That's what I was thinking.

Yes, I think that if you're eating fewer calories than your BMR, it will slow down your metabolism. It's one of the reasons I track calories.

But, apparently your body also reacts differently if you're fasting and it doesn't lower your BMR. In other words, if you eat 1500 calories over the course of 3 meals and some snacks, you might be lowering your metabolism. If you eat 1500 calories on a time-restricted eating plan when you eat just lunch and dinner or just one meal, then it doesn't do this. And if you eat nothing at all (total fast), it doesn't do this either. Dr. Fung has written about this.

To me, I wouldn't want to eat 1500 calories at one meal, I would do better eating it in three sittings.


I think it's just the opposite for me. It levels out BS and gives my body time to metabolize a quantity of food my digestive system can handle.

Dr. Fung explains far better than I ever can why fasting or time-restricted eating doesn't mess up your metabolism, whereas eating the same number of calories spread out over three meals--or worse meals and snacks--will slow it down. In short, leveling out or creating a constant lower level insulin response is far worse than one or two large responses. See: The Difference Between Calorie Restriction and Fasting

Yes. Unless it doesn’t.

These studies are most useful in giving us things to try. But if we do it right, yet it winds up not working for us, then these guidelines don’t apply to our particular bodies.

I’m in the middle of listening to the audiobook of The Wahls Protocol. I have an auto immune disorder, the author has an auto immune disorder. But she constructed her diet with tons of vegetables and no eggs or dairy. While I am constructing my diet with eggs and dairy and no vegetables.

And we’re both getting the results we seek.

I’m not arguing with Dr. Fung or the study. But I don’t think I could eat 1500 calories at a sitting. I would need to split it8nto two meals.

Remember, X calories of fat has little effect onmy blood sugar. X calories of sugar is entirely different.

On breakfast. On most days I can skip breakfast with ease. The momentary hunger disappears rather quickly.

On one meal a day. I did a 37 day OMAD, with 2 days a week of 2 meals. Shockingly easy at the time. A one off though. Taught me one meal was enough. Eating three meals a day was NOT important.

Children. My kids ate OFTEN when little. BUt good foods mostly. Dumped the fruit juices and breakfast cereals early on. Their breakfast was eggs or leftover dinner. Now as teens, they dont eat much , maybe breakfast or maybe not, then lunch, after school snack and a "dinner" . THey both remain very thin-- 19 BMI and 23ish. Makes me think their metabolism is NOT messed up ....yet.

I'm not saying you should or even need to try. I was just pointing out why eating in a time-restricted pattern (16:8) or once a day doesn't have the same effect on your insulin as eating the same amount spread out over 12 or 14 hours.

Interesting! I'd be curious if other people's teenage sons don't eat much? My boys eat like horses! It is true and definitely remarkable that they eat less often now that we're a lower carb family (cutting out bread and cereal will have that effect). But my goodness, they still pack away the food when they do eat! On school days they don't eat breakfast, but on weekends, they typically will. It would be nothing for them to eat a pound of bacon each along with a cheese omelet. And going back for a second omelet is not out of the question if they've been doing a lot of exercise during the week.

My teenage boys are all rail thin now. One was stocky until he began his "low carb lifestyle" which happened to coincide with his huge growth spurt this past year, so I can't really be sure what caused the weight loss. If he weren't such a skinny bean pole now that he's almost 14, I would've told you he was predisposed to a stocky build (think Carlos Ruiz from the Phillies). My pre-teen son has started to get a little meatier, but he's always been so skinny that he's still quite thin. I figure the current extra meat means he's getting ready to grow too.

It is an interesting dynamic, tess. While teenagers and 20 somethings eat lots, my experience is that with healthy, satiating whole foods, bulk consumption of calories and frequency of eating starts to diminish at any age, relatively speaking. When my kids and earlier my siblings and I hit our teens, we were consuming mass quantities of food and still thin. I have witnessed, now that I'm in my late 60s and am 6 years into a strict ketogenic approach, an involuntary, unplanned reduction in food quantity due to several factors. I've also seen this in my now adult son and daughter. Going low carb does change the quantity of food consumed. We no longer have our metabolisms predominantly fueled by carbs triggering the desire to eat more and more often. Where many diets start out with calorie reduction, low carb (initially starting with Atkins in the modern era) encourages people to eat to satiety. I've noticed that over time, the amount of food I consume has diminished not because I'm consciously limiting it, but because I get satiated on less nowadays. It is a great dynamic.

I told DH the other day that he's not really low carb. He wants to think he is but I know he's eating carbs at different times during the day and if we go out, he's eating them but he says "it's not that much" but yes it is!
I think it's more wishful thinking in then anything else. I told him, your kidding yourself but wishing it and wanting it doesn't make it so.

So in my mind comparing people who are eating varying levels of carbs is not posssible.
I am super low carb right now. Below 20g for a marker but in reality I'm only eating about 7-8g per daily for 6 weeks with not one cheat. There is no comparison with someone eating anything over 40g or maybe up to 100g or even more, IDK, but it's a whole different metabolic difference and there is no comparison.

I am already doing 12-14 hours through the night and into the morning without eating.
I physically must eat with carb levels that low.

It would be interesting to know how traditional peoples ate in terms of quantity and timing. I've never managed to find any information but I romantically think of them working in the day and feasting at night around the fire.

Also, I am probably going to try seasonal low carb. Very low carb in winter, when there would be no plants. Greens as spring comes, fruit when it ripens, veg in the fall, and back to winter.

I was just telling my husband this weekend that I want to do this!! What a coincidence! Great minds...💡

It makes so much theoretical sense, at least for those of us whose ancestors lived in places with four distinct seasons. It grew out of my successful implementation of Dr. Jack Kruse's circadian rhythm therapy, which has gone more mainstream as research into blue light at bedtime confirms his theories.

Two good books on this subject are:

Epi-paleo Rx: The Prescription for Disease Reversal and Optimal Health by Dr. Jack Kruse

which is all about the seasonal appropriate foods and which ones have been so messed with they should probably be avoided

and

Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival by T. S. Wiley

which is a fun read and has some very interesting scenarios to help explain the concepts

Both tie together food and sleep and sunshine in fascinating ways.

Thanks! I will Ben looking into purchasing these books. It’s fascinating and something I’ve been mulling over for quite some time.

Wrong place, wrong thread!