eat what ever it can to stay alive. This means your heart, lungs and sometimes your brain. All this is called Anorexia and people do die from it. Eating very little to cut weight for sports is OK but you should never stop eating all together.

Answer 5

No. When you don't eat, your body goes into "starvation mode" to keep you alive. It stops burning fat and calories, making you GAIN weight. But, if you starve yourself long enough (like at least a year) then you lose weight- but its VERY unhealthy!

Answer 6

No it slows your metabolism and the body thinks its starving so it defends itself by slowing the metabolism and then when you start to eat will will gain weight even faster the best way to lose weight is to cut back your calories, exercise and eat low caloric foods and definately stay away from carbs!

Answer 7

Yes. Your metabolism takes a while to readjust to become more efficient, so until it does, you lose weight, and even after your metabolism adjusts you will keep losing, just less than before. People who starve themselves often end up binging though, so it's better to just eat less than usual without barely eating anything, because if you try to eat nothing it is a much harder diet to keep to, not to mention people will notice.

Answer 8

Honestly eventually yes. At first your body goes into starvation mode and you don't burn calories. After not eating for so long, however, you will begin to lose weight. I wouldn't recommend using the starvation method but yes you will eventually lose weight if you just don't eat. It does however have detrimental consequences on your body but desperate times call for desperate measures.

Answer 9

At first you’ll lose weight, because your body will be living off of stored fat, but here’s the thing. Once you start eating again your body will automatically take the food and store it as fat because it doesn’t know when it will eat again. So in turn you’ll actually gain weight.

Answer 10

No because your body goes into survival mode and stores ANY fat you eat. Also if you dont eat at all you will make yourself really ill dont do it! eat salads and fish, take multivitamin tablets and drink loads of water this will help you loose weight.

Answer 11

You can loose weight but you also lose muscle and that isnt the healthy way too lose weight.