Alternate Day Fasting turned ZC...back to fasting

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#141

Andrea, your patience and persistence (and open-mindedness - I love watching how receptive you are to new ideas!) will surely pay off at some point, and please please keep us updated when that happens even if it’s outside the realm of keto. You’ll be a guiding light for the subset of folks in your current situation.

Not sure if this is at all interesting or helpful to you, but I’ve been reading a lot about Wim Hof and am considering doing his course sometime soon. Fat loss is not the primary aim, but it’s generally one of the results, and his approach seems to put folks in a really different physiological state (that includes more mitochondria-dense brown fat and lots of other nice effects).

(What The Fast?!) #142

Thanks @Madeleine - I’ll look into it!

#143

Keep me posted! Even if it isn’t exactly the tweak you’re looking for, it might be that the boon in energy - EVERYONE reports almost euphoric levels of mood and increased energy - gives you lots of time/space for finding your solution. (Plus in the meantime your skin will look awesome :grin: )
I’ve already started playing around with ice cold showers when I can get them, and I love how I feel afterwards. If I actually go ahead and start the course I’ll let you know.

Edited to add: the Wim Hof course costs money and looks like a good investment, but a lot of his techniques are available for free

(Mike Glasbrener) #144

I’m curious how this goes. Thank you so much for posting. I was doing fabulous then I went on a trip to Hungary and was a little bad, not horrible, for 1.5 weeks. I resumed keto upon return and am still struggling to resume weight loss. I’ve fastedd some but only once a week. Now I think I’ll try twice a week, Monday and Friday.

I’m sure you’ll solve this! Keep posting!:grinning:

(What The Fast?!) #145

Update on the Mexico trip:
I stayed keto, and mostly ZC.
I ended up having some ceviche (with a bit of onion and tomato in it) and I had a little guacamole…but I have to say, SURPRISINGLY, I didn’t dive headlong into the guac like I thought I would. It was homemade and everyone else loved it…but for me, it justa didn’t taste the same as it used to. Before, I could eat an entire bowl of guac - this weekend, I had a bite of it and moved on.

I also made those sugar free blended drinks - that’s the first artificial sweetener I’ve had in over a month and I found it to be SUPER sweet. I definitely didn’t drink as much of them as I thought I would. Alcohol just doesn’t taste as good to me since going keto and that has intensified since going ZC.

The good news is that we had a grill at the house and made some awesome carne asada and pequeño (a Brazilian style cut of beef with a huge fat layer).

On the way home. We ordered burgers in the airport and they were God-awful. They tasted like they definitely had fillers in them. Ugh.

Honestly - what I learned this weekend is that my tastes have changed and the thing that really tastes good to me…is beef! Wings are good as an option, but beef is more satiating and I find I’m really craving it more and more. You’d think it would be the opposite, but NOPE!

I’m planning to continue ZC - and when we have thee weekends away or go on vacation, I’ll slide into keto if I need to for convenience, but ZC will be my default for now.

(Doug) #146

Nice post, Andrea. I find that’s true, too, rather the reverse of what I expected. Going to a lot less booze, figured cravings/enjoyment would increase, but it’s much more “meh,” now. Simplifying our diet and detoxifying, perhaps we get more sensitive to the fact that alcohol is a toxin?

‘Pequeño’ (which must surely mean “small” or some variant) - yet it has a huge fat layer - love it!

(Jim Russell) #147

Looks like pequeño is the spanish spelling of picanha, a cut I am familiar with from Brazilian steakhouses. I will have to check a mexican butcher for it. Yum!

(Doug) #148

Jim, makes good sense, and you’re right on target with the “Yum!” - that is a kick-butt piece of meat. :slightly_smiling_face:

(What The Fast?!) #149

Also today is my bday and my b/f has dinner plans for us. It’s a surprise but I’m about 95% sure it’s Brazilian steakhouse.

#150

Happy birthday!

(Jim Russell) #151

Happy birthday!

#152

Happy birthday Andrea!

(Michelle) #153

Happy bday!!! Let us know the surprise!

(What The Fast?!) #154

He said to me a few weeks ago, “Brazilian steakhouse is the only restaurant that even makes sense to go to anymore…” At the time, he was saying it sadly because we are foodies and there are so many incredible places here in Vegas with tasting menus and insanely delicious, gourmet food. But - he also said it may be worth missing out on that to have me not complain about being bloated all the time… :joy:

(What The Fast?!) #155

Another quick update. Weight is now 2 lbs UP from when I first started keto (in late March).
I’m trying not to be annoyed. I know that I had a weird few days with my birthday trip. I have some client meetings in NYC coming up next week, so I’d like to get at least back down under 150 before I leave for that. Ugh.

(Alexandra) #156

Hi! Just joining this page and started doing IF for about 3 months now and it was amazing. And just recently started ADF and it has been working wonders. Anyway I was reading some of your posts and what I think might be contributing to your lack of weight loss is eating too much protein. Even though you’re eating low carb Ive read that too much protein can trigger gluconeogenesis which pretty much takes your body out of ketosis, or doesn’t allow it to even reach ketosis and burning stored fat. check out the link below :slight_smile:

http://www.perfectketo.com/how-too-much-protein-is-bad-for-ketosis/

(What The Fast?!) #157

Thanks, I monitor my ketones and am consistently in ketosis. Also, too much protein doesn’t apply for ZC/carnivore.

(What The Fast?!) #158

I’m thinking I may switch back to keto after over a month of ZC. Here are my thoughts…this is basically a conscious stream of thoughts, so bear with me. :slight_smile:

I don’t feel very different on ZC, aside from not being bloated (which is fab). But, I think I’d like to try adding foods back in to see what causes bloating and what doesn’t. I’m reading the Plant Paradox now and he talks about lectins being the cause of inflammation - nightshades, vegetables with seeds, for example (cucumbers, tomatoes, etc).

I like not restricting protein to 75 grams on ZC, so I may bump that - but if I do, I’d eat much less protein than I’m eating now.

I would like to add things back like olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and nuts (in small quantities).

The big reasons I’m feeling this way are:

  1. I’ve gained 3 lbs in the last 40 days - everyone in the ZC communities say that it’s normal to gain weight at first and that it can take some people months, if not years, to start actually losing weight. Honestly, I don’t think I can deal with the emotional rollercoaster of that over the next 6 months to a year.
  2. It feels a bit like I’m not living life. I mean, look - what you eat doesn’t make your entire life, but when you are so limited, it really does affect every situation. I get stressed out about the idea of going out to eat, feeling like I need to check out the menu and make sure I can find something. We have a few vacations planned (Hawaii, potentially Australia) and I’m already thinking about how to stay ZC. Restricting so much also feels like I’m not going to immerse myself in the culture when I vacation as well. Food may not be the point of life, but we can’t deny that it’s a big part of every culture.
  3. Social situations - I went to Mexico last weekend for my 35th birthday and spent a LOT of time thinking about food, instead of just being with my friends. Also…not eating guacamole in Mexico is a special kind of torture! Also, eating 14oz of meat in one sitting is…embarrassing. I feel the need to explain to people that it’s the ONLY thing I eat, and allegedly it’s going to make me healthier and thinner. You know? I realize I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do.
    I have some client meetings coming up next week where I’m taking clients to dinner and honestly, I don’t want to be THAT person. Keto is easy to explain - ZC, not so much.
  4. I like that on keto, I can go off plan for a meal and it’s not the end of the world. If i know I’m going to eat some bread or something, I can do a big workout the day of to deplete glycogen and I can do a big workout the day after, and I’m back in ketosis. The ZC community is much stricter and the general feeling is that eating anything off-plan puts you back at square one.
    Editing to add:
  5. I could fast on straight keto and I haven’t had any natural inclination to fast on ZC, oddly.

All this to say…if I had some results to show after this month or so of ZC, I would deal with all of the above without issue. But, without any tangible or visible results, it’s really hard to want to stick with it. …but I also don’t want to give up on it too soon.

Okay - that’s my rant for the day. I’ll mull it over some more and see how I feel before adding any keto foods back in. Either way, I won’t be doing any fat bombs or coconut/almond flour baked goods; if I add foods back in, I’ll do it one at a time and they’ll be mainly other healthy fats and some green vegetables.

If there’s anyone out there who has done ZC and gone back to keto, please let me know how it went!

(Chris W) #159

I dropped from ZC back to keto for the week of the LowCarbUSA event in San Diego. Partly because it’s slightly easier to allow in a few plant-based foods when traveling, but mostly because we signed up for the low-carb dinner events and I was a bit curious if I would be able to notice any difference. The schedule of events at the conference lead to me eating twice a day, about 12 hours apart. I would get a ZC bacon and eggs breakfast before the presentations started, then enjoy the low-carb dishes at dinner in the evening. I didn’t feel any ill effects of adding a few plants back in. I seem to be able to drift back and forth without drama, but if I have any plant sensitivities, I haven’t discovered them yet. What I didn’t expect was that during that week, my blood glucose numbers were about 10 points lower than recent averages, in spite of having two 11.5 hour fasting windows instead of one 18 hour window per day.
After returning home, I returned to my 99+% ZC within a few days. My only deviations from ZC lately have been a few sauteed mushrooms once and a tsp or so of Cacao Nibs a couple times a week. Switching my routine up from a morning-midday feeding window to a midday-evening window has pulled my ZC blood glucose numbers down to the ranges I was seeing in SanDiego :slight_smile:
Similar to what you describe, when I go back to keto, I don’t eat the way I used to, I’m still very close to ZC. I seem to do better with a bit more protein that I was having in the 1st few months of keto. Similar to what you describe, although I have fasted while ZC, I don’t just drift into it like I did before. I have only gone to 30 hours while ZC. I was fairly active that day, and while my energy level was OK, I definitely felt like the fuel gauge was bouncing on Empty for that last few hours.

(Adam Kirby) #160

It’s totally fine to go back to regular LC if ZC isn’t getting you results, no reason to be extra restrictive for no good benefits.