Life in the Fast Lane
If you are trying to lose weight and not having success with intermittent fasting or you have plateaued with the Glp1 drugs, I have a suggestion for you. Why not try alternate day fasting? Really, what have you got to lose? It’s ridiculously simple, costs nothing, involves no clean up or meal prep, involves no food allergies, takes no extra time, and can be started and stopped anytime.
I recommend to all my patients trying to lose weight that they measure. Not measure their food…measure their bodies. Get a measurement of your fat, bone and muscle so you can better assess what’s happening to your body instead of just looking at a number on the scale. Bioimpedance machines like the INBODY machine at some gyms are great but you can get a pretty good reading from a similar machine from Amazon for less than $100.
The Glp1 type drugs have produced some dramatic results but I am worried that unless the patients change what they eat, not just how much they eat they are not changing the inflammation in their systems. You may be skinnier but not healthier. I tell all my patients that they need to increase their protein in their diet, they must increase their exercise to keep the protein in their systems and they must adopt a low carb diet. There will be many more of these pills and shots coming to the market and they will claim to be muscle/protein sparing but let’s see what happens in the real world. I think the shots are roughly twice as powerful as the pills and I like how giving yourself a shot takes some effort and thought…not just add one more pill to the roster of your meds and supplements.
Whether you are on one of these drugs or just trying to lose weight and the last diet didn’t work so why not try alternate day fasting. First, any talk of fasting must reference Dr. Jason Fung who has written multiple books on the subject including the Obesity Code and the Hunger Code. Listen, read, and watch him and become an expert.
Alternate day fasting is just that. One day you eat “regular” and the next day you consume less than 500 calories. Think onion soup without the bread and cheese. Beef broth etc. If you think just having nothing is difficult, go from three meals a day to two meals a day to one meal a day and then try alternate day fasting. The biggest impediment to fasting is that so many of us take in sugar so often during the day that going more than a few hours past the usual meal time makes you swoon. This is because your body is having trouble going from sugar burning to fat burning but as you do this more and more it gets easier and easier.
If you get hungry…take a shot. Take a shot of olive oil, vinegar or fish oil and your hunger will dissipate within 15 minutes. Take a shot of fiber mixed with water and feed the good bacteria in your gut. The olive oil and fish oil are critical for membranes in your body and the vinegar is a post biotic which signals your body that all is well and no need to go on a sugar scavenger hunt.
What are the possible benefits from alternate day fasting? Well, first and foremost it may help with weight loss because it addresses inflammation as well as insulin resistance ( which are really one and the same). If your insulin is low you can burn fat, if your insulin is high you make fat. When you fast your insulin is low.
From the National Institute of Health comes this article:
Effects of alternate-day fasting on body weight and dyslipidaemia in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a randomised controlled trial PMID: 31852444
And from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Volume 90 Issue 5 this study: Short-term modified alternate-day fasting: a novel dietary strategy for weight loss and cardioprotection in obese adults https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523266034
I can hear you now…”I’ve tried everything!!” No, you haven’t tried this. “I can’t go long without eating!“ This just means you are not metabolically flexible so you have to go slower and try the suggestions above.
One more tool in your toolbox to try to fix and maintain the frame. By the way, I am back to my radio show the first Sunday of the month on WSYR 570 am and 106.9 fm at 11am, if you aren’t getting enough of me. PS…It should be pretty obvious but A.I. was not used in any way to write this article.
