Can I hear your experiences of increased weight loss once fat adapted please?

(Manda) #1

I’m keto about 3.5 months now and my losses were really slow after that first initial big loss in week one. Now that I’m fully fat adapted I’ve started dropping serious pounds. Is this normal? I’ve only really ever done keto and failed before or done it pregnant where I eat a lot to keep baby safe. This time I’m doing IF and extended fasts for autophagy. I’m currently losing 3-4lbs a week. Could this be the whoosh effect? Inflammation healing or is this just what happens when fat begins to get burnt properly?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

My weight didn’t really start to drop significantly until I had been fully keto for a month or so (too much else going on in my life at the time for me to be really paying attention). Losing three or four pounds of fat a week is really impressive. Except for one sudden drop of 20 pounds, my fat loss was fairly slow.

I believe what happens is that our fatty acid metabolism speeds up as we heal. This is what the fat-adaptation period really is, after all, metabolic healing to allow us to metabolise fat efficiently. Dr. Stephen Phinney says this is why we need not fear fat on a well-formulated ketogenic diet eaten to satiety: not only do our appetite hormones set our food intake to a reasonable level, but we are metabolising fat faster than we were on our high-carb diet. We may be eating more fat, but we are using it all, and then some.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #3

At 3.5 months it’s very unlikely that you’re ‘fully fat adapted’. Some folks here will disagree, but I think it’s a process that takes many months. Yes, there is an initial transition that occurs quickly - otherwise we’d have starved to death within a couple days of cutting carbs. But full adaptation in the sense of utilizing fatty acids and ketones most efficiently - no. Phinney and Volek have demonstrated this quite convincingly with endurance athletes (cyclists and runners) and documented that adaptation continues to improve over 1-2 years.

Your initial weight loss was water. That was released as your glycogen stores dropped the first few days in ketosis. Most folks with a lot of weight/fat to lose experience this initial drop. Jumping right into IF and EF might be going a bridge too far too soon. 3-4 pound loss per week is not sustainable and if you try to sustain it with fasting you risk slowing your metabolism. Many folks here did this. I suggest you back off for awhile and give yourself a few months to adjust to eating keto and allow whatever needs fixing to start getting fixed. By itself, this will still result in fat loss at a sustainable rate.

Best wishes.

(Bob M) #4

You can definitely overdo fasting. I started getting cold while fasting, and then I went down the rabbit hole of thyroid and iodine, thinking that was the cause. Looking back, I think I was fasting too much.

Getting some amount of cold while fasting is OK, but getting a lot is bad. I was getting so cold I couldn’t touch my own hands to myself. That’s bad.

On the other hand, nothing lowers insulin like fasting. The lowest insulin levels I got, I got fasting. The trick is to fast enough but not too much.

Once I get back from “vacation”, I’m going to start again with a 36 hour fast. I think one day per week is good. I’d like to try a 3.5-4.5 day fast, hopefully once per quarter (though I’ve already missed this first quarter). I used to fast 4.5 days all the time.

(Doug) #5

Well said, Paul. Our insulin levels going down usually enables us to use/lose fat, and the body also just plain “gets better” at doing it. If the body has a “mind,” then it’s like, “Oh yeah, I’ve done this a bunch of times before - no problem!”

#6

honestly without knowing what you eat each day and all your fasting you are saying and more, I can’t say if it is starving down the scale, off slow cause you ate too much at first and needed adapting, or are you more adapted now and eating very well yet your body is responding or you truly are extending fast to starve off lbs which will bite ya in the butt ya in the long run.

long term, weight loss, as per individual and our age and med issues and our lifes that we lead and more but faster is not always better at all in that long term eating and staying on your personal eating plan is key.

we can all lose weight fast, we know that :slight_smile: but can ya keep it off long term living on the lifestyle you chose to lose the lbs.? most can’t…it has to be a lifestyle change that can go long term.

So just saying, I don’t think there is enough info about what you are asking cause my fat adaption won’t ever be yours :slight_smile: in that I eat xyz and do abc while another does their own thing. fat adaption can’t no magic cure for anything truly…it is just another step in the big process.

wishing you the continued great luck on doing well!!

(Manda) #7

I’ve been doing keto on and off for 9 years now. This is just 3.5 months of being in ketosis this time. I have never managed to stay consistent before. I’ve been intermittent fasting for about 15 years and extended for about 5. My body is well used to using ketones. I just had a sugar addiction that took a long time for me to kick.

(Manda) #8

Thank you. I was asking if there is a correlation between becoming fat adapted and losing weight more rapidly. That’s all. I can only give you a brief background. As I said above, I’m not a keto beginner, I’ve just been inconsistent in the past at going beyond a few months.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

That is relevant information, given that elevating our glucose intake (carbohydrates are just glucose molecules arranged in various ways) puts strain on the mitochondria that metabolise much of our energy intake (and all of our fatty acid intake). Every time we stop eating a ketogenic diet, we cause damage to our mitochondria from advanced-glycation end-products (AGE’s), which impairs our metabolic health. Not to mention that the insulin response to excessive glucose intake results in fat storage and the inhibition of fatty-acid metabolism.

(Michael - When reality fails to meet expectations, the problem is not reality.) #10

@Mandaxx Thank you for the additional info. I consistently recommend staying consistently in ketosis in order to gain the benefits of ketosis. Otherwise you don’t get those benefits. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re talking 9 days, 9 weeks, 9 months or 9 years. Doesn’t matter whether you’ve been ‘in ketosis’ 10 times a year. What matters is how much you haven’t been in ketosis. If you haven’t been consistently in ketosis (like 90+% of the time) then it’s unrealistic to expect to get the benefits of ketosis. Why not? - I think @PaulL explains it well: mitochondria damage, incomplete repair then more damage.

That said, one doesn’t have to be in ketosis in order to burn fat. People on CICO diets burn fat and lose weight. But that’s not ‘fat adaptation’ in the way we’re talking about it. Healthy mitochondria, a healthy liver and other healthy organs thrive on fatty acids and/or ketones. They burn fatty acids and ketones cleanly and efficiently and extract maximum energy. That’s an order of magnitude difference between limping along with damaged mitochondria and organs that can’t utilize fatty acids and ketones efficiently.

I’ll let others with more experience with fasting comment on it. I only do overnight IF 3-4 times per week depending on my work schedule. Many folks have used it successfully to lose and keep off excess fat.

#11

ohhhh ok that explains alot. Like Paul and Michael just gave you good posts and I second all they said :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

one truly has to stay on plan without backsliding into heavy carbs. More you backslide the harder it is to truly hold the eating plan you do want to gain those benefits.

Your body needs longer term healing. Healing more and re-balancing your hormones and more takes time and that is what then gives us the weight loss also that we desire. It is all one big picture and dropping the lbs. is part of your entire body system needing to function well to do just that.

You hang in there and keep going on Keto Plan! The longer you go, the more you change and your lbs will shift. Just takes time and don’t allow those big carbs back into your life. Consistency truly is a key factor here. Wishing you the very best! You hang on :slight_smile: :slight_smile: