Right, "starvation mode" is mostly something fat women invented.
you're not going all in and do an auschwitz mode speedrun where the body eats itself due to lack of sustenance.
the goal is a) to eat less instead of 3-4 meals a day and b) get used to eating less (to
not feel like shit). otherwise explain how people can fast for several days and still function like normal instead of dying after missing a single meal.
however you do it, eating too much than actually necessary is the most common cause for obesity. if you put in more fuel than you burn ofc your body is gonna store it. the whole point is getting to the "healthy" level of calorie intake. you either count calories and control what you eat, or you know, just eat less (assuming your diet and eating habits aren't completely fucked in the first place).
I'm currently trying the one-meal thing, but ensuring it's only small amount of food.
it's more the time spend eating and the fasting inbetween. you could also slowly do 6:1 or even 5:2 and see how it goes (don't go longer than 48h cold turkey and without checking it with your doc first. 5+ days without food is a peculiar experience, but that's something that should be planned, especially important how you break that fast).
a lot of it is also habit and not checking if you're really
that hungry to eat something, one thing I see often is that people eat more than necessary because they "like" to eat/taste something, no matter if their body wants it or not. that's part of the whole "snacking" thing.
another killer is eating too fast since there's a noticeable delay before being "full", at which point it's usually already too much. several small potions spread over time can help there since by the third or even second you're not really hungry anymore. single meal a day doesn't mean wolfing stuff down in 5 minutes, but spread it over a timeframe (usually 16/8, but I've also done 20/4).
another thing that's debatable is eating what you crave, not what you want, assuming your body behaves like a pregnant woman and "tells you" what it needs. if you're "in the mood" for fatty food eat fatty food. if you're in the mood for vegetables (it happens) or meat eat meat asf, even sweets. you could check how it aligns with a common dietary plan (nothing special, just what someone should eat a certain amount of each day/week) - or arguably it's just subconsciously remembering that plan. like I said debatable, but works for me in not buying shit I don't really "like" that day and then have to throw it out etc., and in hindsight I did eat less shit/onesided.
