Has your weight loss stalled – even while doing intermittent fasting? Here’s how you can address the problem.
Healthy Ketogenic Diet and Intermittent: Our bodies have been evolving for hundreds of thousands of years. Starvation has played a part in this process. Starvation is a risk to your survival. Humans have gone through a lot of periods of starvation. We have developed and adapted certain mechanisms to help us survive.
When you start fasting, signals are sent to the brain to let it know that food is scarce. Your hormones and cells then adapt and become more efficient. You will start to develop this condition called autophagy where your cells will become more efficient and your cells are efficiently recycling damaged proteins and creating new proteins. Your body will preserve your muscle from being used as fuel.
For survival purposes, your body wants to stay fat so that it maintains energy to use during periods of starvation. During fasting, the body starts to tap into your fat stores.
Traditional wisdom says one lb. of fat is the equivalent of 3,500 calories. So just eat fewer calories and exercise more, right? Wrong!
Traditional weight-loss tactics rarely work. Your metabolism plays a massive role here. Hormones will slow down your metabolism if you eat less, which can cause you to gain weight. Fasting helps you get rid of your glycogen reserve – which is stored glucose (sugar) in the liver and water.
The key hormone that keeps your body at a stall is insulin. It will start to slow down the metabolism so the rate of burning fat is different from one person to another. You may know people who eat not even close to as healthy as you are and they are losing weight but you are not.
If you have high insulin, you cannot lose fat. If it is low, you can lose fat. Focus on lowering your insulin, and you will have a much easier time losing weight. A simple way to tell if your insulin levels are high is if you have a very strong appetite. If your insulin levels are low, your cravings go away. If you cannot go a few hours without getting hungry, you have high insulin and insulin resistance.
The following 8 things will help you keep your insulin low. These are in order of effectiveness.
1. Fast longer (do not eat unless you are hungry), insulin is triggered by eating. Take vitamins to get the benefits of fasting without any side effects.
When you go on a low carb diet or you fast you start to get rid of your glycogen reserve, which is stored sugar in the liver. With this stored sugar you have a lot of water so you are going to drop 8-9 pounds right away. Do not confuse that with actual fat because that weight loss is water weight.
The key to overcoming a plateau is to understand that the key hormone that keeps you at a stall is insulin.
Insulin is the switch that if it is high you are not losing fat if it is low you are going to be burning fat. Focus on which of the 8 points in this video is going to reduce insulin the most.
When your insulin is going down:
- Cravings go away.
- If your appetite is going away insulin is coming down.
- Do not eat if you are not hungry.
- If you are hungry. If you are truly hungry you are weak.
The best way to get over the stall is to fast longer. When you eat add more fat to the meal to be satisfied to fast longer. Most people are nutrient deficient so take nutrients when fasting.
2. Lower carbs (including hidden carbs). Insulin is triggered by carbs. Lower to close to zero as possible.
Look for foods that can affect insulin. MSG is a chemical that can stimulate insulin. Maltodextrin, dextrose and sugar alcohols found in keto treats and other foods stimulate insulin.
3. Lower stress
Your environment is crucial. Isolate the stress and fully handle it or improve it to start losing weight. Your stress elevates cortisol, which starts mobilizing not just muscle protein into sugar, which is turning into fat and raising insulin that way but also it causes the liver to make sugar out of ketones, out of fat.
Lower the stress. Stop watching the news.
4. Increase sleep (7 – 8 hours)
Start increasing your sleep. Every time that you get insufficient sleep it is going to affect your blood sugars. It causes you to be hungry. Lack of sleep will increase hunger so it is going to affect insulin so sleep is vitally important.
Take naps, stay in bed and rest more to reduce stress.
5. Decrease fat (75g)
Bring your dietary fat to down to about 75 grams not below that. Do not add MCT oil.
6. Exercise
Exercise while you are fasting. Increase the volume of exercise do it on a gradient do not over train but definitely add more exercise simply because it is going to help. Probably add another 15%, which might not seem like a lot but it can help.
7. Avoid certain medications
Dr. Berg is not saying to come off your medication but medication can easily block your results. Check with your doctor if you are on medications to find some other medication that has less side effects because many types of medications actually cause insulin resistance.
8. Reduce insulin resistance
Chances are you have insulin resistance. Do things to improve that situation to make insulin less resistive.
Berberine is a very powerful phytonutrient in certain plants that is compatible in effectiveness to Metformin, which is a diabetic medication. It has been thoroughly researched.
Take more potassium, which can help insulin resistance as well as the B vitamins especially B1.
Fiber, make sure you have enough fiber from vegetables because the microbiome turned the fiber into butyrate. Butyrate improves insulin resistance.
Chromium is a good mineral to help the blood sugars and insulin resistance.
Purified bile salts help you extract fat soluble vitamins essential fatty acids from your fats but they can also help heal the inside lining of your colon they can also help a fatty liver they can also help improve insulin resistance and help lower your blood sugars.
Garlic is another powerful natural thing to help insulin resistance.
Next week we will have part two that will focus on macros and micros.
This Post has been condensed from Dr. Berg’s video, Stalled Weight Loss Despite Intermittent Fasting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNIHeD2tOg
Dr. Berg is a chiropractor, who specializes in Healthy Ketosis & Intermittent Fasting, is the author of the best-selling book The Healthy Keto Plan, and is the Director of Dr. Berg Nutritionals. He no longer practices, but focuses on health education through social media. He has taught students nutrition as an adjunct professor at Howard University.
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