Hi,
I haven’t been on this sub long but I’ve been fasting for a while now. I’ve noticed that most people mention the idea that as long as you have a calorie deficit, you will burn fat/lose weight. This was something I had thought as well, and I would cut my calories by 300-800, bouncing around to “shock” my body. I was also a daily gym goer with a sedentary office job. For whatever reason, I still found it hard to lose fat, specifically from my waist.
It wasn’t until I stumbled on a video about insulin that I was able to understand how to become more metabolically flexible.
WHEN HIGH LEVELS OF INSULIN ARE PRESENT IN YOUR BLOODSTREAM, FAT BURNING IS TURNED DOWN TO A MINIMUM AND FAT STORAGE IS TURNED UP TO A MAXIMUM
If this statement is foreign or makes no sense to you then there’s a lot of resources on this. I made the video below, but in the description I also have extra resources to help educate.
Curious if others have experienced the same thing or how many people are aware of the role insulin plays?
Hello. I am a T2 diabetic and wear a continuous glucose monitor. During my regular eating windows my blood sugars stay pretty low, but still in prediabetic/diabetic range. I have spikes over night and I’ve woken up with sugars around 150-220 even with meds depending on what I ate the night before. IF has helped with stabilizing my insulin resistance and my need for sugar controlling meds has gone down in the 9 weeks since I’ve been IF.
I am currently on hour 90 of a 120 hour fast. I have consumed only water, unflavored electrolyte drops, and black tea as needed to perk up.
I had Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night and I ate carbs in the form of appetizers in the form of cheese, olives, and cherry peppers, roasted veggies, homemade cranberry sauce made with monkfruit sweetner, a mini cupcake sized cornbread, ham made with maple syrup and butter, keto stuffing, a mini avocado (I eat one daily no matter what I’m eating) and a few bites of apple and pumpkin pie. This is a once a year meal so I was not going to deprive myself, but I ate reasonable portions. I also had 2 cans of regular soda as no diet soda was available.
Prior to the meal and in preparation for the longer fast I stopped all medications 2 days before which included meda for controlling sugar and blood pressure. I was on OMAD for the days leading up to the holiday meal. My sugar reading after Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday morning 6:30 was 230. At 10 pm I was 117. On Monday at midnight I was at 125. At 5 am I was at 160, and by 8 am I was at 182. Monday night at 11 pm I was at 122. On Tuesday morning at 6 am I was at 148, and by 11 pm I was at 102. Today, Wednesday at 9 am I was at 122 and as of right now. 4 pm I am at 102.
As you can see my insulin response is adjusting as my body is pulling what it needs from the reserves. My weight loss has been slow and steady after my woosh of water weight, but slow and steady wins the race. I am down inches all over and things that didn’t fit 9 weeks ago now do. The biggest difference I notice is on my legs that retained so much water due to meds. My legs are in less pain and aside from a little fatigue due to the fasting I feel good. I anticipate that as my body’s insulin resistance corrects itself I will lose more weight in my belly and other flabby parts lol.
When I end my fast I am planning on a schedule of eating that will incorporate 2-48 hour fasts per week, 2 days of 2MAD, and 3 days of OMAD. According to my fitness pal I need to eat 1500 calories per day to lose 1 lb per week so that will be my max calories for my eating window regardless if I’m eating one or 2 meals. My main goal is to get off meds and resolve health issues. Weight-loss is just a bonus to improved health and I understand this is a long game. I have to be patient and kind to my body and eat in a way that I can sustain after I reach my goals. I will eventually add some carbs back into my diet, but for now the data speaks for itself and my body cannot process carbs while it fights insulin resistance.
Best of luck!
Yea its also important to notice that you want low insuline levels before going to bed. because this essentially means 8 hours of fatburning during sleep.
So if you have a sweet tooth eat it in the morning/lunchtime, and avoid it in the afternoon/evening
OP You are lieing to yourself BTW. If you can’t lose fat on 300-800 calory deficit then you aren’t in a calory deficit. You are not adding up your calories etc correctly. 300-800 calory deficit leaves your body no choice but to burn fat. And you can’t spot fat BTW, aka the belly.
Hormones play a role in fat gain/lose, insulin being one of them but ultimately calory total and calories burned is king.
If youre in a significant calories deficit then your insulin levels will be lower be default…not every skinny person you see is doing keto but they are most likely fasting in some way or another, going prolonged durations between eating
Not this guy. As soon as I unsubscribed to the carbs make you fat thing I broke under 10% body fat pretty easily with a combination of fasting and volume eating. I was a fat guy for most of my life, lost it all and kept it off about 7 years ago. I bought into the carb idea for a few years and never got super lean. When I gave up on that idea and went straight cico dieting became easier, and I got way leaner. I still hang out around there in the summer and bulk up a bit in the winter. I do heavy resistance training a lot so carbs are good. If course, every body is different. I
Try reading something with actual citations instead of a layman’s understanding of a complex molecule. https://weightology.net/insulin-an-undeserved-bad-reputation/
It goes over many of the myths I am seeing in the comments.