5 ms·

Totally anecdotal, but I want to second the recommendation of a longer fasting period. I switched to a strict-but-not-religious "no food between 7 pm and 11 am

by frankus 10y ago

Totally anecdotal, but I want to second the recommendation of a longer fasting period. I switched to a strict-but-not-religious "no food between 7 pm and 11 am" system (with exceptions for weekends and social occasions). Within a few months I was down 15 pounds (~182 to around ~167) and had shed 4 inches off my waist (~34 to ~30). I'm about 5'10" and 41 years old. It's definitely helped with physical activity (mostly parkour/free running) and I look better. It's also more convenient than what I was doing before, since I don't have to cook breakfast. The only negative side effect (possibly unrelated) has been that I need a much cooler sleeping environment to be comfortable. The only thing I would add is that I'm starting to (upside-down) plateau at around 165 and (what my scale says is) 20% body fat. I would love to lose another 5-10 pounds but it'll probably be a slow process.

bumbledraven 10y ago
The only negative side effect (possibly unrelated) has been that I need a much cooler sleeping environment to be comfortable. Should that be warmer instead of cooler? I find that my body temperature goes down when I'm fasting, so I need the room to be warmer to compensate.
- jaggederest 10y ago
  I can confirm the anecdote, I run significantly warmer when I am losing weight and colder when I am gaining. It's a very strange state of affairs.
- frankus 10y ago
  You would think that less food would make me cold, but I've found the opposite. My hypothesis is that my metabolism switched from consuming carbs (with limited energy storage) to fat (with literally weeks worth of energy) and that that somehow ramps up my metabolic rate.
- aangjie 10y ago
  That logic is fine normally, that's awake and working hours. But sleeping brings in melatonin hormonal effects and the sleep jerk mechanisms into play. So it might be true that his hypnic jerk mechanism triggers on body-env temperature differential and if he lives a warm/hot place.
MichaelGG 10y ago
What is your caloric intake/deficit? Not eating will reduce that. But as your bodyweight drops, your baseline goes down too. So you might just be eating the same amount of food and are at a stable point. Need to cut more food to cut.
ghshephard 10y ago
If you can afford it (usually around $150 here in Singapore), it might be worthwhile going into a sports clinic to get a RMR reading. It's possible that your body has significantly dropped your metabolism after the weight loss, and is fighting to restore its previous weight - making further fat loss (particularly while retaining most of your lean body mass) really difficult. Ironically, in that scenario, it might be worth occasional days of increased caloric input, to attempt to trigger your body into believing that it isn't starving, and really can continue to run a high BMR. At the very least, having the data in hand is pretty cool - and it only takes about 40 minutes, inclusive of the time they need to set up the gear (just an face mask) and get you into a calm/resting state.
- y4mi 10y ago
  in case some people are confused how they can get your RMR from a face mask: they just have to measure how much oxygen you use and how much co2 is exhaled. > When a triglyceride is oxidized (or "burned up"), the process consumes many molecules of oxygen while producing carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) as waste products [0] [0] http://www.livescience.com/49157-how-fat-is-lost-body.html http://www.livescience.com/49157-how-fat-is-lost-body.html
- IanCal 10y ago
  I'm sorry, this sounds like you're talking about "starvation mode". Do you have a decent source for this because everything I've seen around it is pseudoscience. You're suggesting that they, while feeling fine, have an enormous problem with one of the most fundamental processes which keeps us alive. Your BMR drops as you lose weight, it might simply be that this hasn't been taken into account. Or they're not tracking their calories.
  - ghshephard 10y ago
    Fair point. There is research which shows your BMR may drop after sustained reduction in caloric intake, far below what your body weight would indicate. Probably one of the more well known recent ones was: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/abstrac... - which shows the effect can go on for several years. Here's a really good article discussing caloric-reduction, impact on Leptin (key hormone involved in regulating the body metabolism): http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partitioning-part-1.html http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partiti... Though, careful reading suggests that the author believes that a day of refeeding (ala 4-hour body), is unlikely sufficient to trigger Leptin such that the body's BMR kicks back into high gear.

by frankus 10y ago

bumbledraven 10y ago

The only negative side effect (possibly unrelated) has been that I need a much cooler sleeping environment to be comfortable. Should that be warmer instead of cooler? I find that my body temperature goes down when I'm fasting, so I need the room to be warmer to compensate.

jaggederest 10y ago
I can confirm the anecdote, I run significantly warmer when I am losing weight and colder when I am gaining. It's a very strange state of affairs.
frankus 10y ago
You would think that less food would make me cold, but I've found the opposite. My hypothesis is that my metabolism switched from consuming carbs (with limited energy storage) to fat (with literally weeks worth of energy) and that that somehow ramps up my metabolic rate.
aangjie 10y ago
That logic is fine normally, that's awake and working hours. But sleeping brings in melatonin hormonal effects and the sleep jerk mechanisms into play. So it might be true that his hypnic jerk mechanism triggers on body-env temperature differential and if he lives a warm/hot place.

MichaelGG 10y ago

What is your caloric intake/deficit? Not eating will reduce that. But as your bodyweight drops, your baseline goes down too. So you might just be eating the same amount of food and are at a stable point. Need to cut more food to cut.

ghshephard 10y ago

If you can afford it (usually around $150 here in Singapore), it might be worthwhile going into a sports clinic to get a RMR reading. It's possible that your body has significantly dropped your metabolism after the weight loss, and is fighting to restore its previous weight - making further fat loss (particularly while retaining most of your lean body mass) really difficult. Ironically, in that scenario, it might be worth occasional days of increased caloric input, to attempt to trigger your body into believing that it isn't starving, and really can continue to run a high BMR. At the very least, having the data in hand is pretty cool - and it only takes about 40 minutes, inclusive of the time they need to set up the gear (just an face mask) and get you into a calm/resting state.

y4mi 10y ago
in case some people are confused how they can get your RMR from a face mask: they just have to measure how much oxygen you use and how much co2 is exhaled. > When a triglyceride is oxidized (or "burned up"), the process consumes many molecules of oxygen while producing carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) as waste products [0] [0] http://www.livescience.com/49157-how-fat-is-lost-body.html http://www.livescience.com/49157-how-fat-is-lost-body.html
IanCal 10y ago
I'm sorry, this sounds like you're talking about "starvation mode". Do you have a decent source for this because everything I've seen around it is pseudoscience. You're suggesting that they, while feeling fine, have an enormous problem with one of the most fundamental processes which keeps us alive. Your BMR drops as you lose weight, it might simply be that this hasn't been taken into account. Or they're not tracking their calories.
- ghshephard 10y ago
  Fair point. There is research which shows your BMR may drop after sustained reduction in caloric intake, far below what your body weight would indicate. Probably one of the more well known recent ones was: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21538/abstrac... - which shows the effect can go on for several years. Here's a really good article discussing caloric-reduction, impact on Leptin (key hormone involved in regulating the body metabolism): http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partitioning-part-1.html http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partiti... Though, careful reading suggests that the author believes that a day of refeeding (ala 4-hour body), is unlikely sufficient to trigger Leptin such that the body's BMR kicks back into high gear.