You may want to look into the work of Dr. John Berardi at John Berardi - Articles He has documented several cases where he had to UP peoples' calories significantly to get them to lose fat.

The 'starvation mode' is a very real genetically evolved trait that us humans possess. I can elaborate from a paleonutrition standpoint,, but that bores most people to death.

If you have been dieting hard for a long period, then your plateau is probably real and lowering calories further or doing more exercise is just going to be counterproductive.

Now simply adding more calories isn't always the answer. Some types of calories are going to be stored as fat because the body has been waiting for them to be around so that it can do just that (while you dieted, your endocrine system produced a nett fat-storage metabolic profile).

Here are some 'tricks' that work for me and for others that I have recommended it to:

• Take 3-5 days off dieting

• Up your calories to 500 above maintenance on those days

• significantly up your protein intake - this is not for the 'thermic effect of food', but to stimulate protein synthetic pathways that are both energetically costly and produces a metabolic profile that is almost exactly the opposite of 'starvation mode'

• make sure that you actually get 'too much' protein, relatively speaking - you are trying to produce an 'engineered' effect here. Normal just won't cut it. Its only for a few days anyway.

• to prevent fat storage on those days, time your calories - complex carbs at breakfast, moderate amounts of very low GI carbs at lunch, and very low carb at dinner. Lean protein 'snacks' in between (shake or solid) with generous helpings of fruit.

• have some extra fish oil - many benefits, but the one I am after is increased insulin sensitivity.

• remember to count calories - too many will have you storing fat and too few will not break you out of starvation mode

I'm sure I'm going to be flamed for these recommendations, but they work if you follow it as prescribed. And yes, even in 3-5 days.

How to prevent hitting a plateau again? PLAN for it. Take one 'off' day every 3 days (if your diet is really a low calorie one) and structure it like I mentioned above. It *is* similar to the old zigzag diet concept, but both the zigs and zags are shorter and the zags are engineered to actively stimulate the metabolism.

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