I went from 255 to 140 with keto and IF (usually OMAD with occasional 48h and 72h fasts in between). I’m now maintaining with low-carb and 16:8 IF. That means I skip breakfast and I don’t ever snack even in my eating window, only water - not even tea or coffee (I used to eat all day, fasting helped me get rid of that habit entirely)
So when people see me not eat, whether it’s breakfast, or mid morning/afternoon snacks, they tell me that not eating makes me gain weight. And I’m always like “I’m pretty sure it’s the eating that makes you gain weight. You never gain weight by not eating food.” and they keep looking at me like I’m crazy.
And the answer is always “If you don’t eat breakfast/snacks, you’ll be hungry soon and crave chocolate bars and oreos and you give in so you gain weight. It’s better to eat this fat-free muffin instead now, or have these oats in fat-free yogurt”.
Guess what, the people who say that are those who eat breakfast, the muffin, the oats, and THEN the oreo and chocolate bar too and all of that before 11am. Then they blame to chocolate bar on not eating enough breakfast. At least those around me are like that (family, friends, co-workers). And I don’t eat ANY of it, and somehow what I’m doing results in weight gain?
What goes on in the mind of these people that makes them seriously believe these things?
This was what was taught in school when I was a kid (80s and 90s). The only answer I have is that corporations want to make money, if you are not eating, you are not buying food, and they are not making money off you.
I’m guessing the thought is eating less will slow your metabolism. Does it?
I’ve read plenty of times that skipping breakfast is bad because you’ll snack. No I won’t. Now what? Before I was lifting I did IF (16:8) for months and didn’t find it particularly difficult
Generally speaking, I’ve noticed that they fall into one of three groups.
They lost weight/maintain on a multiple meal a day routine and think what works for them will work for you
They are overweight and snack a lot - and misery loves company
The idea of skipping meals or fasting longer than 18 hours terrifies them
A massive over simplification, but it’s just what I have experienced.
Great job!
I have a printout from my Drs. office that says “eat a healthy breakfast” I followed it, gained weight.
At the gym last week the “trainer” told me to eat 6 small meals a day. I’m still 25 pounds overweight. I told him that’s wrong but tried to blow it off.
>Guess what, the people who say that are those who eat breakfast, the muffin, the oats, and THEN the oreo and chocolate bar too and all of that before 11am. Then they blame to chocolate bar on not eating enough breakfast.
👉SatyaVachan (true words) I swear OP you have nailed it. Hahahahahahahaha. My grandmother used to say something akin to: - zip the lip to keep it off the hips. Snacking wasn’t a concept practiced in our home growing up and I am genuinely so thankful for that.
Later on, I messed up my health is a whole different kettle of fish for which I take full onus of 😁 and again fasting & intermittent fasting saved my life.
That was probably just their personal experience. If it doesn’t apply to you then just smile and nod, say “thanks for sharing” and go about your business. I don’t tell people my diet plans because I don’t need their input or permission.
For serious explanations, two thoughts: The first time I started skipping meals was at college. I didn’t have food in my room, so if I didn’t make it to a meal, I’d be sometimes quite hungry by the next meal. I knew nothing about health, being young and resilient. I’d “tank up” on food, and then stumble back to my dorm with my heart pounding from having too many carbs after (unintentionally) fasting. I’m not sure how this could affect weight because I don’t tend to gain or lose, but it sure didn’t make me well. I didn’t know there was another way to eat, where you focus on nutrient content and high satiety foods instead of quantity when you’re hungry. I thought my stomach was like a gas tank. I don’t know, but I wonder if eating like I did could make someone gain weight, and it technically involves fasting.
One other explanation which has even less to do with weight is that some people have stomach problems that make them need to eat more often. When I unknowingly had parasites, I couldn’t do OMAD, because my paristalsis wasn’t working it would just sit in my stomach and I’d throw up or be up all night with an unbearable stomach ache. I had to have several small meals. Yes, sometimes this turned into grazing which turned into overeating which turned into a stomach ache. Awful times. Anyway, it’s within the realm of possibility that some people might instinctively know that they need to eat small amounts more often, and assume since that’s better for them it’s better for everyone, and obviously health obviously has to do with weight, right? It’s a stretch, I know. There’s definitely way more problematic and inaccurate reasons as to why fasting will make you gain weight than there are reasonable ideas.
> And I’m always like “I’m pretty sure it’s the eating that makes you gain weight. You never gain weight by not eating food.” and they keep looking at me like I’m crazy.
Hahaha. Its a bit like “saturated fat causes diabetes 2”. When fat is the ONE thing that doesn’t raise your blood sugar. At all. But it is to be expected I guess when health authorities have been spreading mis-information. Same goes for number of meals. We have (sadly) been told that eating 5-6 (smaller) meals a day is healthy.
We were not educated to think that we could go a week without food and be fine. If you really want to get into it you can discuss the impact of insulin on weight gain. All foods generate an insulin response. insulin tells your body to study fat and whatever calories are coming in and not to burn body fat.
Even I as a physician only recently figured this out.
They are right that a reduced-calorie diet can lead to lowering metabolism resulting in weight IF you are eating 3-6 small meals throughout the day.
My fat old boss used to get a big pastry with his milky coffee every morning so his body wouldn’t go into “starvation mode”. It’s like, dude you ate enough for 3 people last night. It’ll take like 4 weeks for your fat ass to start actually starving.
For people who suffer from binge eating disorder, skipping meals or snacks can trigger binges later in the day or the next days. That’s because the hungrier you are as a binger, the more likely you are to cave into your trigger foods. The point is to keep yourself satisfied enough so that you prevent binges.
I went to the cardiologist recently and my BMI was in the obese category. He asked me about my eating habits and I told him years ago I’d lost 65 lbs (which put me on the lower end of healthy BMI) through mostly 1-3 day fasts & omad, then for about 4 years I just ate once a day (mostly because that’s all I had time for) and was able to easily maintain a healthy weight. Then I started working a desk job where I got a lunch break, so I started eating lunch AND dinner instead of just dinner and the pounds started piling on. I said I’d go back to doing what I did the first time to lose weight and he was like “Absolutely not, you’re gaining weight because you’re only eating twice a day. You need to be eating small meals 6 times a day, then you’ll lose weight.”
I’m a smaller woman and when I’m at a healthy weight, I only need like 1400 calories a day to maintain. If I divided that up into 6 meals, each meal would be so small and unsatisfying. I feel like I’d always be thinking about food if I had to eat 6 meals a day, not to mention how much work that meal prep would be. And what if I want to eat dinner with friends or date night? I just can’t imagine that being easier to stick to long-term than eating one big meal a day like I’d done for years.
He was so adamant that I just ended up agreeing with him but I’m going to do the omad and weekly 1-3 day fasts again and just not tell him.
I developed an interest in health, and specifically diet, when I was in my early 20s, and then, the common wisdom was three meals a day with healthy snacks in between, and I followed that, but I was always cranky and tired after I ate breakfast. Then one day, I finally had the thought “why am I forcing myself to eat when I’m not hungry?!”, and stopped eating breakfast unless I’m hungry. I have to say, my day goes a lot better. My stomach wakes up 2-4 hours after the rest of me.
I think a lot, but not all of the people who simply MUST eat breakfast have trained their body to crank out insulin first thing in the morning.
Society has been conditioned. If they’re overweight and trying to convince someone that isn’t how to lose weight or has lost weight. They’re too far gone in their programming. I just give them the good ol “well this works for me” and move on.
The problem for me is when people know what your trying to do and they go out of their way to try to feed you food lol.
From everything I’ve read/heard etc., nothing is that straight forward. There is no simple calculus that will work for everyone.
Studies on the microbiome and those fascinating results of the ‘fecal transplants’. The impact of weight gain/weight loss on people who suffer from thyroid diseases of one kind or another.
Genetics and the known traits of many with genetic heritage from Asian countries showing a reduction in storing body fat and others who do so easily.
The known role that hormones play in the processes of fat storage and energy use. And that they can be altered by on-going diet and environment.
That many who have type 1 diabetes can lose weight by reducing the amount of insulin they take (dangerous).
There’s always going to be individuals who do respond to the ‘eat several small meals a day’ approach. Still others that would do better with a low carb diet. And others that benefit from a low fat diet.
You have to find something that works for you.
In the mid-late 90s, powerbars, clif bars, and other “health bars” came out. These were all a lot like Gatorade - lots of sugar, very high carb, and seen as essential for proper athletic performance.
And all of us who were athletic in high school, college and beyond got used to eating these every day, before or after every workout, or just to “stay hydrated”. And then the non-athletes started eating them because they were “healthy”. And now most of us are middle-aged, and the last time many of us actively tried to learn about nutrition (rather than just follow a popular diet) was back then when we were all first becoming adults… so it’s what we know and turn to as healthy. It’s a really, really hard habit to break.
This was taught when I was young. Eat every 4 hours to keep your metabolism nice and speedy and prevent it from getting sluggish. I found that research article once and saw it was sponsored/researchers received monetary support from some major snack companies.
I think the grazing idea was you’d never be hungry from blood sugar swings. So the hypo and hyper glycemic individuals who get mood reactions should graze… but not increase calories.
However, the grazers I know eat meals larger than mine and add snacks on top of those. Yikes!
This is an American thing. No other countries eat as much or have the huge quantities on their plates as we do. That’s why America’s are the most overweight people in the world. If I fast all day and eat dinner, the hunger that comes after that is bad. I do long extended water fasts and after day 3 the hunger goes completely away. I got to my goal weight a few years ago and maintained it for those years. Once the pandemic started all that went out the window and I’m back to square one. So I’m also back to longggg water fasts and the weight falls off fast. It took 3 years doing low carb, 2 meals a day but doing these water fasts, I can cut that time by 3/4th.
Because it’s true a calorie reduction does in fact slow your metabolism if you’re not in a fasted state. The key reason why fasting works is because of the stress hormones that activate when you’re fasted. These stress hormones put you into a elevated state and burns more calories. However, if you’re in a calorie deficit without being in a fasted state these fight or flight hormones don’t activate and your metabolic rate slows.
These two things are very easy to confuse and fasting in modern times is relatively new. It’s just a matter of incomplete information, not being actively malicious.
When you reduce calories (particularly in the context of insulin resistance) your metabolism lowers. It would be nice to know how low calories can go without reducing metabolism, but I haven’t found a “simple” answer.
So, I imagine people who suggest multiple small snacks/meals do so out of concern for lowering your metabolism and the “psychology” that comes if you fast/“starve” and then rebound off that fast with overeating, which is easy to do.
Here is Jung talking about that effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d7KkyXnyB4
Any advice to someone who has always relied on fast food I think I am very addicted to eat I have always had a busy work schedule since I was 20 I’m now 42 I work 7am-7pm and a lot of weekends so it’s hard to meal prep and easier to stop by drive thru one of my biggest problems is the mindset of I don’t eat I’m going to have a bad day and my other problem is portion control I eat until I can’t breath but then I complain because I gain weight I don’t blame the food I believe you can eat what you enjoy you just have to be able to control yourself and that’s my problem I want to do OMAD or 20:4 but it’s so hard I start thinking about food and start to feel nathargic I don’t know if this makes since but any advice would be greatly appreciated thanks