Using Fat to Mimic Fasting

I have a dear friend who is overweight and knows he needs to lose some of the pounds for health reasons. He is pre-diabetic and has a family history of heart disease, so these are motivating him to do something. I offered to give him some suggestions and he told me he’d appreciate that since he knows I’ve changed my own diet to fight cancer.

I told him how, when I got cancer, I started fasting seriously. I had done intermittent fasting on and off prior to that but it was only when faced with death that I got my act together.

It’s not that I hadn’t tried before. I had used IF to lose some weight but then I gained a lot of it back when I started dating again and was being taken to nice restaurants.

Since then, I’ve learned about the benefits of fasting not just for weight loss but for helping avoid chemo and radiation side effects, for helping your body remove damaged cells, for detox, and for helping your body rebuild itself. The cancer motivated me to do a lot more research and that convinced me to be much more hard core about fasting.

Some people combine intermittent fasting with a ketogenic diet.

While I have increased the healthy fats in my diet and eat a lot more vegetables and a lot less starch, I am not technically keto, though I would say 80% of my meals are. However, when I was first beginning to fast, I tried doing “fat fasts” as a way to ease myself into it.

Instead of totally skipping meals, I’d have a handful of macadamia nuts or olives, an avocado, or a slice of fatty cheese. These addressed my hunger without spiking my insulin levels.

When I asked my friend about his diet, he told me he normally had toast or cereal for breakfast, and that he snacked after dinner.

I told him we needed to increase his fasting window.

He told me he could not fast because if he didn’t eat he’d pass out. I’d actually seen this happen to him when we were younger.

So I asked if he needed his night time snacks?

“Did you have those as a kid? Would you faint if you don’t have them?”

Turns out that he’d only started the after-dinner eating in recent years.

“Have a good dinner,” I told him. “And then stop eating! No snacks.”

“I’ll get cranky, but since I live alone, no one will be affected by that,” he said. “I may be yelling about you into my pillow though!”

“That’s fine,” I told him. “You can also get one of those wobbly toys to punch if you need to take out your frustration.”

The next morning, instead of his normal breakfast, I suggested eating a keto meal.

“Have some scrambled eggs and bacon,” I said. “Or make an omelet. You can add a little diced pepper, or mushrooms, or spinach to the omelet and grate a little cheese on it. Or have leftover steak or make yourself a breakfast burger — grill a small beef patty and either eat it plain or use lettuce as a bun. Or grill some sausages. If you’re in a rush, have a handful of nuts, an avocado, or some olives and cheese.”

I told him this would help him avoid insulin spikes until lunchtime, when he would eat his standard meal of take-out. He’s not much into cooking.

However, I’ve been to a couple of his favorite restaurants with him and I know what he likes, so I offered some suggestions.

“Don’t stress too much about lunch and dinner,” I told him. “But consider replacing the mashed potatoes with green beans or steamed broccoli. Instead of fried chicken, have it baked or grilled. Add a side salad.”

“I can do that,” he said.

I knew he always wanted dessert after dinner so I suggested he have a piece of fruit instead of brownies or ice cream. He wouldn’t agree to do that all the time but agreed to make the sugary sweets a weekend treat, not a daily one, and to stick with fruit during the week.

Since he ate his dinner at 7 and his lunch around noon, that would limit his insulin spikes to a 7–8 hour window.

It was a baby step towards intermittent fasting, but one that felt achievable to him. It would theoretically give him a 16–17 hour window to stabilize his insulin levels so it was worth a try. The important thing was that these were small changes he could actually manage that might have a positive effect, particularly if he moderated his carbs throughout the day.

He and I can talk another time about further cutting carbs, pastured meats and eggs, hacks like bulletproof coffee, eating more fish, and so on. I don’t want to overwhelm him but give him practical suggestions he will actually follow without feeling deprived.

I am fighting stage IV cancer. If you can help with medical bills, I would really appreciate it. Or if you enjoy my writing and would like to buy me a cup of coffee, that’s great too. Maybe someday I can return the favor.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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