www.zoeharcombe.com/2009/12/the-minnesota-starvation-experiment/Excerpt from article:
"3) The less you eat, the less you must continue
to eat to have any chance of losing more
weight and weight loss will stop, at some point,
whether you like it or not.
As Keys showed, the men needed 3,200 calories, on
average, to maintain their weight. As the men were
given 1,570 calories a day in the ‘starvation period’,
they lost weight and their energy need fell and
therefore the calorie level needed to fall, to maintain
the deficit.
Interestingly, Keys rejected the 3,500 formula from
the outset and relied instead on adjusting the calorie
intake every week to try to induce his desired weight
loss of 25%. Keys found he needed to limit some men
to 1,000 calories a day to try to induce further weight
loss (the men should have been losing over 5lbs per
week, at this calorie intake, having created a deficit
of almost 2,500 calories a day from their original
calorie need. In reality the body had adjusted energy
need to resist any further weight loss).
All reached a plateau around week 20 and further
weight loss could not be induced. At least one diary
recorded weight gain in the final month of the
‘starvation’ period."
