I fasted and did low carb for about 5 months and lost a lot of weight. Im the next year, i decided to stop smoking and ended up gaining rhe weight back.
I decided to try to lose weight again this year. I like to fast and i like the low carb diet since it doesn’t make me feel like i’m starving.
I decided to visit a nutritionist and have felt shitty all day. She basically said i fucked up my metabolism with fasting and that now weight loss will be even more difficult for me.
Sincerely i don’t know what to do. I don’t have good memories of calorie restriction and i’m quite used to if. On the other hand, maybe she is right and what i need is a different relationship to food?
Hi OP. I’m seeing a registered dietician and a weight loss specialist MD. The only caution they gave me about intermittent fasting is they want to be sure I’m making a sustainable life change that I’ll still be doing a year or two years from now. Essentially, a lifestyle change, not a fad for quick weight loss. If you are in it for the long run they are fine with it.
On top of that, I’m a registered nurse and several cardiologists at work have been recommending intermittent fasting (16:8 specifically) to patients for weight loss and health benefits.
Your nutritionist either clearly has out of date info on fasting. Compared to long term caloric restriction with frequent meals, fasting can actually allow for sustainable weight loss with reduced metabolic adaptation (that is, the drop in BMR that typically accompanies caloric restriction and weight loss).Fasting or not, if you are eating too few calories your body will go into starvation mode and your BMR will drop. The solution to this is not eating small meals to “stabilize” your sugars-this will only keep insulin high and prevent you from tapping into body fats reserves as stored energy. The solution is taking on and off “diet breaks” where you raise your calories back up to maintenance periodically, thus preventing metabolic damage. Will dig up the recent study that examined that last point, it’s a good read.Also, some good references are linked on this page
This is why I haven’t reached out to a nutritionist. I tried IE and gained 30 lbs. I didn’t eat like a foolEither. I ate exactly as they said but also allowed myself to eat whenever and I was hungry all the time. It wasn’t until I started fasting that I was able to control my hunger. The insulin spikes make me more hungry and I ate much more.
eating three meals a day with snacks is kind of ridiculous if you think about it. Forcing your body to eat when you’re not hungry is also ridiculous. I have opened my window when I wasn’t hungry with fruits or veggies or cheese to make sure I’m getting nutritious foods in but for the most part eat what I crave and check in with true hunger. If I’m super hungry for breakfast I’ll eat it but it’s rare.
Keep your head up and get back to it. I like the comment about metabolism in this thread too.
I saw a dietician earlier this year. My primary care physician referred me; I’m a healthy BMI, no changes in weight, but super low appetite. I’ve been IF since 2018, usually eating a large lunch and a small evening snack. She thought the dietician would help me with any supplements or changes to the meals I do eat to make sure I get all my nutrients in one day.
Instead, the dietician was concerned that I didn’t have any hunger cues in the morning. She suggested I start eating in the morning, even when I wasn’t hungry. I told her no, I’m not interested in creating hunger cues when I don’t want them.
On top of that, my insurance wouldn’t even cover a dietician because I’m not obese.
Unless your crazy overweight, have some squash on you is fine, and is healthy, especially if it was from quoting smoking. As for the metabolism, that’s a much harder issue. The best advice is to figure out a lifestyle that’s sustainable for you.
Hey OP. Hopefully you saw a dietitian. In most places, anyone can call themselves a “nutritionist,” its not a protected term. I am a couple months from being one myself, and sadly I can confirm much of the sentiment here about most dietitians being locked into failed paradigms is accurate.
She is technically correct that when a person loses weight on a calorie restricted diet, their basal metabolic rate (BMR) drops and usually does not recover even when weight is gained back. It’s often called the yo yo dieting effect, but it seems to be less prominent in weight lost through IF, but I’m not aware of enough science to say conclusively.
In any event, your BMR fluctuates based on what you eat, when you eat it, exercise, and other factors. Don’t let her words discourage you. Not all dietitians are created equal. What’s important is that you find a lifestyle and eating approach that fit you, and if you work with a dietitian, they should be supporting you and your goals, not discouraging them.
Good luck!
Trust what works for YOU. Doctors, nutritionists, dietitians, etc. can tell you what they feel is best for you, but they are not you. There is a lot of stigma and controversy surrounding fasting but that doesn’t take away the overall effects that individuals, themselves, have had. If it worked for you before and you felt good doing it, that’s the best information you have to decide if you want to try again. My doctor is the one who started me on a very low cards diet with intermittent fasting and prolonged fasting. So you could look for a second option if you want the advice of a “professional”. In my opinion, you are the expert on YOU.
There are many unbiased studies in how IF affects the metabolism at the time of fasting, but not really much on long term. I was always under the assumption that metabolism didn’t really have a memory and just performed based on your current situation (cardiac endurance, weight, endocrine health, etc.) I say you should look into some unbiased research papers (even ones that oppose your understanding) and go from there
Congratulations on quitting smoking. That’s fantastic. And of course you gained weight. Who wouldn’t?
Every doctor I hear on tv and irl all seem to think IF is a great healthy option. I don’t hear any controversy. And I’ve been paying attention. Bravo to you for keeping going. The absolute best diet is the one you can stick to. That’s your answer. Good luck! Carry on!
It’s better for companies to eat, so eating generates money. The majority of humans have had to fast due to not having food accessible. You can fast, and you can exercise. You didn’t screw anything up.
OP your nutritionist sounds like an idiot with seriously outdated information and ways of thinking. please read Dr. Jason Fung’s book Obesity Code - it addresses sooooooooo many things including messing up your metabolism, CICO, snacking, all the different types of diets, history of obesity, weight set point. I mean it’s seriously comprehensive. Scary but highly educational.
I will probably be down voted for this but I crashed my metabolism from IF. Now I got really extreme and started doing EDFs and going days without eating. I lost a bit of weight but then started gaining! I was eating below my calories and kept gaining… It took me a good year to level out. I now IF in much much smaller doses, max 20 hours and this hasn’t happened to me again. Just be careful and listen to your body. I think different formulas work for different people…
I watched a YT video by someone I respected they pointed out that all the Nutritionalist information being distributed among their members and the public were all sponsored by vested interest food industry people.
Grains Corn Rice etc
If I remember who is was I’ll link it, but if you search about this I’m sure you will manage to pull up enough incriminating information to never believe anything a nutritionalist says ever again.
Weight loss lowers metabolic rate - huge body of evidence shows that people who were heavy then lost need less calls than someone who was never overweight. It sucks; but it’s not the fasting that does that - true of all eating styles. 😕
You know - best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, but the next best time is now… you can’t just stay fat forever.
Weightloss might get harder over time - actually, I’m pretty sure it WILL get harder, but you’ll also get better at learning how to do it. Don’t stop doing something just because sometime in the future it might get harder.. .
I saw a nutritionist and dietician at the VA almost 2 years ago… with my spouse who is a health care provider (can prescribe drugs)… I got into a tiff with the nutritionist because she told me to eat at 7am, 12pm, and 5pm and to eat Tostitos and a high grain processed food diet. I said it was awfully convenient for a post industrial society… anyhow … her advice was stupid I was annoyed and I stuck with low carb dieting… I’m down like over 70lbs with cico, intermittent fasting helping that immensely. It takes time life has stressors keep it up, your making the effort and it’s a zig zagging uppzy dizzy path.
I think I posted in here or in keto like two years ago why I wasn’t losing weight and I was eating like 5000 calories of chicken thighs, salmon, and cheese every day from 12-6pm. Watch the calories too it’s not magic but you’ll get there.
I’m not a nutritionist, but this doesn’t make any sense to me. Your metabolism is based on your activity level, right? If you’re working out, your body is going to burn more calories and store less fat. For example, when I go on a long hike, I eat a lot of food and I’m still famished. The same is true when I’m sedentary. My body goes into storage mode. What you’re doing with fasting is burning off some of those unwanted fat stores. True, you may feel sluggish during your fast, but once you start eating again, your energy and metabolism will go back to normal. Assuming a healthy, well-balanced diet.
I saw a dietitian for a year. Never lost much weight with CICO. Always felt like I was struggling and sacrificing to no avail.
I’ve slowly dropped 17-20 lbs on IF over a year and a half and have kept it off (no dietitian or formal calorie counting).
IF is best and easy to do. Good luck and stick to the plan!
The main thing you need to keep in mind is on the days you eat,you should make sure you eat enough nutrient rich food, fats, some protein and lots of greens. Add it some variety of vegetables and proteins, mix up your fasts . Having too few calories on eating days doesn’t help your body and can be interpreted by your body as low calorie eating. You shouldn’t go overboard with the calories, but ensure you fill up on the vegetables, especially salad greens if hungry.
She may have gotten it a bit right on that you haven’t been eating enough calories on eating days. But her approach was terrible and not helpful. Definitely approach this as a way of life. Not just for immediate weight loss needs. Make sure you take your body measurements too. You can lose centimetres and not have the scales move. You got this, you’ve done it before, regained some, learnt some lessons that you can apply this time around.
Weird, my nutritionist just put me on a <1200 calorie protein shake diet. 4 protein shakes a day for two weeks, then gradually easing back into solid foods, but keep it high protein and low carb. Like eggs and bacon for breakfast, meat and veggies for lunch, then a couple more protein shakes.
I have muscular dystrophy and this this nutritionist is a very educated Stanford professional with that clinic, so I think she knows her stuff.
I asked her about nutrition and vitamins, and she said to just add a multivitamin every day. She emphasized that high protein will help prevent muscle wasting while losing weight.
If high protein, almost no carb is OK for someone like me, it’s probably OK for someone without problems.
You might need a better nutritionist.