If starvation mode causes weight gain, why weren't PoWs obese?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking through photographs from PoWs in various wars and noticed none of them were obese. Some of them are disturbingly thin and actually starving. But why aren't they obese? Shouldn't starvation mode have kicked in and made them gain weight?

[Sonorous]

Our bodies adapts by lowering our TDEE and BMR requirements to conserve energy.

Sure, this means that extremely thin individuals, like POWs, require (d) fewer calories to be in a caloric surplus than healthy individuals do.

But the reason why they didn’t become obese is due to their caloric intakes consistently falling short of the energy required to gain & maintain significantly high weights.

[NamerOfStars]

Oy, gevalt- THINK IT THROUGH, MAN! Starvation doesn't cause you to gain weight; that wouldn't make a lick of sense. It causes your body to burn calories more selectively, slowing down many processes to drop your metabolism and make the energy reserve you have last longer.

Starvation causes you to lose weight more slowly; it doesn't magically make calories coalesce from the ether.

[Asker]

Thank you

[Agape93]

Because starvation causes everything you eat to turn into fat, it doesn't make you fat. Besides that only lasts so long. The longer you starve the more your body burns that fat. Then it goes after your muscles and organs.

[Asker]

Oh, so calorie deficits cause weight loss, instead of weight gain. Makes sense.

[onedarkcloud]

Because the body has run out of reserves and muscle to feed itself off of until death.

[Asker]

Right, so starvation mode doesn't actually cause weight gain. Good to know.