Makes me think of when I went to visit a friend I had not seen in nearly a year. It turned out that she had joined weight watchers during that year and lost about 70 pounds on it. When I saw her I didn't recognize her and could hardly believe my eyes.

And it was not because she had gotten so thin. It was because she had gotten so terrible looking! In fact I hardly knew what to say to her as she looked so bad I thought that perhaps she was dying of cancer or some other dreadful disease. She was gaunt and sickly looking and had the most dreadful-looking grayish pasty skin, and her hair was like straw.

She has since gained back a lot of the weight and looks so much better it's a real relief.

Well it *may* be temporary but only if you have problems with dairy. He eats plenty of dairy himself!

Yeah, I have just come upon PaNu myself - I think I found via a comment Dr. Harris made on one of the other blogs I follow. I felt I had already done just about all steps - but the biggie I had not was number 6, the IFing.

So I decided that since I've been stalled for months on end I had nothing to lose by incorporating his ideas into my current eating plan. So I also began doing the above. I have a lot to lose so I'm also keeping the protein low (60-70g range) that fat at 80-85%, the carbs below 5%.

I only began doing this 8 days ago and the result so far? Mind you this is after a stall for MONTHS ON END where my weight has been bouncing between 292-294 forever. Anyway, I have lost *seven and a half pounds* this week to get down to 284.5, a number I have not seen in a long time. And today I ran around in a pair of jeans I have not been able to wear in years.

I have 2 meals a day at lunch and dinner time. In the AM I have a cup of decaf with some cream and/or coconut oil added to it. My eating window is about 4-5 hours and I fast very easily the rest of the time. I hate eating teeny bird-like meals. So eating two meals a day means each meal can be pretty hearty and I don't feel deprived. Today my first meal was an omelet made with garlic, avocado and shredded raw cheddar. Second meal was 2 strips of bacon cooked- then sauteed some zucchini, garlic and onion in the bacon grease, then removed them and sauteed some fresh chicken livers in the bacon grease.

I've been eating this way now for 8 days and I can't believe my eyes when I look at the scale. Woo Hoo. My heart currently belongs to Dr. Harris and IF.

That's the only thing that works for me, esentially a vLC version of the OD, but I also avoid gluten & casein since these cause me cravings, respiratory problems & joint pains.

Were you drinking caffeine before you started on the 6 week cure? I wonder if going decaf could account for part of your whoosh (stalled by whey in the first 12 days before you went on the meaty part of 6WC). I've noticed that I only seem to need two meals if they are hearty. I too have always hated those mini-meal diets!!!

Bad decaf coffee always led me back to caffeine. But I got some Starbucks whole bean decaf expresso that I really like - no bitter or burnt or chemically taste that the other dozens of decafs I've tried had.

Nope. I had given up caffeine a couple months ago as one of my fruitless stall-breaking efforts, so I had already been caffeine-free for over 6 weeks when I started the 6WC. I do like my decaf and it has never ever led me back to caffeine.

That's wonderful!! I'm really glad to hear you have found an approach that is working for you!!

I do IF by accident. I'm just too frackin' lazy to cook enough.

A little late, sorry, but here are 2 comments made by Dr. Harris (PaNu) on the subject:




Cheryl

I don't mean this to sound strange but I am just starting to read more in depth about PaNu as well as IF.

I struggle with the concept of IF. I find that it's one thing if it's a natural consequence, where one's body dictates it unequivocally and quite the opposite if it's an intentional effort. In other words, it seems to me that if it's "on purpose" it's a dangerous slope considering the negative potential of an obsessive compulsive personality type engaging into an effort where being a perfectionist that always pushes boundaries can easily lead to inadequate nutrition and anorexic-like psychological mechanisms. Again, not the case with "natural IF progression" for lack of a better term.

Hopefully the above makes sense. I'll go see if I can find any discussion on the Psychology of IF-ing in his blog or elsewhere.

MissAma, I understand your concerns and maybe someone better informed than I can address the risks of IF and eating disorders. However, I think that waiting for an actual signal or trigger from our bodies to begin IFing might be a problem for some of us, like myself, who are thoroughly conditioned (mentally, emotionally) to eating frequently. I do think, as Harris himself implies, that a certain amount of healing from good nutrition needs to have taken place before one finds IF natural (having been LC for 8 years I believe my body was fairly Ketone adjusted when I began PaNu). But in order to overcome my conditioned reluctance to be separated from my food for any length of time, I had to read about it and then take a leap of faith. Then the response was unequivocal... my body knew that this was right.



Mine, too!

Cheryl

Yeah, I'm thinking the same. Dr. Harris even says at one point that people with a lot of weight to lose, like me, may have metabolisms so damaged that we really can't even trust our satiety signals, so may actually *have* to feel a bit of hunger at first as our metabolisms adjust and heal. I was also well-conditioned to having 3-meals-and-a-snack every day, and it's actually felt liberating to break that cycle which had become pretty demanding.

And my scale is still dropping. Down another 1.5 pounds again this morning to 283. One more pound to reach the low I hit on the OD back in the spring before I began eating more protein and bounced back up and stalled.

I just had my first meal - three slices of thick bacon, garlic sauteed in the bacon grease and then scrambled in one egg and one egg yolk. Cup of decaf and a very generous dollop of heavy cream. Does that sound like deprivation?

Kinda. That's not very much food at a meal for IF!

Hmm, well maybe my appetite is adjusting then as it felt like plenty to me, and held me until 6 PM when I had my second meal - 2 slices of bacon again (and this is very thick bacon!). Then cooked a bunch of sliced zucchini with some onion and garlic in the bacon grease. When it was done I removed it and then cooked chicken livers in the bacon grease. It looked like a lot of food on the place - but actually I'm a bit low on the fat today and when I key it all into LifeForm it says only 1476 calories for the day. Mostly I've been averaging 1800+ to 1900+ since I began IFing. But right now I feel pretty stuffed.

Excellent Debbie! You are less hungry because your body is able to access its stored energy. It's good to know that some people must enforce IF at first to get this going.

Patrick

I see where you're coming from, and sort of agree with you...yet sort of disagree with you.

I think an LC diet, for most people, is the single best way to control one's physical appetite. And if you're not hungry then, yes, that sort of takes "self-discipline" out of the equation. But just sort of.

Because even people who do have SUPER appetite control on paleo/LC diets, often quit the diet.

In fact, long-term drop out rates for BOTH paleo and and LC are very, very high. In spite of most people not being hungry on those diets. (Although some people absolutely ARE hungry on those diets.)

So even with profound appetite control theoretically making it "easy" to stick to an LC diet, many, many folks revert to eating chips, doughnuts, cake, etc. Probably most.

Do I know why? No I don't. But that is the way it seems to be.

It DOES take a great deal of discipline and perseverance to stick with even the best thought-out, appetite-controlling diets - such as LC/paleo.

It takes discipline to pay one's bills on time, exercise, keep a clean house etc. I believe most people lack discipline and perseverance. Those who have these qualities are rare, and tend to do much better than the median average in life.

Call me cynical...but that is my observation.

Because sugar is a powerful drug that calls our name and lures us into temptation. But seriously, carbs surround us everywhere we go. I never cheat as long as I stay home and cook my own meals. That said, I have a great social life and go out often. THAT is where my trouble lies. Even the best of intentions go out the window when surrounded by carbs. And, after a glass of wine, all bets are off. The caveat to that is that 90% of the time I can be disciplined and persevere. Still working on 100%. (post meant in good humor...)