IF window, how often to weigh, adjustment period. .?

#21

I barely need to cook for myself since I started to eat meat (and mostly stopped the plants), I just toss some into the oven sometimes (I mostly fry my meat lately, that’s super simple too but still more work). Veggie dishes were time consuming, my old desserts too, I can complicate baking but meat dishes? Very simple and one can roast a lot at once. (Until I decide to debone the chicken or get off the meat from frames… That’s work. I don’t do that often.)

(Allie) #22

Where’s the protein?
Protein is essential.

#23

You are ruining your metabolism. Eat until you are fat adapted, and the IF will pop up all by itself. You’ll be sated, not hungry, and IF will be easy.

(Dewi) #24

I thought in order to lose weight, one had to have a deficit. . I know that I need to up the calories, but if I’m not active on certain days, shouldn’t I be eating less?

#25

I doubt it matters much as long as your average is fine and you get satiated every day… Why can’t you just eat enough to get satiated? Maybe it will work.

You can’t possibly know how your energy need changes with some exercise anyway. But I understand if you are a bit more allowing on more active day and don’t care about calories on very active ones… As I am like that except I never have very active days anymore. But when I was hiking in the mountains in frost, I ate a ton afterwards and surely still lost fat just fine (it was just one day).

I don’t know about you but my food need varies. Sometimes I am hungrier, sometimes I am fine with little food, it has little to do with my activity (as it’s never high enough to make an impact). If I am hungrier, I eat more, no matter if I lift a finger that day. I have zero problem with eating now and using my body fat 2 days later, it just should happen eventually.

But if you can control your intake, it’s fine to eat 200 kcal less on resting days if you feel good that way… But eat way more than you do now on every day (except maybe very occasionally), that’s quite important, starvation is bad.
If I could just control my energy intake and was sure I will feel perfectly satiated anyway, it’s possible I would go for specific macros - and a higher energy intake on more active days… As my body is predictable like that and I have experiences about these things in my own case. It may be not so simple for you. But you tend to seriously undereat while I tend to overeat so we need very different approaches anyway… But we both should eat in some good range, be it protein or energy intake.

So, I think you should eat more protein and fat and wait a bit to see what happens. If you are hungry (or weak or whatever is what your body does when it wants nutrients), eat.

#26

No, if you have a deficit your body thinks it’s in a starvation period and it holds on to every gram of food it can and you will lose nothing except for your metabolism. Keto is NOT a low-Calorie diet and you need to throw all that out of your mind. Keto is totally different. In Keto, you train your body to use fat instead of glucose for energy. You want to be fed to constant satiety, especially at first, while your body switches. Take away the carbs (only 20 allowed) and feed it FAT and protein (meat) so it can learn to switch easily. As you go, you will find that it takes less and less for you to be sated, and you won’t be hungry at all when doing intermittent fasting. It happens naturally.

#27

Normal calorie cutting diets aren’t low-calorie diets - or if they are, they are done wrong. A too big deficit slows down metabolism, it’s a risky move, it may or may not work but as far as I know, it usually doesn’t. Of course one loses fat when seriously starving, it can’t be helped (well one may die first) but it’s not healthy and keeping the weight is very tricky later. But it’s not healthy so who cares, actually, never do that.
So we want a cute deficit. Even if we can’t calculate the necessary numbers and can’t tell if we have that. My vague knowledge about my own needs are based on experiences, it took time. But these needs are subject to change (they always change but often not by much). No problem, many people lose fat without fussing too much about calories. (And some don’t while tracking and stressing over numbers. I mean, who actually force themselves on their numbers, not I who calmly counts to 4100 kcal on some days. I track, I don’t forcefully restrict calories.)

I am pretty sure not all ketoers do IF. We humans are all different, it would be odd if everyone would/could become an IFer on keto! And it’s fine, not everyone should be that.
Dropping carbs affected my fasting negatively, good thing I am a very stubborn natural IFer as I would HATE eating all day (I probably would gain fat and it’s hard for me). I hate my occasional 5MAD days enough without losing my precious IF…

I wouldn’t do IF just for the sake of IF. If one can’t eat enough in their window, either some tweaking is needed (better food items, different time for the window, I do these when I go for OMAD - or even 21/3) or a bigger eating window. Getting the necessary nutrients is vital, more important than some beliefs regarding fat-loss. Especially if low-key or more serious starvation happens due to the small eating window (IDK if we have that case here but I saw such cases) as one can totally expect a slowed down metabolism and it’s not a good idea for fat-loss either (but I wouldn’t even care as health and proper functioning is my top priority).

Just… Eat more. You don’t even need stress over things, I regret I wrote my comments now. I don’t need it either. The hedonistic way is the find your ideal woe and follow it and things just fall into place. Or if not, a tiny tweak, extra rule, being careful with problem items may help. Satiation is precious, I feel sorry for everyone who need to be hungry for their figure. My belief is that most people have a great woe where they just - don’t need that.

(Robin) #28

Short answer: No.

(Allie) #29

No you need to fuel your body if you want it to work properly. You’re screwing yourself up.

(Peter - Don't Fear the Fat ) #30

Only restriction is on carbs. How does Paul word it? … ‘when there’s plenty of fat in your diet, your system is happy to burn it’.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #31

What we eat has more effect on fat loss than how much we eat. High insulin from a high-glucose (i.e., carbohydrate) diet interferes with appetite hormones, making us perpetually hungry, hence the advice to eat six times a day as a strategy for dealing with the hunger. The elevated insulin also traps fatty acids in our fat cells (adipocytes).

On a low-carbohydrate, and hence low-insulin, diet, the lack of insulin allows (a) fat cells to release fatty acids to be metabolised, and (b) appetite hormones to register properly in the brain. Fatty-acid metabolism increases, and appetite once again becomes a good guide to when and how much to eat.

Translation: keep your carbs under 20 g/day. Eat protein and fat when hungry, stop eating when no longer hungry, and don’t eat again until hungry again. Rinse and repeat.

(Chuck) #32

I am going to give you my take on this. I am coming up on a year doing moderately low carb and IF. I fast an average of 19 hours per day. I do not count or log what I eat. I did count calories for about 11 years and it didn’t do anything but mess up my metabolism. I believe I am finally getting my metabolism back into balanced state. I eat until I am satiated, my body tells me pretty much what I need to eat and how much to eat. I don’t drink soft drinks, I have mostly given up caffeine, the key word is mostly, the only time I have caffeine is when I am out at a restaurant or maybe the occasional glass of tea with a friend. I don’t drink coffee, sometimes black tea, but most green tea that is definitely decaffeinated. The strick keto person would say I eat way too much carbohydrates. I don’t eat processed carbs, no fast foods, no artificial sweeteners, and nothing with wheat. I do eat the occasional potato, rice, and beans. I was raised on the farm and been married to a wonderful lady that know how to cook Mexican food, Italian, and any other ethnic food out there. In my home I eat what I need to, to control my weight, my wife eats what she wants and needs for her health requirements.
What I am getting at learn your body, learn what foods your body needs. And learn to listen to your body, it will tell you its needs. To do this you have to stay away from highly processed foods.

#33

I wholeheartedly agree. Other people’s experiences may not work for us. And our body often tells us what it wants especially if it we already tried different things (it never told me on high-carb that I eat too much carbs. it had no idea what low-carb feels like. I craved protein and lots of fat, various nutritious food so I ate those, it’s more than what some people have but the carbs… :frowning: but after I went low-carb, something clicked and I knew I never go back. occasional quick visits don’t count)! It’s an invaluable help/quide, we should use it!