LOL!
I weighed 650 pounds at the end of 2016. I now weigh 463 (as of yesterday). I barely exercise at all, and check my vitals every morning. My average resting pulse rate last month was 55, ranging from 46 to 65.
I was vastly unfit 16 months ago. I am still vastly unfit. Not just as much as I was. I have been homebound for five years, and need a wheelchair to get around, although I can do my own transfers. I am the poster boy for beyond sedentary.
Gina – my bias is towards your first point - I think slow metabolism is an advantage (until I see some evidence to the contrary). I’m thinking that if I need less food to run my Base Metabolism, it’s an indication of greater fitness and efficiency. But again, I may be missing something obvious.
On the other hand, I notice that I get chilled more easily now. Of course, that could be related to not having 55 pounds of lard on my frame.
Hey @OgreZed – I just browsed your profile and previous messages – quite the path you are on. Your T2D reversal is amazing (you went from metformin and a vial of insulin per day to off meds, right?). What a great Keto testimonial.
Why do you think your heart rate is so low? I think I read once that really heavy guys have to exert so much effort on a day to day basis just to get around, that they have higher strength and fitness versus a lightweight person who is sedentary. Do you think that’s what’s going on?
I do those as well, but less frequently than I used to as I am now often out running! 
♂:rofl:
n=1 numbers to start this off
Resting HR 40
Treadmill HR 115 (ish)
Max HR 176
Age. 53
VO2max (I am showing off now) 46
YES. I just added WAT & BAT to it because they didn’t register for me, either.
Correct. Lazy Keto reduced my insulin usage, but reduced calorie Keto eliminated both insulin and metformin. And my blood sugar is under much better control. Typically under 100 without insulin where it used to often be over 160 while using insulin.
I would have said part of it is my size – I’m 6’5". That it takes longer for the blood to circulate, so the heart beat is slower. However, my average resting pulse rate in January of 2017 was 72. So it has gone down significantly.
But as far as exertion for heavy guys, that would mean my heart rate should have gone up, not down, as I got smaller. It’s not like I’ve increased my activity level. It takes a lot less effort to do my transfers now.
I think I figured it out.
“Lowered metabolic rate” is a useless description. In and of itself, it’s not a problem. Alligators, for example, can survive on a single chicken a week. Could they eat more? Maybe, but they’re not hungry.
The problem is excessive hunger, by which I mean hunger in excess of metabolic needs. When a person loses a large amount of weight via a Biggest Loser type of diet, their body adjusts to the lowered caloric intake and energy demands, but their appetite does not.
Time restricted eating eventually leads to a lowered metabolism, but lowered along with apittie correction. It’s a fairly steady weight loss, about a pound of fat per week, without being too hungry. You might experience hunger outside of the appetite correcting eating schedule, but eventually off-the-clock hunger is dismissed as background noise, and the body adjusts (oh no! don’t let it do that… you have to mix it up or you’ll wreck your metabolism) to the new rules and you wind up being simply not hungry, not even temptible, outside of the time you’ve set aside for eating.
Slow and steady wins the race.
@Kaiden – I’m agreeing with you 96.7% I look at it the same way – if my hunger and satiety signaling is commensurate with my metabolism, I’d prefer lower than higher (again, assuming I’m not missing something). A lower food bill and possible increase in longevity - sounds good to me.
And I’m finding that the more I IF, the easier it is, and the less I’m tempted to snack outside my window. In the last 3 weeks of IF and a 3 day EF, I’ve experienced not a single episode of ravenous hunger.
The one fly in the ointment are the seemingly intractable stalls I continue to see reported accompanied by little actionable advice other than “be patient” and “increase your calorie consumption”.
I find it hard to believe that if my metabolism is adapted to meet my 1,500 calorie consumption and I increase my consumption to 2,000 or 2,500 calories, my metabolism will then increase MORE than the increase in consumption and I’ll then lose weight. Including the additional weight I took on when I initially increased my consumption. I’m more inclined to do a series of 3-4 day EF’s and lose a half pound of fat a day (as discussed by Jason Fung in his interview with Ben Greenfield), combined with moderate consumption during feeding days. Seems like that would have to cut the weight. But, i could be missing something.
I’d like to hear a discussion among the three most vocal non-fasters: Phiney, Person, and Nally. Maybe add the OMAD Revolution guy and Bert Herring.
I didn’t stall until I allowed someone to scare me into thinking that Fast-5 would ruin my metabolism. I’m only 10 pounds above my lowest adult weight, and that’s much lower than I was able to reach on NeanderThin or on Fast-5 by itself.
If you can do it, more power to you. I felt a moral obligation to fast for an extended period of time, not to repent myself of fat, but as a magic ritual against cancer, per Seyfried’s recommendation. And I would still like to try, but I tend to be provoked easily into stress. I think I should work on other issues first before I try a one week water fast.
In addition to the stall, which could have happened anyway, my other problem with Fungian Fasting is that I summarize my dietary goals with one pericope from the Satanic Bible, “I live as the beasts in the field, rejoicing in the fleshly life! I favor the just and curse the rotten!” In the context of the book it’s found in, my goals are exactly opposite Fungian Fasting, which is all about Sin And Repentance. Eat wedding cake, repent by fasting.
I didn’t eat cake at my own wedding. I didn’t drink champaign, either. I believe in doing things right the first time. If I do things wrong, it’s because I’m ignorant, not because I’m sinful, and as soon as I know better, I do better.____
And I do crossfit three times a week and walk over 20 km each day and mine is over 90 usually. :\
I started keto just over a year ago at about 25 pounds over my current weight of 108 which is my target. I completely stalled out after about 15 pounds of loss. I started IF and found OMAD very easy and, like you, it made being compliant a cinch. The weight came off steadily from that moment on, only stalling if I broke with it for a few days. Even at my lower body weight I lost (and honestly am still losing) over a pound a week. I’m virtually certain my metabolism has gone up with it. I have crazy amounts of energy, I sleep fewer hours, and I have pink in my cheeks for the first time in my life.
I hope this is a good thing.
I did the high-protein hack (per the Keto Hacking MD podcast) for two days, when my wife noticed not only was I not sleeping that well, I had red cheeks that were flaking off. I think I had revved up my metabolism, so my cells were rapidly dividing. I don’t think two days was enough to boost my cancer risk, but she told me I was ruining my skin. I’d rather have a ruined metabolism than ruined skin. I also noticed my blood sugar was revved up and my ketones were gone.
@Kaiden – I just googled and found that podcast (thank you!) and a number of episodes on the high-protein hack, which I’ll listen to over the next week.
Can you summarize what this hack is and how and why it’s supposed to work?
How it works: Take your lean body mass, in pounds, and multiply that by one and a half. That’s the amount of protein you can eat, although you can eat less. It’s “to satiety.” The ratio of protein to fat, in terms of grams, is 3:1. They did a 0-carb version, but the episode where they talked to people who did well on it, those people were allowed 20-30 grams of carbohydrates, so that’s what I did, too.
Why it works: In animals that don’t track macros, from grasshoppers to gazelles to gorillas, they eat until they have a certain amount of protein, and that’s it. When humans are eating only animals and eating them “nose to tail,” animals are generally 3:1 protein to fat.
My skin is great. It’s just a sort of peaches and cream complexion. I love it.
Very good question. I agree that a slower metabolism might just be a more efficient one! 
Right? I’m still looking for the downside.
That said, I’m finding I do get chilled more easily and on my bike rides take a little longer for me to get fully warmed up and up to speed. Also, I completed a 3 day Extended Fast last Wednesday and found my energy level was highest at the end – presumably that was due to a higher metabolism.
