I've always held that we are our own laboratory and that what and how we eat are the experiments that we do in our laboratory. If we do something and it works, we keep doing it. When it stops working, we try something else. I've always wondered why calorie restrictive diets work to lose weight, but then stop working. I've successfully lost most of the weight that I want to and actually have the achieved a waist size that is appropriate. Now I would like to maintain it. Based on a lot of research, the problem is that by reducing my daily food intake, day-in and day-out, I've lowered my resting metabolic rate. Since I'm now using a total fast 2 days per week and an 18:6 IF on the other 5 days, I've decided to try to raise my resting metabolic rate by increasing my calorie intake on feeding days. According to Dr. Fung, my body's metabolic rate should set itself based on the feeding days and ignore the fasting days. Meanwhile, I should get the benefits of fasting (i.e. lower insulin resistance, lower plasma insulin, body fat reduction, increased brain synapse growth, reduction in likelihood of diabetes, coronary heart disease, Parkinson's, dementia & Alzheimer's). I've postponed my annual physical until the end of August so that I can check to see how this change affects my blood work. I hope all my FS buddies have a weekend.
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