Dropping 1.8 lbs in a Single Day

With Low Carb, Low Cortisol, Intermittent Fasting

After averaging half a pound a day for two weeks on my Intermittent Fasting program, I just had the most amazing day ever. The scale showed a 1.8 lb drop. Wow. From 215 to 213.2. In a single day!

This is not a pattern that will continue day-to-day, I’m sure. And although the changes were subtle, they added up to a lot. But I also suspect that the time leading up to this day was also important. During that time, my body’s hormonal systems adjusted enough to make it possible, and to make the changes effective. (Without those adjustments, and without already being near my bottom-line weight, I don’t know that difference they made would have been so noticeable.)

Here are the things worth noting about this particular day that were different from the days leading up to it:

Tea, not Coffee

Coffee raises cortisol, which preserves belly fat. That has been the last stubborn area to reduce, and hard to target. Today, that area feels noticeably thinner. (I’d give you caliper reading, but since I didn’t have one from the day before, it won’t make much difference.

Oils in my Tea, no Butter

It seems that ingesting protein stops fat burning — something I’ve observed. And I recently learned that protein (unlike fat) release insulin. Now, insulin is the “store stuff in the cells” hormone. It transports nutrients into the cells. While it’s present in the blood stream, all fat burning stops.

That signal is raised when there is sugar in the blood stream — for energy, and to prevent sugar’s highly corrosive effects. And it is raised when there are amino acids in the blood stream — because those are some of the bricks used to build the body.

Eliminating butter from the “Bulletproof Coffee” equation means that there is no protein to interrupt the fat-burning cycle. (Again, this is a subtle difference. I did quite well with butter-and-coffee for a long time. But when I hit a near-the-bottom plateau, this change was significant.)

Which oils, you ask? As noted in my previous previous Intermittent Fasting article, I use a combination of coconut oil and seed oils, with different combinations at different times.

Super Dense “Lunchtime” Snack

A raw egg, seeds, and a slice of apple — again, as described in my previous article (worth reading for tips on how to have an ultra-nutritious raw egg, if nothing else). But while I often have half an apple, this time I was content with a single slice.

The apple provides a bit of fruit sugar, in addition to the fiber needed to keep the seeds moving through the colon. One slice seems to be sufficient fiber, and since I half a medium-size apple has 3 slices, that’s 1/3 the carbs. (For those interested, half a large apple has 4 slices, and half a small apple has 2 slices, the way I slice them.)

Zero-Carb Dinner

Come dinner time, I wasn’t all that hungry. So I had another “snack”. This one was a turkey sandwich with mayo, banana peppers, pickle, and lettuce on gluten-free bread. I had carrots on the side, and a Snickers bar for dessert. (The lowest glycemic index of all candy bars. It’s a vice, but it’s the “least bad” vice I know.)

Now, usually, I have a potatoes, or rice, or potato chips to go along with a sandwich. But on this particular day, I wasn’t that hungry. That’s key, I think. It tells me that hormonal systems had adjusted to the point that fasting wasn’t a problem, and my nutritionally-dense late-lunch snack had given me most everything I needed.

On this day, though, my lack of hunger meant that I was satisfied with a “zero-carb” meal (well, minimal-carb, anyway).

After dinner, I had a single slice of dried mango, a handful of nuts, raisins, & dark chocolate chips I keep by the couch. And after-dinner fennel seeds I get from the Indian foods store. (They’re not roasted, and they’re not salted. But they’re not raw, either. The package doesn’t say what they are. But they taste pretty sweet, and they aid digestion.)

Those after-dinner “finishing touches” are a standard. I do them most days. But on this occasion, I was down to my last slice of dried mango. So I only had the one. That, too, meant that carbs were limited for this meal.

Finally, when I began to feel hungry later, a glass of water with sea salt and lemon juice took care of it. (Again, it’s a standard. I’m just noting for the record that I did get slightly hungry, though not ravenously so, and all it took was a little “smart hydration” to quell it.)

The Bottom Line

With such a large drop in a single day, we can expect a bit of a rebound in the days to come. Fortunately, I track my weight from day to day and compare weekly averages, so the precipitous drop and the rebound will average out — but I still suspect a significant loss, over all.

As to where that drop came from, we can expect that some of it at least was “colon weight”. Since I ingested a small quantity of foodstuffs overall, my elimination for the day outstripped my intake. That may account for as much as half a pound of the 1.8 lb drop.

As for the rest of the weight loss, it should be noted that my body fat percentage dropped precipitously, as well, from 27.4 to 27.1 lbs.

In general, I see a .1 drop in body fat percentage for every 1/2 lb of overall weight loss. So three times that percentage (.3 lbs) makes sense. But it tells me that the 1.8 lb drop is real. I was burning fat in the same proportion as other fasting days. Just a lot more of it!

Eric Armstrong
https://MeditateBetter.com
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