You most certainly did not go into starvation mode. I wish people would stop throwing that term around.

What you experienced was what every person who starts to lose weight experiences, large consistent loses then a slowing to a normal amount of weight loss and fluctuation. Then you did what all dieters do, you panicked and started to ‘try’ to shake things up, only it often just leads to under-eating or worse poor nutrition. I think you forgot to eat fibre! 😉

The recommendation for weight loss are actually tiny amounts. 450 grams a week or about 1 pound is still considered a good level of weight loss each week, but honestly, most people will see fluctuations so weight loss is most certainly NOT down, down, down all the time.

I lost 32 kilos counting calories over the course of 15 months. Was it always down, down, down? Nope! Month by month it was, but there were tiny bumps along the way… It fluctuated.

I just finished MM 8 Week Blood Sugar diet because I had re-gained some weight this year and realised I was relying on carbs to make up most of my calories. I lost just over 6 kilos on the BSD.

However, if I continued I would see much smaller loses from now on because a) I have less to lose b) I would over-eat because 800 calories is hard to keep eating longer term c) You lose focus and interest when the weight loss starts to slow

I wish you luck on a commercial diet plan but I can almost guarantee after a few months you will see just as much – starvation mode – as you think you experienced on 5:2

As for my weight-loss? I plan on doing 5:2 simply to maintain my weight loss and build on my over-all health.

Hi Jev,

Have to agree with Trish and Lolly. People bandy around the term starvation mode when what they mean is “Im hungry”. Starvation mode only kicks in when the body is not getting any calories, and has run out of stored fats. This means less than 4% body fat. At that stage your body starts shutting down non essential body functions in an effort to conserve energy and starts consuming lean mass (muscles). I suspect you were not at that stage yet.

While no foods are banned on 5:2, if youre primarily eat unhealthy foods normally, then doing 5:2 just means your are eating slightly less unhealthy foods on two days. There is no magic involved.

Get the vast majority of your carbs from veggies and some fruit. Some lean meats like chicken pork and fish or tuna. Fats from avocadoes, cheese, high fat low sugar yogurt. Nuts like brazil nuts, walnuts, almonds. Avoid sugar like the plague. Avoid potatoes. Avoid any grain based foods. So not bread, pasta, pizza, biscuits, cakes etc. The food pyramid is wrong and grain based foods should be considered sometimes foods at best.

If you start eating healthy your gut bacteria will be waging a war with good versus bad bacteria having a big fight. It will take a month or two for the good guys to finally win. Give it time. You wouldn’t go to the gym once and then declare yourself “fit”. It takes time. One pound loss per week is about average. 5:2 is not a diet, it is a way of eating. Treat it like a diet and the results will be just like any other diet. Crash and burn.

I completely agree with you. Our body should not go into starvation mode. Have some healthy foods like fruits which do not add to your weight.

Hi Jev:

There is no such thing as starvation mode for overweight people. Check the FAQs and Dr. M’s post on the subject. While the metabolism slows a bit with weight loss, it does not slow simply because you eat less. If that were really true, people doing water fasts would not lose any weight – but they lose the most.

Here are some tips on 5:2: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Hi Happy:

Dr. Fung believes that long term calorie restriction leads to what many call ‘starvation mode’ – the lowering of the metabolic rate. But all research to date refutes that belief. The latest research I am aware of followed 220 people for two years. All were on a continuous reduced calorie diet and after two years the study found that the constant calorie restriction did not lower their resting metabolic rate. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/07/19/cutting-calories-can-lower-inflammation.html

This study simply confirmed previous study findings. Dr. Fung seems to believe otherwise, and goes on to postulate that this lowered metabolic rate caused by standard reduced calorie diets is one of the main reasons people regain weight after following whatever diet and losing it. His other reason for regaining weight is the ‘set point’ of the body. So if you don’t regain because of a lower metabolic weight, you will regain because of the ‘set point’. It is a bleak picture indeed because there would seem to be little hope of ever losing weight and keeping it off.

He also believes that IF does not carry this perceived problem with it, and postulates that people that lose weight using IF will not regain it because their metabolic rate will not go down as he believes it does with continuous calorie restriction. However, just a brief review of posts on this site will confirm that there are many people that have lost weight using IF and have regained it. Guess there must be some other reason. Probably the ‘set point’.

And I always am interested in the Eat, Fast and Live Longer video where the most healthy person on the show was the man that had followed constant calorie restriction for 10 years. He wasn’t a bit fat. I guess he just ate to his TDEE and he was lucky enough that his ‘set point’ didn’t kick in.

But I think just eating to TDEE will prevent weight gain, as hard as that is to do for many people.