So, for 5 Days I did a little experiment. I ate ground beef and pork mixed with butter. I did that once per day, eating a total of about 7.5 ounces of this mixture. I did not drain the fat from the meat, I ate that as well.
My results were not bad. I lost 3 pounds in 5 days. This included a 1 pound gain of weight on Day 1.
Will I do it again?
To be frank… I will not do this again. I liked doing the experiment, but it had a number of downsides in my book. Normally, I fast for 6 days per week. During fasting, I consume only water or black coffee. If it is absolutely necessary to sustain my fast, I will eat something small, but that is rare. For example, if I am feeling that I must break the fast, I will eat a boiled egg or something similar. I would say that in 3 months I might do this once. In general, while fasting for extended times I do not feel hungry, I don’t get weak or anything like that. From time to time it happens and that is when I might need something small to see if I can keep the fast going.
Hunger
During this Experiment, I was hungry. I mean I was really hungry! Starting on Day 2, after I had eaten my meat mixture at dinner time on Day 1, I was hungry constantly. Like I said, during fasting I rarely get hungry. In fact, when fasting, if I do start feeling hungry, I think about it and realize it is only a mental thing, and my stomach is not asking for food. If the hunger goes on while fasting I will do something to occupy myself. I usually do some exercise like walking or weight lifting to occupy my mind and when I am done I no longer feel hungry.
During this experiment, though, my stomach came to expect food. This expectation was particularly at dinner time but happened to some extent throughout the day. In fact, my body has become so expectant of food that the first day that I went back to EF I could not make it without having an egg. That has never happened to me before (I have been doing EF for 7 months).
Difficult
Because of this hunger issue, for me, Eating this one meal daily has proven to be MUCH more difficult than extended fasting. Fasting generally feels very natural to me, and I enjoy it. As I sit here typing this I am on day 2 of my new week of EF. As I said, I broke the fast with an egg on day 1, and right now I am very hungry during day 2. Today, I have to push through, though and get back on track. I am not giving myself the option today, I must push through the hunger.
Maybe when I reach my Goal Weight
Right now, I have about 50 lb to go before I reach my goal weight. I am down a bit more than 200 lb since my peak weight. My peak weight was 430 lb, and I am now just below 230 lb. When I reach my weight goal, I may do some other eating experiments. My plan at this time is that I will do a couple days of fasting each week, and eat a ketogenic diet for 1 or 2 meals on other days. So, a couple days of EF and the rest of the week I will do IF with varying eating windows. We’ll just have to see how I feel then.
Wrap up
To be honest, I am seriously shocked at the hunger that this experiment created in me. I never expected anything like this at all.
This may work well for others, but the hunger is just too great for me. I think it would probably be good for somebody who does a regular ketogenic diet and eats 2 or 3 meals daily. This experiment would be more toward fasting for them. For people who do a lot of EF like me, though, I would not recommend this.
Whatever you do along with your journey, I wish you the best!
