Methods and apparatus for downlink rate control by a user equipment (UE) (e.g., when an overload condition happens at the UE) are provided. For example, the UE may experience CPU overload, CPU near-overload, memory overload, memory near-overload, overheating or near-overheating. For certain aspects, the UE may simulate a “degraded channel” in order to cause an eNodeB to lower a transmission rate or block-size as it would in response to receiving an indication of bad channel conditions. The UE may simulate a degraded channel by modifying a channel quality indicator (CQI) and transmitting negative acknowledgment (NACK) messages to the eNodeB. Therefore, the eNodeB may be responsible for guaranteeing quality of service (QoS) based on the new degraded channel condition. In other aspects, UE downlink flow control is achieved by dropping hybrid automatic repeat request (HARM) packets or reducing a radio link control (RLC) receive window size when an overload condition occurs.