Intermittent Fasting – How to lose 1 pound a day

This is a more of a theoretical reflection on the psychology of a practical method I used for consistently losing weight (fat). I’m keeping the emphasis off my results/physical changes (for now) and keeping the conversation to thought process, motivation, and weight loss mechanics. If you’re bent on my proving what I’m saying works, this post isn’t for you. I wouldn’t write about it if wasn’t true. And it’s not that I’m not satisfied with anyone else’s explanation or interpretation of current strategies, I’m simply presenting mine here in case it resonates any differently (more deeply) with someone struggling with their weight as I did for many years.

I’ve always struggled with weight. It didn’t help that I didn’t exactly have supportive and consistent ideas about food. Dad encouraged overeating, mom ridiculed me for it. So I ended up overweight through most of my early adulthood, full of bitterness, always easily irritated and largely insular. I got trapped in a bubble of sorts that lasted through most of my 20’s and early 30’s.

I’ve been exercising regularly for 5-6 years or so (to the time of writing). I built muscle, but always had this thick annoying layer of fat I couldn’t seem to get rid of. I wasn’t paying enough attention to my routine and therefore didn’t realize that you can’t outwork overeating.

I’ve maintained a variant of veganism since my mid-teens, mostly from disdain for animal cruelty, but it didn’t stop me from being overweight. I lost most of the weight with the raw food diet but it wasn’t sustainable for me, so I gained it back.

What being overweight means

If you’re overweight and struggling with losing or keeping extra weight off, it just means your system of eating and exercising isn’t optimal or consistent. To burn off the extra fat, without losing much or any muscle, you need both. This is why people put weight back on after successfully dieting or using whatever system. If it’s not sustainable, there’s no point, you just wasted time. It’s arguably worse, but also uplifting, because when you do get results, you know you can do it, but its annoying-to-discouraging to regain the weight. The silver lining is, if you can safely do what I outline here (and I’m not advocating it, just sharing what works for me), you can lose a pound a day and see rediculous results in a week or two (don’t worry, I’m not selling anything).

I was fat, so I fucking love food

I still do. I just want to be in shape more than eating whatever I want all the time. CONSISTENTLY. That desire, is what lets you make the change that’s needed to get where you want to be. This goes for anything really. But as far as weight loss, it’s a catalyst. The human body is maleable and I suspect is much like our ancestors’, who foraged and roamed around the landscape. It can adapt to new situations and circumstances. Eating habits, such as intermittent fasting, a variant of starvation, is no different. Hibernating is no different, You build up a bunch of fat, then you don’t eat much, or anything, for a while and live off the fat you already have. Intermittent fasting is just a deliberate way of doing this in a modern sense to get in shape. Most of us are just terrible at it (presumably because we don’t understand it, aren’t aware of it, or food is just too easy to get, and our DESIRE isn’t strong enough to outweight that convenience (of cheap and tasty food)). So if your desire is strong enough, and you know something about fasting (I’m not going to get into the science – Thomas DeLauer does a much better job at that than I care to attempt at the moment), and you start testing intermittent fasting routines, and drink water when you get hungry, you will find that your body adapts and you’re much more easily able to sustain the habit.

Swan diving off the behavior-modification catalyst diving board to permanent weight loss succes

Getting your body to relatively painlessly allow you to sustain the habit is the hardest part, and only your desire can keep you practicing/enduring it until it’s autopilot. Probably the main deterrent to sustaining a raw food diet was I couldn’t eat what I like. I’m definitely a foodie, and many foods I grew up with or wanted to try were no longer available. This, at least for me, at that time (and probably still now), negated the weight loss benefits. Thankfully, keto feels similar and fasting probably makes up for some of the longevity benefits. And if all you’re after is weight loss anyway, eating what you like when meal time finally does arrive is vindicating, and eating raw (apart from your salads) is not necessary.

The scale also helps immensely. It’s often recommended to not check the scale everyday because you don’t want to be disappointed. I checked it twice a day because I wanted to see exactly when, where and what was leading to the most impactful weight loss. I discovered that if you can manage to eat your main meal once a day (around 4-6pm) and, crucially, NOTHING (no snacks) the rest of the night and into the next day, you’ll see your scale show a number at least around 1.0 (1 pound) lower than the previous morning (after toilet and preferably before drinking at least 1 16.9 oz bottle of water, to rehydrate after sleep). You will fluctuate a few pounds up in the evening but if you can cut out snacks and keep your main meal small and keto focused, you will very likely see consistently lower peaks and troughs every day.

Awareness of why intermittent fasting works makes the catalystic behavior-modifying adaptation possible and the fact that you did it, and largely the fact that it worked, converts it to a modality you can assume whenever you want. This means that once you achieve your ideal weight and body composition, if you want to shift your patterns and eat more or more often for awhile, you will know your body well enough to resume your fasting activities when it suits you (once you notice you gained a couple more pounds than you’d like) and quickly get back to shape.

I don’t know how overly sensitive I am or you are to gaining weight, but you know there are some people who seem to be able to eat whatever they want and stay super thin. So there is likely a factor of weight gain sensitivity. The point is the “awareness of how/why it works” will be with you and you’ll know why it’s so crucial. This is why I weighed myself twice a day. I wanted to know exactly how much, how often, when, and to some extent what, I was eating and how it affected my weight.

Notes for later –
*More on body composition tracking
*What to eat, prepared meal plans, ideas to make this transition possible/sustainable
*Autophagy – self eating/cleaning
*It partially works because you can eat what you like when you do eat, this was likely my problem with raw food
*building lean muscle to allow (closer to) old eating habits (joy) as you increase daily energy expenditure

For now, have you tried intermittent fasting and how has it worked out for you?

Requisite disclaimer – This is not medical advice, I’m not a doctor, I’m just sharing what worked for me. Always speak with your physician before starting any diet or exercise plan. I’m assuming you don’t have any medical issues making weight loss any harder than if you didn’t.

tl;dr – Basically eat once a day, eat keto and don’t eat that much, and no snacks at all – let your body do its magic. Drink water with meals and don’t watch TV so you know when you’re getting full, then stop eating. Keep your body in a stressed state of relative starvation. Drink water, coffee (a little milk/stevia is ok) and tea the rest of the time. Weigh yourself every morning so you know its working. You’ll soon get used to it and it won’t be so hard.