November 11, 2025 • 12 mins
I love using this study with clients because...well, there is just no arguing with it. AND it really shares how restriction is bringing us in the opposite direction of our goals for food freedom, peace from food noise, health, and body confidence
🍽️ The Minnesota Starvation Study: What It Reveals About Restriction and Recovery
Back in the 1940s, researchers set out to understand what happens to the body and mind during prolonged restriction.
What they found? It changed everything we know about food, weight, and recovery.
Here’s a glimpse:
- 36 healthy men cut their calories in half for 6 months
- They became obsessed with food - recipes, cravings, even dreams
- Their energy crashed, moods shifted, and focus disappeared
- When refeeding began, they couldn’t stop eating - and felt “out of control”
Sound familiar?
This study shows that what many call “lack of willpower” is actually biology doing its job.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
So, what is the Minnesota Starvation Study?
I love using this study toexplain restriction and its
impact on your mind and yourbody, regardless if you were to
be struggling with disorderedthoughts or body image thoughts.
What happens to your body andyour mind when you are in
(00:21):
restriction?
So the study was done duringWorld War II at Minnesota
University, I believe.
And the purpose of the study wasto examine the impacts of
starvation on the brain and bodyin case of a famine.
And the plan was to developrecovery protocols for worn-torn
(00:45):
populations.
So there were 36 participantswho participated in the study,
and they were all men from theages of 22 to 36 years old.
And they were all healthy, fit,and they had a psychological
assessment.
These were all men who did nothave a disordered eating
(01:08):
relationship with food, we'renot dieting, we're not just a
healthy relationship with foodand body.
And that I'm naming as somethingthat's important to note right
now because when we talk aboutwhat restriction then caused
mentally and physically, it'spretty wild.
So there were three parts ofthis.
There was the control phase,there was the semi-starvation
(01:32):
phase, and then therehabilitation phase.
The control phase was 12 weekslong, and this was where they
were eating normally to maintainthat baseline and to all have
that baseline, and they wereeating 3200 calories per day.
So then there was asemi-starvation phase, and this
lasted 24 weeks, where they cutthe calories in half to equate
(01:56):
around 1500 calories.
And this is gonna be yourstandard diet that you see
promoted.
1500 calories promoting healthydiets.
You see it everywhere.
And so this is the amount ofcalories they were having, and
their calories were so thattheir diet in all was low in
(02:17):
calories, low in protein, low infat, high in fiber, and mostly
contained bread and potatoes.
And this was designed to inducea 25% body weight loss.
And then there was therehabilitation phase that lasted
12 weeks.
And in this phase, that wasdesigned to slowly refeed, take
(02:41):
time refeeding, and toexperiment with the ideal amount
of calories in therehabilitation and recovery
phase.
And they were trying to testthat optimal recovery.
So now we're gonna talk aboutthe key behavioral, physical,
and psychological effects thatthis study had on those
participants who were severelyrestricted with their calories
(03:02):
being cut in half.
And I want you to remembersomething here.
We'll talk about it more later,but these people, as part of the
study, they were monitored.
So they could not stray fromthis diet.
They, our body cannot compensateor fight back and do certain
things that we in everyday life,if we went on a 1500 calorie
(03:26):
diet, would give into.
Strictly, they were held to fullaccountability to only eat those
1500 calories.
So the physical effects, let'stalk about the key physical
effects.
Number one, 25% of the bodyweight was lost.
(03:50):
So they did succeed in that umin that goal, and 25% of weight
loss, total body weight losshappened.
They had a reduced metabolism,substantially reduced
metabolism.
There was a huge impact anddecrease on metabolism to
conserve energy.
They had extreme weakness andfatigue.
To even do everyday activitieswere a struggle for these folks.
(04:15):
A lot of physical symptomshappened from swelling to edema
to hair loss to cold intoleranceand dizziness.
So a huge physical impact ontheir body.
They were not feeling well, andthey saw it in all of their body
systems.
Now let's talk about the keypsychological impacts of this
(04:36):
study.
This is what I find veryinteresting and helpful to
discuss with folks who are indisordered eating patterns and
who are restricting.
Now, these men didn't have theseissues prior to decreasing their
food intake.
So if you think about a diet orrestriction or rules that you
(04:59):
set on yourself, I want you tothink about these the impacts
that those things had on thesehealthy men and how psych
psychologically and mentallythings shifted in their brain
due to restriction.
The restriction of food on theirbrain, how did that play out
mentally and psychologically?
Let's talk about it.
Number one, obsessive thoughtsabout food.
(05:22):
These participants did not have,were did not obsessively think
about food.
Food was very held a very normalpart in their life.
They didn't think about it much.
After this, and during thisduring this experiment and after
this experiment, there becamethere was an obsession around
food.
They became very, very focusedon when their next meal is
(05:46):
coming in.
They were looking at cookbooksconstantly, wanting to, if they
couldn't eat the food theywanted to engage in in some way
by watching cooking shows,watching or in taking in
recipes, saving recipes.
They wanted to be theirthoughts, were just always on
food.
The next thing, irritability,anxiety, and depression grew
(06:09):
with these folks.
Again, they didn't have thatbeforehand, but with the lack of
food, moods definitely changedand they started developing
anxiety and uh depression.
Number three, social withdrawal.
They actually stopped havinginterest in relationships or
they started to stop going afterrelationships and socially
(06:31):
interacting because their mindwas so focused on food and
that's where they wanted to keepit, and they did not have the
energy, the focus, or theinterest in social relationships
anymore.
There was cognitive slowing, sodefinitely a decrease in
functioning cognitively anddoing the everyday things, being
able to focus.
So now let's talk about thebehavioral effects.
(06:54):
Binging and hoarding started.
This emerged even when there wasno previous behaviors around
food like this.
Additionally, many of thoseparticipants reported feeling
controlled by food rather thanin control of food like they
(07:16):
used to.
Now I'm just giving you aglimpse into the study.
You can go and read the study.
In fact, I'll put some linksbelow.
It's very interesting.
You can read about all thespecific how the individuals
experienced it and the differentexamples.
It's really, really interesting.
But I'm gonna go ahead and stopthere.
I want to talk about the keytakeaways for your own recovery
(07:39):
and what we can learn from thisstudy and apply to your own life
and your own relationship withfood and body.
So the first takeaway is thatrestriction is going to impact
your relationship with food andbody.
It's gonna impact your body andyour mind in significant ways.
This study shows that caloricrestriction alone can cause food
(08:03):
obsession, social withdrawals,and anxiety.
And as you can see, this isn't afailure of character.
It's not a you problem.
It's the restriction.
It's biology.
Number two key takeaway.
Your cravings and food thoughtsare normal.
That is biology saying, feed me.
(08:24):
Those obsessive thoughts thatyou have around food are to
protect you.
It's your body's way of saying,I need calories to be able to
function.
I am not gonna turn off my brainand my thoughts around food
until I get enough food.
It's not proof you're weak ornot and not proof that you're
undisciplined.
It's proof that something needsto be addressed with your
(08:45):
restriction.
Third key takeaway is that yourbody is going to protect itself.
It's going to slow downmetabolism, conserve energy, and
do all it can to take care ofyou.
It wants to reserve thoseresources when it's underfed so
you can continue to live andthrive and do what you need to
do.
Because your body is taking careof yourself, restriction will
(09:08):
backfire every time.
It does not work because yourbody is meant to survive and to
thrive, and it does not want tobe in a state of starvation and
restriction.
So it's gonna backfirephysically and psychologically.
Um, and by backfiring, I meanit's gonna do its job.
It doesn't want to listen todiet culture and disordered or
(09:28):
and body shaming and disorderedways of eating.
It wants to take the best careof itself.
The fourth key takeaway is thatbinging and overeating and
feeling out of control with foodis a very normal response to
restriction.
And restriction is the problem.
It is not binging.
I know binging doesn't feelgood, but if we're trying to
(09:50):
address binging, we need toaddress the actual cause, and
one of those root causes isgoing to be restriction.
Although binge eating is there'sit's multifaceted, one thing
that needs to be taken care ofis the restriction and the
dieting.
Number five, recovery requiresyour you and your body to eat
(10:12):
enough food consistently andadequately for a while.
It's gonna take you trustingyour body that it knows what
it's talking about when it'ssending those signals and
continuing to be on your team toprovide it what it needs.
The study proves what dietculture ignores, which is that
chronic restriction isunsustainable and it's
(10:34):
biologically unsustainable,leading to both physical and
emotional suffering.
It's not the answer and it's notgoing to bring you to where you
want to go.
I love bringing research in.
I love bringing research inbecause you really can't fight
the research, the true research,not the funded research that,
(10:54):
you know, always look at wherethis comes from.
This was never intended to be astudy that was used for
discussing disordered eating andrecovery, but it has become a
key study in describing andshowing the impacts of severe
calorie restriction and whathappens when you restrict your
(11:17):
body, both physically andmentally.
And I found it to be extremelyhelpful for clients who don't,
who are scared to trust theirbody, and they're scared about
increasing calories, and they'retimid and apprehensive about
feeding their bodyappropriately.
(11:38):
These were healthy men withoutany disordered eating thoughts,
any body image stressors, and anormal relationship with food
and body where it didn't take upmuch space.
And that's significantly changedthroughout the study.
And even for some participantsafter the study, their
relationship with food and bodywas impacted in negative ways
(11:58):
that then they had to work withand recover from due to the
impacts of restriction.
So, what I would say you canstart with today is just reflect
a bit, build some awareness,learn more about the study.
Ask yourself is restrictionworking for you?
Is it going to get you actuallyto where you want to go?
(12:19):
The relationship with food andbody that you desire for
yourself that's grounded in yourvalues.
Until next time, you're doinggreat.
I know this is really hard work,but you got this.
Let me know if you needanything.
So, what is the Minnesota Starvation Study?
I love using this study toexplain restriction and its
impact on your mind and yourbody, regardless if you were to
be struggling with disorderedthoughts or body image thoughts.
What happens to your body andyour mind when you are in
(00:21):
restriction?
So the study was done duringWorld War II at Minnesota
University, I believe.
And the purpose of the study wasto examine the impacts of
starvation on the brain and bodyin case of a famine.
And the plan was to developrecovery protocols for worn-torn
(00:45):
populations.
So there were 36 participantswho participated in the study,
and they were all men from theages of 22 to 36 years old.
And they were all healthy, fit,and they had a psychological
assessment.
These were all men who did nothave a disordered eating
(01:08):
relationship with food, we'renot dieting, we're not just a
healthy relationship with foodand body.
And that I'm naming as somethingthat's important to note right
now because when we talk aboutwhat restriction then caused
mentally and physically, it'spretty wild.
So there were three parts ofthis.
There was the control phase,there was the semi-starvation
(01:32):
phase, and then therehabilitation phase.
The control phase was 12 weekslong, and this was where they
were eating normally to maintainthat baseline and to all have
that baseline, and they wereeating 3200 calories per day.
So then there was asemi-starvation phase, and this
lasted 24 weeks, where they cutthe calories in half to equate
(01:56):
around 1500 calories.
And this is gonna be yourstandard diet that you see
promoted.
1500 calories promoting healthydiets.
You see it everywhere.
And so this is the amount ofcalories they were having, and
their calories were so thattheir diet in all was low in
(02:17):
calories, low in protein, low infat, high in fiber, and mostly
contained bread and potatoes.
And this was designed to inducea 25% body weight loss.
And then there was therehabilitation phase that lasted
12 weeks.
And in this phase, that wasdesigned to slowly refeed, take
(02:41):
time refeeding, and toexperiment with the ideal amount
of calories in therehabilitation and recovery
phase.
And they were trying to testthat optimal recovery.
So now we're gonna talk aboutthe key behavioral, physical,
and psychological effects thatthis study had on those
participants who were severelyrestricted with their calories
(03:02):
being cut in half.
And I want you to remembersomething here.
We'll talk about it more later,but these people, as part of the
study, they were monitored.
So they could not stray fromthis diet.
They, our body cannot compensateor fight back and do certain
things that we in everyday life,if we went on a 1500 calorie
(03:26):
diet, would give into.
Strictly, they were held to fullaccountability to only eat those
1500 calories.
So the physical effects, let'stalk about the key physical
effects.
Number one, 25% of the bodyweight was lost.
(03:50):
So they did succeed in that umin that goal, and 25% of weight
loss, total body weight losshappened.
They had a reduced metabolism,substantially reduced
metabolism.
There was a huge impact anddecrease on metabolism to
conserve energy.
They had extreme weakness andfatigue.
To even do everyday activitieswere a struggle for these folks.
(04:15):
A lot of physical symptomshappened from swelling to edema
to hair loss to cold intoleranceand dizziness.
So a huge physical impact ontheir body.
They were not feeling well, andthey saw it in all of their body
systems.
Now let's talk about the keypsychological impacts of this
(04:36):
study.
This is what I find veryinteresting and helpful to
discuss with folks who are indisordered eating patterns and
who are restricting.
Now, these men didn't have theseissues prior to decreasing their
food intake.
So if you think about a diet orrestriction or rules that you
(04:59):
set on yourself, I want you tothink about these the impacts
that those things had on thesehealthy men and how psych
psychologically and mentallythings shifted in their brain
due to restriction.
The restriction of food on theirbrain, how did that play out
mentally and psychologically?
Let's talk about it.
Number one, obsessive thoughtsabout food.
(05:22):
These participants did not have,were did not obsessively think
about food.
Food was very held a very normalpart in their life.
They didn't think about it much.
After this, and during thisduring this experiment and after
this experiment, there becamethere was an obsession around
food.
They became very, very focusedon when their next meal is
(05:46):
coming in.
They were looking at cookbooksconstantly, wanting to, if they
couldn't eat the food theywanted to engage in in some way
by watching cooking shows,watching or in taking in
recipes, saving recipes.
They wanted to be theirthoughts, were just always on
food.
The next thing, irritability,anxiety, and depression grew
(06:09):
with these folks.
Again, they didn't have thatbeforehand, but with the lack of
food, moods definitely changedand they started developing
anxiety and uh depression.
Number three, social withdrawal.
They actually stopped havinginterest in relationships or
they started to stop going afterrelationships and socially
(06:31):
interacting because their mindwas so focused on food and
that's where they wanted to keepit, and they did not have the
energy, the focus, or theinterest in social relationships
anymore.
There was cognitive slowing, sodefinitely a decrease in
functioning cognitively anddoing the everyday things, being
able to focus.
So now let's talk about thebehavioral effects.
(06:54):
Binging and hoarding started.
This emerged even when there wasno previous behaviors around
food like this.
Additionally, many of thoseparticipants reported feeling
controlled by food rather thanin control of food like they
(07:16):
used to.
Now I'm just giving you aglimpse into the study.
You can go and read the study.
In fact, I'll put some linksbelow.
It's very interesting.
You can read about all thespecific how the individuals
experienced it and the differentexamples.
It's really, really interesting.
But I'm gonna go ahead and stopthere.
I want to talk about the keytakeaways for your own recovery
(07:39):
and what we can learn from thisstudy and apply to your own life
and your own relationship withfood and body.
So the first takeaway is thatrestriction is going to impact
your relationship with food andbody.
It's gonna impact your body andyour mind in significant ways.
This study shows that caloricrestriction alone can cause food
(08:03):
obsession, social withdrawals,and anxiety.
And as you can see, this isn't afailure of character.
It's not a you problem.
It's the restriction.
It's biology.
Number two key takeaway.
Your cravings and food thoughtsare normal.
That is biology saying, feed me.
(08:24):
Those obsessive thoughts thatyou have around food are to
protect you.
It's your body's way of saying,I need calories to be able to
function.
I am not gonna turn off my brainand my thoughts around food
until I get enough food.
It's not proof you're weak ornot and not proof that you're
undisciplined.
It's proof that something needsto be addressed with your
(08:45):
restriction.
Third key takeaway is that yourbody is going to protect itself.
It's going to slow downmetabolism, conserve energy, and
do all it can to take care ofyou.
It wants to reserve thoseresources when it's underfed so
you can continue to live andthrive and do what you need to
do.
Because your body is taking careof yourself, restriction will
(09:08):
backfire every time.
It does not work because yourbody is meant to survive and to
thrive, and it does not want tobe in a state of starvation and
restriction.
So it's gonna backfirephysically and psychologically.
Um, and by backfiring, I meanit's gonna do its job.
It doesn't want to listen todiet culture and disordered or
(09:28):
and body shaming and disorderedways of eating.
It wants to take the best careof itself.
The fourth key takeaway is thatbinging and overeating and
feeling out of control with foodis a very normal response to
restriction.
And restriction is the problem.
It is not binging.
I know binging doesn't feelgood, but if we're trying to
(09:50):
address binging, we need toaddress the actual cause, and
one of those root causes isgoing to be restriction.
Although binge eating is there'sit's multifaceted, one thing
that needs to be taken care ofis the restriction and the
dieting.
Number five, recovery requiresyour you and your body to eat
(10:12):
enough food consistently andadequately for a while.
It's gonna take you trustingyour body that it knows what
it's talking about when it'ssending those signals and
continuing to be on your team toprovide it what it needs.
The study proves what dietculture ignores, which is that
chronic restriction isunsustainable and it's
(10:34):
biologically unsustainable,leading to both physical and
emotional suffering.
It's not the answer and it's notgoing to bring you to where you
want to go.
I love bringing research in.
I love bringing research inbecause you really can't fight
the research, the true research,not the funded research that,
(10:54):
you know, always look at wherethis comes from.
This was never intended to be astudy that was used for
discussing disordered eating andrecovery, but it has become a
key study in describing andshowing the impacts of severe
calorie restriction and whathappens when you restrict your
(11:17):
body, both physically andmentally.
And I found it to be extremelyhelpful for clients who don't,
who are scared to trust theirbody, and they're scared about
increasing calories, and they'retimid and apprehensive about
feeding their bodyappropriately.
(11:38):
These were healthy men withoutany disordered eating thoughts,
any body image stressors, and anormal relationship with food
and body where it didn't take upmuch space.
And that's significantly changedthroughout the study.
And even for some participantsafter the study, their
relationship with food and bodywas impacted in negative ways
(11:58):
that then they had to work withand recover from due to the
impacts of restriction.
So, what I would say you canstart with today is just reflect
a bit, build some awareness,learn more about the study.
Ask yourself is restrictionworking for you?
Is it going to get you actuallyto where you want to go?
(12:19):
The relationship with food andbody that you desire for
yourself that's grounded in yourvalues.
Until next time, you're doinggreat.
I know this is really hard work,but you got this.
Let me know if you needanything.
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