I'm Losing A Lot Of Weight On Intermittent Fasting

[milk]

I know it's not very peaty.

I've been trying to lose weight for years.

I've been doing the intermittent fasting for a week. I'm finally getting to the point where I can almost take my shirt off without feeling embarrassed.

Weight loss is very fast, but I'm not undereating. I'm eating a lot of fat during the feeding window.

It reminds me of my SSRI-induced weight loss... I went from chubby to very fit in about a month. Not sickly skinny. More like somewhat muscular, very low body fat.

I'm doing 16 hours of fasting and 8 hours of trying to cram 2,000-2,500 cals of an average Peat diet (OJ, milk, sugar, meat, eggs).

Drinking coffee without sugar after waking up until the 16 hours are up helps.

It's easy to get used to. There comes a tipping point where you stop feeling hungry and start feeling good. Clear-headed, energetic. Stress hormones?

I'll keep doing this for a while. I'm aware of the cons. Just sharing.

 

[milk]

I know that losing "a lot of weight" in a short period of time is a red flag.

I'm doing the normal 16/8 thing and really, I'm not undereating. And I feel fine.

Let's see how this goes.

 

[Queequeg]

I did this for about a year and it gets to be pretty easy after a while. Soon you will have trouble with being too skinny. I still don't know what to think about its long term health impacts. RP of course thinks its too stressful and screws up your metabolism. Others including lots of longevity researchers thinks it rejuvenates the body by clearing out all the dead and sickly cells through autophagy and improves many other biomarkers.
I am sure lots of people here will have an opinion

 

[Drareg]

I think the Peat aspect is also helping you cope better,recover. Try eating grains and high PUFA when your not fasting as an experiment?
The low calorie version of Peat that Sarah from the kmud radio interview works,she mentioned keeping carbs at 150g,fat under 60g? Protein over 100.
Like you mentioned with the hunger effect wearing off,the same thing happens with 150g of carb particularly when you've sorted your liver,I've seen a female colleague loose weight doing this.

 

[Constatine]

Be careful. Your body can handle it for a while put if you do it for too long there might be some health consequences. Intermittent fasting for a year is what originally ruined my health.

 

[Tenacity]

Won't most of that weight be cortisol-induced muscle loss?

 

[Stilgar]

Could it be weight loss via relief from lowering endotoxin? Getting really hungry can sometimes help me digest my food much better and thus, stress reduction and weight loss.

Gut stimulants like carrots, chilli, vinegar, lemon, mustard, coffee and nicotine work to make me hungry so I don't feel obligated to fast. Without them, I slip into undereating during the day, and eating would just cause stress.

 

[opethfeldt]

Intermittent fasting is definitely where it's at for fast weight loss. However, I find that it's best to use it for a short period rather than continue for months. The best long term strategy would be a month or so of IF, following by a month of eating maintenance calories spread out through the day. I definitely wouldn't go as far as to say IF isn't worth doing, but if you are going to do it, you have to do it correctly. Like Constatine, I originally ruined my health doing fasting for too long. I did IF for about 3 years. I did manage to stay very lean with minimal effort. However, eventually my thyroid went to crap and my cortisol levels also started going up, which caused muscle loss. I look back to my older photos and I honestly look better at the 25+ percent body fat I'm at now with some solid muscle vs. my 12 percent concentration camp look.

 

[Iron Man]

I have done intermittent fasting off and on. It absolutely works, no doubt about that. In agreeance with Constantine and opethfeldt, I feel it needs to be done for short periods. I don't quite do the fasting thing much at all these days. Instead, I go for a really low calorie and no barb day maybe twice a week. I am starting to feel that fasting can be quite harsh on the body.
Interesting comments regarding the muscle loss... I have never really lost muscle. If I have, it was ever so slight and I quickly gain the muscle back with upping the training again.

 

[opethfeldt]

I have done intermittent fasting off and on. It absolutely works, no doubt about that. In agreeance with Constantine and opethfeldt, I feel it needs to be done for short periods. I don't quite do the fasting thing much at all these days. Instead, I go for a really low calorie and no barb day maybe twice a week. I am starting to feel that fasting can be quite harsh on the body.
Interesting comments regarding the muscle loss... I have never really lost muscle. If I have, it was ever so slight and I quickly gain the muscle back with upping the training again.

The muscle loss came after a few years. I hadn't lost any muscle before that. It also coincided with my starting a new stressful job. That was probably the main thing that contributed to the muscle loss.

 

[James IV]

You're losing weight because you are creating an energy deficit. IF just makes that easier. IF in and of itself isn't damaging. It's maintaining a deficit for too long that's damaging.

 

[opethfeldt]

You're losing weight because you are creating an energy deficit. IF just makes that easier. IF in and of itself isn't damaging. It's maintaining a deficit for too long that's damaging.

From my experience with IF vs. regular caloric restriction, I can't say that seems to be true. I had plateaued using regular caloric restriction and as soon as I started IF, the fat loss started again. I hadn't even done any kind of "refeed" before I started IF, so that isn't the reason.

 

[James IV]

From my experience with IF vs. regular caloric restriction, I can't say that seems to be true. I had plateaued using regular caloric restriction and as soon as I started IF, the fat loss started again. I hadn't even done any kind of "refeed" before I started IF, so that isn't the reason.

I know this may sound like semantics, but energy deficit isn't the same as caloric restriction. There are lots of reason why IF works better than conventional caloric restriction. Hormones, toxin elimination, and inflammation play a large role in the energy in/out equation. But in the end, fat loss is a matter of energy deficit.

I do believe IF is the most superior method for fat loss.

 

[milk]

Thanks for the replies.

I fear that my hairline is getting worse on this regimen.

I guess I'll try VLF again.

 

[James IV]

Thanks for the replies.

I fear that my hairline is getting worse on this regimen.

I guess I'll try VLF again.

Losing hair when lowering bodyfat is common. It usually grows back when weight stabilizes.

 

[haidut]

Have you done an insulin sensitivity test (aka glucose challenge)? Just because you are losing weight is not a guarantee for good health. Most people I know that lost weight through fasting were shocked to find out they were insulin resistant upon challenge. And you know what the doctor told them? "Well, it just shows you have to keep avoiding sugar for the rest of your life". If you also fail a a glucose challenge test, I would seriously reconsider fasting as a long term health plan. Fasting insulin is NOT a good biomarker of insulin sensitivity. How well you handle a glucose load is the real measure.
Just my 2c.

 

[milk]

Have you done an insulin sensitivity test (aka glucose challenge)? Just because you are losing weight is not a guarantee for good health. Most people I know that lost weight through fasting were shocked to find out they were insulin resistant upon challenge. And you know what the doctor told them? "Well, it just shows you have to keep avoiding sugar for the rest of your life". If you also fail a a glucose challenge test, I would seriously reconsider fasting as a long term health plan. Fasting insulin is NOT a good biomarker of insulin sensitivity. How well you handle a glucose load is the real measure.
Just my 2c.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm pretty sure I handle glucose alright? I haven't done any test like that though.

I wasn't planning on fasting long term.

 

[teds]

I think the Peat aspect is also helping you cope better,recover. Try eating grains and high PUFA when your not fasting as an experiment?
The low calorie version of Peat that Sarah from the kmud radio interview works,she mentioned keeping carbs at 150g,fat under 60g? Protein over 100.
Like you mentioned with the hunger effect wearing off,the same thing happens with 150g of carb particularly when you've sorted your liver,I've seen a female colleague loose weight doing this.

do you have a link for this please? :)

 

[teds]

Have you done an insulin sensitivity test (aka glucose challenge)? Just because you are losing weight is not a guarantee for good health. Most people I know that lost weight through fasting were shocked to find out they were insulin resistant upon challenge. And you know what the doctor told them? "Well, it just shows you have to keep avoiding sugar for the rest of your life". If you also fail a a glucose challenge test, I would seriously reconsider fasting as a long term health plan. Fasting insulin is NOT a good biomarker of insulin sensitivity. How well you handle a glucose load is the real measure.
Just my 2c.

could this be something to do with the large bolus of food in a smaller window- as opposed to smaller amounts over the daytime feeding.. this has been my main issue with trying fasting. I feel like I eat so much in that shorter window and my blood sugars go all over the shop..

 

[teds]

have any women been able to loose fat with IF here? Seems to me that all the research on this involves male subjects