I think that, in the way most people refer to it, starvation mode IS a myth. Calories in vs. calories out. It's physics. Your body needs energy to function and it gets that energy either from food, stored calories in the form of glycogen, stored fat, or protein.
If you reduce the calories you take in, your body first uses readily available glucose in the bloodstream, then glycogen stored in the muscles, then fat, and in some cases, protein.
There is NOT a mechanism that says "Oh, let's not use this fat, let's hold onto it until tomorrow." If your body needs energy, it WILL use your fat stores.
I do, however, think that your metabolism can slow down a bit when you're eating very few calories. I do NOT think it slows down enough to make a difference in the long term. After all, we can't hibernate. It's also easy to counteract this simply by increasing your activity.
Also, very low calorie diets can cause muscle loss (from protein being used for energy), so they often cause more problems in the long run. It's why anorexics often have heart failure. And as your muscle mass decreases, your metabolism decreases because muscle uses more energy (even at rest) than fat.
Most often, though, I think people use "starvation mode" as a reason to eat more. I also think that, without the band, when people try to stick to a 1000 calorie diet/day, their hunger sabotages them. So in a sense, your body DOES want more calories...but it can't "hold on" to fat stores if you continue to eat fewer calories than you need.
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