Re: Does your body begin to store fat due to starvation?

I think it depends on a lot of factors and the equation is never simple.

The reason they say starvation can actually increase body fat is due to a lot of reasons. One of these reasons is that if you do not give your body enough energy it will take the energy from your muscles themselves. This will in turn decrease your lean muscle mass which decreases the BMR or the amount of food you need to maintain your weight. The opposite is true to if you give your body enough energy and nutrients and do some form of weight training it will increase muscle mass and allow you to actually eat more. Weight loss always just comes down to if you eat less calories than your body requires you will lose weight. It doesnt matter what you eat, if you fast - whatever - eat less than your BMR and activity you will lose weight. The question though is whether that weight is fat loss or you are eating into your muscles because the body fat is not so easy to burn up and while its waiting for fat to be ready as energy (which takes more than 8 hours for the entire process) it eats into the muscles.

I believe Water Fasting can eat into your muscles and cause this to happen. While I think juice fasting would supply your body with a lot of nutrients and calories and would be less likely to eat into your muscle mass. Eating 6 small meals a day is the ultimate type of eating for keeping your muscles. 6 juices a day would have a similar effect.

Just a story I know of personally that is interesting is I know of a couple of girls who used fasting (not eating at all) over a period of 2 years (on occaison obviously) to lose weight. At 22 they were around 49 kg and had their body fat as 45kg of lean muscle and 4kg of fat (so they were lean). Using fasting they maintained this weight. Years after when they stopped fasting they resumed normal eating and the weight started piling on. Their metabolism slowed down, they could no longer eat what they could prior to this fasting without putting on weight. They had to have about 800 calories or less to not put on weight Both girls went up in weight to 65 and 70 respectively over a period of about 6 months. Their lean muscle mass at this time was down to 35kg and the rest was made up of body fat. Finally now after 1 year of gym and healthy eating they are at 55 and 57kg and have a lean muscle mass of 41kg and the rest is their body fat. They still have a few more kilos to go to get back to what they were but their metabolism has now kicked back in and they can eat 1500 calories a day without putting on weight. A long story but I hope it helps you understand.

Now obviously there are many factors that affect weight gain and every person is different. You have to listen to your body and do what it wants.

Anyways I could go on about this forever so will end there. Here is a site that can tell you a lot about your metabolism.

www.hussman.org/fitness/

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