Draglist's Notizen, 25 Jul 21

I'm intensely interested in your story! Your website is great. Losing 150 is no small feat! I'm always interested in the how people maintain that loss. After all, I can lose the weight, but if I can't maintain it, why bother? Thank you for sharing this part of the process in so much detail.  

Thanks, Triangle-Woman, and welcome. I lost the initial weight through CICO, at times eating an average of 1300 calories a day for months at a time. That had metabolic effects (at least at the time) as my body temp dropped and I could not get warm. Always avoided excessive simple carbs as the blood sugar spikes made me ravenous and overeat with abandon. Experimented with LCHF, keto, Ted Naiman's P:E principles. Studied all the YouTubers and still watch those. What I am doing right now is high protein, low carb, and moderate fat within calorie targets. I also do one week of Valter Longo's fasting-mimicking diet each month (third week) to induce a little extra autophagy. Always looking for new info to help round out my approach. 

Interesting. I'll have to read about "fast mimicking." My first of many questions is why do you mimick a fast instead of just fasting? I'll have to read more about it.... Are there any books you recommend about fast mimicking?  

The book is The Longevity Diet by Dr Valter Longo. He created the FMD to help patients with compliance. My longest actually fast was 4 or 5 days a few years ago. This apparently provides many of the autophagy benefits but you get 800-1100 calories per day. That's a lot of veggies, some nuts, and a little olive oil. Very doable. 

I'll read it. I have some friends who might benefit with this as an alternative. 5 out of the 7 people in my life who have tried have thrived doing IF. 2 are still on the fence. As scary as IF sounded at first it became a breeze after about three days. I think my liver glycogen was used up by then my body finally adapted to tap into fat stores. I have more energy in the fasted state but when I open my window, I have to eat until sated then stop until the next "window" which can vary from day to day depending on what life throws at me. I have learned by trying "up and down" days that I can't eat "mini meals" and I don't want to restrict any food categories. It just make me hungry. And angry LOL. So when I eat, I eat!!!! If I plateau, I'll consider making changes.... 

Awesome. I think I'm very metabolically flexible now. I am almost never hungry. I experience it more as a low energy condition. That is unless I eat sugar and grains. And then I'm ready to eat again in a few hours. I save that for vacation as a treat. 

But think about this: Low circulating insulin allows your body to easily tap into fat stores (so your body knows it's not starving and you don't get hungry) and any food or food like substance causes a metabolic reaction spiking insulin production. So if low insulin = easy weight loss, why mess with eating at all for just enough hours a day to let your body do it's job and eat up the "fat of the land" so to speak.. :) 

Thanks. I am well versed in all the guys you mentioned. I do a minimum of 16:8 every day. 

I put myself on the "weight" list (haha) for audiobook for The Longevity Diet by Dr Valter Longo at my library. But picked up several by Gary Taubes. Thanks for the recommendation! 

Cool. Hope you enjoy it. You will find that Longo is not a high protein guy. But I like getting info from all angles and trying things.