&gt; Starvation studies from the University of Minnesota have been described this way: &quot;During the semi-starvation phase the changes were dramatic. Beyond the gaunt appearance of the men, there were significant decreases in their strength and stamina, body temperature, heart rate and sex drive. The psychological effects were significant as well. Hunger made the men obsessed with food. They would dream and fantasize about food, read and talk about food and savor the two meals a day they were given. They reported fatigue, irritability, depression and apathy. Interestingly, the men also reported decreases in mental ability, although mental testing of the men did not support this belief.&quot;<p>Those people were <i>actually starving</i>.  Their fat stores had dropped to 4% or less, which is very dangerous when not on a strictly controlled and supervised diet.  People with normal or above normal stores of body fat can be hungry and malnourished, but will not be starving (in the medical sense of the word, which is what the Minnesota experiment was testing).<p>&gt; In addition, there is evidence that the body begins to reduce energy output in response to reduced energy input, thus making the advice every overweight person hears from nearly every source to &quot;eat less and move more&quot; a load of nonsense. That can work short-term, but the combination of reduced energy output and constant hunger make that recipe very ineffective long-term.<p>I would like to see this in reputable studies, because everything I have read on the subject rejects the hypothesis that there is a physiological change in energy usage as a result of lowered intake.  In fact, it a) doesn&#x27;t make any sense since fat is supposed to be a store of energy for lean times and b) if the body could function at its current level on less energy, it would.