Eating Too Few Calories and GAINING Weight?

6 Jun 2026 · 1 min

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1:04

In this short, opinionated fitness video, Eric Roberts dismisses the common belief that eating too few calories triggers a "starvation mode" that causes the body to retain fat and lead to weight gain. He references the Minnesota Starvation Experiment, noting that participants like his friend Earl did not gain fat despite severe calorie restriction, using this anecdote to argue the myth is false. Roberts then shifts to practical advice, emphasizing that failure to lose weight is typically due to inaccurate calorie measurement—such as not using a food scale, neglecting snacks, or weekend drinking. He urges viewers to track all intake meticulously and offers a free calorie‑deficit calculator via a link in his bio for personalized guidance.

Chapters

Lady, but I'm dancing like a hoe. You know I don't give a fuck, so here we go. If you eat too few calories, your body will go into starvation mode and it will hold on to fat. And that is absolutely not true. This is my friend Earl. He was a participant in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment where they actually starved people. Does Earl look like he held on to his fat? So no, starvation mode, or eating too few calories and gaining weight, is not a real thing. And if you're not losing weight, it's because you're not using a food scale to track your calories accurately, or you're overeating or drinking on the weekends, or you're not tracking all the little bites and snacks you have throughout the day. And if you need to know how many calories you should actually be eating per day, click this link in my bio to use my free calorie deficit calculator.