What Is It Like To Not Follow The 3 Meals A Day Protocol?
I fast every day for 20 hours, followed by a 4 hour feasting window. I've been doing this for the better part of the last 20 years. By "better" part I mean that I AM better, healthier, more active, alert and happier when I do it. Intermittent fasting is a way for me to control a very troubled relationship with food. When I eat more frequently I think about food all the time. I struggle with cravings and constant snacking. I feel hungry all day long, even if I just ate. I'm always thinking about the next meal. [Note: This has been true regardless of whether I have followed a "healthy" diet or not.] With IF I don't have a problem with hunger or cravings. I don't have mood swings or drastic shifts of energy. I don't feel "brain fog" or mental dullness. It's helped me to develop self-control and discipline, as well as to free up a nice amount of time to do other things. Many people are skeptical. "Fasting" for many people triggers notions of starvation and malnutrition. Fasting is not starvation, nor is it a diet. It's simply an extended period of time between meals. Fasting frees your body to actually burn some of the fat it's been storing since glycogen is temporarily on hold. Fasting improves mortality, insulin resistance, cholesterol and a number of health markers. Fasting reduces the risk of chronic disease such as obesity and diabetes. It regulates mood, energy and sleep patterns. Fasting gives your digestive system a chance to rest. Fasting provides an opportunity to truly enjoy and spend time over a good, quality meal each day. When you only eat once, you enjoy the hell out of it! Continue reading >>
What Is The Best Way To Reduce Belly Fat And Flatten Your Stomach?
The body fat percentage of our body depends 80% on what we eat and only 20% on how much we exercise. One need not starve himself/herself to reduce the belly fat and overall weight. Here is what you should do. Eat the right amount of carbohydrates - When we eat carbohydrates more than what our body can utilize, the excess carbohydrates get converted to fat. But how do we know the amount of carbohydrates we should be eating to lose fat? Well, it’s simple. Just find out your weight in kilograms. Let’s say it is 80 kg. Now add 10 to it. It comes out to 90. So, this is roughly the amount of carbohydrates (in grams) you should have in a day to lose fat. Now, you may argue that how to calculate the amount of carbohydrates in grams. It’s also not difficult. There are many applications which help you calculate the macro nutrients of whatever you eat. Some of the most popular are myfitnesspal and healthifyme. Install them on your smartphone. Or else, google. For example: How many grams are there in one chapati? Prefer complex carbohydrates - There are two major types of carbohydrates viz. simple carbohydrates and complex carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates like refined flour, white rice, white bread, potatoes burn out fast and later get stored as fat. On the other hand, complex carbohydrates like whole wheat flour, brown rice, oats, sweet potato and other whole grains : Provide energy for a longer period of time. Burn out slow and hence have a lower tendency to get stored as fat. Are rich in fiber which helps to lose weight. Are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals. Eat enough protein - Protein not only helps you gain muscle but also it helps in reducing the fat percentage of the body. Protein has a complex structure. Naturally, it is difficult for the body to break Continue reading >>
What Is It Like To Experience Ketosis?
Ketosis is great, it's the transition that stinks. Being in ketosis means that your body is receiving its primary energy from ketones, which come from fat. The standard American diet is pretty high in carbohydrates, which convert to glucose in the blood. As long as your body has glucose around, it will always pick that over ketones. The transition from processing glucose to processing ketones invariably creates a gap in energy delivery to the brain (and other parts of the body), which will NOT kill you but which WILL trigger a stress response in the form of aches, headaches, fatigue, fogginess, etc. Really, it will vary by person. YMMV. If you fast (don't eat anything), you could be in ketosis in 24-48 hours (apparently, I've never tried it). If you carb-restrict your diet to less than 20-40g carbohydrates per day, you could be in ketosis within 3-5 days. It depends on a few factors, but mostly how much glycogen you have stored in your liver (glycogen converts to glucose). I was listening to a Tim Ferris podcast with Dom D'Agostino (Dom D’Agostino on Fasting, Ketosis, and the End of Cancer) where they talk about exogenous ketones among other things. Exogenous ketones are apparently available in several forms (BHB monoester, AcAc di-ester, BHB mineral salt) and if taken during the transition period will eradicate any negative side effects. I haven't tried them for myself (Peter Attia has! but it's intriguing to think that the one thing that prevents most people from enjoying ketosis (the crappy transition) could be optional. While in ketosis, I experience a little bit higher than normal energy level and fewer food cravings. I can think more clearly. I get hungry less often. I am frequently thirsty (this is normal side effect, and if you are in ketosis you should be dri Continue reading >>
How Much Weight Will I Lose If I Don't Eat For 3 Days?
It depends. You can do the math using calories and come up with a specific number - but calories are only 1 factor at play when you fast. You have to consider the hormonal and physiological effects of fasting. There are 5 stages to fasting. But basically your body depletes your blood glucose, then depletes your glycogen stores, and only then does it begin to burn fat as it transitions into ketosis. The process of depleting your glycogen stores to get into the metabolic state of ketosis takes about 3 days. What that means for fasting as a weight loss technique: If you want to lose fat, you should fast for a minimum of 3 days. Preferably 5. This is how you achieve permanent weight loss, because day 4 and 5 is when your body starts burning fat for energy Otherwise the weight you lose will be regained as your body replenishes your glycogen stores upon refeeding Glycogen also holds a lot of water, which accounts for the water weight loss people often talk about Fasting for a minimum of 3 days will improve your Insulin Sensitivity So when you resume feeding, your body will be more efficient at shuttling nutrients where they are needed (muscles and organ function) instead of storing it as fat Think more sustainable weight loss Lastly, let’s debunk the myth that fasting will cause your body to store more fat for next time. First off, your body can’t store more fat while you are fasting because you aren’t eating, thus there is nothing to be converted into fat. Some may then say, “but it will upon refeeding”. This may occur, but only for people at extremely low body fat percentages (below 5%). Also, I mentioned above that your body will store less fat because it will be more efficient as utilizing nutrients after fasting Your body has two metabolic states Glycolysis - h Continue reading >>
10 False Things People Say About Low-carb Diets
When arguing about nutrition, it can be hard to get your point across. People often seem biased against ideas that don't fit with their philosophy. When the topic of low-carb turns up, many people dismiss it, call it a "fad" diet and say that it is either harmful or impossible to stick to. Here are 10 things people say about low-carb diets that just don't make sense. I often see the claim that excluding entire food groups can be hard and that it is impossible to sustain such an "extreme" change in the way you eat. This point kind of makes sense. Not allowing yourself certain types of foods could lead to feelings of deprivation. But the thing is, all diets restrict something. They either restrict food groups or restrict calories. For some people, the calorie restriction approach may be more feasible. But it is NOT the only way. Many people don't seem to understand how low-carb diets work and what their main advantage is when it comes to weight loss. This is the fact that eating low-carb leads to automatic reduction in appetite and effortless calorie restriction (1). Compare that to the low-fat, "balanced" diet - which requires you to count calories and be hungry! This is a graph from one of the studies that compared low-carb and low-fat diets. The low-carb dieters are eating until fullness, while the low-fat dieters are calorie restricted (2). I don't know about you, but I hate being hungry. It is a very uncomfortable feeling. If I get hungry, I eat! If there is a diet plan out there that allows me to eat until fullness and still lose weight, then that sure is hell is the one I will choose. In most studies comparing low-carb and low-fat diets, more people in the low-carb groups make it to the end. If anything, they are easier to stick to. Low-carb diets are not harder to Continue reading >>
Have You Ever Done An Atkins 1000 Calories-a-day Fat Fast For More Than 5 Days? What Were Your Results Day By Day?
If you are very sedentary, very weight-prone and/or older that 1000 calorie Atkins-style “Fabulous fat-fast” with the “feedings” spread out over a 10–12 hour period might be enough calories and frequency of feedings* to maintain rather than lose weight. This is particularly true if you are not drastically overweight. I realize this is not terribly uplifting news but it is quite true. I followed a 1–300 calorie fat fast (butter in ONE feeding per 24 hrs) and lost 8 lbs in five days... EVEN THOUGH I am 55, female, short, EXTREMELY prone to gain weight and have ZERO time to commit to exercise. This was right after I fell off the low-carb diet wagon for nine days and gained four lbs. I needed to get back into ketosis FAST and was of course furious about those four lbs. I was still losing approx. .5 lb/day on the fifth day. If I hit a plateau or binge I use a “fat fast” tailored to my own age, sex, weight and my sluggish metabolism…It works so well that it’s hard to stop but all the professionals say five days on a fat fast is the safe limit. There have been people who stayed on Atkin’s 1000-cal. fat fast for three months but this was under medical supervision. They lost a shit-ton of weight but I have to wonder what happened to their muscle mass and how on earth they normalized their diet after such a long fast. *IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT LOSING WEIGHT AND/OR MAINTAINING: If you haven’t learned just how terrible both refined AND “healthy COMPLEX” carbohydrates are, you’ve been living under a rock or are profoundly dedicated to the weight loss and control advice of the past 30 years (Low-fat/complex carbs/lots of exercise) that made so many first-world citizens fat and diabetic. HOWEVER, there is something new to add that Atkins, etc. might not h Continue reading >>
If A 200 Lb Physically Fit Man And A 450 Lb Extremely Obese Man Both Stop Eating Food At The Exact Same Time, Who Is More Likely Die Sooner And Why?
The fit guy. No question. There's a real world case that very closely fits here. I'm going to assume you mean "of starvation" (because maybe it's one of those things where it's the physically fit guy dies because he qualifies for military service has to charge a machine-gun nest, or the obese guy because he couldn't fit on a bus out of a tidal wave zone, etc.). And ability to scavenge isn't relevant, as the question says "stop eating food", not "run out of food". The actual case: a Scot of just about that weight stopped eating. For over a year. If he'd been fit, he'd never have made it that far. As it was, he did just fine. (They gave him water and electrolytes, and I think a few vitamins.) It might be of interest that there are benefits from fasting to state of ketosis (what happens when you start burning your body fat for fuel - although people also get there via diet), but that's drifting from the topic. There's also a Harper's article that discusses this, but it's a bit hard to find ("Starving Your Way to Vigor", by Steve Hendricks). Note: I'm feeling a bit petulant reading the other answers, given that there is real-world evidence on this one. The question doesn't say "run out of food", so things like scavenging ability aren't relevant. It also doesn't say that the obese man has diabetes. We might as well assume the fit man has cancer, or heart disease, or smokes. And intuition as a basis? Well, my intuition tells me the world is flat, and that the sun rises every day. So does pretty much everyone else's. That's why we have science. Continue reading >>
Will I Lose Weight By Only Drinking Water? Will I Lose Weight, Gain A Bunch Of Water Weight, Lose Muscle Instead Of Fat, Or Gain Fast When I Start Eating Again? What Will Happen?
First I'll answer your questions then I'll explain the proper way to lose weight. will I lose weight? Yes! You will also lose several vital nutrients & minerals along with your muscles which will cause malnutrition and eventually death. All the while feeling miserable. Gain a bunch of water weight? Actually No! Water weight is referred to the glycogen in muscles which is a byproduct of eating carbohydrates. so you lose water weight if you cut out carbs from your diet, and gain if you include them. Lose muscle instead of fat? Yup! Absolutely Correct. Gain fast when I start eating again? Exactly. Now about proper weight loss. Allow me to explain the process in detail. In a nutshell, Weight loss happens only if you eat less than what you normally do. This process is called as “eating at a deficit”. You will lose weight if you eat below your TDEE and will gain weight if you eat above your TDEE regardless of the foods you eat. Now you should know what is TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). TDEE is nothing but the amount of calories required by your body to maintain your current weight. It's also known as your Maintenance Calories. Working out: Working out determines what you are losing, for example if you “workout” and eat below your TDEE, the majority of what you lose will be fat and minority will be muscle. It's the straight opposite if you “don't workout” and eat below your TDEE, the minority will be fat and the majority will be muscle. Again how much you lose will be determined by how much of a deficit are you in. The suggested amount of deficit to be in will be ranging from 15 - 20% below your TDEE, anything more than that, well.. You know, the end result will be “you” with loose skin hanging around your belly/chest. Anyways, just for the sake of expl Continue reading >>
