The FastDay Forum

Found this Mark's Daily Apple article a while back then forgot to post it. Primarily of interest to graduating newbies still wondering about their progress, but clarifying for others as well who are in or nearing maintenance. If you're pressed for time, or not convinced to read further by this one-line summary, consider skimming it for bold text and the four bullet-item questions near the bottom.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/what-doe ... z3g9Qw7eib

Was just going to write reams ADF coz i thought you said,what does it mean to be a fat b *****d!
And i' m an expert on that!
Alas, i am too far from maintenance to be allowed even a glimpse of this article..but one day i will qualify!
XX

[carieoates]

He does write well doesn't he. Thanks

I declare that I must be fat adapted. Wake up, have a cup of tea, go and run 6km.

[carorees]

Bumping this for @DrDee

I can happily go 16 to 20 hours every day without eating and then have a low/no carb lunch. I must be fat-adapted .

[Tracieknits]

I think perhaps the requirements for fat adapted might not be very stringent as I seem to fit - even though I'm still quite overweight.

I do wonder if being a mom and feeding my son are an issue for me. I always get "hungry" when I make him food, whereas if he had not asked for lunch, I wouldn't have thought of it for perhaps a couple more hours.

Thanks Carorees, that's quicker service than I get at a drive-up window!!!!!

Well I'm not fat-adapted but I'm sure a wannabe!

I wonder how long it takes to get in this state.

Dee

Well, I have to say I'm a little confused about this topic. I seldom eat breakfast, even on normal days; if I eat a fairly substantial meal with protein and fat (and some carbs), I often and easily go 8-12 hours without needing to eat again. This happened even before 5:2; I'd go out for the day with my friend and son; they'd get all "hangry" and I'd be saying, Well, I'm not hungry, it y'all are, you need to speak up, rather than tearing my head off! Really the only time (in the last several years; I used to get hypoglycemia a lot, probably due to overconsumption of sugar) I've gotten "the shakes" or anything like that is when I've eaten pretty much pure sugar/carbs (think French toast with syrup; not enough egg in there) naked...though if I have a couple of eggs (no sausage, I'm a veg, remember?) with it, usually OK.

The descriptions of "fat adapted" on daily apple and the like make it sound like you have to go very low carb and paleo to get there. But, I'm not one of those who needs the "carb drip" (near constant intake of food) to be comfortable. So, where does that leave me? I care about this mostly because my remaining excess weight is pretty much a belly roll, that I'd love to get rid of. But I will never go paleo (difficult as a veg) or low carb; I know I wouldn't be able to keep it up; as I've said MANY times--why lose weight one can't keep off? Been there, done that, got a whole CLOSET of T-shirts!

[carorees]

You can be fat adapted and be overweight. Being fat adapted just means your body is able to burn fat. Whether the fat comes from the diet or the fat stores is doesn't make a difference to being fat adapted. Fasting will get you there for sure. Most obese people are metabolically inflexible meaning their bodies are reluctant to change fuels from s. However, if you are overweight or normal weight you might be fat adapted or you might have metabolic inflexibility.

Whether or not you are fat adapted, when you eat carbs you release insulin. If you are insulin resistant you'll need to release more insulin than if you are not. Insulin makes the body take up the glucose from the bloodstream and store it, in the form of glycogen in the muscles and liver. But there is only capacity for around 1500 calories worth of glucose as glycogen. What glucose cannot be stored as glycogen, insulin stimulates its conversion to fat in the liver, the fat is transported as cholesterol to the fat stores where insulin then stimulates the uptake of the fat into adipose tissue. However, if you have little adipose tissue (some people just don't have much) or the adipose tissue is insulin resistant (which tends to happen with severe obesity) the fat will be deposited around the organs causing a large belly. This is not the same as a belly roll due to fat stored under the skin of the belly (usually lower down, below the belly button). That area is another of the normal adipose tissue locations where fat can be safely stored, the others being the hips, thighs, arms etc. So a big belly above the waist is a sign of insulin resistance as it represents fat stored around the organs (the dangerous stuff that increases your risk of heart disease and diabetes) but large hips, thighs or a lower abdomen belly roll is just normal stored fat put there by insulin released following carb eating. (Of course it is a bit more complicated than that but mostly that is what happens). Differences in insulin sensitivity of the different adipose tissue sites results in different patterns of fat deposition, so some people have a big backside, others huge arms or whatever, that's all down to variations in how responsive those places are to the insulin signal.

So, your belly roll @ferretgal is probably nothing to do with whether you are fat adapted but likely just the way you are. (And of course , we love you just the way you are as someone once sang... )