Based upon your last statement, I assume you're on keto for weight loss, if so how has weight loss been, how many calories are you eating now vs before, and how stringent was your measurement?
I'm in it for fitness, but I'm out-of-shape because I'm overweight. I have made it a point not to weigh and instead judge my progress on changing clothes sizes and aerobic capacity.
I'm down an incredible amount, maybe 6 inches or more on my waist. Inflammation and joint pain are gone as well. In addition, I don't get tired as much.
Basically my entire system has changed.
What I'm religious about is logging everything I eat. So I log calories. And of course, I eat less of them. (I think this is one of the confounding variables when people look across studies simply at macros). So in a way, there is some thermodynamics at work, but the thing is: that's not the controlling factor. Limiting carbs changes my relationship to food. Once that's done, it doesn't matter so much how much I eat. I could go a day or two eating nothing. I still have hunger, but it's not an overwhelming feelig that drives eating too much like it used to be. Nowhere close.
I'll probably weigh in another 12 weeks. I need to weigh sometime.
I'm usually between 1200-1400 calories. I burn about 1300 daily on cardio. I have been pigging out the last few days, however, with my intake up around 1550 calories or so.
In all honesty, I just don't feel like eating in the same way I used to. My relationship with food has changed in a profound way that is difficult to relate to people who haven't been here.
Too steep a caloric deficit can be dangerous. For instance, you lose muscle as well, and part of the muscle loss happens in your heart. Not good to say the least.
High protein intake can offset this somewhat, but not entirely, so aim for a 500 calorie deficit at most. In fact, you should cycle calorie deficits week to week, ie. one week in deficit, one week at maintenance. This actually accelerates fat loss because it prevents metabolic adaptations to lower caloric intake. See the MATADOR diet:
The protein/muscle-mass rule is one of many things the community continues to argue about, sadly.
I'm eating between 1-1.5g per ideal kg of body weight daily. I also regularly measure my muscle and fat mass, keeping an eye on things. (Although not with a high-end machine). It's something I am quite concerned about.
I am also on-guard for hair loss and some of the other signs of my system switching over to starvation mode. So far none of that has happened.
I'm deliberately doing 18-6, 18 hours of fasting and a 6-hour window for eating.
Because I log everything, I make myself eat. In fact, I've considered upping my intake based on my daily cardio. It's just I've tried multi-day fasting and it was fine. I've also skipped lunch and just had one meal a day. It was also fine. No muss, no fuss. My liver continues to generate as much glucose as I need to go about whatever I'm doing.
I would not have believed this possible four months ago.
Based upon your last statement, I assume you're on keto for weight loss, if so how has weight loss been, how many calories are you eating now vs before, and how stringent was your measurement?