Myth-busting

'Starvation mode' isn't why the scale stopped.

The idea that eating less made your body refuse to change is comforting. It's also not what's happening.

Adaptation is real — and modest

Metabolism does ease off in a deficit: less mass to run, fewer unconscious movements, some hormonal downshift. A real effect, nowhere near enough to cancel the maths.

Usual culprit one: quiet creep

Bites, oils, weekend rounding, the 'small' coffee order. Intake drifts up while the logging stays neat. The deficit closes without ever appearing in the app.

Usual culprit two: water over the top

New training stress and lower carbs shuffle water for weeks at a time. Fat can leave while the scale reads flat — loss hiding under retention.

Audit before you slash further

Cutting harder into a phantom problem is how crash spirals start. Check the logging, check the water story, check the trend across a month — then decide.