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I thought the benefit of fasting was for blood sugar/diabetes, not for weight loss.
Obviously if you fast and don't make up the meal, you would reduce calories, but that is not what I am talking about.
If you eat 15,000 calories a week, fasting or not fasting, then what is the difference toward weight loss? I'm not seeing it.
Maybe for non-insulin diabetics. There definitely seems to be some bad things that happen when your blood sugar is elevated. A healthy individually will generally be back under 100 blood glucose well within two hours. Even for people that constantly graze since they aren't eating large amounts at given time.
Say you eat breakfast at 7:30, back down to normal blood glucose by 8:30 until 11:00 when you get a donut and a coffee from the breakroom. Glucose back down to normal at 11:30 as it's a donut and all sugar and refined carbs. Then you go out have lunch at 12:30. You overindulge in a big cheese burger and keeps the blood sugar up until 2:00. Then you you maybe have an apple at 4:00 and back down to normal at 4:30. Off work at 5:30, drive home, dinner at 7:00 and then yo do a netflix shovel some Ben & Jerry's in and keep the blood sugar up until 10:00 between dinner and the netflix and chill/elbow workout shoveling ice cream. It's not a good diet but
8:30 to 11:00 - 2.5 hours of normal blood sugar
11:30 to 12;30 - 1 hour
2:00 to 4:00 - 2 hours
4:30 to 7:00 2.5 hours
10:00 to 7 - 9 hours.
In contrast a diabetic can be up around 140-160 (or much higher) for many, many hours after eating. Even if they cut the snacks if it takes 6 hours for a diabetic to get back down from elevated blood sugars, basically they only time they have normal blood sugar levels is a few hours at night.
For insulin diabetics the problem is turning the insulin off. Most people prefer the long-acting analogs so if they shoot enough insulin to get their blood glucose down in four hours after eating, they've still got all that insulin swimming through the blood and they can get dangerously low on blood glucose. That's one area that using normal cheap insulin works better. If you're not going to eat for 16 hours, stop shooting insulin. Throw in the fact that kidneys do a lot of insulin clearance and they're one of this first organs quit working when there's chronically elevated blood sugar levels though and even non-insulin or regular cheap insulin can still be problematic since it isn't being cleared as quickly if there's early stage kidney failure.
Menopause definitely causes weight gain for many women. I let myself become 50 lbs overweight. In 2020 when covid hit and older fat people with preexisting conditions were dying I changed the one thing I could and limited my calories to 1600 a day. I also increased my exercise from 3 days a week to 5-7. I lost all the weight and haven’t regained it.
I’ve been doing IF 16/8 for 3 years now. One small meal at noon, one big meal at 6 PM. No snacking in between. I also started regularly exercising and I went low carb. Not keto, but 50g-75g carbs per day.
Anyway, I dropped 25-30 pounds in 1 year, and I have kept it off permanently.
My goal wasn’t even to lose weight, as I wasn’t overweight to begin with. My goal was to stop feeling like crap whenever I ate a whole pizza or a bunch of donuts.
That garbage food was killing me, now I feel amazing, high energy everyday.
So I consider IF to just be one of the tools needed to sustain health and weight loss. If you do IF and continue to eat high carbs, it’s a complete waste of time, in my opinion.
I’ve been doing IF 16/8 for 3 years now. One small meal at noon, one big meal at 6 PM. No snacking in between. I also started regularly exercising and I went low carb. Not keto, but 50g-75g carbs per day.
Anyway, I dropped 25-30 pounds in 1 year, and I have kept it off permanently.
My goal wasn’t even to lose weight, as I wasn’t overweight to begin with. My goal was to stop feeling like crap whenever I ate a whole pizza or a bunch of donuts.
That garbage food was killing me, now I feel amazing, high energy everyday.
So I consider IF to just be one of the tools needed to sustain health and weight loss. If you do IF and continue to eat high carbs, it’s a complete waste of time, in my opinion.
Let me make an annoying correction- if you lost 25-30lbs and felt better then you were overweight before . When you’re not overweight and lose fat, you feel like crap. I have dieted down to 7-9% body fat and I had absolutely no energy, light headed, brain fog, no sex drive. When I allowed my body fat to get back to 15% my health and energy returned. In fact, it felt like a slow dying at that body fat percentage.
Most people don’t realize they’re overweight especially in this society where something like 70% of American adults are overweight.
For men, 15-20% body fat is usually ideal, for women 25-30%. Leave those ranges and you’ll feel worse and be less healthy.
Let me make an annoying correction- if you lost 25-30lbs and felt better then you were overweight before . When you’re not overweight and lose fat, you feel like crap. I have dieted down to 7-9% body fat and I had absolutely no energy, light headed, brain fog, no sex drive. When I allowed my body fat to get back to 15% my health and energy returned. In fact, it felt like a slow dying at that body fat percentage.
Most people don’t realize they’re overweight especially in this society where something like 70% of American adults are overweight.
For men, 15-20% body fat is usually ideal, for women 25-30%. Leave those ranges and you’ll feel worse and be less healthy.
I guess it’s possible I was borderline overweight, as I was around 5’10” 180. I didn’t really look overweight, just average body weight. I’ve been a consistent 150-155 for 2+ years now.
I feel so much better than I did before. I have much higher energy, vision is better at night, no brain fog ever. I used to always be so tired in the afternoons. Now, I never feel like I need a nap.
I had never looked up my body fat before, but after doing the calculations, it used to be 19% and now it’s 14%.
So I’ve never even gotten close to 7-9% body fat.
But interesting to know that I shouldn’t go any lower. Anyway, I feel like I’m already kind of thin, so I was planning on maintaining this, not continuing to lose.
No, just avoid anything with wheat as it acts like an appetite stimulant for many people. Calories consumed go down when one is actually satiated.
Yes, I think eating a carb such as wheat will make you crave more carbs. It won’t keep you satisfied for long. It took me a long time to realize this. Maybe I was just enjoying bread so much and didn’t want to know the truth?
I think a lot of people are in denial. I go to the gym, and I see overweight people in the gym, and the first thing I wonder about is how much processed carbs they are eating.
Also, based on tv programs I’ve seen, people have no idea how much they are actually consuming. They always say, “but I don’t eat as much as my thinner friends”.
I had no idea how out of control my carb consumption actually was until I started counted macros. I was obliterating my USDA daily allowance of 250-300 grams, and I didn’t even look like I was overweight.
Anyway, I now believe the guidance of 250 g of carbs daily is ridiculous. The USDA is killing us all. I think it should be less than that.
Yes, I think eating a carb such as wheat will make you crave more carbs. It won’t keep you satisfied for long. It took me a long time to realize this. Maybe I was just enjoying bread so much and didn’t want to know the truth?
I think a lot of people are in denial. I go to the gym, and I see overweight people in the gym, and the first thing I wonder about is how much processed carbs they are eating.
Also, based on tv programs I’ve seen, people have no idea how much they are actually consuming. They always say, “but I don’t eat as much as my thinner friends”.
I had no idea how out of control my carb consumption actually was until I started counted macros. I was obliterating my USDA daily allowance of 250-300 grams, and I didn’t even look like I was overweight.
Anyway, I now believe the guidance of 250 g of carbs daily is ridiculous. The USDA is killing us all. I think it should be less than that.
I agree with all of this. I can consume a lot of carbs, A LOT. Great capacity for food and love it all so it was hard to give it up. I remember back when Barry Sears, MD, came out with The Zone diet. I knew I had to do something and after reading his book, which made a lot of sense, I tried it, and it was like night and day. Great results and it was my first intro to low carb and learning the importance of protein. I literally cleaned out my cupboards of all the rotten carbs and almost cried when I did it. How could I give them up?
And the thought that cals in/out is the way to go is just not so for so many people who are metabolically challenged. If I eat 200 cals of veggies, no problem, 200 cals of pasta, Yikes!!
I agree with all of this. I can consume a lot of carbs, A LOT. Great capacity for food and love it all so it was hard to give it up. I remember back when Barry Sears, MD, came out with The Zone diet. I knew I had to do something and after reading his book, which made a lot of sense, I tried it, and it was like night and day. Great results and it was my first intro to low carb and learning the importance of protein. I literally cleaned out my cupboards of all the rotten carbs and almost cried when I did it. How could I give them up?
And the thought that cals in/out is the way to go is just not so for so many people who are metabolically challenged. If I eat 200 cals of veggies, no problem, 200 cals of pasta, Yikes!!
200 calories of veggies will be very voluminous compared to 200 calories of pasta and far more filling. But you’ll probably have a hard time eating it as it won’t be tasty. Note to all: avocado is a fruit
Whether you count calories or not, if you’re losing weight it’s due to a calorie deficit. Some of these diets with catchy names take advantage of people’s psychology to lose weight.
For example on Intermittent fasting, if you drop your eating window to 6 hours or less, you’ll probably have only 1 big meal and 1 small meal. No snacks. Very easy to create a calorie deficit unless you go to Cheesecake factory.
On Keto, very few foods are Keto friendly. You constantly need to look at nutrition labels to make sure you’re not above 50g of carbs. You’ll probably be cooking all your food (not many snacks that are Keto friendly though I notice more and more of them). Also a Keto diet will be high fat/moderate protein which will help keep you full.
But I’ve known people on Keto diets who not only failed to lose weight but gain it. Why? Because they were eating out all the time and not counting calories. Fried cheese and steak maybe Keto friendly, it’s just too much calories for most people to eat and lose weight
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