Yeah, whatever.

It's a ridiculous thing to do - and anyone trying that doesn't need the
kind "support" you get here.

Minimal calorie intake is, in animals at least, a viable life extending
wol - but only if you are completely inactive. Subjecting your body to
minimal calories *and* oxidative stress through activity is just stupid.

--
Chris

However, a support group in theory should be for encouraging healthy,
positive actions, unless we're becoming
alt.support.diet.whateverwhackythingyouwanttodotoyourself

Other than a jockey priming for a big race, I don't know why any man
would want to weigh 113. It can't be looks. It certainly isn't health.
It mostly sounds like some kind of mind game, with potentially
negative impacts on health.

Mary G.

You're right. My dieting has been crazy!

Delenn, I'm not sure how long you've been at your goal weight. I know Chris
and Igor have been very successful with their maintenance. Any tips you can
give me I would appreciate.

My god, both of you have jumped to incredibly wild conclusions!

The OP says he is back to eating NORMALLY. He has gained a few pounds
and he's been running for 20 years.

Distance runners are small, that's just the way it is. Give him some
slack. As far as sanity, unless you're a licensed shrink, I don't know
how far your "pass" goes. ;)

Martha

I think that 8.5% may be hard to maintain.

Hm, then, why did you become so skinny?

and exercise.

Would be quite interesting.

Because you essentially starved yourself to this weight, you may be
interested in what happened to other volunteers who did the same thing
60 years ago, in an experiment.

http://river-centre.org/StarvSympt.html



Starvation Symptoms

The Effects Of Starvation On Behavior: Implications for Eating Disorders

by David M. Garner, Ph.D.

The following is an adaptation of a portion of a book chapter: Garner,
D.M. (1997). Psychoeducational principles in the treatment of eating
disorders. In: Handbook for Treatment of Eating
Disorders. (145-177). D.M. Garner & P.E. Garfinkel (Eds). New York,
NY: Guilford Press.

One of the most important advancements in the understanding of eating
disorders is the recognition that severe and prolonged dietary
restriction can lead to serious physical and psychological
complications (Garner, 1997). Many of the symptoms once thought to be
primary features of anorexia nervosa are actually symptoms of
starvation. Given what we know about the biology of weight regulation,
what is the impact of weight suppression on the individual? This is
particularly relevant for those with anorexia nervosa, but is also
important for people with eating disorders who have lost significant
amounts of body weight. Perhaps the most powerful illustration of the
effects of restrictive dieting and weight loss on behavior is an
experimental study conducted almost 50 years ago and published in 1950
by Ancel Keys and his colleagues at the University of Minnesota (Keys
et al., 1950). The experiment involved carefully studying 36 young,
healthy, psychologically normal men while restricting their caloric
intake for 6 months. More than 100 men volunteered for the study as an
alternative to military service; the 36 selected had the highest
levels of physical and psychological health, as well as the most
commitment to the objectives of the experiment. What makes the
"starvation study" (as it is commonly known) so important is that many
of the experiences observed in the volunteers are the same as those
experienced by patients with eating disorders. This section of this
chapter is a summary of the changes observed in the Minnesota study.

During the first 3 months of the semistarvation experiment, the
volunteers ate normally while their behavior, personality, and eating
patterns were studied in detail. During the next 6 months, the men
were restricted to approximately half of their former food intake and
lost, on average, approximately 25% of their former weight. Although
this was described as a study of "semistarvation," it is important to
keep in mind that cutting the men's rations to half of their former
intake is precisely the level of caloric deficit used to define
"conservative" treatments for obesity (Stunkard, 1993). The 6 months
of weight loss were followed by 3 months of rehabilitation, during
which the men were gradually refed. A subgroup was followed for almost
9 months after the re-feeding began. Most of the results were reported
for only 32 men, since 4 men were withdrawn either during or at the
end of the semistarvation phase. Although the individual responses to
weight loss varied considerably, the men experienced dramatic
physical, psychological, and social changes. In most cases, these
changes persisted during the rehabilitation or re-nourishment phase.

Attitudes and Behavior Related to Food and Eating

One of the most of the striking changes that occurred in the
volunteers was a dramatic increase in food preoccupations. The men
found concentration on their usual activities increasingly difficult,
because they became plagued by incessant thoughts of food and
eating. During the semistarvation phase of the experiement, food
became a principal topic of conversation, reading, and
daydreams. Rating scales revealed that the men experienced an increase
in thinking about food, as well as corresponding declines in interest
in sex and activity during semistarvation. The actual words used in
the original report are particularly revealing and the following
quotations followed by page numbers in parentheses are from Keys et
al. (1950) with permission of the University of Minnesota Press.

As starvation progressed, the number of men who toyed with their food
increased. They made what under normal conditions would be weird and
distasteful concoctions, (p. 832). . . Those who ate in the common
dining room smuggled out bits of food and consumed them on their bunks
in a long-drawn-out ritual, (p. 833). . . Toward the end of starvation
some of the men would dawdle for almost two hours after a meal which
previously they would have consumed in a matter of minutes,
(p. 833). . . Cookbooks, menus, and information bulletins on food
production became intensely interesting to many of the men who
previously h ad little or no interest in dietetics or agriculture,
(p. 833). [The volunteers] often reported that they got a vivid
vicarious pleasure from watching other persons eat or from just
smelling food. (p. 834)

In addition to cookbooks and collecting recipes, some of the men even
began collecting coffeepots, hot plates, and other kitchen
utensils. According to the original report, hoarding even extended to
non-food-related items such as "old books, unnecessary second-hand
clothes, knick knacks, and other 'junk.? Often after making such
purchases, which could be afforded only with sacrifice, the men would
be puzzled as to why they had bought such more or less useless
articles" (p. 837). One man even began rummaging through garbage
cans. This general tendency to hoard has been observed in starved
anorexic patients (Crisp, Hsu, & Harding, 1980) and even in rats
deprived of food (Fantino & Cabanac, 1980). Despite little interest in
culinary matters prior to the experiment, almost 40% of the men
mentioned cooking as part of their postexperiment plans. For some, the
fascination was so great that they actually changed occupations after
the experiment; three became chefs, and one went into agriculture!

The Minnesota subjects were often caught between conflicting desires
to gulp their food down ravenously and consume it slowly so that the
taste and odor of each morsel would be fully appreciated. Toward the
end of starvation some of the men would dawdle for almost two hours
over a meal which previously they would have consumed in a matter of
minutes. . .they did much planning as to how they would handle their
day's allotment of food. (p. 833) The men demanded that their food be
served hot, and they made unusual concoctions by mixing foods
together, as noted above. There was also a marked increase in the use
of salt and spices. The consumption of coffee and tea increased so
dramatically that the men had to be limited to 9 cups per day;
similarly, gum chewing became excessive and had to be limited after it
was discovered that one man was chewing as many as 40 packages of gum
a day and "developed a sore mouth from such continuous exercise"
(p. 835).

During the 12-week refeeding phase of the experiment, most of the
abnormal attitudes and behaviors in regard to food persisted. A small
number of men found that their difficulties in this area were quite
severe during the first 6 weeks of refeeding:

Binge Eating

During the restrictive dieting phase of the experiment, all of the
volunteers reported increased hunger. Some appeared able to tolerate
the experience fairly well, but for others it created intense concern
and led to a complete breakdown in control. Several men were unable to
adhere to their diets and reported episodes of binge eating followed
by self-reproach. During the eighth week of starvation, one volunteer
flagrantly broke the dietary rules, eating several sundaes and malted
milks; he even stole some penny candies. He promptly confessed the
whole episode, [and] became self-deprecatory" (p. 884). While working
in a grocery store, another man suffered a complete loss of will power
and ate several cookies, a sack of popcorn, and two overripe bananas
before he could "regain control" of himself. He immediately suffered a
severe emotional upset, with nausea, and upon returning to the
laboratory he vomited. . .He was self-deprecatory, expressing disgust
and self-criticism. (p. 887)

One man was released from the experiment at the end of the
semistarvation period because of suspicions that he was unable to
adhere to the diet. He experienced serious difficulties when
confronted with unlimited access to food "He repeatedly went through
the cycle of eating tremendous quantities of food, becoming sick, and
then starting all over again" (p. 890). During the refeeding phase of
the experiment, many of the men lost control of their appetites and
"ate more or less continuously" (p. 843).

Even after 12 weeks of refeeding, the men frequently complained of
increased hunger immediately following a large meal.

[One of the volunteers] ate immense meals (a daily estimate of
5,000-6,000 cal.) and yet started "snacking" an hour after he finished
a meal. [Another] ate as much as he could hold during the three
regular meals and ate snacks in the morning, afternoon and
evening. (p. 846). Several men had spells of nausea and vomiting. One
man required aspiration and hospitalization for several days. (p. 843)

During the weekends in particular, some of the men found it difficult
to stop eating. Their daily intake commonly ranged between 8,000 and
10,000 calories, and their eating patterns were described as follows:

Subject No. 20 stuffs himself until he is bursting at the seams, to
the point of being nearly sick and still feels hungry; No. 120
reported that he had to discipline himself to keep from eating so much
as to become ill; No. 1 ate until he was uncomfortably full; and
subject No. 30 had so little control over the mechanics of "piling it
in" that he simply had to stay away from food because he could not
find a point of satiation even when he was "full to the gills.". . ."I
ate practically all weekend," reported subject No. 26. . .Subject
No. 26 would just as soon have eaten six meals instead of
three. (p. 847)

After about 5 months of refeeding, the majority of the men reported
some normalization of their eating patterns, but for some the extreme
overconsumption persisted "No. 108 would eat and eat until he could
hardly swallow any more and then he felt like eating half an hour
later" (p. 847). More than 8 months after renourishment began, most
men had returned to normal eating patterns; however, a few were still
eating abnormal amounts "No. 9 ate about 25 percent more than his
pre-starvation amount; once he started to reduce but got so hungry he
could not stand it" (p. 847).

Factors distinguishing men who rapidly normalized their eating from
those who continued to eat prodigious amounts were not
identified. Nevertheless, the main findings here are as follows:
Serious binge eating developed in a subgroup of men, and this tendency
persisted in come cases for months after free access to food was
reintroduced; however, the majority of men reported gradually
returning to eating normal amounts of food after about 5 months of
refeeding. Thus, the fact that binge eating was experimentally
produced in some of these normal young men should temper speculations
about primary psychological disturbances as the cause of binge eating
in patients with eating disorders. These findings are supported by a
large body of research indicating that habitual dieters display marked
overcompensation in eating behavior that is similar to the binge
eating observed in eating disorders (Polivy & Herman, 1985, 1987;
Wardle & Beinart, 1981). Polivy et al., (1994) compared a group of
former World War II prisoners of war and non-interned veterans and
found that the former prisoners lost an average of 10.5 Kg. They also
reported a significantly higher frequency of binge eating than
non-interned veterans according to a self-report questionnaire sent by
mail.

Emotional and Personality Changes

The experimental procedures involved selecting volunteers who were the
most physically and psychologically robust. "The psychobiological
'stamina' of the subjects was unquestionably superior to that likely
to be found in any random or more generally representative sample of
the population" (pp. 915-916).

Although the subjects were psychologically healthy prior to the
experiment, most experienced significant emotional deterioration as a
result of semistarvation. Most of the subjects experienced periods
during which their emotional distress was quite severe; almost 20%
experienced extreme emotional deterioration that markedly interfered
with their functioning. Depression became more severe during the
course of the experiment. Elation was observed occasionally, but this
was inevitably followed by "low periods." Mood swings were extreme for
some of the volunteers:

[One subject] experienced a number of periods in which his spirits
were definitely high. . . These elated periods alternated with times
in which he suffered "a deep dark depression." (p. 903)

Irritability and frequent outbursts of anger were common, although the
men had quite tolerant dispositions prior to starvation. For most
subjects, anxiety became more evident. As the experiment progressed,
many of the formerly even-tempered men began biting their nails or
smoking because they felt nervous. Apathy also became common, and some
men who had been quite fastidious neglected various aspects of
personal hygiene. During semistarvation, two subjects developed
disturbances of "psychotic" proportions. During the refeeding period,
emotional disturbance did not vanish immediately but persisted for
several weeks, with some men actually becoming more depressed,
irritable, argumentative, and negativistic than they had been during
semistarvation. After two weeks of refeeding, one man reported his
extreme reaction in his diary:

I have been more depressed than ever in my life. . .I thought that
there was only one thing that would pull me out of the doldrums, that
is release from C.P.S. [the experiment] I decided to get rid of some
fingers. Ten days ago, I jacked up my car and let the car fall on
these fingers. . .It was premeditated. (pp. 894-895)

Several days latter, this man actually did chop off three fingers of
one hand in response to the stress.

Standardized personality testing with the Minnesota Multiphasic
Personality Inventory (MMPI) revealed that semistarvation resulted in
significant increases on the Depression, Hysteria, and Hpochondriasis
scales. The MMPI profiles for a small minority of subjects confirmed
the clinical impression of incredible deterioration as a result of
semistarvation. One man who scored well within normal limits at
initial testing, but after 10 weeks of semistarvation and a weight
loss of only about 4.5 kg (10 pounds, or approximately 7% of his
original body weight), gross personality disturbances were evident on
the MMPI. Depression and general disorganization were particularly
striking consequences of starvation for several of the men who became
the most emotionally disturbed.

Social and Sexual Changes

The extraordinary impact of semistarvation was reflected in the social
changes experienced by most of the volunteers. Although originally
quite gregarious, the men became progressively more withdrawn and
isolated. Humor and the sense of comradeship diminished amidst growing
feelings of social inadequacy. The volunteers' social contacts with
women also declined sharply during semistarvation. Those who continued
to see women socially found that the relationships became
strained. These changes are illustrated in the account from one man's
diary:

I am one of about three or four who still go out with girls. I fell in
love with a girl during the control period but I see her only
occasionally now. It's almost too much trouble to see her even when
she visits me in the lab. It requires effort to hold her
hand. Entertainment must be tame. If we see a show, the most
interesting part of it is contained in scenes where people are
eating. (p. 853)

Sexual interests were likewise drastically reduced. Masturbation,
sexual fantasies, and sexual impulses either ceased or became much
less common. One subject graphically stated that he had "no more
sexual feeling than a sick oyster." (Even this peculiar metaphor made
reference to food.) Keys et al. observed that "many of the men
welcomed the freedom from sexual tensions and frustrations normally
present in young adult men" (p. 840). The fact that starvation
perceptibly altered sexual urges and associated conflicts is of
particular interest, since it has been hypothesized that this process
is the driving force behind the dieting of many anorexia nervosa
patients. According to Crisp (1980), anorexia nervosa is a adaptive
disorder in the sense that it curtails sexual concerns for which the
adolescent feels unprepared. During rehabilitation, sexual interest
was slow to return. Even after 3 months, the men judged themselves to
be far from normal in this area. However, after 8 months of
renourishment, virtually all of the men had recovered their interest
in sex.

Cognitive and Physical Changes

The volunteers reported impaired concentration, alertness,
comprehension, and judgment during semistarvation; however, formal
intellectual testing revealed no signs of diminished intellectual
abilities. As the 6 months of semistarvation progressed, the
volunteers exhibited many physical changes, including gastrointestinal
discomfort; decreased need for sleep; dizziness; headaches;
hypersensitivity to noise and light; reduced strength; poor motor
control; edema (an excess of fluid causing swelling); hair loss;
decreased tolerance for cold temperatures (cold hands and feet);
visual disturbances (i.e., inability to focus, eye aches, "spots" in
the visual fields); auditory disturbances (i.e., ringing noise in the
ears); and paresthesias (i.e., abnormal tingling or prickling
sensations, especially in the hands or feet).

Various changes reflected an overall slowing of the body's
physiological processes. There were decreases in body temperature,
heart rate, and respiration, as well as in basal metabolic rate
(BMR). BMR is the amount of energy (in calories) that the body
requires at rest (i.e., no physical activity) in order to carry out
normal physiological processes. It accounts for about two-thirds of
the body's total energy needs, with the remainder being used during
physical activity. At the end of semistarvation, the men's BMRs had
dropped by about 40% from normal levels. This drop, as well as other
physical changes, reflects the body's extraordinary ability to adapt
to low caloric intake by reducing its need for energy. More recent
recent research has shown that metabolic rate is markedly reduced even
among dieters who do not have a history of dramatic weight loss
(Platte, Wurmser, Wade, Mecheril & Pirke, 1996). During refeeding,
Keys et al. found that metabolism speeded up, with those consuming the
greatest number of calories experiencing the largest rise in BMR. The
group of volunteers who received a relatively small increment in
calories during refeeding (400 calories more than during
semistarvation) had no rise in BMR for the first 3 weeks. Consuming
larger amounts of food caused a sharp increase in the energy burned
through metabolic processes.

Significance of the "Starvation Study"

As is readily apparent from the preceding description of the Minnesota
experiment, many of the symptoms that might have been thought to be
specific to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are actually the
results of starvation (Pirke & Ploog, 1987). These are not limited to
food and weight, but extend to virtually all areas of psychological
and social functioning. Since many of the symptoms that have been
postulated to cause these disorders may actually result from
undernutrition, it is absolutely essential that weight be returned to
"normal" levels so that psychological functioning can be accurately
assessed.

The profound effects of starvation also illustrate the tremendous
adaptive capacity of the human body and the intense biological
pressure on the organism to maintain a relatively consistent body
weight. This makes complete evolutionary sense. Over hundreds of
thousands of years of human evolution, a major threat to the survival
of the organism was starvation. If weight had not been carefully
modulated and controlled internally, early humans most certainly would
simply have died when food was scarce or when their interest was
captured by countless other aspects of living. The Keys et
al. "starvation study" illustrates how the human being becomes more
oriented toward food when starved and how other pursuits important to
the survival of the species (e.g., social and sexual functioning)
become subordinate to the primary drive toward food.

One of the most notable implications of the Minnesota experiment is
that it challenges the popular notion that body weight is easily
altered if one simply exercises a bit of "willpower." It also
demonstrates that the body is not simply "reprogrammed" at a lower set
point once weight loss has been achieved. The volunteers' experimental
diet was unsuccessful in overriding their bodies' strong propensity to
defend a particular weight level. Again, it is important to emphasize
that following the months of refeeding, the Minnesota volunteers did
not skyrocket into obesity. On the average, they gained back their
original weight plus about 10%; then, over the next 6 months, their
weight gradually declined. By the end of the follow-up period, they
were approaching their preexperiment weight levels.

Providing patients with eating disorders with the above account of the
semistarvation study can be very useful in giving them an
"explanation" for many of the emotional, cognitive and behavioral
symptoms that they experience. This as well as other educational
materials (Garner, 1997) is based on the assumption that eating
disorder patients often suffer from misconceptions about the factors
that cause and then maintain symptoms. It is further assumed that
patients may be less likely to persist in self-defeating symptoms if
they are made truly aware of the scientific evidence regarding factors
that perpetuate eating disorders. The educational approach conveys the
message that the responsibility for change rests with the patient;
this is aimed at increasing motivation and reducing defensiveness. The
operating assumption is that the patient is a responsible and rational
partner in a collaborative relationship.

References

Crisp, A. J. (1980)). Anorexia Nervosa: Let me be. London: Academic
Press.

Crisp, A. H., Hsu, L. K. G., & Harding, B. (1980). The starving
hoarder and voracious spender: Stealing in anorexia nervosa. Journal
of Psychosomatic Research, 24, 225-231.

Garner, D.M. (1997). Psychoeducational principles in the treatment of
eating disorders. In: Handbook for Treatment of Eating
Disorders. (145-177). D.M. Garner & P.E. Garfinkel (Eds). New York,
NY: Guilford Press.

Fantino, M., & Cabanac, M. (1980). Body weight regulation with a
proportional hoarding response in the rat. Physiology and Behavior,
24, 939-942.

Keys, A., Brozek, J., Henschel, A., Mickelsen, O., & Taylor,
H. L. (1950). The biology of human starvation (2 vols.). Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.

Pirke, K. M., & Ploog, D. (1987). Biology of human starvation. In
P. J. V. Beumont, G. D. Burrows, & R. C. Casper (Eds.), Handbook of
eating disorders: Part 1 Anorexia and bulimia nervosa
(pp. 79-102). New York: Elsevier.

Platte, P., Wurmser, H., Wade, S. E., Mecheril, A., & Pirke,
K. M. (1996). Resting metabolic rate and diet-induced thermogenesis in
restrained and unrestrained eaters. International Journal of Eating
Disorders, 20, 33-41.

Polivy, J., Zeitlin, S.B., Herman, C.P. & Beal, A.L. (1994). Food
restriction and binge eating: A study of former prisioners of
war. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 409-411.

Polivy, J., & Herman, C.P. (1985). Dieting and bingeing: A causal
analysis. American Psychologist, 40, 193-201.

Polivy, J., & Herman, C. P. (1987). Diagnosis and treatment of normal
eating. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 635-644.

Stunkard, A. J. (1993). Introduction and overview. In A. J. Stunkard &
T. A. Wadden (Eds.), Obesity: Theory and therapy (2nd Ed.,
pp. 1-10). New York: Raven Press.

Wardle, J., & Beinart, H. (1981). Binge eating: A theoretical
review. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 19-20, 97-109.



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http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0GDQ/is_3_25/ai_58669772

Eating Behaviors of Victims of Semistarvation and Starvation-Research Volunteers Long After Food Was Plentifully Available

Behavior/source

Voracious appetites followed by large and rapid food
intake[9,11,16-18,21,44]
Lack of control and distress over amounts eaten[11,17,20,21]
Complaints of hunger despite huge meals[17,21]
Belief that eating triggers hunger[17]
Cravings and preference (carbohydrates, tats,
 sweets)[5,18-20,45]
 Obsession with food[10,11,14,15,17,19,45,46]
 Secrecy and defensiveness over food[9,10,17,18]
 New preoccupation with body shape and weight[17,47]
 Impulsivity (shopping for nonfood items, self-harm,
  anger, violence)[18,20,21]
  Scavenging or eating from garbage containers[11,18,20]
  Stealing, hiding, hoarding food[10,20,21]
  Manipulating others for food[9]
  Making bizarre mixtures of food[18]
  Eating unpalatable and inappropriate food (raw meat,
   scraps)[20,21]
   Thickening foods (with flour, oatmeal)[8]
   Excessive flavoring (eg, with tea, coffee, lemon crystals)[8]
   Excessive heating of food[24]
   Excessive spicing of food[24]
   Poor table manners (eg, licking knives and bottle lids,
    collecting crumbs, gnawing at bones)[24]
    "Souping" food and "filling up" with liquids[18,20]
    Preferring to eat in isolation[17,18]
    Self-induced and overeating-induced vomiting[8,19,20]
    Dreading having to choose foods to eat[17]
    Self-deprecation and negative affect from eating habits[17,20]
    Taking drastic measures to resist binges[20]
    Recidivist binge eating despite interference with quality
     of life[8,9,18,45,47]