Fasting

I have been on Kato for about 4 months now but the scale is not moving is fasting nessary . Or do I need to cut my calories drastically .

Replies

  • CrewZen
    CrewZen Posts: 26 Member
    Hi Nick... couldn't see your diary. Based solely on my recent spin up (not actual experience) I'd say to check:
    1) if protein is high - may need to bring it down to a gram or less per kg of body weight as gluconeogenesis turns excess protein into glucose.
    2) if calories are too high - usually not a problem if eating fat TO SATIETY ... not necessarily eating every scheduled meal if your not hungry etc... Seems like your ketostix or ketone meter would indicate if you're ketogenic and not loosing, then I would think calories are up?
    3) I've read that caffeine can be a factor?
    4) I've read that fasting helps... skip breakfast one day and dinner the next etc etc... but I would presume this should be combined with the satiety concept... I know if I eat a 4-egg heavy cream and cheese breakfast I will NOT be hungry for what seems like forever! lol

    Good luck! I'm sure others with more experience than I will chime in here ;)
  • KnitOrMiss
    KnitOrMiss Posts: 10,103 Member
    It also depends on how much you have to lose, what your other macros are, whether you exercise heavily, and so many factors!! The types of foods you eat matter, too. So give us more info.

    It's not likely that you need to cut calories majorly to lose...unless you are just regularly gorging.

    Also, what you consider not necessarily fast may be a normal rate. Also, what about inches, clothes fitting, pictures? When my scale likes to play hide and go see for long periods of time, I actually lose inches, and when I'm not losing inches, I lose weight. It's kind of a strange loop... And my weight loss over the last several months is a really low average, less than a pound a month, but I've gone down a pants size.

    Way way too many factors from only the info you provided.

    And agree with all of what was said above...
  • totaloblivia
    totaloblivia Posts: 1,164 Member
    @dittodan has a keto and water fasting group. It has helped me keep losses going.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    @dittodan has a keto and water fasting group. It has helped me keep losses going.

    @totaloblivia Do you have the link for this group?
  • kirkor
    kirkor Posts: 2,530 Member
    What kind of deficit are you running?
  • totaloblivia
    totaloblivia Posts: 1,164 Member
    @Christine_72 hopefully the link below (bottom of post) will work (not sure how to do links here), but it's called the ketogenic diet and water fasting group.

    There's not an awful lot of activity on it, but it has @Dittodan's "recipe" for fasting on it. Tbh, there's not really anything in there you couldn't work out yourself and I don't follow his "recipe" religiously, but the formation of the group kind of gave me the kick in the behind to start fasting.

    I had done the 5:2 fasting (5 days' normal eating and 2 days at 500kcal) back in my carb eating days but easily ate too much on the 5 days to balance out the 2 days. So then I switched to alternate day fasting where I ate 500kcal every other day, and I did lose weight that way, but felt my attitude wasn't healthy as I ate all kinds of rubbish on my "feasting" day. So I stopped, and put on all the weight again, and more.

    On keto I did start to do 16:8 but became concerned it was raising cortisol and that was why I wasn't losing weight. On reflection, I think I was probably eating too much to lose weight and it wasn't cortisol. But I find that, at the moment at least, a 36 hour fast once a week (after dinner one night to breakfast the day after) is helping me lose 1-2 lbs a week. To me, that seems a bit crazy according to CICO (which I don't totally believe in - there is a relationship between calories and weight gain/loss, but it's not a direct relationship imo), but I think wider forces are at work. In a way, I do fasting because I would rather just not eat less each day but just have one day off eating. I tend to eat around 1800 calories a day which is about maintenance for me (it appears), so the fasting helps me continue to lose weight.

    I have lost 50lbs and need to lose about 20 more, although I may settle at just 15lbs more when I'm back at the weight I was 20 years ago. I hope that I can achieve this using keto and fasting. I hope that the fasting is also giving me other health benefits, although some believe that you have to fast for longer to get health benefits. The longest I have ever fasted was 40 hours and that was fine. I guess I could do 48, but don't really have the impetus to try. Maybe a carb-y Christmas at my Mum's will scare me into it!

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/group/106573-ketogenic-diet-water-fasting
  • lodro
    lodro Posts: 982 Member
    edited December 2015
    I fast for 4 days/4 nights at least a few times each year, but that's for spiritual purposes. Normally I eat to a 16/8 pattern, 16 hours fasting, 8 hours food, and sometimes that becomes 18/6. I do believe prolonging the nightly fast is beneficial as it helps with hormesis

    https://www.academia.edu/9458287/Intermittent_Fasting_Hormesis_and_Delayed_Aging_Feasting_and_Fasting_-Our_Genetic_Heritage

    Fasting for weight loss, not sure if it's a tool for that, but people are successful doing it.

    The cool thing about LCHF is that it gives you much more freedom to introduce IF in a structural way.
  • Supadoopafly
    Supadoopafly Posts: 248 Member
    What is hormesis?
  • lodro
    lodro Posts: 982 Member
    a low level stressor activates cell repair.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    Are you checking your blood ketone levels? Urine and breath are limited measures. I had a discussion with Jimmy Moore (author of Keto Clarity) on both ketosis and fasting. I posted the talk on ketosis today (http://40plusfitness.libsyn.com/the-scoop-on-ketosis-jimmy-moore) and will post the one on fasting next Wednesday (http://www.older.fitness). Both of these talks were awesome!