Living on under 1000 calories a day - is it possible?

Anyone who has a smartphone knows:

Reduce brightness on screen and battery will last longer.

Turn off internet or unnecessary apps and battery lasts longer.

Turn on power saving mode and battery lasts longer.

This made me wonder: does human body have "power saving mode"?

Of course it does.

The main trick is in metabolism, which is the amount of energy body uses.

I figured, if I reduce my metabolism, I will need less food.

So, here are the scientific principles I followed in an experiment of living on just under 1000 calories a day:

1. Sleeping for 12 hours

When sleeping, you burn less calories. Therefore, longer sleep means less calories burned per day.

Some monkeys sleep for 17 hours, so I figured its probably to conserve energy.

So I decided to sleep at least 12 hours a day.

2. Dehydration

Water increases metabolism, therefore not drinking water reduces metabolism. 

I decided to only drink a little bit of water when I feel thirsty.

3. One meal per day

Its obvious that digestion uses calories, and eating often is related to increase in metabolism.

So by logic, one meal per day is supposed to reduce metabolism.

4. Under 1000 calories meal

There is a theory among scientists that reducing calorie intake causes body to conserve energy, causing that less energy is needed to function.

5. No activity

Activity burns calories. Therefore, lack of activity saves calories. Of course, I was not able to practice this completely, as no activity is very difficult to maintain.

6. No coffee

I wasnt able to go without coffee, as I like coffee, but coffee increases metabolism.

7. Losing weight

When person loses weight, calorie needs decrease. So less weight translates to needing less food to maintain weight.

8. Slow, shallow breathing

The more you breathe, the more calories you use. Faster, deeper breathing uses more calories.

9. Skipping eating for a day or two

Not eating for an entire day can reduce metabolism further. I did start by skipping eating for a few days.

10. Keeping comfortable temperature

Being exposed to cold increases metabolism.

So what are the results?

I spent some time not eating, then I moved to eating a bit.

Despite being on somewhat less than 1000 calories a day for the past few days, I am not really losing as much weight as expected. 

I am barely losing any weight, despite being overweight and eating much less calories than daily needed to maintain weight by official data.

So I figured I probably managed to reduce my metabolism and adjust calorie needs to somewhere about 1000.

What are the applications of this particular research?

There is survival application. In survival situations, you will want to survive longer with same amount of food.

There is some military application, as there are scenarios where soldiers get cut off and are forced to survive with limited supplies.

I dont recommend people trying to copy this. Its a new research and 1000 calorie diets arent exactly well tested for safety.

As reviewed in Molecular Aspects of Medicine in June 2011, studies show that animals subjected to periods of calorie restriction, including primates, have:

A study published in June 2016 in JAMA Internal Medicine provided unique insight into what happens to people when they restrict their calories. 

The authors reported several important findings. First, and not too surprisingly, the people in the group who ate fewer calories lost more weight. On average, people in this group lost 7.6 kg (16.7 lbs) compared to those in the other group, who lost 0.4 kg (0.9 lbs).
What was even more interesting was the impact of calorie restriction on quality of life. Those who restricted calories reported better moods and less daily tension, and they rated their overall health better throughout the study period.
The calorie-restricted group also reported improved sleep duration and quality. Finally, the calorie-restricted group experienced more sexual drive and arousal, and better sexual relationships, than the other group.

It did improve my mood.

People in study reduced calories by 25% for 2 years.

I reduced mine by about 50% of my normal take, but I dont have hunger problems.

Of course, I do take all the vitamins to make sure it doesnt interfere with results.

I just wonder if I will further lose weight, because for the past 2 days my weight has mostly stayed close to same.

I keep track of calories by only eating food which has calorie number on them.

Have you tried keto? Works for me everytime. When I do it I lose weight at will, last time I went from about 200 to 168 and then stopped because my wife said I was looking anorexic. I you are thinking about trying it I can give you some tips I've learned.

lowering calories too low is dangerous, and bad for metabolism. you deprive your body of protein and nutrients at less than 1000. your metabolism actually slows, it doesn't speed up, which is counter productive to weight loss. you want higher protein diets to increase metabolism. lean protein, i'm not implying a lot of calories. a normal man shouldn't go below fifteen hundred or maybe eighteen hundred calories for long periods of time. only under doctor supervision or for short periods should anything like 1000 calories ever be attempted. it's unheard of as it's so unhealthy for anything less than 1000. 

i dont know where you are getting your info, but you should use credible sources off google and you will reach the same conclusions. 

There was a case in the 1960’s where a man fasted for 382 days. That’s correct – he lived for over a year without food, under medical supervision. You can read the study here.

I am kinda doing multiple experiments.

Its not just about losing weight.

Losing some weight might come as an extra result.

The real test is to see if 1000 calorie diet is going to cause weight loss at all.

I am trying to determine if metabolism will slow down to the point where body only needs 1000 calories a day.

If that happens in a couple of days, it should prove that body adapts to this diet and maintains its weight.

If I do lose some weight, then of course it will follow that body didnt adapt itself.

There is no health risk involved, since I am overweight and any calories which body needs are available in body fat.

So in case body needs extra calories, it will just use the ones from body fat.

Depends upon how big the unit is and how much energy it takes to sustain it's processes and actions.