If I go into starvation mode, won’t my body hold onto fat?

It’s well established that long periods without food will cause a drop in metabolism, and while starvation mode or ‘adaptive thermogenesis’ does exist, it’s actually much harder to achieve than most people would have you believe. Your body will only go into starvation mode if you severely restrict your calorie intake over a long period of time. Your body is designed to first burn the energy you’ve eaten, then to burn glucose stores and then to burn fat. You will not go into ‘starvation mode’ until your body has depleted its stores of fat. Studies have shown that long periods of very low-calorie diets are far likelier to induce a drop in metabolism than intermittent fasting. In fact, recent studies report that fasting for short periods can actually increase your metabolism, rather than slowing it down. One study showed an impressive 14% increase in metabolism during intermittent fasting. This increase is thought to be partially due to an increase in norepinephrine, which is a hormone that promotes fat burning. You’ll find more on the myth of metabolism here.