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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Brunneria" data-source="post: 1538417" data-attributes="member: 41816">What a fab post.For some of us, scraping off a few pounds really is like standing on a shifting board with a constantly changing centre of balance.Can I ask how your 3-500 calorie deficit is working at the moment?  And how long have you been on it?If you have read Dr Fung's site then you will know that what is normally considered 'starvation mode' is the result of long term calorie deficit, not from fasting.  Although 'longterm = a variable piece of string)  With fasting, the metabolic rate usually increases a little.  So you are more likely to go into 'starvation mode' on your steady calorie deficit of 400 cals, than by fasting for extended periods.As for when 'starvation mode' kicks in?  Well, that depends on how absurdly efficient your body is at noticing you are on a low calorie diet, and lowering its metabolic rate to conserve energy.  I have seen men on this site claim that this hasn't happened to them after months of dieting.  But it happens to me within days.  Certainly less than a week.  But then, they have more muscle mass (which requires more energy to maintain) and I did a stupid ultra low (330 cals a day) diet in my teens, and I think that is what taught my body to tailor its energy usage down to the minimum, and then raise it again when food becomes available again.   Certainly nowadays I can spend weeks on 1200 cal a day, and weeks on 2,500 cal a day (I did it earlier this year) and my weight only altered by 3 pounds over the 5 months I was experimenting.   I bet I would have survived famines in a rural medieval economy extremely well!I think calories play a part, even though they are an inaccurate measurement of energy that works better in a lab than in our bodies.  However, there are so many other things going on in the human body (hormones, stress, emotional wellbeing, water intake, type of energy source, individual health issues, climate, age, etc. etc.) that a way of eating that reduces weight in one person won't work for everyone.  Personally, I kind of switch off as soon as someone starts explaining that calories in and calories out (CICO) are key, because if that is their level of understanding, then we don't really have much to discuss.  I agree that calories are a factor.  I agree that it may have worked wonderfully for them.  But if anyone assumes that Basal Metabolic Rate and CICO are the Be All and End All, then they live on a different planet from me. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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