If starving does not make you lose weight, how is that anorexics get so thin?

Question

Just wondering. :)

Answer 1

they still eat but hardly anything, otherwise bulimics through up. its all to do with metabolism

Answer 2

Starving causes weight loss, but there is a difference between fat loss and weight loss. You can also lose muscle and bone mass, which is what happens when you starve yourself.

Answer 3

You're body stores fat at first

And anorexic's use diet pills and stuff.

AND EXCERSIZE

Answer 4

Well if you don't give your body any nutrients there is a point at which it will lose fat.  The problem is that long before that happens your body cannibalises muscle.

It's called muscle wasting.  

It really has to do with the energy systems the body uses and how/when they get used.

The system that burns fat is the slowest to be used by far.

So if you starved yourself, eventually your body fat would drop dramatically.  By this time your muscle will have wasted to almost nothing and you would be extremely malnourished.

Malnourishment wouldn't be a problem if it was reversible.  Depending on the duration and severity most of the time the damage done can never be undone.

Now, you asked why starvation didn't make you lose weight.

If we're talking about a short term starvation.  Technically starvation in a adult would be anything less than 1200 calories a day.

What your body does is go into survival mode.  It realises that it is being starved and begins storing fat to use later.

You would probably notice that at some point you would lose weight.  This wouldn't be fat but the start of muscle wasting.

Answer 5

bulimia

Answer 6

there matabolism anorexic mean ur thin not starving urself

Answer 7

at first, you do not loose weight. your body uses stored fats and you bloat. if you continue to starve yourself, your stored fat is soon used up, and your nothing but skin and bones!

Answer 8

Im not completely sure, but my guess would be that your body stores fat when you starve yourself.Most people gain weight because they end up eating just enough to be used as energy, leaving the other fat there. If you starve yourself enough, your body probably uses the energy from the fat and you are left with nothing extra. (aka nasty body)... but I am totally guessing here

Answer 9

Starving does make you loose weight, thats how they get so thin.

But it slows your metabolism down, so you store more food as fat.

Also, because your body isn't getting the energy it needs to keep itself running, it uses fat, but the body is smart, and it thinks that incase you do it again, it will multiply the fat cells so it can store more fat and keep itself going for longer.

So more food gets stored as fat, and theres mroe places to store it, meaning, you get alot fatter at the end of it =)

Hope that helps.

Answer 10

It will make you lose weight, but in a very unhealthy way. Anorexic people often die because their body is not getting the nutrients it needs to survive.

The reason people say starving yourself won't make you lose weight is because initially it doesn't. When you first start to do it, you're body goes into "starvation mode" and everytime you eat, your body stores the fat because it doesn't know when it will get nourishment again.

Answer 11

Starving yourself does make you lose weight, it just doesn't do it quickly. If you start denying your body the food it needs, then it will use its fat stores - that's what they're there for.  If you DO eat food while you've been starving yourself, your body will save more of that food as fat than it normally would.

Obviously if you are not giving your body nutrients, it will use its own resources to feed the functions of your body.

Starving yourself is NOT a healthy way to lose weight, and has serious implications on your long term health, and the function of your internal organs.

Answer 12

starving yourself does make you lose weight because your body eats off your fat when your hungry, also anorexics may get so thin from vomiting after meals or they may have bulimia.

Answer 13

Starving does make you lose weight.

Mslatky2, you can't even spell the word "lose", so stop giving advice, you are just making yourself look stupid.

Fabulous Me, you don't know your butt from a hole in the ground, it's not "there", it's their, so stop embarrassing yourself by giving S****y advice. You dont' know what anorexic means.

Answer 14

Starving does make you lose weight.

Anorexics are doing it right!

Answer 15

When ppl refer to starving urself, they usually mean, not eating breakfast, or lunch and only eating dinner. Or SUDDENLY eating very little when ur body is used to eating alot. This puts ur body into a phase where it stores everything it eats again as it feels threatened. Therefore when ppl get off their little starving diets, and start eating again, they will gain weight. Anorexics LOSE weight because they will always be in a calorie defficet, they will do things like excersize excessivley when they DO eat, or take laxatives, etc. When the body starts losing all this energy it starts feeding from the body's fat, muscle and eventually bone. This is why its so sad that young women still going throgh puberty suffer from this as it effects their bone density and development for the rest of their life.

Hope that clears it up :P

Answer 16

interesting question. You do lose if you starve it's just not healthy. If they encouraged everyone to starve to lose then they would not make as much money in the weight lose industries and plastic surgeons would lose too. Not to mention the rest of the doctors and pharmcutical companies that make super money to feed fat unhealthy people pills and insolin shots.

Answer 17

Starving does make you lose weight. Your body eats itself. Simple. At first you store fat as a survival mechanism but eventually that fat will be used for food resource....been there, done that.

It does mess with your metabolism so often people who have eating disorders are able to overcome them and go back to healthy eating but put on lots of weight as a result.