Atkins Fat Fast

In May I attended the 5th Annual Low Carb Cruise. At that time I had been following a low carb way of eating for almost five years. I had lost 170 pounds and had hopes to learn the "secret" to get those last stubborn pounds off.

 Did I learn anything, you bet! I learned so much that I have been sorting it out ever since. The main thing I learned was that protein is not the "Low Carb Free Food" I thought it was. Also, I need to make sure that I add in more fat to ensure satiety and for the healthy benefits. I have been playing with these ratios ever since and as a result my weight has fluctuated up to 10 pounds!

I have also been struggling to get below 200 pounds, you know what us big girls like to call ONEDERLAND! A magical place that once we get that golden ticket in we do not want to be banished back to TWODERVILLE! Oh that dreaded scale has been so mean to me, getting me down to 200.1 several times. What to do? Several ladies on my Facebook group have been fat fasting, so I did a little research. What is a fat fast? Well it is in the DANDR and here is a link I found that best described it to me.
Carb Smart/Fat Fast.  I have had stalls before, read the books, but never heard of this Fat Fast.  So I figured I would try it out.  1000 calories a day, 90% fat...how hard could it be.

Truth is 1000 calories a day...easy.  90% fat a day...hard.  I did manage to get my avg around 83%-85% the five days I did it.  This is actually where I have been trying to keep my fat ratio at for the past month or so.  I had decided the week before to order blood ketone test strips, so I figured I would test my ketone levels as well.   Did it work?!  Here is the scoop.

I started on Monday...doesn't ever successful diet start Monday morning!  I weighed in at 209.  This is the highest I had been in a while.  What was weird, annoying & frustrating was that Sunday I was 204.6.  Whatever, that is where I started.  My ketones were at .8 (with ideal being between 1.0-3.0).  I had 84% fat that day.  I was food obsessed that day for sure, not exactly hungry, just thinking about what I am going to eat for the next 5 days!  Favorite meal today 12 slices of pepperoni & 1 oz cream cheese.

Tuesday...tested my ketones & they were .7, uh oh, they went down.  Maybe that was a bad sign, but happy times on the scale...206.1.  I thought whatever I had added on Sunday just left.  Hunger today was nil and I liked it.  Favorite meal today was Greek Gods full fat plain yogurt and 12 blueberries with some stevia.

Wednesday...ketones were up to 1.1 and the scale read 202.5.  This made me very happy to see it working.  One of my friends, Kim, told me about Miracle Noodles with Garlic & Herb Kerrygold butter.  I had bought the noodles a while back & hadn't got the nerve up to try them.  I had the butter already so I figured what the heck!  YUM

Thursday...ketones were up to 1.6 and the scale read 201.8.  No hunger at all.  Even to the point I really didn't want to eat after my lunch meal, but I made myself finish.  Favorite meal of the day  1/2 avocado, 3 tbsp sour cream and 2 tbsp salsa.

Friday...ketones stayed the same 1.6 and I anxiously stepped on the scale hoping for that magical number 199.9.  Didn't get it...201.6.  Oh well still a loss and one more day to go!  Had the miracle noodles again, this time with pesto sauce and a little parmesan cheese.

Saturday morning I was afraid to get out of bed and onto that scale.  I realized that the browns hadn't been to the super bowl all week and could that cause the scale not to move?  I did feel a little backed up.  Oh well it had to be done.  First things first...ketone check...1.9!  Hmm that is a good sign.

The results...Scale time...197.8!  ONEDERLAND....I know I heard birds singing, the sunlight coming in just right to illuminate the magical number on the scale and tears welling up in my eyes.  I did it!  So I am in nutritional ketosis and lost 11.2 pounds.  I figure of those were water/mystery pounds since they appeared over night...even so 6.2 pounds in 5 days is awesome.

So now what.  I know I cannot continue to eat this low calories & protein for ever.  The fat fast was created for stalls and severely metabolic damaged individuals.  I would like to keep in ketosis and see what ratios work best for me.  I am not stepping on the scale until August 31st, when we are having our weigh in for an at-work challenge.

Now that I have done this big blog post, I suppose I will have to keep this up.  At least with an update!

Thanks for stopping by!