Can you gain weight from eating too little? Myth?

[Mikhala73]

I just saw an old post about someone cutting calories and gaining weight. The "best answer" voted up was that the body was in starvation mode. This is a myth... 

Please read:  https://www.bornfitness.com/gain-weight-eating-too-little/

And many other posts.

Chances are - you aren't logging everything. 

Just a thought and post for discussion 😉

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[WilsonFitbit]

Hello @Mikhala73. Welcome to the community forums! 

Wow, interesting topic! I'd say this is my situation, I've been counting calories and not paying attention to those hidden calories. Now, I have a clear view that although I've been eating small portions, my weight haven't had a great impact and this is because I didn't have any idea about how to recognize those hidden calories, definitely I'll be paying attention to this. 

Thank you for sharing! 

[Heybales]

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@Mikhala73 wrote:

I just saw an old post about someone cutting calories and gaining weight. The "best answer" voted up was that the body was in starvation mode. This is a myth... 

Please read:  https://www.bornfitness.com/gain-weight-eating-too-little/

And many other posts.

Chances are - you aren't logging everything. 

Just a thought and post for discussion 😉

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

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So true - if only starving people had the issue of gaining weight.

Sadly the effect the name was tied to - metabolic adaption, adaptive thermogenesis - are very real effects and do occur at different levels of stress to the body - but the myths tied to the name made it impossible to use.

And the true effect never had one gaining anything but stress water weight. Too fast for it to be fat.

Or the other myth you'll hold on to all the fat and burn muscle, some commercials even said by skipping a meal you'd cause that!

The other problem many times seen while being in that state, and binging because of the stress - so now you are burning less than potential, way overeating for a day or two - and then conveniently forgetting that part when the claim is made you only eat 1200 calories daily (or whatever the claim is), but you gained fat weight.