"Will You Starve That They Be Better Fed?" was the slogan that biologist Ancel Keys used on a leaflet distributed to objectors of the war in 1944. Keys wanted to research what it takes to enanle semi-starved people back to normal. What he actually gave us was a piece of research which should rock the diet and exercise world. Sadly it goes largely ignored and people still get conned by the low calorie brigade. It seems the volunteers starved on our behalf yet we fail to learn from the hardship they went through.
For years I've studied metabolism and while I am a little obsessed with it, I think its justified given the nature of my career. When I worked at Virgin Active I went against the grain and tried with all my might to educate my clients that low calorie was not the answer. People frequently came in with seriously damaged metabolic rates, showing serious symptoms of dysfunction. From low calorie to low fat, glycemic index and the atkins, and even metabolic typing which I used very effectively in my early days as a nutritional consultant. Their was always one factor no matter what the diet, if they were on the atkins diet, they still tried to make sure they didn't eat too much food. If they were on glycemic index, they always seemed to control portion sizes to ensure they kept fairly low calorie. Even when I took people from these weird and wonderful diets to try and educate them about listening to their bodies responses to food via metabolic typing, they still continued to watch the calories. It amazed me quite how indoctrinated the nation is when it comes to counting calories.
At Virgin I took part in my notorious anti diet diet. I overfed myself with 6000 kcals a day to prove that I wouldn't put on weight as long as I maintained a consistency. (i.e regular meals at regular times). I also put a client (my boss) on a high calorie (by normal standards) diet and watched as everything I wanted to happen unfolded right before my eyes. I did they extreme over feeding on myself to avoid ethical problems and due to wanting to see the results first hand. I ended up seriously underweight at around 10 st (I'm now 12 st and have been consistently for 6 years). After the year experiment (I always do a year), my point was proved and I fully expected clients to listen to reason having watched me go through a year of over feeding myself. Like the 1944 experiment, my hard work went largely unnoticed by a gym obsessed with reducing food consumption and upping energy expenditure to maintain a negative balance. They still believed that calories out had to be greater than calories in to get weight loss. The few clients that understood the logic and trusted me are still lean, eating well and healthy to this day. The rest I'm still battling with to get them to see sense.
Thirty Six men were selected who were all conscientious objectors to the war. They were intelligent, psychology stable and physically healthy. Importantly they were roughly weight and height (5' 10" and 75 kg) For the first 3 months of the study the men received 3200 kcals a day to standardize their intakes. After this initial period the men were dropped to 1800 kcals per day which is a figure not uncommon in many diet and fitness circles. In fact I frequently hear people who consider this amount to be high. Just last week we saw recommendations to cut an calories by 15-20% (no mention was made of the safe starting point. I've also had an email from a woman whose been on the lighterlife plan and been as low as 250 kcals.
At the same time the were expected to walk 22 miles each week (they could split this up over days and make use of treadmills or outdoors walking) and also ensure that they expended 3009 kcals, which again isn't something uncommon in todays gym obsessed world. I only have to look out of my window during the day to catch lots of women out jogging. Obviously, as you can see from the picture above, they became skeletal from the effect of this 'enforced' lifestyle. You do see some people that have the insane will power to do this but they are never well, luckily for most of us though, we can't get to the extremes that the Minnesota Starvation Experiment (MSE) did. For a start, they were kept under strict conditions and we are simply surrounded by an abundance of food so is it any wonder we crack and can't live the 100% starvation lifestyle that weightwatchers want us to?
When being starved they began to see many of the symptoms that are typical today in our low calorie, low fat, low everything world. Libedo is at an all time low which is something Max Kampelman (one of the subjects) reported, 'I can tell you, the sex drive disappeared. Their was none.' I've lost count of the time I've heard clients telling me their partner has no interest in sex, followed by bragging that they finally have them tied to that low calorie diet. Nobody seems to join up the dots here.
So what can we expect to see from entering periods of low calorie diets such as 1800 kcals (LCD) and very low calorie diets (VLCD). If we learn from Ancel Keys work in The Biology of Human Starvation, (which if your commited to reading 1385 pages is avaialable in my healthCHEK store, or if you do fancy a look but aren't quite up to 1385 pages then try the PDF file attached at the bottom of this post) we see a host of problems caused by starvation/being low calorie (yes once again 1800 is low).
Physical changes.
• Decreased heart volume
• Slowed pulse rate (and almost certainly low body temperature and raised cortisol)
• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) reduced by 40%. Just what you need if your concerned about weight!!
• Voluntary movements became slower. Your thyroid is regulating (slowing) your energy expenditure.
• Subjects felt and acted older
Personality Changes
• Increase in apathy and depression.
• Sensitivity to noise. The body is overloaded and doesn't have enough energy to cope.
• General feeling of ineffectiveness.
• Loss of ambition and narrowing of interests. We no doubt conserve ourselves for important actions.
• Increased neuroticism and hysteria.
• Almost 20% of the subjects suffered severe “character neuroses” and 2 bordered on both violent and hysteria psychoses.
Food obsession/disorders
• Increased interest and preoccupation with food (talking, preparing, making meals last longer using a variety of methods such as sucking food).
• Heightened craving for food. Is it any wonder when we starve ourselves.
• Became possessive about food.
• Increased gum chewing, smoking, drinking of coffee and tea, and nail biting which also links in well with increased cortisol secretion.
• Purchased useless items and/or hoarded money. Clothes, foods, shoes, handbags, I see it all.
• Some escaped and binged with feelings of guilt (some followed by vomiting)
Social Activities
• Responsiveness, tolerance, happiness, and good humor gradually disappeared, very irritable and with only sarcastic humor remaining.
• Reluctance to participate in group activities. Not wanting to go to work etc and when they do resorting to the above.
• Self-centered and egocentric
• Food central topic of conversation, such as the need to cut back, avoid fats, craving cake or chocolate and discussing it with ones friends.
• Not able to control emotions, tears, tantrums, anger are all hard to control on a LCD.
Take a look at those symptoms and if your on, or have been on a LCD tell me you've not suffered from them? Don't lie, remember I've seen the results of low calorie in many of you. You know I'm always watching your food and mood.
For years I've studied metabolism and while I am a little obsessed with it, I think its justified given the nature of my career. When I worked at Virgin Active I went against the grain and tried with all my might to educate my clients that low calorie was not the answer. People frequently came in with seriously damaged metabolic rates, showing serious symptoms of dysfunction. From low calorie to low fat, glycemic index and the atkins, and even metabolic typing which I used very effectively in my early days as a nutritional consultant. Their was always one factor no matter what the diet, if they were on the atkins diet, they still tried to make sure they didn't eat too much food. If they were on glycemic index, they always seemed to control portion sizes to ensure they kept fairly low calorie. Even when I took people from these weird and wonderful diets to try and educate them about listening to their bodies responses to food via metabolic typing, they still continued to watch the calories. It amazed me quite how indoctrinated the nation is when it comes to counting calories.
At Virgin I took part in my notorious anti diet diet. I overfed myself with 6000 kcals a day to prove that I wouldn't put on weight as long as I maintained a consistency. (i.e regular meals at regular times). I also put a client (my boss) on a high calorie (by normal standards) diet and watched as everything I wanted to happen unfolded right before my eyes. I did they extreme over feeding on myself to avoid ethical problems and due to wanting to see the results first hand. I ended up seriously underweight at around 10 st (I'm now 12 st and have been consistently for 6 years). After the year experiment (I always do a year), my point was proved and I fully expected clients to listen to reason having watched me go through a year of over feeding myself. Like the 1944 experiment, my hard work went largely unnoticed by a gym obsessed with reducing food consumption and upping energy expenditure to maintain a negative balance. They still believed that calories out had to be greater than calories in to get weight loss. The few clients that understood the logic and trusted me are still lean, eating well and healthy to this day. The rest I'm still battling with to get them to see sense.
Thirty Six men were selected who were all conscientious objectors to the war. They were intelligent, psychology stable and physically healthy. Importantly they were roughly weight and height (5' 10" and 75 kg) For the first 3 months of the study the men received 3200 kcals a day to standardize their intakes. After this initial period the men were dropped to 1800 kcals per day which is a figure not uncommon in many diet and fitness circles. In fact I frequently hear people who consider this amount to be high. Just last week we saw recommendations to cut an calories by 15-20% (no mention was made of the safe starting point. I've also had an email from a woman whose been on the lighterlife plan and been as low as 250 kcals.
At the same time the were expected to walk 22 miles each week (they could split this up over days and make use of treadmills or outdoors walking) and also ensure that they expended 3009 kcals, which again isn't something uncommon in todays gym obsessed world. I only have to look out of my window during the day to catch lots of women out jogging. Obviously, as you can see from the picture above, they became skeletal from the effect of this 'enforced' lifestyle. You do see some people that have the insane will power to do this but they are never well, luckily for most of us though, we can't get to the extremes that the Minnesota Starvation Experiment (MSE) did. For a start, they were kept under strict conditions and we are simply surrounded by an abundance of food so is it any wonder we crack and can't live the 100% starvation lifestyle that weightwatchers want us to?
When being starved they began to see many of the symptoms that are typical today in our low calorie, low fat, low everything world. Libedo is at an all time low which is something Max Kampelman (one of the subjects) reported, 'I can tell you, the sex drive disappeared. Their was none.' I've lost count of the time I've heard clients telling me their partner has no interest in sex, followed by bragging that they finally have them tied to that low calorie diet. Nobody seems to join up the dots here.
So what can we expect to see from entering periods of low calorie diets such as 1800 kcals (LCD) and very low calorie diets (VLCD). If we learn from Ancel Keys work in The Biology of Human Starvation, (which if your commited to reading 1385 pages is avaialable in my healthCHEK store, or if you do fancy a look but aren't quite up to 1385 pages then try the PDF file attached at the bottom of this post) we see a host of problems caused by starvation/being low calorie (yes once again 1800 is low).
Physical changes.
• Decreased heart volume
• Slowed pulse rate (and almost certainly low body temperature and raised cortisol)
• Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) reduced by 40%. Just what you need if your concerned about weight!!
• Voluntary movements became slower. Your thyroid is regulating (slowing) your energy expenditure.
• Subjects felt and acted older
Personality Changes
• Increase in apathy and depression.
• Sensitivity to noise. The body is overloaded and doesn't have enough energy to cope.
• General feeling of ineffectiveness.
• Loss of ambition and narrowing of interests. We no doubt conserve ourselves for important actions.
• Increased neuroticism and hysteria.
• Almost 20% of the subjects suffered severe “character neuroses” and 2 bordered on both violent and hysteria psychoses.
Food obsession/disorders
• Increased interest and preoccupation with food (talking, preparing, making meals last longer using a variety of methods such as sucking food).
• Heightened craving for food. Is it any wonder when we starve ourselves.
• Became possessive about food.
• Increased gum chewing, smoking, drinking of coffee and tea, and nail biting which also links in well with increased cortisol secretion.
• Purchased useless items and/or hoarded money. Clothes, foods, shoes, handbags, I see it all.
• Some escaped and binged with feelings of guilt (some followed by vomiting)
Social Activities
• Responsiveness, tolerance, happiness, and good humor gradually disappeared, very irritable and with only sarcastic humor remaining.
• Reluctance to participate in group activities. Not wanting to go to work etc and when they do resorting to the above.
• Self-centered and egocentric
• Food central topic of conversation, such as the need to cut back, avoid fats, craving cake or chocolate and discussing it with ones friends.
• Not able to control emotions, tears, tantrums, anger are all hard to control on a LCD.
Take a look at those symptoms and if your on, or have been on a LCD tell me you've not suffered from them? Don't lie, remember I've seen the results of low calorie in many of you. You know I'm always watching your food and mood.
As with many nutrition studies its the after effects where we see the interesting data.
Obviously after the 6 month period the men were starving were unsatisfied no matter what they ate. They regained the initial weight plus an extra 40%. Wow!!!
The men were split into 4 groups, and each of the groups received a different re-feeding calorie levels ranging from one group that was allowed to eat as much as they wanted, to the lowest group at 2200 kcals, It was noted by Keys that to fully rehabilitate the body 4000 kcals daily was necessary and that it would take this abundance of calories to restore normal function. Even supplementing with vitamins and minerals was of little use with out a great quantity of food.
Effects of Re-feeding the groups
• Still overly concerned with food which was understandable.
• Many became even more irritable and depressed and argumentative.
• Still suffering a slump in morale and lost interest in previous interests
• Thirst increased
• Hunger pains more intense
• Appetites insatiable even in the highest kcal group
• Continued to eat even when full as the body is determined to get what it can while it can (fear)
• Gained fat tissue rapidly (fat returned rather than muscle) as the body wants to protect itself and ensure it has safe reserves.
• Lean tissue recovered more slowly (lack of muscle) as its more important to store energy first in case you encounter starvation again, which most dieters do when they yo yo on and off diets.
Free access to food
• Ate an average of 5,212 kcal a massive amount when compared to the 3200 kcals they consumed prior to starving them.
• Ate nearly continuously then slept or ate
• Slow increase of social behavior at meals
• As time passed they all felt nearly normal with food
• 10 of 14 were beginning to eating normal amounts
• Slowly humor sociability returned, we've all been grumpy when hungry haven't we???
Loosing weight isn't about starving yourself thin, and despite what people seem to think, 1800 kcals is starvation. Fat storage is an emergency response by the hormonal systems of the body to protect you from the repeated deprivations and stresses it’s exposed to. Wise up people and eat some real food.
So, how does the body do this? Leptin is a hormone which is found in our adipose tissue (fat tissue in case your wondering) and tells our brain (the hypothalamus to be exact), all about the environment around us and the current condition of our reserves for dealing with the environment. Think about it logically (like I do), the body has to have someway of deciding how much energy to expend or it runs the risk of grinding to a halt (death). You may have said it yourself or you may of heard somebody else claiming to have a 'naturally' low metabolic rate, so its not 'their fault'. Its not physically possible to be at the surrender of an 'ominous metabolic rate that leaves you overweight no matter what you do.' Its simply responding to the environment we put it in. Yes we do see babies born overweight and kids that seemingly have a genetically low metabolic rate, but, during the final 3 months of pregnancy a baby is preparing to support itself and live outside the womb. To do this it needs to learn about its upcoming environment. Is it being born into a famine such as Ethiopia, or is their an abundance of energy available.
Take a few minutes to consider the typical western mums diet. Probably attempting to eat low calorie, low anything if possible and often consuming processed foods. So, whilst their is a quantity of energy entering the body its debatable if its of any value. Theirs also the skipped meals and lack of care in maintaining a regular supply of energy to the body and the baby being grown inside them. Is it any wonder these kids are born with a fully functioning metabolic rate (its working, you just told it their was a famine going on) only to find out that food is in abundance. Some of these kids may find their balance but others may be commited to the same cycle of endless calorie counting in an effort to loose weight. All while claiming they can't help having a 'low metabolic rate.'
Back to leptin, when we encounter a famine our body fat stores will more than likely decrease. Leptin steps in and signal slow down the rate at which we use our energy to preserve energy (store body fat at every given opportunity). To do this our body temperature and pulse rate will lower to stop us using too much of the precious energy reserves. As our energy levels drop we feel tired and the body naturally wants to hibernate, to counter this we become ravenous and the body will signal to eat anything and everything you can. Its a famine so the body isn't going to send a message saying eat well. It may be life or death so it will signal to go wild and eat while food is available. You saw that in the results from the above study. The subjects even carried on eating when full.
Interestingly when our fat stores increase, leptin tells us that the famine is over, and that body temperature, pulse rate and energy levels can return to optimal (i.e we can expend energy at our optimal rate). Then we utilise fat to be used as a fuel source (remember before it was being stored for an emergency so its usage was conservative and only used through prolonged starvation as seen in the experiment). Funnilly enough we have no attained the mystical, mythical, formally unattainable ideal (not high, just ideal or optimal) metabolic rate. I say not high because I've exposed myself to a high metabolic rate during previous research and that is as unfavorable as a low metabolic rate. The body wants to be at its set point and in balance not at either extreme.
So does that calorie controlled diet still seem like a good idea?
Obviously after the 6 month period the men were starving were unsatisfied no matter what they ate. They regained the initial weight plus an extra 40%. Wow!!!
The men were split into 4 groups, and each of the groups received a different re-feeding calorie levels ranging from one group that was allowed to eat as much as they wanted, to the lowest group at 2200 kcals, It was noted by Keys that to fully rehabilitate the body 4000 kcals daily was necessary and that it would take this abundance of calories to restore normal function. Even supplementing with vitamins and minerals was of little use with out a great quantity of food.
Effects of Re-feeding the groups
• Still overly concerned with food which was understandable.
• Many became even more irritable and depressed and argumentative.
• Still suffering a slump in morale and lost interest in previous interests
• Thirst increased
• Hunger pains more intense
• Appetites insatiable even in the highest kcal group
• Continued to eat even when full as the body is determined to get what it can while it can (fear)
• Gained fat tissue rapidly (fat returned rather than muscle) as the body wants to protect itself and ensure it has safe reserves.
• Lean tissue recovered more slowly (lack of muscle) as its more important to store energy first in case you encounter starvation again, which most dieters do when they yo yo on and off diets.
Free access to food
• Ate an average of 5,212 kcal a massive amount when compared to the 3200 kcals they consumed prior to starving them.
• Ate nearly continuously then slept or ate
• Slow increase of social behavior at meals
• As time passed they all felt nearly normal with food
• 10 of 14 were beginning to eating normal amounts
• Slowly humor sociability returned, we've all been grumpy when hungry haven't we???
Loosing weight isn't about starving yourself thin, and despite what people seem to think, 1800 kcals is starvation. Fat storage is an emergency response by the hormonal systems of the body to protect you from the repeated deprivations and stresses it’s exposed to. Wise up people and eat some real food.
So, how does the body do this? Leptin is a hormone which is found in our adipose tissue (fat tissue in case your wondering) and tells our brain (the hypothalamus to be exact), all about the environment around us and the current condition of our reserves for dealing with the environment. Think about it logically (like I do), the body has to have someway of deciding how much energy to expend or it runs the risk of grinding to a halt (death). You may have said it yourself or you may of heard somebody else claiming to have a 'naturally' low metabolic rate, so its not 'their fault'. Its not physically possible to be at the surrender of an 'ominous metabolic rate that leaves you overweight no matter what you do.' Its simply responding to the environment we put it in. Yes we do see babies born overweight and kids that seemingly have a genetically low metabolic rate, but, during the final 3 months of pregnancy a baby is preparing to support itself and live outside the womb. To do this it needs to learn about its upcoming environment. Is it being born into a famine such as Ethiopia, or is their an abundance of energy available.
Take a few minutes to consider the typical western mums diet. Probably attempting to eat low calorie, low anything if possible and often consuming processed foods. So, whilst their is a quantity of energy entering the body its debatable if its of any value. Theirs also the skipped meals and lack of care in maintaining a regular supply of energy to the body and the baby being grown inside them. Is it any wonder these kids are born with a fully functioning metabolic rate (its working, you just told it their was a famine going on) only to find out that food is in abundance. Some of these kids may find their balance but others may be commited to the same cycle of endless calorie counting in an effort to loose weight. All while claiming they can't help having a 'low metabolic rate.'
Back to leptin, when we encounter a famine our body fat stores will more than likely decrease. Leptin steps in and signal slow down the rate at which we use our energy to preserve energy (store body fat at every given opportunity). To do this our body temperature and pulse rate will lower to stop us using too much of the precious energy reserves. As our energy levels drop we feel tired and the body naturally wants to hibernate, to counter this we become ravenous and the body will signal to eat anything and everything you can. Its a famine so the body isn't going to send a message saying eat well. It may be life or death so it will signal to go wild and eat while food is available. You saw that in the results from the above study. The subjects even carried on eating when full.
Interestingly when our fat stores increase, leptin tells us that the famine is over, and that body temperature, pulse rate and energy levels can return to optimal (i.e we can expend energy at our optimal rate). Then we utilise fat to be used as a fuel source (remember before it was being stored for an emergency so its usage was conservative and only used through prolonged starvation as seen in the experiment). Funnilly enough we have no attained the mystical, mythical, formally unattainable ideal (not high, just ideal or optimal) metabolic rate. I say not high because I've exposed myself to a high metabolic rate during previous research and that is as unfavorable as a low metabolic rate. The body wants to be at its set point and in balance not at either extreme.
So does that calorie controlled diet still seem like a good idea?
| human_starvation.pdf |
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