**TL/DR**: *Struggling with losing weight and adhering to carnivore diet due to random binge eating despite much increase in physical activity/exercise.*
Hello folks, I've dabbled with fasting in the past and using snake juice but haven't been consistent with it and due to mishaps and/or emotional eating would mess up any progress. Determined to keep at it though.
My biggest issues are mental health related, which I am working on in a number of other ways (journal, meditation, exercise) but as of yet haven't quite put it all together to sustain and see progress.
I've been overweight mostly my whole life, and honestly I almost feel like something is wrong with me that it seems so difficult to lose weight. Scared I may have caused some weird damage too when I did a intense weight loss program several years ago that had extreme caloric restriction and crappy food/snacks they provided (after looking at the ingredients on those I wasn't so pleased). I did lose a decent amount of weight then but could not keep going at the 900-1000 cals/day plus my work/exercise. Gained most of that weight back.
After that fiasco, I decided I wanted to eat more healthy overall, did keto originally but found carnivore - which I actually like a lot and found helps with some other issues. However I still have had a bad relationship with food I'm trying to break, when the mental health issues get really tough my behavior has been to almost zone out and eat things I shouldn't (too much dairy, and pork rinds or sunflower seeds). This year I set goal to be more active in general and be consistent with exercise, which I have done pretty well outside of a few physical issues that had me unable to keep with that for a few weeks throughout. For the year thus far I average around 15k steps a day. I got a new job about 1.5 months ago that has upped my daily steps quite a bit, I'm generally hitting 20k+ a day. Even with that and intentional exercise (cardio only at this point), I am still not seeing improvement on the scale.
So I have turned back to fasting, given all of the above. Most of the carnivore related subreddits seem to frown on fasting in general but given how my struggles have been it seems for me it would be the best thing to incorporate since I feel it will help kick start weight loss plus help with the food relationship piece.
June is going to be where I make concentrated effort. My last meal was evening of May 31 so I'm about 38 hours in fasting. Not really sure what I'm going to end up at but I'd like to hit 72 hours at least.
Curious on others experiences with similar issues and how your journey has gone. Any tips or mechanisms to help the consistency? Thanks!
Edit: I NEED TO STOP EATING LIKE A FAT PIG (I know this and have watched some of Cole's videos but the mental aspect has still been a big problem)
Edit 2: Completed a 98 hour fast last night (June 4), honestly I should have kept going - not a fan of eating that late and before trying to go to bed. Still feeling super full today so far. Will have to tweak things as I go into my next fast and plan for future refeeds, etc.
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I started a fast today after I had dinner. Like you I’ve been struggling with eating far too much food and for all the wrong reasons. I haven’t been watching what I eat at all and it has really caught up with me. Im fat and out of shape, and it’s not helping me mentally at all. My goal is a 7 day fast to kick start a 72-96s regimen. Im the kind of person that really sucks at consistency and I think this will be a good hard reset and create the discipline I need. I’m done making excuses and giving myself an out for the goals I set. I always undermine myself by saying I’ll do such and such protocol after this meal or after that meal, and the time comes and I’m not good for my word. Enough is enough and I have to do this for me. I quit drinking 8 months ago and that was another decision I made for my benefit. This is no different and I need to treat it as such. My health is a matter of life and death in the grand scheme of things. If I let myself go I’m shaving valuable time off my life and limiting myself from being able to fully enjoy the time I do have. I want to hike mountains, run far, and live a vigorous life. My current behavior hasn’t reflected as someone with these goals and so change is mandatory. I’m here to do this with you and anyone else who is ready to take charge of their lives. No one is going to look out for you except for you, and it took me a long time to learn that lesson, and I’m still having to reinforce it for myself. You can do what you put your mind too and I’m here to do it with you. MIND OVER MATTER! Let’s get after it!
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Cole always said that when you fast, you shouldn’t exercise. In my experience, exercise has always ruined my fast. He also said to do LIGHT exercise on a low-carbohydrate refeed and that’s it. I’m on rolling 72s or 96s and they are great. I have more energy now than before
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Be kind to yourself. Start with something that is so ridiculously easy that it almost feels like cheating. Something fun that doesn’t feel like punishment and isn’t hard. But something that feels in the right direction. You have time. Either you’ll use it beating yourself up, restricting yourself and feeling like shit in a cycle, or you can slowly move one thing closer to where you want it to be. And gently, one thing at a time, you’ll get there. This is the advice I am giving myself.
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Everyone else will give the standard advice, which is great, and do your best with that, and good luck.Aside from that, I’ll give the out of box recommendation, if it’s possible for you, and if you’re not totally against, if the mental health aspect is a big concern and you’re looking at options for that, possibly look into mild psychedelics and the option of microdosing. It’s very beneficial if done correctly and there’s lots of info on reddit and Google.
Mental health is the big issue, take care of that first. Focus on mental health first and weight-loss second. Good luck.