Help Me Stop Starving!

Li'l help?

If you are willing to PM me a detailed typical daily meal plan I can review it and send back to you with my thoughts. It may take me a few days because of current workload.

I know you have put down ratios, but it is hard to really determine everything from those ratios. I would like to see what is on your typical meal list and the timing of those meals.

For example:10 to 20% fat ratio, but what kinds of fats?
Fats from olive oil? Or from animal fat? Or from seeds and nuts?

Those are the type of things that can help refine your plan.

Do you consider yourself to be ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph?

As some females have touchy hormone levels that can have an impact do you feel like your levels stay consistent or do they vary from month to month?

Those type of details can help qualified trainers refine a plan that may work for you, but even at that it is a challenge to do across the web.

Felt_Rider said:

Thanks!

For example:10 to 20% fat ratio, but what kinds of fats? Fats from olive oil? Or from animal fat? Or from seeds and nuts?
Olive oil and fats from animal muscle. I don't have the cash for EFA supplements and I prefer not to eat nuts.

Do you consider yourself to be ectomorph, endomorph or mesomorph?
Meso-endo.

As some females have touchy hormone levels that can have an impact do you feel like your levels stay consistent or do they vary from month to month?
I'm starving, thus my adrenal and thyroid are not functioning optimally, thus hormone production is out of balance. My waking basal temperature and post exercise basal temp is very low..almost the same. I have been starving for several months and have no idea of where my hormone levels are. Getting blood work is not an option.

Here's my Fitday log. There is a daily entry starting July 18. The journal portion at the top shows my meal intake times, amounts in grams, cumulative macro ratios, HRM, and cyclometer readings: http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=villapiazza
Note: TIZ is Time In Zone, which is 120bpm-171bpm. Fromage Blanc is almost the same as yogurt, but has fewer carbs.

I have looked at the link you provided.
That gives me some good insight and I am a little perplexed to be honest why your weight has jumped up with your current meal plan and fitness program.

Sometimes going into a "starvation" type of diet can have a backlash result.
I have recommended a "keto" type of diet for sedentary people that do not have intense exercise or for a very short term jolt as a shock to the body, but I do not recommend those type of plans for extended periods because in most cases there seems to be a backlash in results.

The mistake many people make on a "starvation" type of plan is not taking in enough EFA's and enough quality protein. It seems that you have a decent amount of protein with the beef. It is hard to suggest anything different based on your current budget requirements (unknown to me) and local grocery costs. In most cases athletes require 0.8 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight up to 1.8 grams and in most cases require toward the upper level for intense training.

When training for bodybuilding competitions I have found that people will get go through sticking points where they cannot lose those last few pounds. That is when we use about 3 days or so of carb depletion to shock the body, but during these periods we would up EFA's or MCT oil and maintain protein levels for recovery.

This may not be any help to you at all, but I am just thinking outloud sort of speak trying to think through your situation. It is a bit of a challenge trying to help others through the web.

Saeco Pink said:

I'm a female cyclist stuck in starvation mode and don't know what to do to get out of it. Add 50 cals a day, 100, the amount exercised? What?

My Basal Energy Expenditure is about 1400, daily activity is an additional "900" calories and workouts are about 600 cals per hour on average.

I've done days' worth of google searches and have come up with nothing beyond "eat more."

Somebody who knows what they're talking about please reply. I'm just getting bigger and bigger even though riding 90 minutes to 2.5 hrs in zone 2 (doing base work) 6 days a week.

I've changed my macro ratios from ketogenic to 40/40/20. Before you target the keto, I started gaining weight when I began exercising after a long hiatus. Trust me, I am definitely in starvation mode. Should I switch to a 40/30/30 or 50/35/15?

Please advise, thanks!

I am NOT an expert on nutrition.

I also suffer with hunger, especially between 2:00pm and 8:00pm. I've tried all the standard remedies, including eating 6 or more small meals.

One thing I have noticed of late is adding more fat (yes fat) to my diet seems to reduce my hunger pangs. For example, at lunch instead of my usual salad with grilled chicken, I switched to a chefs salad which includes turkey, ham and cheese. This little change has helped alot.

Time will tell, but, when I eat fat and meat, I am satiated and eat less.

Felt_Rider said:

...little perplexed to be honest why your weight has jumped up with your current meal plan and fitness program.

I'm convinced it's due to the increased exercise. I've tried to increase calories, too, but I just don't have the money to support 2300-3000 calories a day. Besides, since I know I'm starving, I haven't tried to pile on the calories to what I guess would be the appropriate amount - I've already increased about 300 cals per day. I also expect that my increased intake of fructose and lactose has caused water retention, thus "mass gain." However, my calories are considered too low by most accounts.

At .8g/lb, that makes 118g protein, which is fine with me. I've eaten a lot more protein during my keto days and saw no ill effects, in fact I lost fat or water, or both.

Also, I have no access to weights and don't have the energy (these days, anyway) to do calisthenics. I was running and swimming for about two months before I bought a new bike about three weeks ago (hadn't had a bike for almost a year). Since then, I've only been biking (training for a road tour) and try to do at least 2hrs a day.

Quoted post said:

This may not be any help to you at all, but I am just thinking outloud sort of speak trying to think through your situation. It is a bit of a challenge trying to help others through the web.

Well, I appreciate your effort! I was hoping to find out the best incremental rate of food increase for upregulating the metabolism. Perhaps it's not so simple? I recently read something that suggests fructose and lactose may not be the best carbs for cycling. Perhaps I need to seriously change up the carb sources?

BTW, if I bike for less than 2hrs, it's as if I hadn't burned any calories at all. I've been riding at a low HR in order to encourage fat burning, but I simply have been getting flabbier. I wonder if I need to ride at an average of 150bpm and above rather than the 138bpm I've been doing? I've calculated my max HR at about 200 because I've clocked 195 while running and regularly have seen 183 and 185 on my sprint efforts, so 150 is reasonable.

Your thoughts are valuable to me. Thanks!

tourdelivermore said:

Hi tourdelivermore (California's Livermore? What's up, Cali?)

Thanks for your post. I'm literally starving, tour. My body is not getting the calories it requires, so it has lowered its rate of energy use and is programmed to store whatever calories it does not immediately use, even though I consume what is standardly considered "reduced" calories.

This situation is called the Starvation Response, commonly known as Starvation Mode.

Saeco Pink
(San Francisco native)

Question of a side note to the sensation of starvation.
Are you sleeping through the night or are you having insomia?

Every competition I have had and with those I have trained have experienced insomia once food intake was lowered and bodyfat was reduced. With the increased metabolism came restless nights. The insomia can further increase the frustration. Believe during my 10 years of competition I have faced the frustration you are currently facing and even current day I have trouble many nights sleeping through without waking up in hunger pangs. I just try to keep my goals in mind and stay on track. I do allow myself one cheat meal per week outside of competition training and that helps keep the sanity. One cheat meal will not destroy your goals and can be very beneficial.

The tough thing to overcome based on your post is to accomplish this on a limited budget.

Oatmeal is an inexpensive and great carbohydrate to throw into your plan without having a negative impact to your goal. I will try to think of some other things to add. I am not sure if posting my food selections would be helpful, but it can help you find more variety.

Felt_Rider said:

Question of a side note to the sensation of starvation.
Are you sleeping through the night or are you having insomia?

Yes, and no, to both questions.

I don't have a sensation of starving/feeling hungry. I am, according to most health and fitness websites, grossly undereating for my energy expenditure and have set off my body's starvation response.

According to the standard formula, I am undereating about 500 to 1000 calories NOT COUNTING EXERCISE. I am "supposed" to eat 1400 calories just to support life function, then another 900 to support my daily moving around. That adds up to 2300 cals a day. If I subtract 500 cals for weight loss, then that means I'm supposed to eat 1800 cals a day...if I don't exercise.

I have been averaging about 1270 cals a day for the past two weeks. Before that, I was eating a lot less per day. I am having a biochemical response to chronically underfeeding, plus exercising for greater than 60 minutes, 6 days a week without replacing those calories.

I'm sleeping through the night, although I'm up late because I'm writing a report. I get about 7hrs of sleep, which is average for me.

I'm really seeking advice about how to upregulate food intake without gaining weight.