IMO...

Maintenance feeding is feeding just enough so the snake maintains it's state, not an amount for healthy growth.

Normal diet would be enough feeding for the snake to grow at a moderate rate.

Overfeeding would be a diet that results in overweight snakes or rapid growth.


Obviously, underfeeding or overfeeding are both bad.

Contrary to the study, I have seen quite a few reptiles, BPs included that were starved looking when bought, that jumped up in growth once fed a healthy diet rate. Once you feed them correctly, they seemed to catch up quite easily to snakes that were fed a normal diet their entire lives.

Is that empirical evidence? Yes.

But the original post was about new owners underfeeding snakes and how bad they are for doing so and/or how bad the breeders are for telling the new owners to underfeed. My post was pointing out that often what the new owner 'hears' or 'remembers" is totally different from what they're told. I get it all the time from people in various fields. You can say outright "You have to push the red button twice" and they'll push the blue button once and say "I did exactly what you told me to!"