Stalled egg fast or beef and butter?

(Jeff Henderson) #1

Hi, almost a year on keto down 50 pounds 4 pounds away from onederland. I’m up 1.5 pounds and stalled over the last 4 weeks (after I thought I had this all figured out). OMAD lately just trying to figure out what to do to try to break this stall. Egg fast? Beef and Butter fast? I tried adding calories and cutting just not moving. Any other ideas would be appreciated be easy on me it’s my first post.

(Allie) #2

OMAD isn’t recommended when you’re still trying to lose fat, it’s best for maintenance. You’ll likely be best advised to go for 2MAD within a six or eight hour eating window.

(Jeff Henderson) #3

Thanks for the info, can you explain more for me why you think 2mad would be better? It would be alittle easier for me doing 2mad. I just thought not spiking insulin more often helps

(Carl Keller) #4

Hello Jeff and welcome.

If you are eating huge amounts of fat, it could stall you. You want to reduce fat after you are adapted so you are using body fat for fuel as opposed to the fat you eat for fuel. I try to stay less than 1 gram per kilogram of weight and it’s doing well for me.

If you are close to your ideal weight, then pounds are much harder to lose. Your body will cling to that last bit of fat because it thinks there’s no end in sight to fat loss.

(Jeff Henderson) #5

Hi Carl, I’m usually over 1 gram per. More like 1.2 to 1.5 ratio. I’m about 10 pounds away from my first goal. Then I’d like to loose maybe 15 more over the next year and start working out alittle

(Allie) #6

With OMAD your metabolism will slow down, that’s why it’s not advised for weight loss. Best to keep your metabolism guessing if you want it to keep burning fat, so keep changing things - different timings, different eating windows, different amounts of food.

#7

Is that right? I didn’t know that. Maybe I will change things up a bit.

(Allie) #8

I picked it up from various podcasts with Jason Fung and Megan Ramos.

(Jeff Henderson) #9

Sounds good I’ll try and switch it up, I’ve been doing 2MAD on the weekends. Thanks again do you think going zero carbs for a couple days will help break the stall? I’d love to get under 200 lbs by my one year keto anniversary

(Robert C) #10

This is what I have heard too - OMAD eventually becomes calorie restriction to the body. It does work for a while - like 2 or 4 or 6 weeks, depending on the person, because insulin is low for a lot of the day. Maybe it works much longer (or “forever”) for some people that are very natural fat burners but Megan Ramos has said on YouTube that it tends to plateau people (maybe good for maintenance?).

I have figured out that for me, entire days of no food moves the needle at an acceptable speed - and always moves the needle, body must burn its total daily requirement from local fat stores that day.

#11

I’ve only been doing it for 3 weeks, and lost 5lb, 4lb & 4lb. So I’m a bit reluctant to change at the mo. But I think I will do 2MAD next week, after what you said. Cheers guys.

(Carl Keller) #12

I’ve heard that too, but I’ve also read many articles and watched many videos that suggest otherwise. One article suggested calorie reduction alone will slow metabolism but if you are fat adapted then your caloric deficit will be supplemented by body fat so metabolism does not slow. I do OMAD a few days each week and have not really noticed any reduction in metabolism but I don’t really know what continuous OMAD might do over a long period.

In short, I’m not convinced either way that OMAD does or does not lower or increase metabolism. I’m very curious to hear what others have found or know on this.

(Mike W.) #13

The issue I’ve heard with it is simply not being able to get enough calories into one meal. Calorie restriction is ok short term, but too long and your “thermostat” gets lowered. I like Dr Fungs analogy of a wood pile and furnace. If you keep burning the same amount of wood then your furnace is not going to want to burn more. If you increase the woodpile it will want to burn that extra, whether it comes from new wood or wood you’ve had stored for a while.

(Robert C) #14

It seems to really depend on how easy it is for you to access your local fat stores.

Your body will perceive that as easy or difficult for a variety of reasons - it is not just the long low insulin level that trumps (but it is an important ingredient).

If you are stressed out, over exercising, a rabid coffee drinker and/or your sleep is bad - your OMAD targeted low-insulin-level-to-burn-body-fat is either blunted or nonexistent so still makes the body think it is in calorie deficit (body wants to keep fat when stressed for that rainy day).

But if you had these issues, and everything else, dialed in so that as soon as you need calories, your body burns fat - you probably could do OMAD as long as you wanted with good effect.

(Allie) #15

That’ll be the difference though Carl, it’s when it’s used constantly that the slow down occurs. You’re changing things up all the time, same as I do, so the body doesn’t get a chance to adapt which is what we want.

(Jeff Henderson) #16

I’ve been doing OMAD M-F and 2MAD on the weekends should I switch it up more then this? I think about food more often on the weekends so OMAD doesn’t work and I like alittle cream in my americanos on the weekends

(Robert C) #17

Try a complete day off once a week.

(Jeff Henderson) #18

Day off once a week from OMAD or low carb?

(Carl Keller) #19

I really like Dr. Fung so I will definitely find and watch that video.

@RobC What you said makes total sense and basically, it depends. I’m ok with that answer actually.

@Shortstuff I’m a believer in switching things up. I believe we evolved based on the premise that eating or not eating was not going to be a regular thing so why should my eating habits be ruled by a clock or calendar?

(Allie) #20

@CarlKeller I agree completely, it will have been a case of eating whenever there was food available. Definitely not one meal every day at the same time.