Does fasting slow your metabolism

fasting
metabolism
(Lindsay Dunne ) #1

Hi everyone!

I am 10 months into Keto. 25kgs down. My weight loss has slowed so I am trying to get more and more into fasting.

I know Megan Ramos says that you need to keep your calories up when you feast so as to not slow your metabolosm. I am not really eating enough calories when doing If in a 16:8 window as I only manage 2 small ish meals a day in that window.

How many calories should I be eating? 10 months in and my appetite is SMALL and I actually can’t eat as much. Im SO worried that I am damaging my metabolism with the IF as a result.

ALSO… if I don’t eat a lot of fat then surely my body will be using my stored fat - which is what I want it to do. But then I see comments like “you need to up your fat to break a stall”.

Im going to try and do this: 24 hour fast 3 times a week and then feast in between. But then how many calories should I be aiming for on the eating days for max weigh loss?

(Alec) #2

What do you mean by a 24 hr fast? Do you mean fasting from 8pm to 8pm? Ie OMAD? Or do you really mean a full day without food, which is more like 36hrs fasting?

(Lindsay Dunne ) #3

I mean like 8pm to 8pm the next day. So essentially OMAD.

(Karen) #4

Feast 50% more calories keto up to 100% more. Really feast, I hear.

K

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #5

The way Dr. Fung explains it is that when we restrict calories, the body has to downshift the metabolic rate to compensate, but that when we fast, the body simply ramps up ketone production and keeps the metabolic rate unchanged. So the key is to get plenty of calories when we do eat, so as to keep our metabolism revved up.

(Omar) #6

I have same worries

When I fast for 2 days, comes the feast day, I barely can eat.

So I decided to do one day fast, recover my appetite, feast for 3 days.

In short, I will only fast if I have strong desire to eat.

I am conservative, and I feel this safe.

#7

THIS!! There is way too much freaking out on this sub about metabolic rate.

When it clicks it clicks and you have to manage your body and your meals, but you also have to TRUST your body that it will not let itself fade away; so long as you area also SMART and balance your approach with it.

IMO; unless you have some other medical condition then it is possible to find out how your body works and reacts; and we should not freak out about shifts in weight (say 1-5lb either way because surely that happened when we were on high carb diets as well; but we just weren’t tracking it then??

Do we have permission to stop freaking out??? :):sunglasses:

(Omar) #8

What happened to the biggest loosers according to Dr phinney?

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #9

The “Biggest Loser” contestants restricted their calories and ate an insulinogenic diet. This caused their metabolisms to progressively slow, until they could no longer restrict calories enough to continue losing weight. (I imagine that must have been a miserable experience.) The contestants that participated in the follow-up study have gained back all the weight and then some, and their metabolic rates seem to be permanently slowed.

It would be fascinating to see what would happen if any of them were to try a well-formulated ketogenic diet.

(Alec) #10

I noticed that Phinney keeps referring to a “well-formulated ketogenic diet”. What is the difference between one that’s well-formulated and one that’s not? Why does Phinney always include the well-formulated phrase?

Also, talking of Phinney, I watched some of his Varta videos, and noticed he brandished some canola oil, and said this is what we should be eating. Really?? I was shocked!

(Omar) #11

I am still searching and trying to understand what happened to the contestants.

Concluding that the metabolism is beyond repair is difficult for me to grasp.

#12

Canola oil? That is shocking although it is the least worst one but it is still bad

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #13

Any diet low enough in carbohydrate and protein will permit the body to make ketone bodies, but 20g of sugar, a moderate amount of whey protein, and soybean oil to satiety is not my idea of “well-formulated,” lol! Nor yours, either, I suspect. :grinning: :rofl: :grinning: :rofl: :grinning: :rofl:

That did surprise me, and the best I could figure is that it was the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3. In his LCDU videos, he touts olive oil. Nevertheless—serious question, here—on what basis did we decide which oils were good and which were bad? Canola oil—especially the low-omega-six variety—is by no means the worst for PUFA’s and it has a far higher smoke point than butter, olive oil, and coconut oil. So seriously, what makes for a good oil? I’m going to start a thread to pose this question to the forums.

(I use coconut oil, but I am beginning to rethink that, especially since I prefer the taste of butter, bacon grease, lard, and tallow.)

Here’s the thread I started:

All comments gratefully received.

(Omar) #14

This is amazing

(LeeAnn Brooks) #15

It was something like an average of 500 calories per day lower than what they were before starting the contest. And that’s after gaining the weight back.

So for example if they needed 2200 calories to maintain their weight (let’s just say of 280 pounds), then they did the contest and lost a ton of weight only to gain it back. Many even more than their starting weight. So the same person back at 280 pounds now can only eat 1700 calories to maintain that weight point. And that’s why so many of them gain even more weight back.

The thing is, everyone will reduce their BMR when the loose weight. It simply takes less calories to maintain a 140 pound frame as it does a 280 pound frame. But the way they lost it, their BMR was much lower when compared to individuals of similar height/weight class. And to the point of the study, the even the contestants from the earliest seasons had not regained their BMR’s comparable to pre-contest BMR’s.

I’m sure they could fix their metabolism if they went Keto or incorporated fasting. The problem with fixing such metabolism issues is you have to eat more (meaning probably gain more weight) before your body starts to repair the damage done.

That’s why we caution so strongly against calorie restrictive diets.

(Omar) #16

Thanks @Anniegirl9

(Ethan) #17

Chicken, cheese, and olive oil seem fine to me, though.

(Alec) #18

Yep. he is a vego jockey, but maybe there are many ways to health… I know which path tastes better though :joy:

(Karen) #19

Many paths to health. N=1. Don’t know why veg. Works for some, but it needs to be no sugar.

K

(Justin Jordan) #20

I think, basically, any diet that’s essentially all whole food is a massive improvement over what most Americans eat. It might not be enough to fix the damage that has already been done (it wouldn’t for me) but for a decent amount of people it probably is.

Vegans and vegetarians who don’t eat a bunch of processed crap are probably improving their health. I don’t know that it’s better than keto, but it’s pretty definitely better than the pile of crap most people eat.