This is basically my understanding as well. The point of the fast is to continue the nightime fat burning into the day as long as possible. Also, if you stop eating a couple or three hours before you go to bed it makes your sleep time fat burning more effective.
Good to hear, but it begs the question of how long you have to fast to deplete your glycogen reserves?
My guess is that it depends upon what and how much you eat, and when that energy is depleted, and how much glycogen you have in reserve, and how much energy your body needs before that reserve is fully depleted, and assuming you don’t eat again, since only then will your body start burning body fat. My guess is that many dieters never get to that point unless they starve themselves sufficiently.
As you surmised, it very much depends on the previous meals. The standard information says about 12 hours from the last meal. Heavy eaters I’m sure it takes longer than that. Glucose stores have to be utilized before any fat mobilization will take place. (Alcohol really sabotages this too, as it is in turn burned preferentially before any glucose)
What I’ve noticed is it takes a few days to “get up a head of steam” as I think of it. If calories are restricted to somewhere around or below the basal rate, then it will be noticeable. What’s interesting is perceived hunger or pangs aren’t really part of it. But it takes “practice” to become accustomed to this.
Instead of a large breakfast in the morning, just drink black tea or coffee. Tea is much better for this purpose, I think - and I say this as a coffee lover. The important thing is to avoid sweeteners or cream/milk, the studies are a bit contradictory. Both coffee and tea contain lots of polyphenols, tannins, and catechins that have some interesting properties.
“Midnight snacks” always left me really hungry by breakfast time no matter how much I ate. How can this be? Sometimes 3000 calories or more. Never made sense to me. Now it does. Many people don’t necessarily wake up hungry - they eat more out of custom than anything else. It is very natural to build upon the 8 hour overnight fast already in progress and extend the next meal out. This is also convenient, because meal planning is no longer such a priority.
If you’re stubborn like me, it will take a while but eventually meal-planning will revolve around sensibly sized, reasonably healthy meals. I still enjoy all my favorite foods, just scaled back. It really is a sensible way to go for a lot of people.
I never wake up hungry.
I never wake up hungry either. Even when I was not trying to restrict calories I rarely ate before noon.
Late evening is when I became ravenous, but that went away like magic while doing low-carb OMAD.
mmm
Here’s a better answer, now that I think about it. When I started the OMAD regimen I wanted to know “how much can I eat”. This makes sense no matter what kind of diet program, right?
So what happens, after a few weeks anyone paying attention to the numbers is going to discover their own calorie needs pretty closely, it might only be 1000 or 1500 calories for very sedentary adults. Somewhere around that might be the basal metabolic rate. Then add in whatever calories are needed for the workday, or mowing the lawn.
600 to 800 daily calories is well below the basal rate for most, it won’t take many days of that, and there won’t be any question about glycogen stores in the liver. You’ll know!
I tried that diet once briefly, but it didn’t take— I just couldn’t get Inuit.
That’s good to know. My 16/8 IF serves me well then. I do moderate exercise in the morning before my first meal, so that means I should be burning fat, albeit probably not that much, every day. Like everyone else, my weight fluctuates day-to-day for a variety of reasons. I track my daily weight, along with a few other biometrics, and then average it on a weekly basis looking for trends.
I noticed that too, although for me it’s now a slow and steady weight loss, and that’s what I was looking for. I try to give my body time to adjust, and hopefully it won’t even notice my weight gradually declining. I’m pretty much at my goal weight, so I don’t want to gain or lose too much weight at this point.
I’m not a coffee drinker. Instead I drink a large mug of green tea every morning with some ACV and lemon in it. I was OMAD for a while and really missed having breakfast and lunch. I really wanted a normal eating schedule. I would go into work and watch my coworkers eat breakfast. It’s not that I was hungry, I just missed eating. Three moderate calorie/healthy meals a day works for me, so I’m sticking with that for now.
When I started Keto and IF I completely stopped eating snacks. I figured that flattening my blood glucose by not snacking would lower my insulin during the day and help me lose weight. It’s seemed to work that way, and I’ve stuck with it as a permanent lifestyle change. Once in a while, I have an apple in the afternoon if I have a particularly strenuous workout, but that’s pretty rare these days.
I plan all my meals. It helps me stay on track, and it’s one more thing I don’t have to worry about during the day. Breakfast and lunch are mostly the same day-to-day, but my wife and I sit down before doing weekly shopping and plan out dinners for the upcoming week. It simplifies my life since I do much of the cooking myself. Also, we live in a rural area and it takes an hour of driving to get to and from the grocery store, so we try not to make any extra trips if we can avoid it, and meal planning helps. We do go out to dinner occasionally, but only to places that have healthy low carb options.
I used to have a late night snack night and wondered why I kept gaining weight. Once I was in Ketosis, my hunger went completely away, so skipping snacks was easy for me. YMMV.
When I was on OMAD I ate as much as I wanted. I was on strictly Keto, so high fat and almost no carbs. It didn’t matter how much food I ate, I kept losing weight at a good rate. At my goal weight I transitioned to a low-carb Mediterranean diet for maintenance and have been able to keep the weight off. I keep my daily calories below 1,800 and my exercise calories above 600 per day, and that keeps my energy balance negative. BTW, my BMR dropped from 1,400 to 1,350 cals during my dieting period, and hasn’t recovered yet, if it ever does.
BMR?
plus letters…
Sorry, BMR is Basal Metabolic Rate, which is the daily rate you burn calories just being alive. It doesn’t include exercise calories.
Yes, but again intermittent fasting, keto, and all these terms, can’t get around the fact of calorie restriction. Restricting carbohydrate particularly will naturally force one to increase fats and protein, but portion control is still crucial. I can eat enough calories in one sitting to prevent meaningful weight reduction. Portion control is always going to be part and parcel.
Mostly with OMAD people want to at least feel full, and this routine provides for that. But I think it trains our bodies to naturally prefer a more balanced mix of nutrients. High carbs just stimulates more carbs craving. This will sabotage the best of intentions at times. Junk foods, highly refined carbs will never satisfy.
So high “satiety” foods tend to get attention. Hamburger, steak, beef, chicken, fish, pork. Early settlers swore pork & beans were judged the best (cost effective) for an army on its stomach. Eggs, cheese, mixed nuts are all pretty high on the satiety index.
No argument here. Caloric restriction, by any means, and the resultant energy deficit, is key to losing weight. My point was on OMAD while at the same time burning 1,000 calories exercising, meant that it didn’t matter if I ate 600 or 800 calories in my one meal a day since I would still be at an energy deficit.
I knew I couldn’t possibly eat 3,000 calories in a single meal, but I guarantee there are people who can, and they will likely end up with an energy surplus, which means they aren’t going to lose weight even while on OMAD.
What I wonder is what would happen if I hadn’t done Keto at the same time as I was OMAD. Would I have lost just as much? My guess is that being on Keto accelerated my weight loss, but by how much? There’s no way to know without my gaining the 40 pounds back and then losing it again, only this time without Keto, and that’s not going to happen. 
I don’t know if keto is accelerating my weight loss, but I know for a fact it’s making it much easier to accomplish it.
mmm
Agreed. Without ketosis eliminating my hunger I wouldn’t have lasted two weeks on this or any diet.
Maybe I should phrase it differently. Ketosis just describes the metabolic condition of a calorie deficit. The body is in a fat burning mode. Naturally an efficient way to get there is excluding carbohydrate completely.
But anyone could get to the same place eating nothing but candy bars or cheetos. Not recommended, but in theory. (A 100 gram bar of milk chocolate is about 600 calories. Ask me how I know!). We will quickly turn to higher protein higher fat for calories and stay away from carbs.
“You’ll spoil your dinner!” as mom pointed out.
Before embarking on my journey I explored a variety of options. I found people tended to line up behind low carbohydrate or low caloric diets, and from what I read, people had similar success with either one, both in the short and long term. Lots of prominent doctors think low carb diets are dangerous and will ultimately lead to cardiac issues. My PCP doesn’t agree, and said he’s has patients that have been on low carbohydrate diets for years, had manged to lose a lot of weight and kept it off, and didn’t develop cardiac issues. Since I wanted to eat healthy, not just lose weight, a diet of candy bars and Cheetos, as much as I would have loved that, was not an option for me because that’s clearly not healthy.
When I dug into he Carbohydrate-Insulin Model, it made sense to me, but I wanted to speed things up, so I went with a “Healthy Keto Diet” and Intermittent Fasting to OMAD (One Meal A DAY) moving all the way to NOMAD (No Meals A Day) one day a week. When I reached my goal weight I transitioned to a Low-Carb Mediterranean Diet and 16/8 IF with three meals a day and no snacks. I closely track my food intake and make sure I am at least 500 calories deficit every day. My weight is stable, and I feel better than I have in a long time. I avoid sugar and other simple carbs, and limit my complex carbs in order to keep my carbohydrates below 50 grams daily.
I’m not in constant ketosis anymore, but I have replaced my old eating habits with new healthier eating habits I can live with long term… hopefully. Time will tell.
We did a low-carb diet a decade ago and lost 20#, and I could sure use to do it again (injuries and Covid are taking a toll), but my god it was boring. I was working 60 miles from home, so I could only eat what I brought. Now we’re in Bozeman MT with fantastic pizza, bagels, and sourdough bread within reach. Plus (as I said) I’m in my late 50s and injured, so I have a bit of a “fuck it” attitude. Any recipes? Plans? Tips?
Healthier than what? Being say, morbidly obese? Again I’m not suggesting anyone try to lose weight on candy bars, but it is possible I’m certain. Beer and mixed nuts. Whatever works. What I’m getting at, if a person sticks to a good routine they will avoid empty calories because all they do is increase perceptions of hunger. We naturally gravitate towards a more balanced diet. Low carb is a good way to “nudge” that in the right direction. I also think though we have to make a huge distinction between athletes and younger people who are performing heavy workouts, and those of us less active at times.
Sugar isn’t all bad. Ever see a fat hummingbird? When they first show up in the early summer around here, the advance party, they look really beat up from flying from South America, I suppose. They get better on a diet of sugar water, nectar, insects.