Dispelling the myths- Starvation Mode

This is all very fascinating, but I do have one question...

Say you do enter starvation mode. For about a month you've been eating around 900 calories a day. Your metabolism slows down. If you start to eat normally again, will your metabolism return to its healthy state?

Also, I am fairly content with my current weight, but still have struggled to meet my goal. maybe my goal is too low?

now that makes sense and is very likely. You aren't happy, but are at a healthy weight. Concentrate on what you see in the mirror. Maybe work on body composition and ignore the number on the scale.

First of all, for those knocking the date of cited study, the Minnesota Semi-starvation Experiment, every study on the topic done since has yielded similar findings even if done on more obese subjects. Thus, to this date, results from VLCD studies remain consistent with those of that famous experiment.

With that said, rather than getting caught up in the term "starvation mode" and looking at blogs for answers, I recommend reading scientific literature from places such as Pubmed and JCEM to recognize the actual compensatory mechanisms and responses the author of this blog briefly mentions. Doing a search for "calorie restriction" will bring up a plethora of research on those online journals.

I will, though, clarify a point which she referenced from the study.

The men in the Minnesota Semi-starvation Experiment actually did reach a point at the end when they no longer lost weight, regardless of how Dr. Keys manipulated their food intake. Additionally, a few of them did in fact gain weight due to being allowed to drink an unlimited amount of water which caused severe edema.

I'm going to end my reply with this:

People shouldn't look at the occult changes that occur in the body akin to a trip from New York to L.A. - in that nothing significant happens until they reach L.A. Compensatory mechanisms and responses such as lowered RMR and leptin values accompanied by reduced LBM all are noted quite early on after a few weeks and become significant upon several months. Give it whatever name you wish, but thankfully, the body is quite intelligent and has many ways of adjusting to sudden calorie restriction to prevent ourselves from killing ourselves too quickly.