Im sorry, "starvation mode" is a myth. metabolic adaptation is a very real thing, and begins to happen to every dieter the moment they begin dieting down. See peer reviewed studies cited below. I can also offer personal anecdotal evidence (stunted pituitary functioning, resulting in numerous tests, MRI's, etc, seareching for the "tumor" the endo believed caused it)
And to clarify, i very specifically cited water/glycogen, electrolyte and food weight gain. i never mentioned fat gain
Symptoms of metabolic adaptation include:
reduced ambient HR
stundted reproductive processes
slowed growth of hair and nails
reduced basal body temperature
to name a few. the human body is smart, and learns, ESPECIALLY over a long period of time of reduced caloric intake, to SURVIVE off of said reduced intake. It survives by slowing down/stopping the above mentioned processes, basically anything it can do to burn less calories. Small, chronically dieting women have metabolically adaptehttp://jcem.endojournals.org/content/85/3/1087.fulld themselves into maintenance amoutns of 1200 calories. this does not go against your "15%" study, given that a small woman could easily have an Rmr of 14-1500 cals.
RMR significantly decreased 22% (p less than 0.01) with initiation of the modified fast. RMR values during the modified fast and during the maintenance diet at stable reduced weight were not different and all were significantly lower than the prediet RMR. Loss of lean tissue could not account for the decrease because changes in RMR per fat-free mass paralleled the total RMR reduction." Entire astudy in the Journal of clinical Nutrition here
http://www.ajcn.org/content/49/1/93....e2=tf_ipsecsha
24hr EE increase/decrease by aprrox 250 cals on average on top of Fat oxidation calories increasing/ decreasing by approx 150 cals on avg
http://jcem.endojournals.org/content/85/3/1087.full Journal of Endrocrinolgy
Formerely obese patients were found to have, on average, an entire SD less RMR (15.5% of them) as compared to control grouphttp://www.ajcn.org/content/69/6/111...e2=tf_ipsecsha American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
A million more could be cited. One study does not a scientific theory make/break