Starvation mode: how to stop it slowing down your weight loss

By Kimberly Gillan|

Your body thinks you're in a famine — and will do everything to hold onto its fat stores.

If you've ever gone through a weight-loss plateau, you may just have “starvation mode” to thank.

Associate Professor Amanda Salis, University of Sydney obesity and weight loss researcher, refers to it as a “famine reaction”: our bodies are programmed to start expending less energy if we've been in a kilojoule deficit for too long.

It makes sense, really – our bodies view strict dieting as though we are caught in a famine, so our body naturally hangs onto as much body fat as possible in case it's a while until we can access food again.

"[Famine reaction] causes our bodies to reduce our energy expenditure or the number of kilojoules we burn and it also increases the drive to eat by making us hungrier and reducing how much satisfaction we feel after we've eaten," Associate Professor Salis told Coach.

"There is no doubt in the scientific literature that it exists – the question is how long it lasts."

While researchers like Salis try to nut this out, and also work out whether fast or slow weight loss sparks a stronger famine reaction, you can rest assured that weight loss can still occur. Here's how.

Don’t give up

Starvation mode is a frustrating biological phenomenon for anybody who is trying to lose weight, but Salis says this knowledge can be empowering. 

"Just knowing there is something physiological at play can help you to feel better – it's validation," she says.

"People often say, 'I'm a failure, I'm useless and I may as well go and eat everything'. All of that self-talk doesn't help anything in the long run. If you just think 'It's my famine reaction' and try and keep going, it can help reduce that negative self talk."

And you will keep losing weight – it just might be at a slower pace.

RELATED: Why your body seems to store fat in all the wrong places

Build your strength

One way of counteracting starvation mode is by building your lean muscle mass.

"The more muscle mass you have, the higher your resting energy expenditure," Salis explains.

"Even if you do go on a diet and your metabolism does drop, then it won't drop as far because you will have that higher energy expenditure to begin with."

Take a diet holiday

Associate Professor Salis often recommends people take a "diet holiday" where they have a three-day break from kilojoule restriction to reset the famine response.

It's not about going hell-for-leather on junk food – you still have to stick with a predominantly whole food diet — but you don't have to count the kilojoules with the rigour of a diet.

Then when you pick back up on the kilojoule restriction, you will probably see a more profound dip in the scales.

RELATED: Why breaking your diet could actually speed up weight loss

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