Hi all - I’ve been in ketosis for several weeks now. I started tracking my calorie intake versus weight loss to get a better view of my TDEE. For the first 3+ weeks I was getting full at barely more than 1,000 calories/day.
Of course I knew to ditch the first two weeks of data because the rapid water loss makes TDEE look crazy.
What I’ve seen since then is that I was getting signs of slower metabolism: very cold, tired-feeling, crabby. When I increase calories this goes away –> but so does my weight loss.
And week by week the spreadsheet I’m using to calculate this is adjusting my TDEE lower and lower, much faster than I’m losing weight. From 2200 calories/day to 1600 so far.
Is it time to start fasting? I don’t know where to start. 24-hour, ADF… I want to lose weight and see health improvement. But I fasted in the past as part of some messed up binge/starve stuff. I’m so worried about messing myself up mentally. For health I would love to have a regular, sustainable fasting habit.
Is once a week ADF a good place to start? I’m not sure where to target my calories the rest of the week - or if I should just eat to appetite plus fasting and stop counting. Because of those first weeks of not wanting much to eat, I’m worried about trusting appetite.
Do you graze all day, or do you have an eating window? What do you mostly eat?
Edit: The reason I ask is that the feeling poorly you experienced is more likely a nutrition deficit, not an energy deficit. If your body is working right, and you have fat stored, you should always have energy since you have 100s of thousands of calories stored on your body in adipose tissue. It’s a question of accessing it, which is where insulin and other hormones come in.