Does anyone know what if any affect fasting has on the SP plan. If a person wanted to fast once a week for spiritual reasons would that help hurt or do neither for someone following the plan?

I would think that ones relationship with God or need for spirituality would have first place in ones life and overule anything else. That would be my feeling. It is an age old practice for these purposes so it must be purposeful.

When I was younger I tried fasting for weight loss and found it interesting but just a fad thing I tried and a part of my silly yo-yo dieting, not really being purposeful for me. Sometimes one has to fast before medical testing, which has a purpose also ~ usually cleansing.

IMO the purpose for it would probably determine whether it would help or hurt. Any WOE/WOL(way of eating/*way of life* ) must be customized to be successful.

What a nice thoughtful reply. The fasting is for spiritual reasons and has nothing to do with SP and weight loss. I think it did help in my plan last week though. We will see if it makes a difference this week as well. I weigh in on wednesday. I was just wondering if this was discussed at all anywhere in her books

Hi there,

Interesting question. One which I thought about too. I'm doing Atkins at the moment, but I'm waiting for the SP book to come into the library so that I can read up on that too.


I've fasted on a few occasions (for spiritual reasons) and wondered whether it would have any negative effect. In the past I've sort of thought about fasting (pre LC) and had ulteriour motives as well as spiritual ones (ie I thought 'great I could loose weight as well'! ) but now I've come to the conclusion that God honours the fast, however it is done and somehow, supernaturally maybe, it doesn't effect the diet. Anyway that's my experience so far.

One thing I am having to watch however, just to put my two pennyworth in! is not to become too obsessed with this LC wol and be distracted from the most important thing in my life, if you catch my drift I don't quite know how much we can talk about God, religion and such like on this forum, I don't want to offend anybody.

Anyway good luck, I'm sure it will be just fine.
Banana

Yes I don't know either how much we can talk about God. I know he wants us to be healthy. I believe the fasting is helping both ways. Although I didn't feel very spiritual yesterday I think it shrinks my stomach. I wasn't very hungry this morning.

Wow I just read your stats. your doing great on your plan. Whats really cool though is your from UK and your a commited christian. I have heard from missionaries that pretty soon there will be no believers in England as the nation is becoming more and more anti God. Do you feel this is true. If you want you can email me off line at chewie122~comcast.net

Hi there, chewie,

I've just read that you've got three kids, just like me, and you are only one year older than me!!! Mind you I started late in life with kids in my early 30's, had 3 under 3 at one point in time, boy that was hard. Actually it still is at 4, 3 and 18 months! How old are yours?

You've only just joined the forum, what made you start LCIng?

As for your question about believers here in the UK, well, I think it's a bit extreme to say that there will be no believers in the UK soon, there are heaps of them and more becoming believers with the spread of the Alpha Course, I don't know whether you'll have heard of that in the States. Thousands of people countrywide are going on the course and becoming Christians. It's a great course. Anyway we'd probably need to chat in another place about that. What church do you belong to?

Byee
Banana

Hi Chewie and Banana (great names by the way...though no bananas for you!!!) -

I agree that fasting for spiritual reasons should come before dieting -- there's more to life than weight loss! From a physiological perspective, I would worry about very frequent fasting because that may cause your body to go into starvation mode and make it harder to shed pounds. But it sounds like you both take a balanced approach to it. Like anything, if it makes you feel good about yourself, its probably good for you!

As for the discussion...I'm not personally offended but I would go offline since its off topic and seems to be a non-LC passion you both share!

Have a great day!

Lisa

Hi guys!

I'm not offended by your posts at all, but thought you'd like to know that there is a forum here for any and all topics that do not relate to low carb. Check it out.

What forum is it?

Banana you tell me where to go so we can discuss further what we were talking about. Does anyone know who makes the avatars. I need a chewbacca avatar because I am HIM.

Lisa N your at the half way point its all down hill from here.

Hi there,

Thanks for all your comments chaps, I'll have to have a look see which forum is applicable for 'spiritual' conversations . I'll let you know chewie, or if you find it first you let me know!

Hey Lisaf I read your journal last night, (when I should have been going to bed for an early night! chasing after the kids is catching up on me duing this Easter break!) but I was interested to read what you were eating to loose weight. You seem to be eating less than me but have a higher calorie count, also your protein is higher than your fat count. Is this a Schwarzbein principle? I'm still waiting for the book so I don't know.

I tend to eat around 1450 - 1550 calories a day (which is within my requirement of 1400-1680 per day ie 10 - 12 times body weight), with fat being 70% + and protein being 20%+ my carbs are always very low 5 - 8 % which is normally around 18 - 25g per day. I'm not really loosing very fast less than 1lb per week sometimes it seems longer. When I started the diet I lost 8lb very quickly which I know was partly water but it seemed to be coming off quicker, I don't think I'm eating very differently to then, in fact I'm drinking less alcohol! In fact mostly none at all

Do you think I should increase protein? that would increase total calories or have to come out of the fat %. Everyone keeps saying eat more fat, am I eating too much to the detriment of protein? Eh confusion again! I do have some protein powder (vanilla) which I have only used in baking so far, should I be putting that into some food, but how??? or in a drink. I'd rather have some cheese or ham! for more protein)

Maybe I'll start a journal so that you guys can see exactly what I am eating. I do use Fitday, and to be honest, do find it quite obsessive like you said Lisaf, but I still find it helps me at the moment as I'm relatively new to this LC life, it justs takes a lot of time to put every single ingredient of every meal (I cook quite alot rather than having simple things). That's why I haven't started a journal already as I already spend too much time on line! with the kids running riot

Anyway any advice about the fat/protein/calorie issue would be greatly appreciated.

Look forward to some advice!
Bye

PS banana rhymes with my first name can you guess what it is? Although I'm not rich like the other one!!!!! It used to be my nickname at school!

Hi Banana -

Re: protein - I really upped my protein during the last few weeks of the Body For Life program to help build muscle mass. It really helped my lean body mass increase in the last 3-4 weeks (gained 8 lbs of lean mass!). If you want more information on the importance of protein, I would suggest finding a copy of Protein Power at your local library. Schwarzbein doesn't recommend a minimum level of protein or fat, only carbs.

I don't really follow Schwarzbein to the letter for a few reasons. The first is that I couldn't eat as many carbs as she suggests without getting into a terrible craving cycle. I'm also not as concerned about chemical as she is.

As for the 10-12x body weight rule for calories - please know that this is the minimum amount you should be eating...strictly the number of calories your body needs to function and doesn't include any activities (including getting out of bed!). If your weight is stalling, you may consider increasing calories in the form of protein, non-starchy veggies and good fats.

By the way, a 60-70% fat content is pretty normal for this WOE. Also, remember if you eat more protein, you will also end up eating more fat unless you are sticking to lean meats.

I definitely advocate having a journal. It'll allow you to keep track yourself and keeps you accountable to the rest of us. When you start avoiding your journal, it usually means its time to re-evaluate and get back on track!

Lisa

Hi there Lisaf,

Thanks for your reply. Re the calories, by how much do you think I should up my calories? Should it be consistently above the 12x level, which means I should be eating 1700 +. Is there a maximum you would recommend? say 1700 - 2000 or not really?

I know everyone is different but it would help to have a rough guideline. I always thought it should be between the 10 - 12x not above it, great if it is above as I could sometimes still eat more.

Another question I had, I noticed you do not tend to eat after 7.30ish, is there a reason for this? Sometimes, you seem to have your last meal around 5.30 pm even!

I don't have my evening meal until around 8 - 8.30 after the kids are down and then I start cooking. Is this also somewhere where I could improve? I'd have to prepare the meal during the day, which can sometimes be a problem with the kids. And one last thing you also seem to have more smaller meals rather than 3 main meal and snacks, would this be fair to say, or not, is this a Schwarzbein thing? Again my main meal tends to be in the evening, although I've started having a bigger lunch.

Sorry to ask so many questions, but you've done so brill in getting your weight down.

I can't say I have stalled as I have lost weight within the last 2 weeks, but yesterday I jumped on the scales and was up by 2.5lbs which was very frustrating as my carbs were well low!!

Maybe it's just one of those things, could be water retension, don't know, we'll see.

Anyway, thanks, bye for now
Banana