You guys are so sweet. I'm all over-emotional right now anyway but that made me tear up. Thanks, Jules.
I have a question, if you don't mind!
The "starvation mode" thing. I went through a long period where I ate very little (maybe 100-300 calories a day) and then nothing at all for a time. I did lose weight, but when I started eating again, I gained a TON of weight. Like, double all the weight I had lost. I thought it was the whole starvation thing, but if not, why is that? My memory is fuzzy about that year, but do you think it could be not because I ate, but because I maybe ate *too much* after being deprived?
Without more information I can't tell you for sure. How long did you not eat? How much weight did you lose? Then when you started eating again, how many calories were you eating? What's a "ton" of weight?
But yes, most likely you binged after your body was restricted for so long. It's slightly disturbing but you might be interested in reading about The Ancel Keys Minnesota Starvation Experiment. It was an experiment conducted with volunteers as WW2 was ending because they knew there were people who were severely emaciated, and it was a study to both determine the effects of that kind of starvation as well as to look into the best way to basically refeed afterward. The whole study is a lotta lotta LOTTA pages and only of interest to total geeks, I'm sure, but there's plenty of websites out there that recap the study and talk about the findings.
This is oversimplifying it, but for the purposes of this conversation, it went like so:
Phase 1 - Feed a set amount of calories to establish the "ideal" weight. This was about 3200 calories per day. The men also had to walk 22 miles per week. IIRC almost all (if not all) of the participants actually started the study slightly under what was deemed their "ideal" weight.
Phase 2 - Feed a restricted calorie diet, about 1600 calories, approximately half of what they were eating before.
Phase 3 - Controlled recovery. They divided the men up into four groups and fed different amounts of additional calories on top of the cut 1600 to measure how quickly men would recover. Some within each group were also given vitamins and other supplements.
Phase 4 - Unrestricted recovery. In this phase the men could eat however much they wanted.
What they found in phase 3 was the only factor in how quickly the men gained weight back was how many calories they consumed. The additional vitamins and protein supplements and things didn't make a difference. The body just wanted - needed - calories.
In phase 4, the men basically all started binging. As to how much they binged, it ranged wildly, but binge they all did. There was both a biological and psychological response that said eat, eat, eat. Even the men who were eating
twice as much as they ate during Phase 1 (where they initially maintained an "ideal weight") reported still feeling hungry.
At the end of the study, almost every man ended up weighing more than he had before. (Though upon followups within a year or so they all, IIRC, had returned to their original weights.)
TLDR it's likely you binged even without realizing it. Your body wanted food, food, and more food which was a completely natural response.
What's really depressing about the study is the psychological effects of their starvation period and how long it took afterward for the participants to recover. There were other biological responses too, besides the obviousness of being physically emaciated. Starvation mode IS a very real thing, it does not need to be this extreme. Prolonged depriving your body of the necessary calories it needs to survive (and meet your athletic expectations in my case) does things to your body on just about every possible level. It's bad stuff kids.
Short story:
Use the calculator. Eat more. (also maybe lift heavy things.)
