Love/Hate relationship with fasting

(mole person) #21

I think this is a big thing for a lot of us. And a really, really big thing for a few. Also, as women are more frequently the cookers and bakers, I think it’s frequently worse for them.

Food in our culture rises to the level of a hobby. I don’t even bake, or go to restaurants but I took real pride in cooking meals. I tried recipes, I thought about meals, I loved shopping and picking the food, and I deeply enjoyed personalizing and perfecting recipes to my tastes in the kitchen. I took great pride in my ability to cook meat perfectly. I do none of that now and I will not deny that there is a void that requires filling. I can easily imagine how much worse this is for the bakers. Providing delicious sweet treats to others is a hallmark of love, caring, and generousity of spirit.

When we give up everything related with this hobby we are giving up so much of what we do and all the positive feelings associated. We give up something we were sinking massive amounts of time into and that leaves us flailing, dissatisfied and frankly bored. We give up something, perhaps the only thing, that we took real pride in and that we received positive affirmation over from those we care about. We give up a major source of daily sense of accomplishment.

It’s not a small thing and I think it’s actually way up there among the top reasons for not being able to really succeed all the way with fat loss. We tend to either slip away from keto ideals or do a version of keto that is, well, fattening.

The only solution is to create, or increase our interest, in another hobby or constructive use of time that makes us feel good about ourselves and that can replace the lost one.

It’s not something I’ve succeeded at yet, but this is my goal. I want my relationship with food to lose everything that I described above.

(Marianne) #22

I can totally relate. Definitely not my favorite thing, although there are many aspects of doing it that make me feel good, too, as you say. We only eat OMAD, however, even skipping one meal just gives me a general sense of anxiety. I notice I think about food more and about bingeing, which scares me. I do a 48-hour fast once a week and that’s enough. Did 72 once and it was fine physically, but haven’t felt compelled to do it since.

(Marianne) #23

Me, too. My eating disorder was food addiction and bingeing. I find that fasting kind of triggers that impulse, but I haven’t acted on it yet.

(Marianne) #24

Hmmm; very interesting.

(KCKO, KCFO) #25

Erin, I would love some links to information about this. Can you please post some references? I’m in maintenance and my fasting is primarily for autophagy at this phase. I’m open to any info on what kinds of exercise can assist autophagy. I do IFing almost daily, to keep weight stable and I don’t really want breakfast everyday. I would love to kickstart more autophagy more.

Thanks!

(KCKO, KCFO) #26

I have developed an interest in genealogy. It helps me not think about foods and if I do it is like, “What the heck did they eat while crossing the high plains in those covered wagons, heading West or traveling by sea to reach America from Europe”.

Oh and my house stays way more organized now too. I’be learned about all the best thrift stores in my area as well.

And honestly, I’ve enjoyed learning to cook really delicious and filling keto/lchf type meals. I ate this way a lot growing up, and have many of my comfort foods back, I had drank the high carb koolaid for years. Liver pate, rocks my world.

(Bob M) #27

I have to stand up for us men! :slightly_smiling_face: I cook many meals at home. My wife does cook more, as she’s home more often (works part time), so she gets a lot of the weekday meals. If I can, I try to cook a meal over the weekend we can eat during the week to lessen the stress on her. Stews are good, as they can easily be reheated and actually often get better.

This weekend, I’ll make the sous vide/smoked pulled pork, sous vide burgers and most or all of the sides. I would like to fire up the fryer and make some chicken wings for everyone, along with some keto mozzarella sticks, and some keto chicken tenders for the kids’ lunches. The latter might not be possible, though, due to time constraints.

I also cook a large portion of the holiday cooking. I’m doing brined/salted turkeys, roasts, etc. Sometimes even desserts (not low carb usually, though; after the holidays is, by the way, a good time to do a long fast, assuming you don’t hate those).

My wife, of course, typically helps with a lot of this. She also writes down everything we did the last 5+ years, so we have an interesting record.

On the other hand, as an engineer, I always have a home improvement project waiting. She and I have to see whether that project is better for me to do, or should I cook? Trying to do both is often impossible.

(mole person) #28

I think your interests are more evolved than my own. I’m pretty much doing not much except walking a ton and listening to podcasts about nutrition. But I recognize the importance of doing something about this void.

I have to try making liver pate. I love liver now and eat it lightly seared or in store bought liverwurst but I’d much rather get into making it myself. There are a ton of unwanted ingredients in the one I buy.

@ctviggen. I didn’t mean to exclude all the great male cooks around here!!! I know that there are plenty of men that enjoy cooking every bit as much us many women do.

(Bob M) #29

I was just kidding you! There are, overall I think, more women who cook than men (though, oddly, more male chefs – not sure why this is). I started cooking for myself a long time ago, and then lived with my brother (a chef) for a while and started getting better, then started watching shows like Alton Brown’s Good Eats. My daughter (now 12) loved to watch that show with me when she was 2. I started cooking more complex meals, most of which were of course high carb. And I also baked quite a bit (another easy thing to do, since you’re just following a recipe). That was, of course, all high carb.

I’m probably not your normal male, though. I rarely watch any sports, I will go from insulating the basement with rigid foam insulation to cooking a chicken cacciatore dinner, yet I also have three degrees. We do have a lot of men here who cook, though, which is good.

(Erin Macfarland ) #30

@collaroygal here is a pretty straightforward study highlighting how exercise induces autophagy- as a personal trainer it’s one more tool I have in my bag when I need to convince someone of the value of being physically active! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3463459/

(Danielle Meitiv) #32

@Ilana_Rose I’m confused that you say you’re not mean at 20% body fat. That’s at the low end for women - healthy is usually considered 18-25%. Any lower and most women stop menstruating.

No judgement, just curious.

(mole person) #33

@DanielleM42 I was comparing my level of leaness to @Emacfarland who had just said prior that she was about 12% body fat. I wasn’t meaning to imply that I wasn’t lean compared to the average. My current level of fattiness is the same as I held my entire life (until I began gaining in my 40’s) and I’ve never missed a period.

(KCKO, KCFO) #34

Was listening to a podcast and they referenced this, don’t know if you have seen it or not sounds relative to our conversation here. It is behind a paywall, but the summary is pretty good info. I’m also including a video link that discusses this.

Dethlefsen, M. M., Bertholdt, L., Gudiksen, A., Stankiewicz, T., Bangsbo, J., van Hall, G., et al. (2018). Training state and skeletal muscle autophagy in response to 36 h of fasting. Journal of Applied Physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), 125(5), 1609–1619.

https://highintensityhealth.com/autophagy-fasting-when-it-starts-exercise-tips-to-enhance/

(Erin Macfarland ) #35

@collaroygal yes that was a good discussion, that podcast kind of annoys me but it was interesting nonetheless!! Lol!

(Jane) #36

His protocol is tough for those just starting out and going through carb withdrawal and hungry all the time. The extra added fats makes the transition easier. You can always cut back once your weight loss slows - as it always does. And for maintenance add them back if it doesn’t cause weight gain.

(Marianne) #37

God bless. I’m afraid to even go there. :cry:

(Marianne) #38

I find the biggest help to fasting is having something to do, so you don’t think about eating - not because of hunger, but out of boredom.

(Marianne) #39

Love this.

My husband is a novice - and I mean “novice” cook - but he loves it! I say, have at it! It is a great creative outlet. He was an IT engineer. I advised him to think of a recipe as a schematic; that made sense to him and took the mystery out of it. Baking is more precise, which he can do, but he is starting to become more creative with his cooking.

#40

I used to constantly do multi-day fasts, typically 3-7 days. Used to love doing them, like you said the time you get back is awesome but I wound up slowing my metabolism down which wrecked my mindset on them. Could have been because I didn’t “feast” aka over eat after my fasts, because after a multi day fasts you typically can’t put away that much, eat to satiety right? While I can’t 100% blame fasting as I think it was a combination of things that screwed me up now when I do them I feel like you did, mad, thinking about food, etc. That was never a thing prior for me.

(Marianne) #41

Doh! Really!?

:grin: