So, there I was, just quit smoking, diagnosed with diabetes type 2, liver issues, and obese at 120kg. As I said before in my “5 Steps to Stop Smoking Forever” article, I am not a medical doctor or have any medical training apart from some distant past first aid training.
This medical profile did not fit with my plan to move to the Philippines or live past my 60th birthday. So required some serious attention and a long hard talk with myself. Not only did I need to find out how to lose weight. I needed to find out how to lose weight fast.
Now I think during my life I have heard the same rubbish as you all reading this have heard also. To lose weight, you need to eat five meals a day. You should join a gym and kill yourself for four hours a day seven days a week. Eat low-calorie meals whilst drinking low-calorie shakes.
I have now discovered that this is terrible advice and doesn’t help anyone.
I have added some links below to some books I bought on amazon and they were definitely a game-changer.
Rapid weight loss is simple but keeping it off is the hard part.
Diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease
So before we get onto the losing weight part, let’s deal with the elephant in the room, type 2 diabetes. I was completely ignorant on this subject until about 24 hours after the doctor phoned me up to give me the news, but once I understood what was going on (several hours on youtube), I figured out I could cure myself.
Now Type 2 diabetes is not the stage before type 1, and just because you have type 2 does not mean you will get type 1. Type 1 diabetes cannot be cured and is a permanent condition caused by your body being unable to produce insulin anymore, generally as a result of your pancreases failing.
Type 2 diabetes means you have become insulin resistant. Sugar is not good for the body, and the body deals with sugar by producing insulin. However, as time goes by, you need to make more insulin to deal with the same amount of sugar. This same reason a drug addict needs ever-increasing drugs. To achieve the same high they got when they first started taking drugs. Eventually, you can’t make enough insulin, so you become “Insulin resistant”, and your sugar levels rise. Congratulations, you now have type 2 diabetes.
To cure type 2 diabetes, you need to change your lifestyle but not completely stop eating the food you enjoy. Just moderate the lousy food, namely the carbohydrates. This generally goes hand in hand with the need to lose weight.
Our bodies love carbohydrates because they are very easy to break down and use. Go back to the 1970’s and obese people were very rare but now it is very common. Why? Because we are now doing two things wrong. We eat more carbohydrates than anything else, and we eat almost constantly throughout the day. Pre 1970’s most families in the west would we three meals a day (meat and two veg) and nothing in between.
Our body is evolved for “Fight or Flight”, and as such, it is fantastic at storing fat to use as energy for running away from danger, such as tigers with big teeth. Or the time you have no food because you are out hunting and gathering it. So, although most of us don’t have tigers to worry about, our bodies still store the fat, and because our bodies are so used to us ramming carbs down our throats every day, it has forgotten how to use the stored fat.
So now, when the body runs out of carbs in the stomach to use for energy, it makes you feel hungry, now you grab another meal or snack, and the body uses that for energy instead of using the fat it has already stored for racing tigers. Therefore, the “five meals a day” advice is not going to help you lose weight.
Have you ever wondered why middle-aged men have got a pot belly? As a man gets older, his levels of testosterone drop and as testosterone is one of the best fat strippers your body can produce you now, can’t lose fat as quickly. So now you’re storing fat, mostly on your liver, and your testosterone is dropping. This is what your pot belly is, and then you end up with a “Fatty liver disease” diagnosis (as I did above), but again, if caught early enough, the liver is fantastic as repairing itself (as mine has).
On the subject of half killing yourself in a gym every day with the seriously expensive membership they sold you, here is the truth. When the body becomes stressed (running from tigers etc., it automatically stores whatever fat it can get hold of or already has, so all that sweat in the gym will help cardiovascular wise but won’t move the fat. You are better off going for a long walk and will drop more fat.
We need to re-train our bodies and become “Fat adapted”.
So now we need to lower our insulin levels. We need to train our bodies to use the fat it has stored. Instead of it trying to get us to throw more carbs into the fire. This will also reduce the fat on our livers.
Remember when I was talking about pre 1970’s and obesity was rare. This was because you would eat dinner at maybe 6 pm but your next meal was breakfast at 7 am. Thirteen hours between the meals.
Intermittent Fasting
The term for this, and part “A” of losing weight is “Intermittent Fasting”. There are several ways to do this, but the man to listen to is Dr Jason Fung. Watch the videos and learn what happens to your body hour by hour as you don’t eat. I lost 20kg between October and April using this, and I have not felt this good in a long time. Another guy to watch is Thomas DeLauer. Thomas will give you very detailed information about the body’s behaviour during fasting periods. He will also give you suggestions as to mineral supplements you may want to take.
My fasting schedule to lose the weight fast was 20 and 4. This is 20 hours fasting (coffee, green tea and water only). Then a 4-hour eating window where I would maximise fat, protein and little to zero carbs. Apart from cheat night once a month.
Ketogenic Diet
Now for Part “B” of losing weight. If you have already watched the two videos, I have linked to above, you will already know what’s coming.
To become “Fat adapted” and remind the body that it’s ok to use its fat reserves you need to get into a state of “Ketosis”. Once in this state, the body creates Ketones from the fat you have stored and uses this for fuel instead of carbohydrates. The crazy thing about this diet is it requires you to eat less than 20g of carbs a day and as much protein and natural fat (greed yoghurt, dairy products etc.) as you can eat (in your eating window). When you go shopping and start paying attention to the amount of carbs in so called healthy foods, it will shock you. Also, the list of vegetables and fruits you will have to reduce or cut out is also impressive. Your new lifestyle is a high Protein diet, High Fat (the right fat!) and low carb.
The early days of getting into Ketosis is, to be honest, a pain in the ass. You will more than likely get a headache for a while and your morning breath will make you ashamed. But in the end, you will feel amazing, especially as you watch the weight drop off.
With intermittent fasting and the keto diet, I lost the 20kg. My liver has been restored to working order and my diabetes cured, so this does work.
I don’t suffer a boring and bland diet, but I have discovered life after carbs. I also still eat chocolate, the occasional pizza and enjoy a glass of whiskey now and again. But the weight remains gone, I feel healthier and I maintain my 4 hour eating window.
I hope that reading this gives you hope. If you are one of the millions of people that have tried so many different diets. You have spent money and time on exercise, then this article will probably come as a bit of a shock.
One more shock for you!!
With intermittent fasting combined with the keto diet, you will lose more weight while you sleep than during the day!!
Happy fasting.
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