Starvation mode – does it exist?
 
In one word… no.
 
We will explain quickly in layman’s terms.
 
A woman can hold 10-14lb water whilst on her monthly cycle. That’s just a natural part of a woman’s month, 10lb is easily held for a few days. Women can easily hold lots of water, with minimal hormonal activity.
 
Now, most of weight not shifting it is simply due to one thing: water retention. It’s a little known fact that cortisol has cross-reactivity with the aldosterone receptor, which is what the body uses for water retention – Cushing’s patients who are often on high-dose cortisone have this problem.
 
Thats right – cortisol equals water retention.
 
You’ll sometimes see guys and girls look awesome in the weeks leading up to comp, and the hours before stage the stress levels increase and thus cortisol and they go flat and watery. Proof in the short term of stress that cortisol increases water.
 
Now lets think about a female dieter…
 
1) Dieting raises cortisol.
2) Cardio raises cortisol.
3) Mental stress raises cortisol.
 
Combine a stressed female dieter who is…
1) dieting hard stressing herself
2)pushing more and more cardio in and stressing even due to huge cardio levels
and
3) stressing because she’s not shifting the weight she wants to shift.
 
That’s three significant causes of cortisol.
 
Combine the way dieting for comp effects the whole family circle, and I’m sure you’ll agree you get more snappy, more tired and generally don’t feel great increases cortisol further still!
 
A female dieter isn’t eating to little if her weight isn’t shifting for her given body weight – its the stress holding the weight artificially high.
 
Destressing and trying to be calmer about the comp, dropping the cardio (doing 2 hours cardio a day is too much, a huge stress for the body) and simply chilling out.
 
There’s no starvation mode, cortisol finally drops when you stop being crazy for a couple of days and you will experience the magical water drop – and find you drop 4-5lb water simply overnight and the rest over a week.
 
So, yes i’d say cortisol will be the reason someone doing huge amounts of cardio, dieting hard, and stressing that weight isn’t shifting will prevent progress you want.
 
TLDR?
 
Chill out, do less cardio and make sure that the diet you are following is spot on, and you aren’t eating far too little (or too much!).
 
Hope that helps!