From Vegan To Carnivore And Back - What I Learned

Yes, after more than six years of eating a mostly vegan diet, I have experimented with eating mostly meat. Why did I go from one end of the dietary spectrum to the other? Why not just eat a balanced diet?

To be honest, I would like to have some of this carnivore-stamina.

In my past, I had to deal with some digestive issues and cured them through a primarily plant-based diet. But I still had some areas that I was not totally satisfied with. I like to experiment with my diet and see how different foods make me feel. That way, I ate a low-carb vegan diet for a long time now. I am generally doing some form of intermittent fasting too. Among all the vegan foods and supplements that are supposed to improve health, I was attracted and may be blinded by the simplicity of the carnivore diet. Eat meat, drink water.

As it turned out, while working on a free-range cattle farm in Denmark, I had access to a lot of meat, which otherwise would have been thrown away. In this case, I had no moral or environmental issues with eating a lot of meat. Let the meat feast begin and my experiment with the carnivore diet.

I had no issues adopting this diet coming from a low-carb vegan diet. In the beginning, I was still eating a green leafy salad every day. But I reduced it over time. And for a few weeks, I ate almost exclusively meat, still including some coconut and olive oil, but basically no fibre.

I was very surprised to learn that this did not cause any constipation. Stools were of course considerably smaller, but easy to pass. My digestion felt good all the time. Basically, the feeling is similar to water fasting, pretty much empty all the time. Something to get used to, as there is no more being "full" after a meal. Satisfaction still set in though, just through a different mechanism it seems. Instead of the stomach being stretched it is more a signal coming from the brain.

I also did some blood-tests during this time. And this is where the diet became really concerning to me. Before the test, I rode my bike for 15 minutes at a moderate pace. I say that because it might explain the high triglycerides because I haven't eaten anything for more than 12 hours.

I am particularly concerned about the high cholesterol in combination with the CRP value being on the upper end of the spectrum. This means I fall into the high-risk category for heart disease. But according to some of the keto advocates I would be classified as a "lean mass hyper responder". Which means that lean and athletic people tend to experience the highest increase in LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol. As the body as little other reserves and no glucose available it has to be able to quickly mobilize a lot of fat when exercising. To do that, the body produces a lot of cholesterol.

But I am concerned that this cholesterol is just not good for my arteries in the long run. Based on all the best available evidence, the overwhelming amount of research shows that is saver to have lower cholesterol levels. The whole foods plant-based low-fat diet is the approach with the most scientifically sound data backing it. Taking into account research funding by the industry it is clear that most of the low-carb and ketogenic research might be biased in favour of restricting carbohydrates.

Additionally, during some days on the carnivore diet, I experienced some intense chest pain, increased heart rate and blood pressure. I never had this happen before. Not even on a high-fat vegan diet.

Here is what I am going to do:

I have ended my carnivore diet around a week ago and started a water-only fast. I want to extend the fast to 14 days. Coming from a ketogenic diet is a good way to start a water fast as the body does not have to switch fuels from carbohydrates to fats. The transition period was easy.
After that, I will go back to the diet which I think is the healthiest in the long run: a whole-foods, plant-based, low-fat diet. Will I eat completely vegan? Probably not. On certain occasions, where the best quality meat is available, maybe a handful of times a year, I will eat meat. But that will still make my diet 99,9% plant-based.

This is the diet that has healed my digestive issues and has kept me feeling very good for the majority of my vegan period. But my experimentation with the low-carb approach was definitely interesting and has me taught to understand people eating carnivore. There are definitely benefits to this way of eating. But overall and for the majority of people, the whole-foods plant-based approach is by far the better option. And for the environment, it is anyways because even totally free-range raised meat requires much more land and resources than sustainably farmed plants. Not to mention that most people can't or won't afford the cost of this meat and instead by lots of factory-raised meat products.

Vegan Keto: Most Important Problems You Have to Avoid

Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids:

The biggest problem I observed with the vegan ketogenic diet is the distribution of fatty acids. If not taken care of, the omega-6 content of the vegan keto diet can get excessively high. And this becomes a problem, because omega-6 fatty acids tend to become inflammatory if eaten in excess.

Walnuts are healthy only in limited quantities on vegan keto.

To reap the anti inflammatory benefits of the ketogenic diet, it is important to keep a good ratio of omega-3 to omega-6. The ratio should ideally be kept between 1:1 and 1:4 of omega-3 to omega-6.

From my personal experience I have found that it is also important to keep the total amount of omega-6 as low as possible. It does not help to try to compensate a high intake of omega-6 with a high intake of omega-3. Those fatty acids are essential, but only in small amounts. Any excess exceeds the bodys capacity to handle them properly.

What amount is too high? I have found intakes of omega-6 below 15gr per day to be okay.

This means the following nuts and seeds need to be resitricted: walnuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. But also almonds and peanuts to a lesser degree. This makes the vegan ketogenic diet even more restrictive to some people.

The focus should be put on coconuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachios, chia seeds, hemp seeds, avocados, olive oil and high oleic varieties of peanuts and sunflower seeds. Flax seeds should be added to the daily diet in amounts of about 20-30gr per day.

I have recently found a source of high oleic peanuts and added them to my diet. They have made this diet a lot more sustainable. I love peanuts and being able to eat them daily made them the best discovery for this diet.

Roasted Nuts and Seeds:

The second biggest trap you could fall into are roasted nuts and seeds. Especially store bought roasted nuts, where you can't control the temperature. This might be one of the reasons why you don't feel good on a plant-based keto diet. Roasted nuts and seeds are often fried in cheap omega-6-rich vegetable oils. These should be avoided at all cost, if your aim is optimal health and longevity. 

The roasting process oxidizes the unsaturated fatty acids and makes them act as free radicals in the body. The vitamin E content of roasted nuts is greatly reduced.

The same goes for nut and seed butters. Often times they are roasted and then ground into a paste at high processing temperatures.

Solution: Buy raw nuts or seeds and roast them yourself so you can control temperature and time. I recommend you roast them for 20min at 120°C, just to the point where they are fully cooked but have not yet turned brown.

For nut-butters, I  have found brands that use no or low roasting temperatures and grind them carefully. You need to try a few until you find the best ones. 

I hope these tips will help you reap the benefits of a plant-based low carb or ketogenic diet, loose weight, enjoy your food, feel satisfied and mentally sharp, all without having to eat tons of animal products that harm our environment and our health. 

How to prevent muscle twitching on a ketogenic diet

I made a pretty interesting discovery about the mechanism behind muscle twitches (also called benign muscle fasciculation syndrome) in relation to a low carbohydrate ketogenic diet. I gave the very low carbohydrate diet many attempts in the past. Whenever I would lower my carbohydrates below around 50 grams per day, I would get muscle spasms all over my body. A muscle would contract only once and then a few seconds later another muscle somewhere else would contract. Most of the time it wasn't visible but I could feel it every time. It feels like all your muscles are charged and could contract every second.

With muscle twitching, it feels like your body is always a millisecond before a contraction

I have discovered what causes this on a ketogenic diet. And even though I mentioned before that salt was helping, it actually has nothing to do with salt. Any relief from a high salt intake was only temporary and I would have to take increasing amounts of it. (At this point I also want to mention that I no longer follow a ketogenic diet, you can read a new blog-post about my current diet.)

I will tell you how I discovered this and how you can prevent this on a ketogenic diet.

As I was researching these symptoms in relation to keto, electrolytes and magnesium were always mentioned. But both would not help. So I didn't find the solution here yet. 

One day I researched keto in high altitudes because I was planning to go on a hike in the alps. With nuts as my fuel source as they are the most calorically dense whole plant food. I found out that eating ketogenic while in high altitude can be tricky. And here it also gets tricky and technical to explain this.

As the air is less dense at high altitude, you have to breathe a higher volume of air to absorb the same amount of oxygen. This is problematic because the body will lose a certain amount of CO2 per air volume that is breathed in and out. It takes a couple of days for the body to adjust to this and reduce CO2 loss. 

In the cells, there needs to be a balance of CO2 and O2. So with the loss of CO2, the cells are also not able to take up enough O2 which can be deadly in extreme cases. That is also the reason why hyperventilation (aka Wim Hof breathing) is dangerous. Don't do it. You won't increase O2 levels by doing this but actually decrease cellular O2 levels exactly because this balance needs to be maintained. In order to prevent the loss of CO2 (and therefore O2), the blood vessels in your brain restrict and you feel dizzy. 

The problem with ketogenic diets in high altitudes is that, as the body uses fats as it's the main source of calories, it needs less oxygen for the same amount of energy output. Less oxygen utilization means also less production of CO2. This is widely known and used to measure an athletes state of fat utilization through breath analysis, so I won't go into that here. At high altitude, this can potentially be a problem, because less CO2 is available in the cells. In altitude, the increased breathing volume pulls the CO2 from the body, and O2 levels might drop to critically low levels. But here the body can adapt over time as well and you also require less oxygen, so it balances out.

But what has all this to do with muscle twitches on keto?

I did not make this connection until a couple weeks later. I was trying the very low carb diet again and had the same issue. Muscles started to twitch, salt did not help anymore and so I ended up researching for benign fasciculation syndrome. It is not so uncommon and many people experience it at least once throughout there lifetime.

Probably everyone knows the annoying eyelid twitch. But that is not what I had. My muscle would twitch only once and then another one would twitch.

And then I also found this video. It is in german, but this doctor made a genius discovery. He has discovered that CO2 is relaxing and that low levels of it lead to nervous system over-excitement. He has connected the CO2 loss in his patients to increased breathing, caused by stress. Everybody knows that in stressful situations you increase your breathing. In order to quickly run away from a lion, this was probably a helpful adaptation. But constant low-level stress (where you sigh) has the negative side-effect of increased loss of CO2. Low energy levels because of low cellular O2 levels follow.

Through controlled and slow breathing I was able to completely stop my muscle twitching. It took only about half a day. I guess after a couple of weeks of strict keto this side effect would have subsided by itself. But I never went that long to find out because I was too concerned about it and increased my carbs. Now, after eating ketogenic or very low carb for a long time, I never have this issue anymore. The body adapts to the decreased production of CO2 by holding on to more of it, it seems.
Interestingly, I only get the twitches sometimes after intense exercise. Which, for me, is another sign that this theory could be true. Because, after intense exercise, the increased breathing persists for some time after you actually finish and you lose CO2.

Conclusion:

The adaptation to keto is partly comparable to the adaptation to high altitude. Because less CO2 is produced in the burning of fats, the body has to adapt by conserving more of it. This could also explain why some people feel the keto-flu, where they feel low in energy. 

The solution is simple though. Pay special attention to your breathing for a while and breath slowly and regularly. While sitting, I am now at about eight in- and out-breath per minute. 

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Why I no longer eat OMAD and what I do now

In the past, I have experimented with eating one meal per day (OMAD) on a ketogenic diet. And I am sure I will at some point in the future go back to eating only once a day. But why did I stop and why doesn't it fit my current situation?

Beans and lentils are a major part of my diet

Energy in = Energy out
This simple equation explains why I cannot eat only one meal per day at the moment. When I was eating only one meal per day, I had a sedentary job and was doing only about 20 minutes of body-weight exercises per day. Now on the other hand I lift heavy 6 days a week and ride my bike for about 40 minutes and swim in an ice-cold lake on a daily or weekly basis. This and the goal of gaining muscle requires me to eat a lot more on a daily basis. If you are not interested in either a lot of daily activity or in gaining any weight, then OMAD is probably the best diet for you to gain maximum longevity- and health benefits.

Lowered digestive capacity
For many years I struggled with Crohn's disease and still do to some extend. Which means that I have to be very careful not to eat any foods that trigger a bad reaction in me. That shows me that my digestive capacity and the robustness of my digestive system is lower than in other people. I have found out that it is better for me to eat a meal that is below my digestive capacity, which means smaller portion sizes. It takes me unusually long to digest large meals and this shortens the fasting part of the OMAD approach which is the whole point of doing it.

Constant muscle twitches with a high-fat diet
In my experience, the OMAD approach is better suited for a relatively high-fat diet. I tried out a low-fat approach, but it was absolutely impossible to eat enough calories that way. Eating a diet high in fat though is perfect for intermittent fasting. While fasting you utilize mainly fat for energy and therefore eating a high-fat meal allows the body to efficiently use that fuel. Switching back and forth between carbohydrate- and fat-metabolism gives many people a feeling of low energy.
I had the additional problem that my muscles would start to twitch all over my body when I ate a high-fat diet. I have tried many different things to solve this, but have not found a solution. The only thing that stopped it was going back to a mainly carbohydrate-based diet, which is better suited for eating several meals per day.

I actually figured this problem out. You can read about it here.

What I do now
I adopted a flexible approach to fasting. I like the feeling of fasting. Therefore I do about one 24 hour and two 16-18h fast-days per week. I closely monitor my weight though and if I do not see a slow but steady increase in my weight of about 1 kg per month I will have to reduce that even further.


Diet
I also switched away from the high-fat approach back to a high carb diet. My diet is about 70% of calories from carbs, 15% from each protein and fat. Some days my fat intake might be around 20-25% though.
I am still eating whole plant foods, but I have also found that I need some fatty foods like nuts and seeds in my meals in order to feel satisfied. But the main component of my diet are foods high in complex carbohydrates. I eat a lot of lentils, peas and beans. I combine those with grains like millet, buckwheat, oats, whole wheat pasta and granola in order to adjust the calories. Most of my meals also contain several hundred grams of different vegetables. I eat some type of cabbage almost daily, red cabbage, brussel sprout, broccoli or cauliflower.

This is my current diet and I feel quite energetic on it. It is also very affordable as I buy only basic ingredients and cook most of my meals at home. In case you have any questions or want to know about how to start a healthy whole-food plant-based diet, feel free to shoot me a message through the form on the right (not visible on mobile version).

Leading guidelines for an optimal diet

How do you define an optimal diet? A diet that increases well-being and longevity. Are there objectively measureable nutrients which you should look out for? Calories, Micro-nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants etc. are all things we can measure today in a food. But there are big differences between what we can measure in the lab and what ultimately happens in the human body.

Dark and intense colors are an indicator of antioxidants

I recommend to trust our senses in choosing between different options of natural food sources. It is best to go for the vegetables with the brightest and most intense colors, the most complex flavors and the greatest aromas. Going this route will lead us away from animal foods and towards a variety of wild plant foods. Wild edible greens, flowers, fruits and berries provide the greatest amount of beneficial micronutrients. Our domesticated vegetables on the other hand maximize calories and weight over flavor and nutrition. Because that is what you usually pay for at the grocery store.

So the best solution would be in my opinion to collect most of your green vegetables and salads directly in nature and add in more calorically dense foods like nuts, seeds and root vegetables from the store. Get yourself a comprehensive guidebook which you can take with you when you go out collecting edible plants. I can recommend this one in german language.

One of my favorite meals is the following green super-food smoothie:

• Wild edible greens               100-300g
• Frozen spinach                     100gr
• Spirulina                               10gr
• Wheatgrass powder              10gr
• Cacao powder                      5gr
• Flaxseeds                             10gr
• Nuts or seeds                        20gr
• Banana                                 100gr
• Dates                                    15gr
• Stevia                                   1 tablet or drop
•  Lemon (with peel!)              1 slice
• Ginger                                  10gr
• Beet juice                             100ml

I recommend blending the greens first, with as little water as possible. Later add the powders, flaxseeds and fruits and blend a second time. (In a high speed blend I blend for 30 seconds twice.) That way you are not left with any big chunks of the tougher leaves.

In this way you will maximize your nutrition while reducing your grocery bill. Because if you wanted to buy the same amount of nutrition from the store you would have to buy much larger quantities of the vegetables that usually sells there. But you can also find exceptions like kale, red cabbage, some broccoli-types and spinach.

You can also start to grow your own highly flavorful vegetables. Try out some different herbs in the smoothies or salads and you will discover that they greatly increase the variety of flavors.

If you want dive deeper into the topic of optimal nutrition for longevity, I recommend the book “How not to die”. There you will find the scientific background on which to decide what food are healthy and nutritious and which are not. I would like to point out though that these studies usually focused on foods that are available at grocery stores. So you will not find many nutritional studies on wild edible plants in that book as well. But I guess it is save to estimate that many wild plants have similar nutritional density to the commonly consumed herbs like rosemary, oregano, marjoram, peppermint or berries like goji, acai and amla. As these foods have the highest concentration of antioxidants, we can assume that highly flavorful wild plants have similar properties.

Why strive for such a diet?
Increasing the nutritional density of your diet will make you feel energized and all around better. Your mental and physical capabilities are certain to increase. As a reader of this blog I guess you are interested in achieving higher spiritual and personal goals, you are generally interested in learning and improving your life. This is a great challenge besides the daily hassles and duties you likely have to fulfill. Therefore it is wise to fuel your mind and body only with the greatest fuel available.

Only then can you truly maximize your potential. You will feel the effects on your mood - you are able to treat the people around you in a nicer, calmer and more understanding way. That’s when you can really appreciate and see the effects of a highly nutritious diet. You can design a diet that is so off the chart amazing and nutritious that you will feel so alive it is incomparable to any standard modern diet. Once you have experienced the effects of such excellent nutrition, there will be no chance you want to go back to eating processed food. It will instantly increase your capacity to practice things like all day awareness, mindfulness, meditation and concentration. Eating becomes one more aspect of your life where you act with full presence and mindfulness. While eating the most nutritious and flavorful foods it is impossible not so savor and mindfully appreciate every bite. Your taste preferences will change within the first two weeks and afterwards you will like natural levels of sweetness and bitter tastes.

Our modern health challenges show us clearly three things. We are not adapted to calorically dense food because we can become overweight, which has health consequences. We develop inflammatory diseases, which develop because of a nutrient and antioxidant poor diet. And lastly we are not adapted to properly judge our caloric requirements in a sedentary environment. We were used to get a lot more daily exercise.

Two ratios are out of balance:

• caloric intake and caloric expenditure
• micro-nutrient intake to micro-nutrient requirement

What role do animal product play in a diet focused on high nutrient density

The most basic problem with animal products in that scenario is the relatively low concentration of secondary micro-nutrients and especially antioxidants in combination with a high concentration of calories and protein. Those circumstances make it really difficult to argue for the inclusion of animal foods. To the contrary certain amino-acid (like Methionine and Leucine) and fatty acids and cholesterol are likely to have negative health implications. The opinions, whether such nutrients are good or bad for our health, diverge. So it would be saver to eat the foods where there is no such consensus among scientists. And those are antioxidant rich plant foods. There is no consensus about whether such foods are healthy or not. The more antioxidants a natural food contains the better it is for our health in general. This goes even so far that a variety of plant foods are so rich in antioxidants that they have historically been used as medicine. An example is the indian gooseberry called amla. It is most antioxidant rich plant food discovered so far and has a long history of medicinal use for a great variety of ailments.

Animal foods can certainly have a place in a healthy diet. But in a very limited quantity and they must come from the cleanest sources. Because toxins accumulate upwards throughout the food-chain.

Can cheese be healthy?

After experimenting with many different diets and eating patterns, I have found my most favorite diet. I feel best, when I eat one meal in the evening, consisting of a raw salad, followed by steamed vegetables and most of my calories coming from nuts. I make the salad-dressing out of blended nuts and use nut-butter as a dip for the steamed veggies. Every day I also sprinkle about 20-30grams of ground flaxseed over my food. That way, I end up with about 50-80gr of carbs which are very slow digesting and therefore my insulin levels should be very low for most of the time.

But in the past I have also encountered one problem with this diet. I lose too much weight. Insulin levels might be so low all of the time, that it just does not allow for major muscle growth. In general intermittent fasting, caloric restriction and a plant-based diet all reduce circulating IGF-1 levels. In general this is good if you want to increase longevity. But on the other-hand too low levels of IGF-1 might cause slowed tissue-repair and reduces muscle-mass. This goes hand in hand with my experience: Sometimes I have sour muscles after a workout for up to a week. This is definitely not what good recovery looks like.

Why dairy and no other animal products?

So my idea is to include dairy (I will start with goat and sheep milk) into my diet. Dairy is well known to cause an insulin spike even without carbohydrates. The proteins in milk are the cause for this and also have an impact on IGF-1 levels as they are high in leucine. I choose to include dairy over eggs because milk is comparatively low in carnitine and choline. Those two amino-acids are problematic because the gut microbiome and then the liver will convert them into a carcinogen called TMAO. Recent research has shown that this substance might in fact be the reason why animal products can cause cancer and heart disease and not the saturated fat or cholesterol content. Therefore eggs and meat are problematic. Dairy on the other hand does contain very low levels of both amino-acids. Cheese contains 15mg of choline per 100grams, whereas 100grams of fresh egg already has 251mg of choline. The level of choline in eggs is 30 times higher than in cheese when compared on a caloric basis.

For the purpose of including a calorically dense food that increases insulin and IGF-1 without carbohydrates, I will choose goat-milk in the form of well-fermented cheese for the beginning. In my opinion this is the least likely to cause allergic or otherwise negative reactions for two reasons. Firstly goat milk is less allergenic than milk from cows containing a certain type of casein.

Goat-milk from grass-fed free-range sources is the most ethical animal product?

For many years I have spent my summer-holidays hiking in the mountains of Switzerland. There you will see large areas of forest-free pasture where many goats, sheep and cows are grazing. The areas are oftentimes too high or too steep for any other agriculture to be possible. The only way to produce any form of food from these areas is to use them as pasture-land for animals and use their products. I have seen the cows and goats go to the milking stations on their own without any stress or resistance at all. Many newborns are among the animals and you can observe that only the additional milk is taken for human consumption. This resembles the ideal of animal treatment and how to obtain milk. So by buying free-range milk from that area I am sure it is produced in that way.

Efficient metabolism of cheese when on a high fat low carb diet

The high fat content and absence of carbohydrates in cheese fits well into my dietary regiment. On a high carbohydrate diet the inclusion of animal fats might be problematic. So the common combination of bread and cheese is likely to be suboptimal for health. A high fat intake is known to suppress insulin sensitivity. That means the same amount of carbohydrates requires a larger amount of insulin to enter the cells. With a (very) low carbohydrate intake this is not a problem, as there is little glucose which needs to enter the cells. Secondly the high saturated fat content of milk is good addition to the mono- and poly-unsaturated fat I am mainly getting from nuts and seeds. This keeps the overall level of omega-6 fats lower and in a desirable range.

First benefit of cheese consumption

After the first two days of incorporating cheese into my diet, I observed the first benefit of doing so. On a low carb diet, I am still struggling with muscle twitches. I have them whenever I eat less than about 70-100gr. of carbohydrates per day. But after the meals that included some goat-cheese, I observed a decrease in this phenomenon. I usually have the twitches all over my body. My theory is that it is caused by low insulin levels. Without insulin some nutrients cannot enter the cell so readily and maybe my muscles lack magnesium. Dairy-protein is known to cause an insulin-release, which might just be what I need, when I eat my one meal a day after fasting for about 23 hours. I guess there must be a balance in hormones over the course of the day. It is good to have low insulin most of the time, but while eating there should also be a spike in insulin so that the nutrients can enter the cells. And with a plant-based low carb diet, the insulin-release might just not be sufficient to absorb all the nutrients in only one meal. Therefore I will continue to observe the effects of dairy on this regimen. Should the muscle twitches not get better over time (after inner-cellular magnesium levels had the chance to increase) I will switch to a higher carb content of the one meal coming from fast acting sources like white rice.

But so far I want to stick with the high fat diet, because it seems like starches aggravate my scalp psoriasis.

Results: Two weeks of including cheese in my diet

I can certainly say that my body has adjusted to eating certain kind of cheeses and also the aged cows milk cheeses. I could observe that it caused me no problem at all. But an experiment with eating yogurt did result in some digestive issues. I would guess that store-bought yogurts are not thoroughly fermented.  Sudden changes in my carbohydrate level will still results in those mysterious muscle twitches. Whenever I have days where I eat only nuts, seeds, a little cheese and vegetables, they will come back. I have found that I need at least 70-100 grams of net carbs per day to prevent those twitches. In the beginning the cheese seemed to stop the twitching, but I would guess that this came from the higher protein content which my body converted partially into glucose. With a low protein intake of around 50-70gr per day, I need more carbohydrates to compensate. If I add up those numbers, I am still eating a high fat diet. Compared to other low carbohydrate dieters, who consume a lot more protein, my combined protein and carb intake is on a similar level. It is common for ketogenic or low-carb dieters to consume more than 100gr of protein per day and up to 50gr of carbohydrates. So total calories coming from non fat sources are similar in both diets. But I choose to limit protein consumption because it has been shown to increase longevity in a number of animal studies.

Conclusion:

By choosing the cheeses which are aged, high in fat and lower in protein, milk can be a healthy addition to a low carbohydrate diet. To limit methionine intake, protein derived from milk must be limited. Total protein intake must also be limited to about 1g/kg bodyweight per day. I personally did not observe any negative health outcomes after almost a month of including cheeses into my diet. By including a generous amount of vegetables and fiber in the diet, any concerns regarding rising cholesterol should be countered. Certain types of mold-cheeses have also been shown to have positive health effects. I even feel that cheese can be particularly healthy for individuals consuming a low protein, low calorie vegan diet. Because this might cause very low IGF-levels long term and leads so slower regeneration after workouts and injuries. Dairy protein is known to raise IGF-levels. And this is the reason why it should be limited and not combined with a high protein, high carbohydrate and high calorie diet. 

OMAD As A Strategy For Personal Development

There are many health reasons for eating one meal a day, but the greatest benefit is indeed on a mental level. By eating one meal a day for extended periods and even making it a life-long practice is like putting up a fence against once desires. It teaches you to control impulses and derive joy and benefits from doing so.

Eating one meal a day is a habit that increase self-awareness

This teaches you the incredibly valuable lesson of how to be in the driver seat of you mind and body. It increases the degree of control you have over your life. If you follow this practice for some time you will recognize how the effects can be felt well beyond the area of food and eating. In my experience this diet alters the way you think and your motivation-pathways. You will develop a state of mind in which you are more likely to resist immediate gratifications and instead look for long-term benefits. It is well knows that this will lead to a happier, healthier and probably richer life. In fact when it comes down to the financial aspect of delayed-gratification, the effects become measurable. Only by saving money (delaying consumption) are you able to benefit from interest, compound interest and future capital gains of investments.

Song of the article:

The inner state of mind is an area where the outcomes of delayed gratification cannot be measured as easily. This is a very personal and individual development that takes place gradually. Being able to stay in a mental place of peace and general well-being without having to search for the next “high” or stimulation from the outside world makes you resilient to circumstances you cannot control. Whole philosophies developed around the idea that the main way to attain a state of lasting happiness is based around working on and molding ones inner mental space.

Stoicism developed in ancient Greece. More recently the movement of minimalism has picked up some ideas of stoicism. But minimalism is mainly focused on external influences. The core idea of minimalism is to attain freedom and happiness through the reduction of possessions. But it fails to deliver the mental concept and attitude required to detach happiness from outer circumstances in general. Many minimalist end up chasing outer experiences, which do not require the possession of physical objects. Excessive travelling and adventuring are common activities that minimalists engage. In that state they are attached to a system that enables them to engage in such a (environmentally) destructive activity. The activity is needed to get the next “high” in the form of new places, cultures and experiences. On a mental level this is the same motivational pathway than people who live the “consumer-lifestyle”, acquiring and changing possessions on a regular basis.

With the OMAD diet, one can take a first step into the direction of detaching from outer satisfaction. The next step could be to learn about the original ideas of stoicism and following such path. With a stoic mind, possessions and outer experience actually become enjoyable. The mind is not attached to them and does not need them to be happy. But they can be used and enjoyed from a standpoint where you are free to actually choose to partake in them or not. Similar to someone who does not regularly drinks coffee. He can choose take it occasionally for a boost in energy, but does not need it to function on a daily basis. He enjoys a boost in energy from coffee and the stoic enjoys a boost in happiness. The addict on the other hand does not experience such feelings and in turn needs the substance to feel normal.

For most people, switching to one meal per day is a difficult change. The adaptation process will reveal certain challenging aspects of ones psyche. But for a person interested in personal development, this is a good thing. It presents an opportunity of mental growth which we usually suppress by keeping busy and cover up by overindulgence in food and other highly pleasurable but also addictive behaviors. We tend to keep busy for long periods of time (work) and then fill the rest of our time with as much pleasure as possible (consumption). So OMAD actually presents the opportunity for much needed idle time. Such times allow us to reflect and develop a broader perspective of life. Introspection falls way short in today’s environment where distraction and entertainment is available for every little bit of free time. Smartphones, TV, Gaming, Food, Sex, Cinemas, Travel, … There is an activity for every length of free time. We do not even have to think for a minute anymore for ourselves and come up with our own purpose.

A certain degree of boredom and true idle time is necessary for creative thoughts. We can never really tap into that anymore. The free time gained from only eating once per day is a powerful tool for transformation in several ways. By facing ones desire for food without giving in to them, one can see into the nature of desires. Observing how it behaves and where it arises. These are interesting insights that can only be gained through careful introspection. As these are individual insights, reading or hearing them might not necessarily teach you much which you can apply for your own life. But spending a few weeks or month eating only one meal a day will bring you some insights if combined with careful introspection into the difficulties you will face.

So let the transformation be a spiritual one as much as it will be a physical transformation for the body.

Back to the feel-good basics

1. Eating one meal a day

I have spent about three month, exploring the effects of different eating styles on my mood, energy, digestion and general happiness with the diet. Before that I was eating only one meal a day for several month. In the last three month I have tried eating 5 small meals a day, 3 evenly sized meals or two meals within an 6-8 hour window.

Let me tell you my experiences with those different eating styles:

Eating 5 small meals per day, did absolutely not work for me. I hated not being able to eat until I got the internal signal that I no longer want to eat. Stopping before that point required careful calorie counting, or else I would exceed my daily caloric requirement.  The other alternative was to eat mostly vegetables and achieve fullness through volume. But that did not go well for my digestion, the amount of fiber was probably just too much. I had to go to the toilet several times per day. Other downsides to basically only eating vegetables all day long were the cost, the time spent eating and the preparation required to take all the food with me to work.

In the end I was not able to feel as good on this schedule as I did with extended intermittent fasting.

Song of the article:

Eating three meals per day was already better in some aspects, but with my job were I mostly sit at a desk, even three meals were leaving me with too many calories at the end of the day. And I still missed the effects of the regular daily fast. I was eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. I also did not enjoy how much time food preparation took and I was generally not excited about the upcoming meal.

The best concept that I tried in the last three month, was eating twice per day in a restriction timeframe. That gave some intermittent fasting and autophagy benefits. It required less time eating and preparing food and I could eat meals that were satisfying, without them being only vegetables. But after a quite large lunch my motivation and energy at work dropped significantly. And most remarkably, my ability to resist sweets and other temptations, which are available at our office almost every day due to some birthdays or visitors bringing presents, dropped from “not even thinking about it” to “let’s eat it, I am not fasting anyways”. While I am fasting, I do not consider the sweets worthwhile to break my fast and not achieve my goal, but while not fasting the thought of just eating something suboptimal or unhealthy is not enough to keep  me from eating it.

After those experiments with different eating styles and patterns, I can say I learned a lot from them in the sense that they reinforced my desire to live the OMAD lifestyle.

Exercising in the morning, followed by a cold shower is super-charging autophagy and increases the utilization of fat. The endorphins from the cold-shower can be felt for hours afterwards and in combination with green tea produce a super-efficient state of mind for working and studying.

And I have to admit the one meal a day diet produces a very satisfying feeling of superiority. Not in the sense that this makes you better than other people, but in the sense that it produces a superior state of body and mind. It facilitates positive behavior in other areas of life and puts you in the driver-seat instead of the part of you that just chases the next fix. This released energy and time can be used on whatever projects you would like to work on.

I recommend eating one meal a day especially to those who would like to enjoy food to the fullest each and every day. This might be counter-intuitive but the fast creates an incredible degree of appreciation for the meal ahead, taste becomes much more sensitive and intense and satisfaction after the meal is complete without worry of caloric intake.

 

2. Green Tea, Quality Food and Focus on Antioxidant-/Nutrient-Density

While I have never been drinking coffee, I had periods where I was addicted to green tea. But as I was researching more into it’s effects lately I have picked up the habit of drinking green tea again. I think it has more positive benefits than negative ones. And the mood improving properties are so remarkable for me that I enjoy a cup now every day. I steep one tea bag several times so that a lot get’s dissolved into the water. And it also spreads out the caffeine over several hours, reducing the peak concentration.

On business-trips I lately did not have the chance to eat my usual high quality, anti-oxidant-rich, vegetable-based diet. After some time on such a diet it is easy to forget how awful bad food can make you feel. And this is oftentimes food that other people eat as their daily staples. Foods like white bread, sugary cereal and spreads, meat and processed food for example have been part of my diet on those trips. I was invited to eat at restaurant that did not serve any food I would consider healthy. Experiencing the general feeling of uneasiness and sluggishness spreading through my body and mind was revealing once again what I had forgotten about healthy eating: Food is the single most important ingredient of feeling good every day. It’s impact can be felt immediately.

Therefore I will focus again on the antioxidant- and nutrient-density of food. This is just the single best general measure of how good a particular food will make you feel in the long-run. Of course you have to keep individual intolerances in mind. This basically boils down to a plant based diet which in my particular case is gluten-free and high fat. So most of my calories are coming from nuts and seeds and most of the volume comes from vegetables, which I eat raw and cooked. But I avoid eating ketogenic for the moment, and shoot for about 150gr of net carbs per day. That allows me also to include things like carrots, potatoes and legumes. Protein-intake is between 60-100gr per day. Total calories are around 1500-1700kcal on average.

3. Daily Routines – Exercise, Meditation and Balance

I have written in the past about the power of habits. To long-term happiness I think it is almost mandatory to establish a set of positive daily habits. Getting into the routine of doing things, which make you feel good, on a daily basis can make a big difference in the long run. The benefits are often cumulative and depend on keeping up the practice over a sufficiently long enough period of time.

In particular I have found it to be important to include the following things into my day: exercise and regularly moving the body, mindfulness and meditation, balancing energy-intake with energy-expenditure and maintaining relative caloric restriction. As exercise I try to include daily body-weight exercises and dumbbell workouts. 3-4 times per week, I try to bring my heart-beat up to its maximum by HIIT like sprinting or running up a hill until exhaustion. I avoid long endurance exercise as I believe it to be unnecessary for optimal health. I feel short but intense exercise sessions keep my heart and lungs functioning at a very high level.

Meditating for 30-60 minutes daily and maintaining a high level of mindfulness and presence throughout the day is a major habit you have to build up to. And it makes you much more resilient in stressful situations and able to react efficiently and quickly to whatever comes up.

The third habit should be to strive for balance in all areas of life. Balancing overeating with phases of undereating falls into that category. As overeating is much more common in today’s western societies it is wise to focus on daily fasting or undereating. My experience is that this has a wide range of benefits. For me it makes eating much more enjoyable, because the body is actually craving the nutrition and the calories in particular. Assimilation and absorption becomes more efficient.

Productivity should be balanced with phases of relaxation. I have struggled with that unknowingly for a long time. I always wanted to use every minute of the day in a productive manner. I even meditated with the purpose in mind to improve myself. Now I allow a good amount of daily mindless activity and allow myself to do whatever I like without the focus on self-improvement in my case. This might be playing video-games or watching a movie/series. Which are things I have not done in years because I considered them worthless activities. But now I recognize the importance of having balancing in that regard too. Otherwise I think that the path of self-mastery and personal development is not sustainable long-term.

4. Deliberate decompression – mindless activity

I want to write about this particular aspect of balance under a separate headline, because it has been my latest major discovery in my personal development journey. For a long time I have been very future oriented in my activities and only considered those worthwhile that would be of some benefit to my future self. That meant constant learning and little actual time being completely idle. Books I was reading not for the entertainment but for the purpose of improving myself and learning something that would translate into some form of benefit in the future. In years I did not watch TV, only about one movie per month and never played any video games. All my media consumption was connected to learning and improving myself in some form or another.

So lately I discovered that I could not keep up with processing and really applying and internalizing all the new information entering my brain. I had to start doing some mindless activities. Just doing something that is enjoyable in the moment. For that purpose I bought a PlayStation 4. Something I would never have thought of buying before. Offline Video-games? What a waste of time. And that’s exactly what I needed to balance out my overly purpose-driven activities. I did not know how much fun playing video games in HD could be. I am still flashed every time by this next-gen graphics. Last time I played video games, the quality was on the level of GTA Vice City, where heads and faces were still (sort of) painted pyramids.

I am maybe playing 1-2 hours, two or three times per week and this leaves me exactly with the feeling I hoped for: “the vigor to get things done, study or work”.

And most importantly I learned, mindless and purpose-less activity has its place in a balanced approach to life. Many people naturally tend to do it after long, hard days at work. It almost a cliché, that the worker, who has to endure a boring and tedious working day, comes home to a mindless-life in front of the TV. That is on the other end of the extreme and probably unhealthier than the constant focus to improve oneself. 

What living with a chronic disease for a decade has taught me about happiness

When I was 15 years old, I got diagnosed with crohn’s disease and colitis. The doctor was not so sure which of both I really had, so he diagnosed me with both. For years before that diagnosis I struggled with increasing stomach pain, diarrhea and missed many days at school. Finally I got treated with prednisone and felt better initially, but the drug made me feel worse in the long run.

I started my search for health and diet on the internet, read many books and was hooked on the path to get well by myself ever since. I saw immediate benefits of the healthy lifestyle and the healthy diet in particular. I drastically reduced the occasions when I drank alcohol and avoided junk food for the most part, because everytime I indulged in it, I felt the immediate negative effects.

Challenges come to us in many ways. Consciously chosen or not.

Finding what works

I have to say though that it was not an easy journey to find out what works and what does not and I am still tweaking my diet around on a regular basis, trying out new things. But I also tend to forget from time to time what did not work and deviate from my protocols and diets, only to find myself in pain all over again. But those periods have become less frequent and shorter. I am now more stable in my good eating habits and avoid big “failures”.

Can you become happier through a disease?

But I have learned a positive lesson from this disease. I am actually very thankful for the path that this condition has pushed me towards. I know this sounds mad to someone who is suffering badly from this or any disease. But I have found that this disease has pushed myself to grow mentally. To learn and grow in areas that I would probably have neglected otherwise. If you would ask me if I wanted to relive the past 10 years without having this disease, I would tend to answer no. Of course you never know how an alternative reality would have turned out to be, but as I am in a pretty happy state right now, I do not wanted anything to be different. I can imagine many different realities without this disease that would not have turned out so well. Without the interest in eating healthy, I would probably have continued to eat meat and junk food. Ending up less healthy overall in the end.

And the things I learned about healthy living were only the start of a much greater journey into personal development. This path I might also not have taken without all that I learned through the research on this condition. And serious personal development work has probably been the biggest factor in increasing my happiness over the last couple of years. Meditation, inner work and contemplation of death for example have shifted my mental outlook in profound ways. Listening to great teachers like Alan Watts and contemplating on his teachings have paved my way to discover greatly helpful concepts to cope with life’s struggles. And I can honestly say I am much happier since implementing several mental practices into my daily life.

Conclusion

The bottom line of this post is that no matter what difficult situations life throws at you, you are most likely to benefit from them as well. Similar to physical training, where you first have to challenge and hurt the muscles in order for them to grow, life-challenges will grow your character, happiness and resilience. And in knowing that, you can actually appreciate the hard times. Seeing hard times as opportunities for growth allows you to search for constructive solutions to your problems. Leaving you better off in the end than without that challenging life-event.

The different levels of ketosis

If you reduce your intake of carbohydrates, your body increases the amount of fat it burns. Lowered levels of insulin allow for a greater release of free fatty acids into the blood. Their utilization by almost all tissues goes up. But the interesting thing is that not all tissues and organs are able to get all of their energy from metabolizing fat. The brain, some immune-cells and mucous producing cells in the gut have a hard time getting 100% of their energy requirements from fat.

From a certain point onwards, the body starts produce ketone bodies as a byproduct of fat metabolism. In highly adapted individuals the brain for example can derive 75% of its energy from the utilization of ketone bodies. It will always require a certain amount of glucose. This can either come from glucose from food or through gluconeogenesis.

Therefore the adaptation to a ketogenic diet has several phases. At the beginning a low carbohydrate diet is accompanied by quiet a high amount of ketone bodies expelled in the urine. This shows that the body is burning a lot of fat, but organs like the brain are not jet able to fully utilize the ketones that are present. Only if the level of carbohydrates are consistently kept very low (<30gr/day) will the body fully switch over.  After several weeks the levels of ketone bodies in the urine should go down. Though this can take up to several month. Once this happened, protein requirements will drop even further.

A critical point during the adaptation phase

But the most critical point is probably the mucous producing cells, lining the gut walls. They require carbohydrate, from which they form the mucous. It is not clearly known if those cells can ever fully do their job without carbohydrates. There are concerns, that this increases the risk of colon cancer. Because cells in the lining of the colon are no longer optimally protected.

To prevent this it is also critical to maintain a proper amino-acid intake. Heavy reliance on muscle meats as it can be found in many keto-dieters is also detrimental to the mucous lining of the gut. Glycine, Proline, Cysteine, Serine and Threonine are important amino acids for those mucin-producing cells. Mucin is the glycoprotein that the mucus consists of. Glycine and proline are usually the amino acids that most people are falling short in. Even though they are semi-essential amino acids, sometime the body cannot produce enough of them for optimal functioning. Gelatin would be one good source for those amino acids. On a vegan diet though, the best strategy is to eat a variety of nuts, seeds and protein rich vegetables like leafy greens and mushrooms.

The adaptation phase is challenging

Few people truly adapt to the ketogenic state, because it is so hard during the adaptation phase. One cannot imagine that there is light at the end of the tunnel and most people quit before they reap the benefits.

Personal experience with getting fully keto-adapted

I have found that I could get into a highly adapted state by a pure water fast. Afterwards I broke the fast with the most low carb vegan foods I could think of. I feel so incredible different than I did before on a higher carb diet (100-150gr/day) that I plan on staying on this protocol for as long as possible. I am also curious to see where this diet leads me health wise and in my mental performance and wellbeing.

I have found the water fast to be an ideal way to get fully keto adapted. As many people complain about the difficulties of giving up sweets or reducing carbohydrate intake, I have found it easy to compress all the withdrawal symptoms into one week and go cold turkey on everything. That’s basically what a fast does and why so many people feel so bad during the first few days. It is quitting a lot of addictions at once (stimulating food, coffee, alcohol, drinks,…)

The great advantage of the water fast for the ketogenic dieter

After even a short water fast (one week)most of your taste buds have recovered and are very sensitive. You are not craving sweet food anymore and if you break the fast with low carb food (avocado for example) you can expect to have a heightened sensitivity for sweet tastes. Even things like avocado, celery and spinach will have a remarkably sweet taste. This sets you up for success on the ketogenic diet, where sweet tastes are usually very subtle. 

Trying out the opposite of the one meal a day diet: Grazing

I have in the past eaten the one meal a day diet for a couple of month. I felt good on it and liked some aspects of it and disliked others.

Now that I am coming off of a prolonged water fast and my body is highly adapted to burning fat, I will continue eating high fat plant based. But I will switch over to several smaller, even sized meals throughout the day. This means, I am going to eat 5 meals of the same size every three hours. Or, as I plan to prepare a smoothie in the morning, I will drink a few sips of that throughout the day.

My rough calculation:

6days/week: 5x400kcal=2000kcal
1day/week: 0kcal
daily average 1.700kcal

After my prolonged water fast I guess my body is efficient enough to survive on that level of calories.

Nuts are a convenient snack for me

What is the purpose of grazing?

I intend to get better nutrient absorption from grazing. I have found that I did not fully digest my meal, if I only eat once a day. This resulted in muscle-twitching leading me to the conclusion that I am deficient in some minerals.

Grazing and low-carb – a necessary combination?

Every time I start eating a larger amount of carbohydrates, I have a hard time stopping myself before the point of being fully stuffed. And even than I find myself wanting more. Therefore I think the combination of high fat and grazing can be a good combination. I even wonder if hunger will ever be a motivator to eat on that eating pattern. I am more concerned about having to stop myself earlier than what I was used to. After the fast I do not want to gain weight too fast. I want to build healthy lean weight.

But I can imagine, that the combination of grazing and high carb low fat might work equally well. Volume is generally high on that diet and the small meals might level out the blood sugar and not cause huge spikes.

I am going to report my experiences with this in future posts...

Water Fasting to Completion - Day 1 & 2

Day 1:

I spend most of the time in bed and was able to keep warm. But I also went out for a walk to get some movement and fresh air. For heavier individuals I would definitely recommend regular light exercise during a fast. But I try to conserve as much energy as possible. And therefore I will not spent to much time outside, especially now that the temperature in January is below 0°C.

I felt good and less hungry (empty stomach) than I anticipated. I read recommendations that say to even keep mental activity to a minimum, but outside of my meditation practice I cannot stand the boredom of not doing anything for very long. I keep my mind busy with reading, writing and listening to music.

I had two bowel movements this day, which were quite normal. The day before I ate also quite normally, so that was to be expected. 

Overall I probably drank less than one liter of water. I do not have a great desire for drinking water. And even the times I drank where not really because of very strong thirst. The seven and ten day fasts I did before, I was drinking to much water. Probably upwards of two liters per day. Now I see how this was detrimental and its connection to the issues I had during those fasts. For example on the second fast I felt so cold, that lying on a heating blanket was not enough to get me to feeling warm. But I was probably also not adjusted to burning fat, as I was eating a mainly fruit and starch based diet before those fasts. 

From that experience I would now recommend to drink according to thirst and eat a high fat diet. At least a couple of weeks leading up to the fast. This will make the fast quite an enjoyable experience, in my experience ;)

Day 2:

I had another bowel movement of smaller size this day. I was a little surprised about that, as it was about 40 hours after the last meal.

In general I feel really good. I can definitely say that I feel better than before fasting. Listening to music has become different. Kind of like the music is more rich, more saturated and more surrounding. It really sucks my complete attention in if I close my eyes and listen with headphones. It feels similar to listening to music when taking a small dose of magic mushrooms. I am sure the fast is starting to affect my brain chemistry.

During the night I had vivid dreams and some of them were lucid. Even though I did not remember to act out the dream-goal I wanted to achieve, I still was able to remember the dream vividly.

Water-wise, I definitely drank again less than a liter. 

I still feel warm and apart from muscular weakness, I do not feel tired or exhausted at all. To the contrary, I can feel a generally more positive outlook develop in me with an increased desire to do things and get things done. I look forward to the experience of going to work tomorrow. 

Today I bought an audiobook called extinction. I really enjoy the experience of lying bed and getting fully absorbed into the story and once own imagination. This way I can really see a long fast being very enjoyable, even with almost complete bed-rest if that should be necessary. 

Water Fasting to Completion - What it is and how I go about it!

To treat an underlying issue I had for many years I am conducting a water fast. I have not decided about the length of the fast as advised by Dr. Shelton. He advises to finish a fast with the return of real hunger. This is not a hunger felt in the stomach but in the mouth and throat. So I will embark on this water fast without knowing up front how long it will take.
This will be my journal of the experience.

There was once a whole season, where food might
not have been so plentiful and readily available as it is today.
We had to be highly adapted to even prolonged fasting.

Why do I conduct a prolonged water fast even though I do not need (or even can afford) to lose any weight?

As for most people, who embark on the journey of a water fast, my reasons are health related. Nine years ago I have been diagnosed with intestinal disorders called ulcerative colitis and crohn's disease. Yes, doctors diagnosed me with both, whereas the usual reasoning is, that you can only have one. 

Even though I know think that the outbreak of these illnesses were stress related, I did not see that back then. And from a medical perspective it is said to be an incurable condition. And that pervaded my thinking for many years.

About six years ago I switches to a mainly plant based diet and through trial and error found out that I could control my symptoms. But I never really managed to stick to one approach and become completely symptom free for an extended period of time. Most of the times I have done blood test, the marker CRP, showing the systemic inflammation level, was slightly elevated. Thus increasing my long term risk of developing complications in other areas as well.

With the water fast I try to restore completely healthy tissues in the digestive tract. Starving out any harmful intestinal bacteria that might be present. Restoring digestive capacity. Gaining healthy weight, so that I my weight is back into the normal weight range. And increasing nutrient absorption efficiency so that my body is able to digest what I eat. 

In parallel to the digestive disorders I developed a skin condition called psoriasis. It is only limited to my scalp, but there is almost always present. It is not in a very bad condition, but I have to make sure to wash my hair daily, otherwise dandruff will be visible. Additional itching of the scalp makes this a very annoying condition to have in the long run.

Lastly I have three further "injuries" that I hope to heal during the fast:

1. while running a couple of weeks ago in the cold weather and stretching before being fully warmed up, I pulled a muscle in the back of my upper leg. It is quite painful at times and did not heal yet
2. Three years ago I injured my shoulder while training in the gym. Even prolonged pauses from training did not manage to heal it. Every time I resume even moderately heavy lifting with my shoulder I feel pain in that area.
3. When running for more than 3-4 km at a time, my right knee starts to hurt. From an MRI scan I know that it is a small cyst, which is too small to operate. I hope that a fast to completion might dissolve this obviously unnecessary tissue.

What are the specifics of the fast?

I go about the fast with one primary rule in mind: I will listen to my body and my instincts. 

I set secondary rules to ensure I can trust my body, its signals and my instincts. 

What do I mean by that more specifically?

• I am drinking according to thirst and not any set amount that I think I need to drink according to some theory. This is probably much less than the recommended two liters per day.
• I will resist to put food in my stomach based on the feeling of emptiness/acidity in the stomach. This is supposed to last for 2-3 days. 
• I will resume eating once the unmistakable sensation of true hunger arises. This is supposed to feel similar to true thirst, which is felt in the mouth and the throat. And only the desire for pure water is present and strongly sought after

The secondary rules are the following and serve the purpose of creating an environment in which our instincts evolved and can be trusted:

• When breaking the fast I will resist the urge to indulge in unnatural food. I cannot consider to trust my instinct when I allow for unnatural food to be part of the choices that they can safely judge.
• I plan on continuing my high fat whole food plant based diet after the fast
• Being optimally adapted to fat burning after the fast, I do not plan on breaking the fast with carbohydrate-rich foods, as those might not be the foods a fast could be broken with under natural circumstances.
• I plan on drinking half a glass of nut milk at each hour after the sensation of natural hunger returns
• On the second day I increase that to a full glass every to hours. 
• On the third day I plan on having nuts, seeds and leafy greens blended into smoothies, gradually increasing in size
• As it has not been done many times before to break a fast in such a way I have to be extra careful of any symptoms of indigestion

So this is how I plan to go about this fast and what I hope to gain from it. 

I would like to hear about your experiences with fasting and what you think about my approach and the reasoning behind it!

Intermittent Fasting vs. Regular Caloric Restriction

Today I would like to talk about the difference between caloric restriction at every meal and Intermittent Fasting. Especially in regards to the question which strategy is more feasible as a long term strategy to extend lifespan.

Research indicates that caloric restrictions leads to an efficient metabolism and a slowed aging process. This can either be achieved by general caloric restriction or by a restricted feeding window, also called intermittent fasting. Both ways should lead to a decrease in caloric intake. And finally it should be made clear that this article is evaluating the pros and cons of these approaches in the light of life-long caloric restriction. In short term many things might work if the goal is just fat-loss. For long-term compliance more aspects need to be considered.

Do you prefer large meals...

Intermittent Fasting

In my experience a shortened eating time during the day is not enough to ensure such a caloric restriction. I find myself quite capable of eating a big amount of food in one meal. Therefore attention to caloric intake still has to be paid. With that said let’s discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this approach:

Advantages:

• Less time spend preparing food and eating
• With fewer meals, one can eat to greater satiety after the meal
• Therefore, in theory, a caloric deficit is easier to achieve
• Feelings of hunger are compressed into one fasting window
• Hormone-release during the fasting period leads to increased fat utilization
• Easy to tailor around social eating events
• The relationship with food will be revealed (e.g. emotional eating)

Disadvantages:

• Challenging for some people to get all the required nutrients in one or two meals per day
• Once appetite is used to eating bigger meals it takes time to go back to several smaller meals
• Hunger or rather the feeling of an empty stomach might be an issue for some people

... or regular but smaller meals?

Regular Caloric Restriction

With regular caloric restriction I assume three meals a day and a mainly or almost exclusively plant-based diet. Plant-based eating has been shown to have life extension properties on it’s own if done correctly. A healthful diet includes only whole foods and should make caloric restriction easier because of increased satiety. Here are the Advantages and Disadvantages of this approach compared to intermittent fasting:

Advantages:

• Smaller meals are easier to digest and assimilate leading to higher nutrient absorption
• Easier to plan even sized meals
• Regular eating might reduce hunger in some people
• High amount of vegetables can (needs) to be eaten at every meal to ensure satiety – this also leads to the advantage of high nutrient-density of the diet
• Higher intake to healthy high fiber foods possible

Disadvantages:

• Lower satiety at each meal, "the need to stop before satisfied"
• Harder to adjust to social eating (when portion sizes in restaurants are bigger)
• Might not fit some peoples schedule
• Meal preparation might be necessary

In the end it is a matter of preference. But just make sure to give each approach a decent trial period before you judge it. Your body has to adjust either way. Give it at least 30 days on each protocol.

In my next article I will discuss how I go about it and combine fasting with regular caloric restriction to reap benefits of both approaches.