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Zero Carbs

@bulkbiker - Clearly it's entirely up to you to decide how and what to eat, but have you tried fat fasts in the past? If you have; how did you do on those?
 
AndBreathe said:
@bulkbiker - Clearly it's entirely up to you to decide how and what to eat, but have you tried fat fasts in the past? If you have; how did you do on those?
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Yes my first 7 day was with fortified coffee.. double cream and coconut oil.. in fact I think it was you that questioned if this was a "fast" at all.. good weight loss and great blood sugar numbers got down to mid 3's. Trouble is as soon as you stop a lot of the weight comes back. It did however get me through the 17 stone plateau and am now just over 16st. I would like to get to 14st as a baseline and try to maintain that.
I currently am still overcoming the end of a cold but bloods seem to always be in the 5's I really only get 4's and lower when fasting. That's why I'm interested in meat only so see what happens to weight and bloods plus i think it would be quite easy as I'm a carnivore anyway.
 
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I hadn't realised that was a fat fast. I thought that was a fast (not trivialising 7 days without food, so please accept the context).

I've toyed with a couple of days fat fast, as a rest from cooking, when I'm on my own, but wouldn't want to drop any poundage. I know several people have had great success with it.

Good luck with whatever you decide upon.
 
Thanks.. think I'll probably try it when back from hols.. meaty feb coming up...
 
Have you ever tried ditching all dairy? Huge weight loss staller for me. Any and all dairy.

I pretty much only eat carbs at dinner in the form of low carb veggies, other than avocado for bf and some with lunch
Never any grains or dairy, low carb or not. They make me gain (or not lose) as well as make me very insulin resistant.

I know you love your coffee and double cream but can you try a substitute as a challenge test?
 

Might give it a go.. I did start my last 7 day fast with black tea and coffee (for a couple of days) then went back to cream.. to be honest the weight loss (couple of pounds a day) seemed pretty consistent both with and without so I don't think dairy is a particular problem for me.
 

I am in AWE of your weight loss, BB.
My fasting weight loss is so agonisingly slow, I often wonder if it is worth it. Did about 5 weeks of IF in Oct/Nov (one meal a day for 5 days a week, then 2 meals at the weekends) and managed to lose a total of 2 pounds in the 5 weeks. Then stepped up to 2 meals every day, with the odd snack, over Nov/Dec, and put the 2 pounds back on.

Gotta laugh, really.
At least it was only a 2 pound gain, including LC Xmas goodies, eh?

Anyways, that was off topic, so I shall wander off and sulk elsewhere
 

You don't have to wander off....
I did read something by Jimmy Moore who reckoned that the more you lost while fasting the worse your insulin resistance was..in which case mine must still be really bad even after loosing weight..see there is always a silver lining...
 

I just know I require more insulin when I eat dairy ( or any and all grains including low carb breads/rolls) .

Going from cream to black coffee is hard. So much better with cream. Have you tried unsweetened almond milk? I like the vanilla but not at all in my coffee. I use a lemon in my black tea.

Another thing I have to watch to maintain my weight is PROTEIN! I just bumped it up from 4 oz a day to 6 and gained a clear pound. Not a big deal as it stopped there but protein will add weight to me. Fat seems irrelevant as long as I keep carbs down and protein modest.

I'm confused. Are you still losing weight daily? What do you eat for carbs? How much protein? Just curios, not here to judge.

I'm sure you've heard me say this over and over but the avocado keeps my hungers away and allows me to eat smaller meals and a few nuts for snacks. Keeps bs very steady too. Without it I never feel satisfied and I hate fighting hunger.
 
Do you get hungry? Or are you comfortable when you fast? I was always watching the clock and then when I did eat I would tend to over eat and defeat the purpose. I do better with 3 very small meals and a few nuts in between. My gas tank always likes to be topped off rather than empty and then fill.
 

At the moment I have stabilised at just above 16 st that's eating lunch and dinner every day. The only carbs I have are lactofree milk in tea, cream (4tsps) in my daily coffee (400ml) and green veg (with maybe some mushrooms) Apart from that its all fat or protein. Yes I have avocados too in salads. I don;'t measure anything in terms of calories or amounts just eat until I'm satiated.

I try not to snack... will sometimes try to limit my eating window more by skipping lunch and just having a bag of pork scratchings late afternoon. Sometimes I'll have some nuts but find it hard to stop so only buy 100g packs (they don't last long here). I rarely (never?) have felt hunger just a few odd feelings when fasting and bloods were in mid-low 3's.. coconut oil in coffee dealt with that.. No meds at the moment and hope to stay that way.

Next job is to get to my 14st target weight.. in that nice "overweight" 25-30 BMI range that appears to be the healthiest as at 30.6 this morning I am still obese.. I think that level will allow me to fluctuate a bit up and down as I figure out a maintenance diet. I'll try to get there using the zero carb method alongside fasting to see how achievable it is. I think I should lose weight on a one meal every other day regime (my new acronym OMEOD) effectively doing a 47 1/2 hour fast. Will have to wait until we are back from hols on 23rd Jan for that. I will blog results on my blog page on diabetes.co.uk.

I am getting quite interested in self experimentation - I have been an undiagnosed binge eater for most of my life and am now beginning to bring this under control. Still can get carried away (nuts for example) but have far greater control than ever before. I think my diagnosis brought me a huge benefit (as well as a kick up the butt) to sort myself out before I got too old.

Wow that's a lot of stuff...!
 
Similar to you BB i view my T2 diagnosis as a blessing (retrospectively). I am healthier today than I have been for years. It really gave me the kick up the @ss that I obviously needed.

Anyway must be off. Typing from my phone on a bench in the middle of my evening walk.
 
Sounds like you're not eating much food in general! I could never fast that long and am very jealous you don't FEEL hunger. There is no time that I could not eat. I would prefer to snack on little things all day long rather than eat meals but that doesn't work when I need to take insulin.

I have the same issues with nuts so I need to only eat a couple at time. Different nuts are more addictive to me than others. Almonds I can't touch or I don't stop and they are probably my least favorite nut. Nut butters, forget it. Gone and feel lousy. I roast my own pumpkin seeds and pecans and I can moderate the seeds best. I also domgood with pistachios but I need them in the shell to take up some times. I need to be careful with the pecans and Macs. Raw makes me hungry so I roast them. I think it's the salt I crave.

So unless you're over eating protein, which it doesn't sound like I'm not sure what you could do. Certainly not limit food anymore.

I too only eat green veg and mushrooms!! I do have to watch portions of even green beans, brussel sprouts and broccoli. Those carbs add up fast. I tend to eat asparagus and bok choy a lot as they are very low carb. Or I make a medley of the above but after steaming it probably comes to 1/4 cup. My mushroom gravy is awesome so I've been using that a lot in the cold weather. Great on fish, poultry and red meat. NOT on salmon or tuna haha. Tried it. Yuk.

I wish you the best. It's so hard to figure it out. Sometimes just changing things up works but sounds like you do. Sometimes nothing works then all of a sudden things start working. I'm at a good ( maybe a tad too low but gaining only goes to the tummy which is where I store ALL my fat ) weight right now but sometimes it goes up or down without changing a thing.

I did lose a few pounds months ago by switching from red wine to vadka. I think the wine put me over my carb threshold. The vodka lowere my bs a bit and makes me more insulin sensitive for dinner. I e given everything else up, I'm not giving up my cocktail. At least not now.

Wish I had an answer for you. I can't imagine those veggies are too many. You're under 20 carbs per day right? I guess so if some days you don't eat any food!!!
 


Oh I eat quite a lot..never fear.. but its mainly very low carb stuff like meat.. I haven't found spikes from protein - so for lunch today had poached eggs bacon and some grilled prosciutto. Dinner tonight will be sous vide rump steak with mushrooms and some chorizo cabbage with lots of butter
 
Have you tried lowering protein to see if that helps ? I have no idea how small or large your servings are. If I wanted to gain I wouldnup my protein. So the reverse can hold true too. I only eat about 6 oz a day but I maintain my muscles. Not that I'm a brick house but they stay steady. I'm not losing them. Just a thought. Seems that's the only macro you haven't played with?

Your meals are making me hungry. Haha
 
No way!... hence the desire to try zero carb. I know I can lose by fasting so would rather do that which I find relatively easy to do. I need to find a ay of maintaining the weight loss after the fasting as most of it comes back on pretty quickly.. hence the interest in zero carbing or OMEOD or a combination of the two. I know if I go straight back onto 2 meals a day after fasting about 90% of the weight is regained.. so I need to re-feed in a different way to allow my body to get used to the new level.
that's what I will experiment with next month
 
Gotcha!!! We can only give up so much right?
I'm sure you'll find a balance.
 
Have you started zero carb yet? If so, how's it going?
 
NoCrbs4Me said:
Have you started zero carb yet? If so, how's it going?
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Not yet.. have a brief holiday next week so will start when we get back..will keep you informed how its going and might pm you for some advice if that's ok?
 
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