&gt; Then, yes, your body changes, adapts and becomes more efficient, because you&#x27;re changing things, and it&#x27;s getting lighter so be definition it needs less calories.<p>This doesn&#x27;t require any &quot;adjustment&quot; on the body&#x27;s part, it is a natural outcome of having less mass to maintain.  I am speaking of something different, of the possibility of the body sensing starvation and shifting into kind of a high efficiency sustainment mode, perhaps lower metabolism, perhaps more efficient extraction of calories from food.  Does this actually happen, I don&#x27;t know, but I believe from personal experience and reading forums that there is a phenomenon of hitting a weight plateau that is not explained by the simplistic calories in, calories out theory.  I don&#x27;t know why this idea seems so offensive to people.<p>&gt; I wouldn&#x27;t go there. I mean, if you want to change the rate of weight loss, just eat absolutely zero calories for 6 months. I grantee you&#x27;ll lose a massive amount of weight.<p>Why do conversations on certain topics have to degrade to nonsense if someone doesn&#x27;t agree with your point of view?<p>&gt; It&#x27;s interesting to me you&#x27;re still viewing this as &quot;weight loss&quot;, and something to be maximized and made more efficient<p>Some people, me for example, can diet for a period, drop &lt;x&gt; pounds, and then I&#x27;m good for years with paying very little attention to diet - not everyone has it that easy though.  But while I am dieting, I prefer to optimize it so it&#x27;s over as quickly as possible.<p>The idea of optimizing things is a fairly common theme on this site, but again, there seems to be something about the topic of dieting that changes the way people think.