The references you are looking for are contained in The Obesity Code, by Jason Fung, M.D. He clearly explains how fasting and calorie restriction affect the body differently.
No one denies that calorie restriction can lead to weight loss. But we all watched “The Biggest Loser,” and we all saw how they continually had to cut their calories to compensate for the lowered metabolic rate that was the body’s method of compensating for the original caloric deficit. A follow-up study of former contestants claims that most of them never recovered metabolically, even after they started eating again.
What we claim on these forums, by contrast, is that intentional caloric restriction is a bad idea, because of the body’s compensating by lowering the basal metabolic rate. If you lower your TEI, and your body lowers its TEE in response, you are chasing an ever-receding goal and getting hungrier and hungrier. We say that if you eat to satiety, the body will automatically restrict your caloric intake to a level at which it can comfortably burn both the fat you eat and any excess stored fat you might happen to have. In this case TEI + stored energy = TEE. Of course, if you don’t have any excess fat, then your body will signal you to eat until your TEI matches your TEE, in which case TEI + 0 = TEE.
The point is not that calories are not being restricted, but that we are not restricting them intentionally. The body restricts our caloric intake through feedback mechanisms that the human race evolved approximately two million years ago. If you think you know better than your body does, however, go ahead and suit yourself.
At this point, I have come to the conclusion that you are willfully misunderstanding the points I am trying to make, so I am out of this conversation.
