The contestants on BL are all in a very highly controlled environment, with no other distractions (like work, school, family, etc) preventing them from obtaining their goal. In other words, they don’t live in the real world. And, so, after the show…when they have to return to the real world, things fall apart. Because they never learned how to practice weight loss as a lifestyle.
By contrast, those of us who have nurtured IF while living our real lives will be much more successful at it. It’s a lifestyle, not a game show. You’ll have up weeks and you’ll have down weeks. But your ability to be consistent and adapt to changes in your daily life will mean you’ll be successful long term.
\> I was wondering if fasting itself can be taken too far and cause harm to your metabolic rate. I’m all for losing weight but I don’t want to make it harder to lose weight by doing something stupid.
Yes, it can. One of the most crucial things you need to make sure you’re doing is eating enough during your feeding window. For example, if you’re doing OMAD…you need to consume enough calories from the meal to meet your daily goal. For most people, this is going to be at least 1,500+ calories. A daily regimen of 500 cal OMAD is not sustainable and will actually work against you long term as your body will hold on to your fat reserves because it thinks you’re starving.
From my understanding, fasting should not slow your metabolism. As you fast and your insulin drops, your body will start to pull calories from fat. When you are able to transition smoothly between a glucose burner and a fat burner your body will not decrease your metabolic rate because it will not “think” there is a caloric deficit.
This is the major difference between daily calorie restriction and fasting.