ex150ffinduction review: nope, still summer malaise

A little fat-fast jolt was not enough

ffinduction? What be this magick?

The idea here was to have a 1 week fat fast induction phase, and then slide into 3 weeks of regular ex150. That way it’s still a 30 day ex150 experiment, just with extra protein restriction the first week.

Fat fast just means I don’t eat ANY meat, not even my usual 150g of ground beef per day. Interestingly, this only jacks up my kcals from fat percentage from 90% to just under 93%.

One thought I had was that it might somehow take me longer to get into “low-protein mode,” where I lose weight, in the summer. I wouldn’t have a clue why that is. Sunlight? More spontaneous physical activity? Higher temperatures? Different composition of beef/dairy because of the seasonal variance in what the cows eat?

As reported previously, I currently don’t seem to get the low blood sugar I used to get after extended periods of protein restriction, and I also don’t get the degradation in workout performance. In fact, I’ve been setting new PRs in most lifts. And, usually, by the end of 30 days of ex150, my watch becomes very loose on my wrist, dangling around. The last few months, it hasn’t done that.

So I had hoped that forcing protein down extra low for a week (basically just the protein in heavy cream) might turbo charge protein restriction magic and get me into weight loss mode.

But no beans.

Promising at first, then another plateau

The Fat Fast (week 1)

At first, things seemed very promising. Very fast water weight loss of 9lbs in 4 days. This was all water weight gained during my protein refeed.

On day 4 I started experiencing some abnormal sauce cravings. Now, I always like sauce, and I’ll often snack on a spoonful of sauce if I’m bored. But on fat fasts I’ve previously noticed that I’ll start eating more and more, until I’m eating entire jars of tomato sauce in a day instead of a spoonful here and there. Clearly, something’s weird.

Day 5 & 6, while I kinda stopped losing water weight, felt pretty good. I experienced very severe cement-truck satiety. It does seem to take about 5-7 days for this to kick in every time; which interestingly has also been observed in mice on protein-restricted diets. After that time frame, something changes in the metabolism. It seems to set in a bit faster on a fat fast (5 days) vs. normally (closer to a week I’d say).

On day 7 I was very happy that I could look forward to some meat the next day. Even though 150g beef is a very small portion, it makes all the difference. I can do a week of no meat, but I do notice a “lack” of some sort. I’m not sure if it’s just a psychological/hedonic thing, or if I’m lacking in something that meat contains.

Definitely loving the meat added back in, so delicious!

Remaining 3 weeks of ex150

Honestly, there wasn’t much interesting after this point. ex150 is just so normal for me now. It’s my normal diet. I don’t miss anything, and I barely notice when I’m doing it. The weeks just fly by.

Here are some notes I took:

Day 10: Woke up to 219.1lbs, below last month's low! Lots of cement-truck satiety last few days. Still new x3 PR in bent rows.

Day 11: New x3 PR in triceps press

Day 16: New front squat PR. Dinner whipped cream, cement truck satiety almost instantly. Barely ate 5 spoons.

Day 18: Actively unhungry for dinner, did not whip cream.

As you see, I was setting quite a few new PRs. After a week of almost no protein, and several weeks into severe protein restriction (ex150) this comes as a surprise.

Shouldn’t I be experiencing degraded workout performance?

I’m also experiencing pretty profound satiety, so I’m not plateauing because I’m massively overeating. My recent carolie counting experiment also fell into this period, so I actually know that I’m not overeating.

Workouts vs. weight loss?

I don’t know if this is correlation vs. causation, of course. But is whatever’s causing me to get stronger also preventing me from losing weight?

Is this the cause of the summer malaise? I don’t think it’s caused by working out per se, as last year I experienced the same effect without working out much, unless you count going for walks.

But maybe something about summer (heat? sunlight? spontaneous activity?) is causing my body to retain/produce more glycogen, which never puts me in that magical fat loss mode?

Or maybe this year is just different. Maybe 220lbs is my “natural” limit for magic weight loss, and that’s it. Or maybe I just have to wait it out until my PUFA improves.

Sigh! Sciencing is hard.

The Refeed: contextual satiety

This refeed was pretty limited, as I had made myself sick last time and didn’t want to repeat that experience. Too much protein just makes me feel terrible now, bloated and ravenous at the same time.

What was very interesting again this time: my first meal after the protein restriction I got insane satiety, despite eating relatively high protein,

But that same meal, only half a day later, gave me very limited satiety if any. This time, it happened with a 3-egg omelette.

I’ve always been skeptical when people tell me eggs give them satiety. “Have you ever eaten 3 eggs and not been full?” Bro, I’ve eaten 12 eggs in one sitting. In fact, that was a staple of mine on carnivore. I’d say eggs are infamous for their lack of satiety.

But this time, even though I only ate 3 eggs and sprinkled some cheese on the omelette (cheese is my crack), it hit so hard I could barely finish it.

A similar thing happened last time, and it was the same dynamic: I had eaten yogurt with dark chocolate bits and macadamia nuts sprinkled in. Yogurt is very high in protein, and normally provides massive negative satiety for me: I’ll eat a literal pound and be hungrier than before I started.

But somehow, the very first yogurt after protein restriction does provide cement-truck satiety.

This confirms my suspicion that the factors of satiety are not inherent in any given food necessarily, but depend on metabolic context. If your metabolism is somehow messed up, you can eat a meal others find satiating - 3-egg omelettes, yogurt - and not derive any satiety. And apparently you can even eat a meal that you yourself experienced satiety on just 6 hours ago, but it doesn’t work any more! Just 2-3 high-protein meals seem to turn my satiety switch off almost entirely.

I went from “wow, this 3-egg omelette with cheese is so satiating!” to eating the same 3-egg omelette, then a pound of beef, and then go out to eat In-n-out protein-style burgers (no spread, which is just soybean sauce, substitute mustard instead) right after. And be kinda bloated, but not exactly satiated.

Conclusion

Not sure what to conclude, except that the week-long fat fast didn’t help induce whatever magick it is that made me lose fat on ex150 before.

The context-dependent aspect of satiety is interesting. And I do like making progress on my lifts.

Still, I hate experiments that don’t work out :)

Next up: custom protein powder mix

What’s next? Why, eating chocolates made of coconut oil & cocoa powder, of course. But that is only a 7 day experiment for fun.

Looking at the weight graph and seeing that I dipped to 219lbs on the fat fast, maybe a week of induction isn’t enough? Maybe, for some reason, I need to consistently lower protein even more in the summer than in the winter? Last time I did a fat fast, I “only” lost 2lbs in 14 days, which isn’t better than regular ex150 was treating me at the time.

But that was pre-summer malaise. What if a fat fast doesn’t induce more fat loss than ex150 if the protein limit restriction is hit on ex150? But, somehow, in the summer, ex150 doesn’t make me hit that limit?

I’ve been wanting to mix my own isoleucine and valine deficient protein powder ever since reading those amazing Lamming Lab studies on BCAA restriction late last year.

And I’ve actually had bags of EAA isolates, sans Ile and Val, sitting in my kitchen cabinet since January. I just had a few more experiments to run first, and then the summer malaise kicked in.

So instead of using the IleR/ValR diet to produce even more weight loss than ex150, maybe I can use it to break my summer plateau?