To contradict this a little bit (and this is not 100% relevant because it involves exactly one participant, so who knows whether it would ever work for anyone e

To contradict this a little bit (and this is not 100% relevant because it involves exactly one participant, so who knows whether it would ever work for anyone else) this remains one of the most interesting weight loss related things I've read on the internet: http://edwardjedmonds.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Stewart-Fleming-1973-Features-of-a-successful-therapeutic-fast-of-382-days-duration.pdf http://edwardjedmonds.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Stewart... The study participant went from 456 to 180lbs through the course of a year, and when they checked on him five years later, he weighed 196lbs. Obviously this is an extreme case, but it is one tiny and yet super interesting datapoint on the subject.