I have an unhealthy relationship with food, as I am a stress eater and when I go off program I tend to run amok; feast or famine...quite literally.
Health issues as of late have contributed to bring me back up to the heaviest weight I ever had measured before: 6'1" and 378 pounds (
July 8, 2019). Just writing that number is more than a little daunting. I was dieting off and on, but I failed time again to find sufficient motivation to sustain the losses. Still, as the fog of medications and their myriad of side effects slowly lifted, I was able to get myself down to 302.6 pounds (
August 3, 2020) in a series of stuttering starts.
On
July 15, 2020 I made a long term promise to my meat vehicle:
one year commitment on Atkins 20 with a goal of getting in the neighbourhood of 220 pounds (leaving "obese" and just a tinge into "overweight"). The program I am using is
The New Atkins For A New You. 20 carbs a day, a modest amount of fat, and enough protein for a person my size/age/sex.
Quite by accident, while researching nutritional ketosis, I stumbled onto the benefits of
Intermittent Fasting (IF). Predominant was using fasting to prompt autophagy (
2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine). Finding support while considering mixing protocols is rather formidable and rather unnerving, since I do not wish to hurt myself trying to help myself.
My reasons for wanting to take on Intermittent Fasting were many, but some of the biggest were an attempt to change my relationship with food and to have a long term "program", of sorts, to follow. To eat so much in a short period takes pacing, which is a good thing since I am notorious for the "eat now, taste later" sort of eating. I want to be hungry when I eat, so I understand what it feels like to eat to satiety. I realize that I do really well within the confines of a program, but the minute I'm off leash I run around like there are no consequences for my actions. Keeping within a program sounds perfect, and there's few programs simpler than a single meal a day, a single drink, single drink with the meal (outside of water), and only one hour to work with to feed. I'm hoping to stick with one meal a day for the rest of my time on this spinning ball of rock hurtling through the void.
"...
since your body is in fat-burning state in the morning, eating carbs in the second half of the day is more beneficial for weight loss." [emphasis mine] (
Source)
After some soul searching I finally steeled my resolve and took the plunge to add in Intermittent Fasting.
On
August 1, 2020 I started to skip breakfast and split my morning meal between my lunch and dinner. My satiety by being in ketosis helped greatly here as I simply was not hungry, though I did feel a bit strange.
I was seeing benefits, especially in mental clarity (fie on the foul medication fog) and reduced inflammation, and really wanted to take the next step and jump to one meal a day, but I could not imagine foie gras-ing down that much food in one sitting. A lot of people doing OMAD (one meal a day) are only eating about 1200 calories and using that to lose weight, but I was not seeking to reduce my caloric intake, just give my body more time to repair itself before my next meal.
The task became how I could possibly eat all of my food for the day in one sitting. I am a reluctant carnivore so the idea of a protein powder was compelling to help me avoid eating eggs, beef, and chicken in the same meal. I searched far and wide for a whey protein powder isolate that didn't have alcohol sugars in it or any of a thousand other ingredients, and finally found two that had only one ingredient. That permitted me to do either 100g of beef or chicken, rather than both. I had a bit of a leg up in the fact that I already made soup out of my veggies, since there would be no possible way I could imagine eating that many veggies in one sitting, even if there was no other food on my plate.
On
August 4, 2020 I switched to one meal a day, doing a 23 hour fast followed by a 1 hour feed.
NatashaCDB , 08-08-2020 01:48 PM
waynedaniele , 09-14-2024 12:20 PM