I suppose so. Maybe you're deficient in a vitamin and that's why you're binging; supposedly, binging on chocolate indicates a magnesium deficiency. Do you use fitday? You could see if you're deficient in any nutrients.

I am glad to find out that I am not the only one I think that menses should be as brief as possible but I would have never have gandered that my period would take on this type of change. I was listening to a radio program where a doctor was bragging on how brief her's was because she refused to eat meat. I am glad to see that mine are lighter and more brief due to low carb fasting.

As for binging, the only time I have the urge to binge is when I refuse to eat something that I really want. However, I know that if I don't take care of the craving, I will succumb to it. So, I find alternatives to satisfy me before I cave to the craving. For example, if I am craving doughnuts, I will go to the low carb store and buy some low carb cookies ( chocolate walnut ). All I need is one or two and my craving vanishes.

Elle, you might want to consider breaking the fast before noon. IMHO, you should eat before you reach that major hunger phase. You don't want to lose control, regardless of the changes that you make. For me, it is impossible to break the fast at the same time each day. Actually, it is impossible for me to eat at the same time at night. The only thing that is consistant for me is that my fast is never less than fourteen hours. My fasts rarely are that short,however, but I will allow it if my work schedule deems it necessary. I have done some 18 hour fasts which were easy and I am sure that it is because I have gradually become settled into this new WOL. I work in the school system and I will be on summer break soon. At that time, I plan to make all of my fasts 18/6.

Just my $.02
Black

I've been reading this thread with interest and I'm wondering if I'd be considered to be doing IF since I eat dinner around 5pm and then don't eat until, at the earliest 9:30am, often not til 11am. However, I do drink coffee about 6:30am. I've been having the coffee with heavy cream because I've been trying to up the day's fat content. I could easily drink the coffee black but I have to drink something other than water in the morning. Water first thing in the morning on an empty stomach will make me very nauseous.
I remember reading the Warrior diet a while ago and he allowed for snacks, although he seemed to recommend a fruit or a vegetable as an antioxidant. Carbs stimulate my appetite so I won't do that.

When I was in high school (a very, very, very long time ago), I used to drink tea and a glass of orange juice (my mother made me. I wasn't hungry) and walk 2 miles to school (very quickly since I was always late leaving) and not eat lunch (a sandwich and fruit) until 1pm. I'd walk the 2 miles home from school and then eat 2-4 open face fat butter and peanut butter sandwiches. I'd then eat 2 helpings of dinner at 6 pm. I weighed 125 back then and it never budged no matter how much I ate. That was sort of IF back then and I'm thinking I should get back to it since it seems to be the way my body wants to eat.
Sooo... should I skip the cream in my coffee in the morning?

The Eades say calorie free drinks are fine during IF. Yeah, I'd call you an intermittent faster. Basically a long fast every day, or in the case of the Eades, every other day.

Nancy and Sleeknslim. I do my form of IF and I know I break some laws. For example, my morning coffee always has cream and coconut oil even though I don't eat my first meal until 11:00 or 12:00. I do this mainly since my body has become accustomed to eating an early AM breakfast and 3 other meals over day's duration. Now I am down to 2 or 3 meals a day, including my morning coffee and an 18 ( give or take ) hour fast. and I can still see a difference in the way my body is reacting. My weight comes down much sooner at the end of TOM. And , as I have mentioned, TOM is much shorter. Now is this way okay or should I do more tweaking to it?

Hi all IFers! Just marking my spot. I just found this thread and will be joining you all but I haven't read through the thread yet. See you in a while after I read it!!

Actually, ketones need krebs cycle (carbs) to be metabolized. Ketones use same pathway as fat when metabolized. If there is no metabolites of krebs cycle ketoacidosis is induced.

DB, I would have to say that this is probably the most common misconception about the krebs cycle.

Here's how Gabriel Guzman, biochemist administrator at Protein Power forum explained it recently:

'....Maybe one day the 'experts' will care to explain what they mean by 'lighting the fat-burning furnace'. They seem to use that term so loosely without actually knowing what they want to say. My question iis always... in which specific step is carbohydrate used to 'light' fat burning...

The common 'claim' that carbohydrates serve s a primer for fat burning has one important flaw. In skeletal muscle fat doesn't burn in a flame of carbohdyrate, as skeletal muscle doesn't have sufficient quantities of the enzymes needed to convert glycolytic intermediates into something that can be transported into the energy-producing organelles inside the cells. Moreover, the prodcution on a substrate of ketones (that can and will be used for energy when there is not enough carbohydrate) can occur only in the liver. Even if we think that the muscle can use glucogenic amino acids (amino acids that can be use to make glucose), it turns out that during exercise, only the oxidation of branched chanin amino acids appears to be increased. Interestingly enough, two of the three branched chain amino acids (isoleucine and leucine) are also 'ketogenic'; they can be used to make ketones, which then can be used to produce energy. So... fat indeed doesn't burn in a flame of carbohydrate...'

If you need more detail, here is a handy reference:

http://www.sportsnutritionsociety.o...1-2-7-11-04.pdf

Hope this helps
__________________

If I were being strict, I wouldn't do that cream/coconut oil in the coffee. Just black. *she says as she sips her own coffee with cream* (Oops... guess I should take my own advice, eh?)

I've never understood why low carbers who are tempted to binge don't just 'binge' on delicious low carb treats (I don't mean sugar alcohols -except erythritol of course - sweetened , which aren't really low carb at all).

Erythritol/ sucralosed cakes, muffins, choc, etc.. there is so much to choose from. And as you said Black, a properly low carb 'binge' is so much more self limiting than a binge on carby stuff anyway.

It's such a reassuring feeling to know that 'losing control' on low carb 'goodies' is never a runaway train.

Keep your fridge well stocked with (truly) low carb treats. It's an insurance policy against self destructive impulses .

Who says we don't?

Unfortunately it doesn't help the weight loss process at all.

Because my cravings are not usually for sweets. They are for chips. Pork rinds can only go so far. I usually end up eating sweets b/c there are no LC chips.

I have thought about keeping LC treats, but I resist. I will eat them if they are there. The pan is usually too big with too many servings to be practical for me anyway. Even if you eat a whole pan of LC brownies, you have still binged. Binging is in the behaviour, not the food.

A person who doesn't binge can never understand the reasons the person who does, does it. Don't sweat it.

Nancy, isn't the point that bingeing on low carb stuff is considerably better for avoiding weight gain than bingeing on high carb ? For that reason alone it's surely helping the weight loss process. Of course, that requires that we don't forget that bodyfat loss is indeed a 'process'.

That is, even if you take backwards steps, it's a good idea to make those backwards steps small. Low carb bingeing is minimizing the backwards steps bingeing causes.

Let's face it, bingeing is fun. Human's tend to binge (not just with food either). Knowing that low carb bingeing is self limiting (usually light years before the vomit control factor inherent in high carb bingeing) and with a bit of imagination and forethought every bit as gastronomically entertaining, has to make it a truly comforting prospect.

It's an interesting distinction. High carb bingeing is like a nuclear meltdown - metabolically and emotionally. Low carb bingeing is just fun and expensive

I'm confused, are you saying a person who really enjoys bingeing on low carb stuff isn't a proper binger ?