The greatest discovery in my life

[Objectivist]

I don't feel deprived at all.

Serious congratulations on what you've accomplished! I can see you're devoted to this, and I'm impressed by the results.

I've never had a worrying weight problem, but as I get older it's clear that I can't eat like a kid any more. One misjudged meal and I'll be groggy for a whole day. So a lot of what you say here is applicable to my situation as well. I've done minimal meals, especially in the evening, and may get brave and try a limited-time fast, just to see how it goes. 

I'm looking forward to applying this. 

(One embarrassing thing that happened: I made a language mistake when telling my doctor about my condition. In Japanese "acid reflux" is "gyaku-ryu-sei". But "foreign exchange student" is "ryu-gaku-sei." Same syllables, different order, and I mixed them up. So my doc was confused when I told him that when I lie down I have trouble with foreign exchange students.)

That's too funny, Belaqua. 

I genuinely hope you find it useful, Belaqua.  I recommend you watch the video I linked to.  I wish I'd seen it a year ago.  

 I started gaining a lot of weight when I was about 10.  In high school, I weighed 210 pounds and I was really depressed.  I cut sugar out of my diet completely and over the next year I got down to 145.  I've struggled with my weight all my life.  I gradually gained it all back until last year I weighed 268 pounds.  I've tried just about every diet over the years and I always gained the weight back and then some.  I realize now that it is because those diets didn't do much of anything to lower insulin levels.  I was definitely insulin resistant.  I am still learning about all this. 

 Did you know that vitamin K2 has an important function in the body? It pulls calcium out of the walls of arteries and into the bloodstream and then it gets deposited in the bones.  Know what antagonizes K2?  Insulin.  What happens when insulin is high?  Calcium builds up in the arteries causing hardening.  It also activates cells in the bones that pull calcium out of the bones and into the bloodstream where it gets deposited in the arteries.   I've been studying this because I definitely don't want heart disease.  I found out that fermented foods are a great source of this.  Foods like yogurt, kimchi, and sour kraut have it as well as grass-fed beef and chicken have it too.   Kombucha too.  I tried that once and didn't really like it but I might have to acquire the taste.  My father-in-law raises grass-fed cattle so I might see about buying some beef from him.

I'm also learning about turmeric.  I had heard it was a powerful anti-oxidant but never really understood why.  It actually isn't in itself but it does something to the coating on the dna and it removes it and causes some genes to be expressed that are anti-oxidative, or at least the proteins they make are.  Can't remember what it's called but it's in the video. 

That's why I started adding curry powder to my coffee along with butter and pepper.  Turmeric doesn't get absorbed without fat and pepper increases absorption by 2000%.   

I think the best thing to do is just start by pushing breakfast a couple of hours and eat dinner  a couple of hours early. So if you normally eat at 8 AM try eating at 10 and if you normally eat dinner at 7 PM eat at 5 instead.  In retrospect, this was one of the things I did wrong by starting by skipping dinner altogether.

[Objectivist]

Screw you!  This is not spam but me sharing something awesome.  If you don't like it, ignore it.  I'm not spamming.  I'm interested in helping people.  I was lucky to find this.  It has changed my life immensely.  The doctor in this video is not selling anything.  He's not pushing supplements.  He's genuinely trying to help people and he's doing it for free.  If this thread gets shut down then shame on this forum.  This is the lifestyle section, right?

While I am glad you have had positive results, as a cancer survivor I see some of the things listed as questionable.  

We are all different.  Fasting isn't going to work for everyone, obviously.  Common sense, knowing your own body and talking with your medical care giver is the way to go.  I would hesitate to tell a diabetic they need to fast for three days to clear up some other issue.

Since I have always been an intermittent faster, without even knowing it was a thing, I still ended up with cancer.  It's not a cure all but can be worked into a personalized regimen for certain things and for certain people.

I agree.  I'm by no means an expert on this stuff and dr. Jamnadas only says that it reduces the chances of getting it.  I'm really glad you survived.  There isn't much cancer in my family.  My mom did get breast cancer about 10 years ago and they caught it really early.  It hasn't come back.  She's 80 years old now.  My dad died at 59 from liver problems.

[emjay]

I'll certainly give it a look, especially given your positive experience with it. I'm overweight... not hugely overweight but enough that it bothers me; I tend to yoyo between values and am currently at the upper range of what I feel comfortable with... about 13 stone (182 pounds) and where my ideal weight is 11 stone, what I always used to be when I was younger and when I smoked (and where smoking did have a huge appetite suppressant effect, which I took for granted). I have a wardrobe full of clothes from when I was that weight, but haven't worn them for years.

At the moment I just tend to use a heart rate monitor watch tied to a food logging app, whenever I'm actively trying to lose weight, and it basically measures calories + exercise as well as nutritional values, like sugar, carbs, fat, and protein. I find it fairly reliable but something usually happens to trigger me to give up on it and start yoyoing the opposite direction; either I get depressed or something unexpected happens, and I lose the 'groove' I'm in, or I just plateau and get frustrated.

[Objectivist]

I'll certainly give it a look, especially given your positive experience with it. I'm overweight... not hugely overweight but enough that it bothers me; I tend to yoyo between values and am currently at the upper range of what I feel comfortable with... about 13 stone (182 pounds) and where my ideal weight is 11 stone, what I always used to be when I was younger and when I smoked (and where smoking did have a huge appetite suppressant effect, which I took for granted). I have a wardrobe full of clothes from when I was that weight, but haven't worn them for years.

At the moment I just tend to use a heart rate monitor watch tied to a food logging app, whenever I'm actively trying to lose weight, and it basically measures calories + exercise as well as nutritional values, like sugar, carbs, fat, and protein. I find it fairly reliable but something usually happens to trigger me to give up on it and start yoyoing the opposite direction; either I get depressed or something unexpected happens, and I lose the 'groove' I'm in, or I just plateau and get frustrated.

I hope it works for you, emjay.  I feel strongly that I'll be able to stick with this.  I'm at 37 and a half hours and still not hungry this morning.  Got a little bit of vertigo last night and a headache.  Realized I had only had a cup of coffee to drink all day and evening. It's hard to remember to drink doing this.  I drank a couple of glasses of water with a pinch of salt like he says in the video and it went away.  Feel fine this morning.  

I use a heartrate monitor that hooks to the garmin computer on my bike.  Also a cadence meter.  I try to keep my rpm up to 80 or 90.  I know what you mean about yoyoing.  It's a first world problem I guess.  

I have sleep apnea.  I have central sleep apnea which is brain-related and the weight-related kind.  That seems to have gotten better.  They put me on a cpap machine several years ago but I couldn't use it.  I sleep on my belly and have never been able to sleep on my back.  I can't sleep facing down with a big mask on. It's funny that the doctor never suggested losing the weight.  I thought how silly is it to get this expensive machine when the real problem is I'm fat!  Fix that problem and I won't need the contraption.  

I used to wake myself up snoring but I don't anymore so maybe it's getting better.

[LadyForCamus]

As a registered dietitian I’m just going to pop in here and say, to anyone with diabetes, especially those who struggle with hypoglycemia, please do not begin any type of fasting diet without first consulting your endocrinologist, as well as an RDN. @Objectivist, I’m happy you’ve found something that works for you, but please be careful about making specific diet recommendations to strangers whose medical histories you know nothing about. People can get hurt.

[HappySkeptic]

The human body is complex, and people have different medical conditions.

I have an issue with taking medical advice from youtube. It seems that anyone who knows the latest buzz-phrases - "Ketosis", "Gut bacteria", "cleansing", "fasting", "metabolic reset" can try to get a following.

Yes, there is some useful information out there. I just lost 22 pounds (COVID weight) since Christmas, and am now at my target weight. Did I do it in a healthy manner? I don't know, which is why I'm not telling the world to do what I did. I just know how my body reacts, and I know how I've lost weight in the past.

Congratulations on your success at weight loss and health improvement.

[arewethereyet]

Some years ago I needed to shed a few pounds. This is unusual for me as I am a small built person who doesn't struggle with weight. Except now, when I have trouble maintaining a reasonable weight. My PCP and my cardiologist both say I need to either stop losing weight or put on weight and even my PCP said she is unversed in telling people to gain weight as it's usually the opposite.

Anyway, when I had packed on a few excess pounds I realized that when I cooked and would go for seconds I was always going for the high calorie, comfort type food. I made up my mind to eat my meal and not go back for seconds. That worked wonderfully for me and I have been doing that for about 30 years now. Illness a couple years ago caused me to lose too much weight but instead of going back to the old habit of seconds, I now drink a protein shake or eat a protein bar for a snack.

We all need to find what works for us and fits into our health requirements. There's no one-size-fits-all.

[Objectivist]

As a registered dietitian I’m just going to pop in here and say, to anyone with diabetes, especially those who struggle with hypoglycemia, please do not begin any type of fasting diet without first consulting your endocrinologist, as well as an RDN. @Objectivist, I’m happy you’ve found something that works for you, but please be careful about making specific diet recommendations to strangers whose medical histories you know nothing about. People can get hurt.

You are right and this cardiologist puts his patients on a program that eases them into it and monitors them very closely.  I expect everyone to do their own homework and use their own judgment.

[Objectivist]

The human body is complex, and people have different medical conditions.

I have an issue with taking medical advice from youtube.  It seems that anyone who knows the latest buzz-phrases - "Ketosis", "Gut bacteria", "cleansing", "fasting", "metabolic reset" can try to get a following.

Yes, there is some useful information out there.  I just lost 22 pounds (COVID weight) since Christmas, and am now at my target weight.  Did I do it in a healthy manner?  I don't know, which is why I'm not telling the world to do what I did.  I just know how my body reacts, and I know how I've lost weight in the past.

Congratulations on your success at weight loss and health improvement.

Did you have covid, Happyskeptic?  How was it and how long did it last?  Or was the weight gain because of being in a lockdown?  Just curious.  I spent three hours in a car with my daughter waiting for her to get tested.  She had the Omicron variant.  A week later I came down with a headache and a soar throat in the afternoon and went to bed early.  The next morning I was fine.  My daughter was sick for 7 or 8 days and did lose her sense of smell and taste.

[Objectivist]

Some years ago I needed to shed a few pounds.  This is unusual for me as I am a small built person who doesn't struggle with weight.  Except now, when I have trouble maintaining a reasonable weight.  My PCP and my cardiologist both say I need to either stop losing weight or put on weight and even my PCP said she is unversed in telling people to gain weight as it's usually the opposite.

Anyway, when I had packed on a few excess pounds I realized that when I cooked and would go for seconds I was always going for the high calorie, comfort type food.  I made up my mind to eat my meal and not go back for seconds.  That worked wonderfully for me and I have been doing that for about 30 years now.  Illness a couple years ago caused me to lose too much weight but instead of going back to the old habit of seconds, I now drink a protein shake or eat a protein bar for a snack.

We all need to find what works for us and fits into our health requirements.  There's no one-size-fits-all.

You are right.  Everyone is different.  I have a rare mutation that causes super strong bones.  My mom has it too.  I've never broken a bone. I also don't bruise.  I dropped a full 30 pound propane bottle from the tailgate of my truck right onto my foot.  The ring on the bottom landed right in the middle of my foot.  It hurt, alot, but no broken bones and no bruises.  If that happened to my wife, she'd have probably had to go to the emergency room.  My teeth are also very strong.  A couple of years ago I had a coughing fit in the shower and passed out and fell and hit my nose on the edge of the tub.  I woke up in a puddle of blood and with a 1 inch laceration on the bridge of my nose but no broken bones and no bruise.  The day before I had slipped on a patch of ice that was covered by a thin coating of dry snow.  I came down hard on my back and side.  I was sore but no broken ribs and no bruises.