Carnivore

Over the last 6-8 months I have really struggled to maintain my weight loss through fasting, in fact I was pretty much back to my default high weight when being low carb and this is much higher than I want to be. I have also been suffering from a few other symptoms that I won't go into but safe to say I was not happy with where I was. 

Before I tried fasting last year I tried carnivore but at the time I decided to go the route of fasting as it seemed to be the easier option. The problem I have is that my body loves the carbs a bit too much and I can't deal with it, I thought that as I was fasting I could eat a bit more fruit with cream and over the winter the ADF shifted to IF and that was not enough to deal with the volume of carbs and calories I was eating. 

I came across the book the carnivore code and as I started it I decided to start the carnivore lifestyle, meat (including organs), a touch of salt, good quality butter for frying and water. I am not 5 weeks into this way of living, a way that I am hoping will last for a very long time, sure I might integrate some local seasonal fruit in the summer but if I have learnt anything it is that I am even more carb sensitive than I thought. 

My journey with carnivore has been great so far. Within 2 days I noticed my mood was much more stable as well as a few other things. In the 5 weeks I have now lost the best part of 20lbs and feel really good, I have started doing regular press ups and weight training along with running where I did an 8 mile run this morning which was one of my longest in a while. 

I have decided to make this blog much more just about me and my stuff rather than being too specific, is anyone going to read it? Probably not but then my Ledderhose blog now has over half a million views and I thought nobody would look at that. 

Why does Intermittent Fasting work?

My wife asked me this question the other day and I was not 100% sure. I mean lets fact it, if it is something in the body then it is probably going to be hormonal in some way. Here we are talking about weight loss my mind would instantly go to insulin regulation, after all that is why low carb worked so well for us. 

Basically when you eat 3 meals and snack then you are likely eating from very early until very late, even eating 3 low carb meals a day you could start eating at 7am and finish at 7-8pm (as I have done when out running late etc.) in this instance you are only fasting over night for 11-12 hours. By eating your 3 meals over the span of 8 hours rather than the 12 mentioned above you are now fasting for 16 hours. As mentioned in the video below if you then go further and eat 2 meals over 4 hours a few times a week you are then going to have some 20 hours fast. 

This graph is copied from this paper (Mattson 2016 et al). Only thing that the above paper is missing is B, 1 day fast, supplemented with the time restricted feeding. 

So basically as expected it comes down to insulin regulation, by restricting your feeding window you are stabilising your insulin (at a low level for longer periods of the day and as insulin is the key between fat storage and usage we are going to see an advantage when it comes to burning fat. I guess this is why IF even works for some people when on a high carb diet. Sure it will take longer to get to the fat burning window but it is reached unlike when said person is in a normal snacking extended eating period.

The paper referred to above shows lots of useful information. It states that there are lots of positive benefits found, at least in mice, when a form of fasting is used. less inflammation, better resistance to stress and more.