Dropping metabolism followed by fast

(Katie) #1

Since I became fat adapted my biggest worry has been not getting enough calories each day, which we know will cause my metabolism to slow down. I was just not hungry and could not force myself to eat enough to even get up to 1200 a day.

Well…I stalled at 150 lbs for more than a month. Just could not budge the scale.

Well…I finished the longest fast I have yet done…100 hours. The next morning before eating I weighed in at 145. I had a 6 hours eating window…to try to feed myself a fair amount…starting with bone broth.
The next day 24 hour fast (my usual) I ate a much as I could…still not much. BUT…this morning I weighed 140!!!

I am convinced that what I have been doing is extended fasting which bring my metabolism back up, and then I lose weight no matter that I am eating just as small an amount as I did the previous month and lost nothing.

So, that is my theory… slowing my metabolism due to my poor appetite…then fasting brings my metabolism back up and I drop a bunch of weight because of that alone.

But…is it ok? Is it healthy?

(Allie) #2

It’s actually fairly common to have a greatly reduced appetite after a long fast.

(Katie) #3

No, you misunderstand…I have had a poor appetite since I almost the beginning of starting keto

(Robert C) #4

Hi Katie,

What you weighed was lost “water weight” (plus maybe a little scale error).

In a single day that is a refeed day after a multi-day fast you will likely not lose any body fat.
If you did, your body could “burn” maybe up to 8 ounces of fat in a 24 hour period (given that you are not 100 pounds or more overweight and were refeeding/eating).
But suddenly going from water and salt to regular food makes a lot of “water weight” move.

Scale weight is meaningless around fast endpoints. Seeming big drops mostly “go away” after a few days of refeeding. Avoid convincing yourself that a revved up metabolism suddenly threw 5 pounds of fat off of your body.

To really see what you lost during an extended fast you need to eat 3 days of meals and (especially) fluids (say cut off at 3 PM the day before weigh in) and record them. The meals need to be reasonable, not for weight reduction or increase (I know, hard to judge - be generous).

Then weigh in.

Then do the fast and eat normally (again, not for loss or gain) for a week.

Then re-eat the exact same 3 days of meals and drink (again up to 3 PM) the same amount of fluids and then weigh in again. Fluids are really important - a couple of extra cups of coffee on the pre-weigh in make the post-weigh in incorrectly show a pound+ loss.

The difference is the true non-“water weight” loss due to the fast - generally about a half pound a day of fat if you are not very overweight - less for a smaller person and more for a larger person.