The one and only fasting video you need to see.

[LifeTransformer]

If you've ever wondered about fasting, why/if it works, or how it works. Then this is the video for you:

I read about fasting a couple of years ago and started implementing it as soon as I could.

I first started with what I'd call a "moderate" fast where I made sure to not consume any calories for 12 hours every day. I didn't use the 5/2 method, and I didn't go strictly "Paleo" either.

The result? I lost 40lbs in about 6 months. The majority of it fat/water weight (FYI I didn't use one of those BMI tests to be exactly sure).

The video above is about as good an explanation of why and how it works as I have ever seen. If you've got 30 minutes to watch it, I suggest you do. Unless you're an adonis already of course.

P.S. Please forgive me for trying out a tiny bit of copywriting in the process. I need some practice .

 

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[jon.a]

I ignored this thread until today.

Last week I got some Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). It's pissing me off.
So, we went to the urgent care clinic , no appointment needed. I chose that because it's in the same medical center as my family doctor and they have everything in that building. So, I figured if the attending wanted some help, he could just make some calls.

There are specific procedures that doctors can do to try and help the condition. I was expecting him to suggest one of them after the doctor came to my diagnoses. He agreed with my self-diagnosis. I let him come to his own conclusion, before I shared that I was sure that was what was happening to me.

But no, he wanted me to go on a cleansing fast. 3-10 days, as much as I can tolerate to clean the crap out of my system.
Now I understand that this BPPV often clears up in a couple of weeks, so he might just be giving me "busy work" but I figured the fast won't hurt me so I started this morning.

I'm going to shoot for 10 days. I need to lose some weight. My baseline is 208 on my scale. It reads low. I'll be happy if I get under 200.

Mrs jon is doing this too.

So, breakfast this morning was homemade lemonade. We're both peeing a lot.

 

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[lewj24]

F*ck it. I'll do it. This is January 10th and I weigh 295lbs. When I was in shape I weighed between 210 and 220. I'll stop eating entirely and post results. I've been trying to lose weight for months now.. Let's see what happens.

Thanks for the vid If I get back down to where I want by doing this I will give you Rep. If I die no rep for you.

 

[Red]

It's all about the calories, doesn't matter if u eat them in 3 meals or 1 meal.

Nothing is ever this simplistic when it comes to the human body (please don't feel picked on here, luniac, that's not my intent). While "conventional wisdom" has told us to focus on calories, that type of thinking has over 40% of our country obese & another 35% overweight. The kicker is, when people are polled, over 90% think they eat a "healthy" diet.....

Everything is connected & you have to treat the body like a system of parts that work together for the best results. What do I mean by that?


Take the "a calorie is a calorie" concept & the "just eat at a deficit, bro" advice to lose weight...

2000 calories from leafy greens & veggies is going to have a very different impact on the body than the 6 king-sized Snickers bars that accomplish the same goal.

When you spike your insulin, when you ingest foods your body mistakes for foreign invaders & launches an auto-immune attack, you're going to have a very different experience than someone who avoids foods that do both of these things, despite consuming equal calories. When you whack out your thyroid (as it's documented that so many foods like sugar easily do) over a period of time, you compromise your body's ability to manage your metabolism efficiently. The older we get, the more poorly our bodies handle refined carbohydrates (looking at you again, sugar). When we deprive our bodies of nutrients, we further bog our systems down by draining what little precious resources we have left. We start breaking down on all levels.

Remember when Jared from Subway was famous for dramatic weight loss (as opposed to being pedophile)? He lost weight by eating sub sandwiches. That means his diet was so, so shitty prior to Subway that limiting himself to 3 meals of refined carbs & processed meat on a daily basis resulted in a step up in his health. Can you imagine his diet before that? It pains me to think about. If I went on the subway diet, I'd be sick within the week. I would also start packing on the pounds & F*ck up my thyroid like nobody's business. In a months time, I'd be bloated, lethargic, foggy-headed, depressed & hating life.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to diet/exercise/achieving optimal health. There are some pretty good guidelines out there to start from, but as we've seen, conventional wisdom isn't necessarily where you want to start & since we vary greatly at a genetic level, it makes sense that there will never be a one-size-fits-all approach.


IF has personally benefited me & until my body tells me otherwise, I'll continue on this course. Paleo has GREATLY benefited me & until my body tells me otherwise, I'll continue this as well. Keto paleo is currently being assessed but so far (30+ days in so far), but things look promising in this experiment as well.

tl;dr: Everyone is different & what works for one may not work for another. Tune into your body. Try different things for 30 days at a time. Your body will communicate with you in many ways on what it needs/doesn't like.

 

[jon.a]

Day one is in the books...
Jon -3.2
Mrs jon -3.6
Of course this might be mostly water but it felt good to see on the scale.
I feel fine. Mrs jon not so much.
I had 8 glasses of lemonade, Mrs jon could only force down 5 glasses.

I ignored this thread until today.

Last week I got some Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). It's pissing me off.
So, we went to the urgent care clinic , no appointment needed. I chose that because it's in the same medical center as my family doctor and they have everything in that building. So, I figured if the attending wanted some help, he could just make some calls.

There are specific procedures that doctors can do to try and help the condition. I was expecting him to suggest one of them after the doctor came to my diagnoses. He agreed with my self-diagnosis. I let him come to his own conclusion, before I shared that I was sure that was what was happening to me.

But no, he wanted me to go on a cleansing fast. 3-10 days, as much as I can tolerate to clean the crap out of my system.
Now I understand that this BPPV often clears up in a couple of weeks, so he might just be giving me "busy work" but I figured the fast won't hurt me so I started this morning.

I'm going to shoot for 10 days. I need to lose some weight. My baseline is 208 on my scale. It reads low. I'll be happy if I get under 200.

Mrs jon is doing this too.

So, breakfast this morning was homemade lemonade. We're both peeing a lot.

 

[G-Man]

Day one is in the books...
Jon -3.2
Mrs jon -3.6
Of course this might be mostly water but it felt good to see on the scale.
I feel fine. Mrs jon not so much.
I had 8 glasses of lemonade, Mrs jon could only force down 5 glasses.

Do you really think it's busy work, or is it to just let your system rest a bit so it can recover?

Also, 2 people sharing a house together and not eating for 3-10 days? Good luck.

 

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[jon.a]

You fasted for 9 days and haven't lost a pound?

Start 208
Today 198.2

My updates are day to day changes.

 

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[Digamma]

Did not see the video - however, wanted to share some things.

I have been practicing IF for more than a couple years now.
Most of it has been with an 8 hour window - stopped eating breakfast, only ate lunch and dinner (1pm - 8pm).
Lately I have been experimenting with a 24h cycle: I only eat dinner.

I am very satisfied with the results.

It has not hampered my muscle gains (even working out in a fasted state using BCAA+ and then fasting for hours after), and while I'm not cutting at the moment, I believe weight loss would be fairly easy.

The things about educating your body to eat differently is to do it by steps.
If you want to go from 4 meals a day to 1 you will probably fail if you try it at once.

Here's how I did it.

First, notice I already ate only twice a day in a 8 hour window. My goal was to remove lunch.

I started using a bit of butter in my coffee in the morning and at lunchtime. This helps with the hunger.
Using the butter has basically removed my hunger instantly.
At dinner, I was very hungry, and I let myself eat at will in the first stage. I gained some weight (I normally have a very rigid diet).

Then I removed the butter. At that point my body was accustomed to not eat during the day.
No hunger at all. I still let myself indulge at the only meal rather than count calories.

Now, I have less hunger at dinnertime too, and I'm confident I can control my diet when I'll need to cut.

If I do something taxing in the morning, I eat an apple around lunchtime to avoid feeling exhausted.
It's almost never the case, but if a 24h fasting window scares you, that works too.

I'm not necessarily recommend this to anybody, just wanted to let interested people know that it's very possible and painless if you do it the right way.

F*ck it. I'll do it. This is January 10th and I weigh 295lbs. When I was in shape I weighed between 210 and 220. I'll stop eating entirely and post results. I've been trying to lose weight for months now.. Let's see what happens.

Thanks for the vid If I get back down to where I want by doing this I will give you Rep. If I die no rep for you.

If you are severely overweight, you would do better to use severe calories restriction rather than outright starving yourself.

800-1000 calories a day, for a limited time, should be safe enough.

However, you should really consult a doctor about it and get checked before starting and then every month after that to be safe.

 

[JAJT]

Just a quick chime in:

Fasted 16:8 all last week. Dead easy. Actually went 17 hours most of those days because if I don't eat lunch at noon like I'm used to I think my mind just assumes I'll eat again at dinner so I blow past my planned fasting time and an hour or so later realize I probably should have eaten something.

When I stop eating at 9pm, I find I get mildly hungry (stomach rumbling) around 10am, which quickly passes, and then I just don't get hungry again until I choose to eat.

Weekend I ate when I wanted to because I was in a cabin with some buddies in the snow drinking and laughing and enjoying life. As all cabin get togethers should be. Although I found it amusing that we woke up and left without breakfast and I basically "accidentally" fasted until I got back around 2pm and realized "huh, I haven't eaten, probably should grab something...". I think my body is seriously just taking to this new schedule naturally.

Back to 16:8 for the week again and I think I'll just stick with this going forward. Easy. Supposedly beneficial. And if I lose some weight too then great.

 

[jon.a]

It's over...
Yesterday -0.8

Total
208
to
196.4

Day 9 over...
-0.8
Day over day.
grrr.

 

[lewj24]

Well. I F*cking caved. I went 48 hours without eating and dropped from 295lbs to 289lbs. Im assuming most of that weight loss was food weight because I was literally hollow on the inside.

I felt great the whole time I just caved cuz I was hungry as shit. I couldnt think about anything else but food.

I'm definitely going to try a 1 to 6 hour eating window from here on and ill probably try random 24 to 48 hour fasts again when I feel up to it.

I'm going to keep tracking my progress and update this thread every so often.

Thanks everyone for their help.

 

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[JAJT]

I'm getting on the IF bandwagon as well.

Funny enough, this started when I got sick of eggs for breakfast. I've been eating nothing but 3 eggs for breakfast for a few years now and I started considering breakfast bars or shakes or anything healthy but eggs. Then I started reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris and one of the first chapters was on fasting. Then I heard about the story @LifeTransformer posted which talked about the same stuff.

Anyway, seems like tons of benefits with very little downside and it seems dead easy to do the 16:8 method (16 hours of fasting, 8 hours of eating). I'm on day 2 right now and have a few hours to go before I eat again and I'm not starving or dying for food like some people report when trying this. Hell on day 1 I went 18 hours by mistake because I lost track of time and didn't notice.

We'll see how it goes and if I can stick to this but it seems totally reasonable. I probably shouldn't be eating after 9pm anyway and I can't foresee a situation where I'm "forced" to eat a meal before 1pm outside of the odd lunch meeting (which I just wouldn't sweat).

 

[Red]

When I was into bulletproof coffee 4 or 5 years ago, my body just naturally settled into the 16:8 thing on it's own. I get hungry in the late morning (11-noon) & then usually in the late afternoon (4-5 or so). I don't like eating past 7 as it tends to mess with my sleep quality, I've noticed.

First thing upon waking up: 1 litre of water, BCAA's & Glutamine. Then bp coffee after the water (with added collagen). I don't know if it's technically IF due to the bp coffee, but I do know it's where my physiology has settled naturally & it seems to work well. I maintain my weight pretty easily & (I'm embarrassed to admit) haven't been working out for the past 2.5 years after I got frozen shoulder. I also follow a paleo diet & this past month, have refined it to be paleo keto.

So far, so good. I'm seeing more things improve & will continue doing this until my body tells me I need an adjustment. I'm a big proponent of the priority of physical health & when I feel like bad habits look tempting (why yes, that Krispy Kreme does look amazing.... 6 look even more amazing), I just remind myself that I'm currently buying back the last few decades of my life as a functional, healthy, independent, happy & prosperous human being.

 

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[jon.a]

Day 2 done...
jon + .02
Mrs jon - 3.6
day to day change

I feel embarrassingly fine. Mrs jon is struggling.
8 glasses for me. I think I'll drop to 7. Mrs jon is only able to choke down 5 that explains her extra loss and probably part of her not feeling well. The experts say the minimum is 6. If she can't get down 6 today, I'm going to suggest she stop after day 3 tomorrow.

Day one is in the books...
Jon -3.2
Mrs jon -3.6
Of course this might be mostly water but it felt good to see on the scale.
I feel fine. Mrs jon not so much.
I had 8 glasses of lemonade, Mrs jon could only force down 5 glasses.

 

[jon.a]

Do you really think it's busy work, or is it to just let your system rest a bit so it can recover?

Also, 2 people sharing a house together and not eating for 3-10 days? Good luck.

I don't know or really care if it is a bit of busy work. The odds are greatly in favor of it helping me, so I'm doing it.

We are a team so we had to at least start together. Who stops first, well that's a competition.

 

[jon.a]

I'm saying lemonade as tongue in check. We're doing the "Master Cleans Diet" (it googles easy)
I just call it lemonade. It's the worst lemonade I've ever had.

Can you explain the lemonade?

Every fasting resource and expert interview I've ever looked into all take a pretty solid "no sugar" approach as the entire benefits of fasting are a result of your body fueling itself through ketones rather than glucose.

Once you are in ketosis (fueling your body through ketones), you can mimic the ketosis state (and stay in ketosis) through a macronutrient profile that keeps your body in that state (mostly fat, some protein, and less than 20g of carbs).

So the lemonade makes absolutely no sense to what you are trying to do from my understanding. You are really on a liquid sugar diet rather than a fasting or ketosis diet and everything I know is telling me you won't see the benefits you expect.

Now, I'm not a doctor, and absolutely listen to your doctor, but I am genuinely confused how you could be both prescribed fasting and sugar at the same time as (to me) they are like oil and water in terms of what you are trying to do.

Would love to learn more.

 

[jon.a]

Other than make we want to kill someone?

Yeah, lost about 12 pounds, about 10 of which stayed off. I was aiming for 7 days, and I packed it in on day 6.

Not to take you off track at all, but at some point in the future, you might also want to take a look at the "Potato Hack" thing. Not sure if I ever mentioned it around here before. It gets you the benefits of an elimination diet (unless you happen to not tolerate nightshades, I suppose), but without any of the "I'm starving" mental hubub.

a**hole.
I haven"t had a potato in 4 years.
Now I can't stop thinking about potatoes.

 

[jon.a]

Day 7 over...
-1.2
Day over day.

Day 8 done...
-1.0
Day over day.
Damn this is slow, I'm only drinking 6 glasses and hungry.
I'll have to force the last two days just cause people are watching.

 

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[Spicymemer45]

If you've ever wondered about fasting, why/if it works, or how it works. Then this is the video for you:

I read about fasting a couple of years ago and started implementing it as soon as I could.

I first started with what I'd call a "moderate" fast where I made sure to not consume any calories for 12 hours every day. I didn't use the 5/2 method, and I didn't go strictly "Paleo" either.

The result? I lost 40lbs in about 6 months. The majority of it fat/water weight (FYI I didn't use one of those BMI tests to be exactly sure).

The video above is about as good an explanation of why and how it works as I have ever seen. If you've got 30 minutes to watch it, I suggest you do. Unless you're an adonis already of course.

P.S. Please forgive me for trying out a tiny bit of copywriting in the process. I need some practice .

I've been following Dr. Fung for a year or so now!

This man really is a genius and it's sad to see that the U.S has blinded a vast majority of it's residents to the miracle of fasting paired with weight loss and a HUGE score of other benefits with it

Great post!

TAKE MY REPS++

Cheers!- Grayson. J

 

[dave773]

It's true, I actually do the intermittent fasting diet where I eat a small breakfast at around 6-7am then nothing besides water until 6pm and I feast until 10pm getting the remaining calories for the day have helped tremendously with losing body fat and a better sense of well-being.

This isn't IF. You would get more benefits from skipping breakfast and eating at lunch or something.

Guys, if you try to do the extreme of this you will probably fail. Fasting needs to be a lifestyle if you want it to work. The most sustainable ways are with IF or every second day fasting. I prefer IF with a eating window of 5-8hrs. I stop eating at around 6-8pm the night before, then I won't eat until about 1pm the next day. I have been doing this for over 6 months now without any effort. Once you get past the first couple weeks, your stomach will stop sending signals to your brain that you are hungry. Also, like Fung mentioned, there is increased mental acuity. If I'm not working, I can get way more done between when I wakeup and my first meal. Sometimes I actually forget to eat and have to force myself to eat around 3pm even though I am not hungry.

There is also something called respiratory quotient. Basically, there is a estimated certain point of where your body will begin to burn fat. If you are active during the fasting period, this is considered to be around 12-15hrs for men. If you have a desk job, it is around 16-18hrs of fasting. So if you are having a breakfast - not eating - then eating dinner. You are not getting any benefits from fasting.

To use the analogy in the video, you want there to be a period where your fridge is empty and you have begun taking food from the freezer before you refill your fridge again.

As for BCAA, this is probably the only supplement I can actually feel the difference from taking it. BCAA can be used in two ways, for fasting or for recovery. It is usually marketed for recovery. If you want to weight train during a fasted state, you should be taking BCAA or at worst whey protein. There have been studies to compare taking BCAA vs completely fasted training and overall, the benefits of BCAA to stop muscle breakdown outweight the little extra fat you burn if you don't take it.

Hope that helps.

 

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[samsara]

If you've ever wondered about fasting, why/if it works, or how it works. Then this is the video for you:

Great info

just in the right moment

$$$$ Rep transfer

Thanks

 

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[LifeTransformer]

In the news: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system

 

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[luniac]

i started 16:8 method, but now i practically do 20:40 or even 22:2...
Only one large meal a day, period.
Simplifies life so much

 

[JAJT]

In fact i hear fasting slows metabolism but who knows if that's true.

The video that was posted seemed to show data that suggested the exact opposite.

It seemed that a lack of calories over the long term dropped metabolic rate in all cases but fasting actually kept it high. Similarly it seemed insulin sensitivity goes down with calorie reduced diets but goes up while fasting.

Frankly I'd love to learn more of the science behind all this. Most resources stick to purely "calories in, calories out" or "fasting is awesome" but I'm a data kind of guy so I'd love to find more science-backed research into what the hell goes on in our bodies during these states.

 

[FastNAwesome]

i started 16:8 method, but now i practically do 20:40 or even 22:2...
Only one large meal a day, period.
Simplifies life so much

+1.

I started doing this for fat loss, and I'd literally lose weight each day, while feeling awesome and strong in the gym too.

After about two weeks though, I started feeling weaker and my body was literally craving more food (might have to do with weight lifting),
so it wasn't eating for fun or boredom - I literally felt I need nutrients.

So now I eat two meals a day, and I can feel my metabolism is better. I'm not even on some special diet. Sure, I try to eat nutritious food and avoid sugar,
but at the same time I eat what I want, and what's tasty and filling to me. Since I eat 1 or 2 meals a day, it seems to keep me in calorie deficit on most days.

Something I need to look into is how calories play a role in weight loss with regards to fasting. Right now I have no idea how much I should be eating for weight loss while fasting. I'm not sure if calorie deficits are required on a fast or if I should be striving for maintenance or if it matters at all. Lots to learn.

I assume deficit is needed for weight loss, such is math. But I think it's much easier to achieve when you eat fewer meals, or only within certain time frame.

While I was on 1 meal per day, I tried overindulging, really eating as much as I want and what I want, including sweets for that one meal. I still lost weight, and my abs started showing.

 

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[Raoul Duke]

There are many adherents to the Calories In/ Calories Out (CICO) theory that constantly bleat about “It all comes down to the First Law of Thermodynamics”. The First Law of Thermodynamics refers to a law of physics where energy cannot be created or destroyed in a closed system and is ALWAYS true.

However, in the complex world of human physiology, it is true but completely irrelevant. What the CICO people think it means is that if you reduce calories in, you will lose weight. Of course, it means nothing of the sort.

So, let’s see why.

Here’s our representation of the human body. You have Calories In, Calories Out and Fat Storage.

This is the fatal flaw of CICO – there are two compartments where calories can go after being eaten, (Calories Out and Fat), not one. It is not a one compartment problem.

CICO adherents believe you take calories in, subtract calories out and whatever is left over is dumped into fat stores like a potato into a sack. So, they believe that fat stores are essentially unregulated. Every night, like a store manager closing its books, they imagine the body counts up calories in, calories out and deposits the rest into the fat ‘bank’. Of course, nothing is further from the truth.

How the body works
So here’s the way the body works. Every process is highly regulated. Whether we burn calories as energy or whether it goes towards fat storage is tightly controlled. As we eat, calories go in. Calories go out as basal metabolism (used for vital organs, heat production, etc) and exercise. Fat can go into storage or it can go out of storage.

What controls this decision? We all agree that the main hormone involved is insulin. As we eat, insulin goes up. Notice that the body does not respond to calories equally. Some calories (white bread) will raise insulin a lot, and others (butter) will hardly raise insulin at all. This should have been the first clue that calories are not the common language of weight gain/loss. The body has no receptors for calories and has no way of measuring calories.

Consider two foods that are equal caloric values – a plate of cookies versus a salad with olive oil with salmon. As soon as you eat, the body’s metabolic response is completely different and easily measured. One will raise insulin a lot, and the other won’t. So why do we pretend like the body cares about calories.

That’s like saying that foods that are blue are the same – whether they are blueberries or blue raspberry Gatorade. The body doesn’t care about color, so why would I? In the same way, the body doesn’t give two sh**s about calories, so why should we? However, the body DOES care a lot about the hormonal response to the foods we just ate.

Since we are eating more at that moment than can be used by the body, some of this food energy gets stored away, either as glycogen or fat. This is insulin’s role. It stores food energy through the processes of glycogen synthesis and de novo lipogenesis (making of new fat in the liver).

When we stop eating, insulin starts to fall. This is the signal to first stop storing food energy. As we continue to fast (say, during the night), we need to move some of this food energy back out from our stores to power our metabolism. Otherwise, we would die during our sleep, which obviously does not happen.

OK. So far, so good. Now let’s put some numbers on it. Let’s assume we are not gaining or losing weight, but have 100 pounds of fat we’d like to drop. Assume a daily average intake of 2000 calories. This is what it will look like.

Since Calories In and Calories out are balance, and Fat is neither going up or down, everything is in balance. The body wants to burn 2000 calories to stay warm and feel good. So what happens when we decide to lose weight?

Weight loss the CICO way
The CICO people say that all you need to do is reduce your calories in. You don’t need to worry about what you are eating because ‘it all comes down to calories’. So, eating a calorie reduced, low fat, high carbohydrate diet, insulin levels stay high, but calories comes down. They do this on shows like ‘The Biggest Loser’, but this is the exact same strategies that all the universities, and governments use too.

What happens?

You reduce your intake to 1200 calories per day. Since insulin remains high, you cannot get any energy from fat stores. Why? Because the dietary strategy you are using (Caloric Reduction as Primary) only concerns itself with reducing calories, not insulin. Remember that the high insulin is telling the body to store energy as fat, or at a minimum, not burn fat (inhibits lipolysis).

So, as you reduce your caloric intake to 1200 calories in, the body is forced to reduce it’s metabolism to only 1200 calories. No energy is available anywhere else. This is precisely what happened on the Biggest Loser as seen in the study featured in the New York Times. This is also precisely what happens during any caloric reduction diet.

That is why these diets are doomed to fail. Studies of this strategy estimate failure rates at 99%. Notice that the First Law of Thermodynamics is not being broken in any way. It is irrelevant.

The lower metabolism means you feel feel cold, tired and hungry. Worse, the weight eventually plateaus and then as you decide that it’s not worth it, you start to eat more, say 1400 calories thinking that it’s still not as much as you used to eat. Hunger hormones are increased because the body wants to burn 2000 calories and you are only taking in 1200. So weight starts coming back. Sound familiar?






Weight loss by reducing insulin
Well, that was fun. What happens when you use dietary strategies that instead target insulin? Low carb High Fat (LCHF) diets, ketogenic diets, and the ultimate insulin-reducing strategy, fasting all target the reduction of insulin.

What happens?

Since the point of these diets is to lower insulin, stored food energy (fat) can be broken down to power the body. Since the body wants to burn 2000 calories a day, it burns 1000 calories of fat and 1000 calories from food.

What we would predict is that basal metabolic rate remains the same, appetite is decreased and weight is steadily decreasing. Guess what? That’s exactly what is shown in studies. In Dr. David Ludwig’s study and Kevin Halls new study, ketogenic diets do not have this dreaded metabolic slowdown.

Anecdotally, hunger is also decreased with ketogenic diets. The effect is even more striking with fasting. I can only recount my experiences in the Intensive Dietary Management program. We’ve put over 1000 people on fasts of various durations. Many of them drag themselves since they have no energy. After fasting, their energy is massively increased. But despite this, they report that their appetite has shrunk to barely 1/3 of what it was previously. They often tell me they think their stomach has shrunk.

In a sense, it has. But if people are eating less because they are less hungry and then losing weight, that’s GREAT. Because we are now working with the body, instead of fighting it. With caloric reduction diets, people constantly fight their hunger and deny themselves food. Here, people are turning away food of their own volition. Because we lowered insulin.

The first law is right – but this isn’t physics
Notice once again, that the First Law of Thermodynamics is not being broken. There are no calories created out of thin air. It is simply irrelevant to human physiology.

I studied biochemistry in university and took a full year course on thermodynamics. At no point did we ever discuss the human body or weight gain/ loss. Because it has nothing to do with thermodynamics. If anybody mentions the ‘first law of thermodynamics’ regarding weight loss, you, too will know that they are just very smart. Or maybe they just haven’t really thought about what thermodynamics actually is.

Nutritionists on the other hand, especially the calorie counters, can’t seem to say enough about Thermodynamics. They have ‘science’ envy. They desperately want the quantitative and theoretical backing of hard science and therefore pretend that human physiology is like physics, with its hard rules and laws.

News flash, guys. Physiology is physiology and physics is physics. Don’t mess the two up.

The CICO people are Fregley. He is the character in ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ who is the unpopular kid who wants desperately to be liked. CICO people desperately want the approval of hard science that they are willing to pretend that physiology is physics.

Sorry buddy. Just because you have physics envy, doesn’t mean you get to make up stuff. …. (I was going to put in a very crass and crude joke about the Freudian concept of penis envy all for the sake of a few cheap laughs. Against my better judgement, I have removed it.)

You also can’t use the Heisenberg uncertainty principle for weight loss. The Bernouilli Effect doesn’t apply to the urine stream. Physics is physics. Physiology is physiology.

Fasting vs. calorie reduction
Sometimes I’m asked the question about the difference between fasting and calorie reduction. Doesn’t fasting reduce calories? Yes, but that’s not the point. Fasting is about reducing insulin. This allows you to release some of the stored fat energy so that you don’t need to or even want to eat so much.

What drives me crazy is this. The Biggest Loser study proved that cutting calories is a terrible, horrible, no good and very bad strategy, virtually guaranteed to fail. So, in all these articles talking about the Kevin Hall study, what do the ‘experts’ suggest instead? Cutting your calories!!

The only thing worse are those ‘experts’ who claim that that the key is not to define success by weight loss. Win the Diet Wars by not even trying. Buddy! People want to know how to lose weight. Success is defined as weight lost, not loving your body the way it is. As Justin Bieber would say – Go Love Yourself. I wanna know how to lose weight. That’s what The Obesity Code is all about. If you want to know how to lose weight, first understand what causes weight gain.

What happens when you recommend a diet that is guaranteed to fail? Well, you might get a huge worldwide epidemic of type 2 diabetes and obesity.

Unfortunately, all the nutritional authorities all belong to the same CICO cult, and we are all paying the price for their stupidity. You thought Scientology was bad. CICO is even worse.

Let’s consider these simple facts. We’ve recommended cutting calories for weight loss for the last 40 years. During that time, we’ve had a huge obesity epidemic. All the science suggests that caloric reduction as primary is doomed to fail. Senior researchers, academic physicians and virtually all health associations continue to recommend it. They are sheep, constantly bleating. Count your calories! Cut your calories! It all comes down to calories! Anybody who believes otherwise doesn’t believe in the universal laws of nature! I have physics envy!

One article interviewed ‘leading obesity experts’ and came up with these tips. Exercise regularly. Cut calories by avoiding high fat foods. Eat breakfast. Count calories. So, in other words, they would give the exact same advice that we’ve been giving for the last 40 years even as the obesity epidemic overwhelms our health care system. Hey, Julia Belluz, the 1980s called, they want their diet advice back.

O…..M…..F…..G….

The lunatics are running the asylum. In discussing the physiology of obesity, the First Law of Thermodynamics is not wrong – it’s irrelevant.

Dr. Jason Fung


Why the First Law of Thermodynamics Is Utterly Irrelevant - Diet Doctor

 

[jlwilliams]

I'm back. Just got out of the shower post workout, getting ready to head into the kitchen and put stuff into the blender for breakfast. Approximately 17 hours since my last calorie. I felt a little hungry before bed. Not really "hungry" more like "I could eat"... but I didn't. This morning I didn't feel ravenous. Just went about my regular morning. Wake @ 6:00, meditate and deep breathing (Wim Hof method) pack sons lunch, work out (T25)hot then cold shower. Still not shaking or really feeling pain to eat.

I think I can squeeze in a 16 or 18 hour fast once a week to start. I'm down with seeing where this takes my body and mind.

 

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[#nowhere]

So I'll chime in..

I started this in week 7, now we are in week 10. I have read the book "The Obesity Code" by Jason Fung.

Here is what I did and what I experienced:

- 3x 24-36h fasts/week
- No sugars or artificial sweeteners anymore
- I do eat fruits and vegetables
- Reduced considerably on starchy grains (sometimes oats)
- Ramped up on fats (not the industrial ones, but the natural ones: butter, olive oil (cold-pressed) )
- Sometimes I cheat if social events come up: Slice of pizza, cake or kebap.
- IMPORTANT: If you don't eat sufficiently on non-fasting days you'll feel cold on fasting days (Hands and feet). So make sure to eat sufficiently on non-fasting days!
__________________________________________________________________

= 13,2 lbs weight loss.

No hunger. No pain. No Cravings. No weight drop in lifting.

(Don't misunderstand this to cheat every non-fasting day. No sugars and starchy grains seldom will alter your buds)

 

[JAJT]

Can you explain the lemonade?

Every fasting resource and expert interview I've ever looked into all take a pretty solid "no sugar" approach as the entire benefits of fasting are a result of your body fueling itself through ketones rather than glucose.

Once you are in ketosis (fueling your body through ketones), you can mimic the ketosis state (and stay in ketosis) through a macronutrient profile that keeps your body in that state (mostly fat, some protein, and less than 20g of carbs).

So the lemonade makes absolutely no sense to what you are trying to do from my understanding. You are really on a liquid sugar diet rather than a fasting or ketosis diet and everything I know is telling me you won't see the benefits you expect.

Now, I'm not a doctor, and absolutely listen to your doctor, but I am genuinely confused how you could be both prescribed fasting and sugar at the same time as (to me) they are like oil and water in terms of what you are trying to do.

Would love to learn more.

 

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[PureA]

Interesting.

I googled it (albeit briefly) and it seemed pretty fad-like. Lots of talk on "detoxifying" without any real definitions of what that means, or why the ingredients are important (although I suspect syrup for energy, cayenne for appetite suppression, and lemons for flavor). Or the physical results from a biological standpoint.

Maybe the first few results I googled were just bad examples of the benefits but it reads very much like "trust me, it works, because other people did it and it works, and it's really old, but it works.... toxins.... flush.... natural....heal... repair...".

The kinds of things that really get me excited tend to be heavily medical and measurement based things. An excellent example of what I'm talking about would be this podcast from Tim Ferriss talking to Dom D'Agostino on fasting: Dom D’Agostino on Fasting, Ketosis, and the End of Cancer

All the talk of science, biology, measured results, blood tests, peer reviews, etc... really wins me over to believing that they genuinely know what they are talking about and genuinely want to learn more about it. I actually just listened to Tim's podcast today with an except from the above interview and Tim wanted to hear about strength training under ketosis and Dom even went out of his way to say that it's still being reviewed and that the first review failed and required some re-work. That kind of disclaimer and honesty really makes me think "this guy cares about the truth more than his own beliefs".

I of course do not mean to "shit on" your progress and attempts to better your health. I'd hate for that to be how this comes off as I highly respect you and always encourage self betterment in all it's forms. I just wanted to share my (very limited) knowledge on what I've learned in my short time diving into this stuff.

Regardless - I do hope it works as well for you as you want it to all the same

Been 13 days in ketosis due to Dr Dom!

I am 6ft 185lbs 10% bf, I have no weight loss interest it is primarily for mental clarity/focus (for fastlane activities).

Still in the process of adapting (can take people up to 4 months to fully adapt to ketone usage). But if you are interested in trying it out at all hit me up and il link you to all the good stuff I've found regarding ketosis.

p.s. The study you referred to regarding experienced users gym work came back positive for more/same muscle/strength gain, more fat loss whilst in a ketotic state.

p.p.s If you haven't already, google a picture of Dr Dom, he sure walks his talk...

 

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