Fixing the metabolism

Someone I've known for years asked me the other day if I had had weight loss (bariatric) surgery, and was astonished when I said no. She then asked me, very curiously, why not, and that led into a long conversation about what I'm doing and why. I've talked about this before, but let me just say this: bariatric surgery (gastrectomy (gastric bypass or vertical sleeve, duodenal bypass, or adjustable lapband) can help some people a lot. They lose weight (at least initially). However, what this surgery won't do is something very key: fixing the metabolism. 

Our metabolisms are like the metronome that our bodies run on. I'm no internist, but it's something like the speed at which energy gets burned, more or less. Back around Canadian Thanksgiving, my friend Nathan decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner, but then the turkeys were on sale, so he bought two and we celebrated American Thanksgiving, too! I had been fasting (my standard-ish 42 hours) until lunch that day, ate very lightly, and then indulged at dinner. I ate turkey, then careful amounts of mashed potatoes (shocking, I know!), roasted carrots, roasted butternut squash, and brussels sprouts, and an equally cautious amount of stuffing. Nathan is a phenomenal cook and I had planned around this exception. I also broke my general thumb of no alcohol and had a glass of Shiraz that I'd brought. For dessert, there was pumpkin cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce and whipped cream that one of Nathan's friends had brought, and I had some of that, too. You've heard of fighting to the death? I ate to the pain. By my former standards, I ate sort of a normal-person amount of food, but for my current/general habits, this was a LOT and I was feeling it.

So imagine my shock that night when I cringingly stepped on the scale for my nightly weigh and discovered that I'd gained exactly the same 3-4 lbs that I would normally see on the night of an eating day after breaking a fast! I was shocked. And then the next morning, I was only a pound heavier than my previous morning's weight, which was a fasting weight! That night, it was lower still, and the next two mornings showed clearly that I was actually experiencing what we call a "whoosh" - a sudden drop in weight. It's been nearly a week since that meal, and I'm still at record low weights. Tonight after work, I changed into a shirt I remember wearing to a movie with my friends Matt and Kate (I believe it was Black Panther, second theatrical viewing of an eventual four!) and feeling at the time was still on the tight side (but I was pleased that I could even wear it again!). It's now hanging off me as though it belongs to another person entirely. 

Why is this happening? Because my metabolism is healing. Because my insulin resistance is healing. One of the problems of obesity is that the heavier a person becomes, the more their body wants to continue in that same direction. When a thin person with a healthy metabolism loses 2 lbs, the body is fine with it. When a heavy person loses 2 lbs, the body freaks out, thinks it's starving to death, and works to actively regain that weight plus a little extra, just to be safe. The body produces more ghrelin, the hormone that produces the sensation of hunger (wholly unrelated to how empty or full the stomach is!). Our bodies fight us when it comes to losing weight, which is why it's so important to learn how to hack our own hormone systems to break that terrible cycle. 

Fasting is an amazing way to achieve this, because unlike low calorie diets, which slow the metabolism and cause our bodies to go into energy-saving mode, fasting ramps up our metabolisms, burns calories more efficiently, and promotes human growth hormone production. It also allows the insulin level to run down, which can help our brains (the hypothalamus, if you want to get scientific!) rethink just how much insulin we actually need to be producing. Keeping the insulin low by controlling the amount of sugar/carb we have coming in through what we eat just helps keep this all in place even when we're eating. 

For the record, I don't ever plan to go back to eating a standard North American diet, no matter how much weight I've lost. But making the occasional exception isn't backfiring the way it used to, and I'm enjoying that a whole lot! 

And now: back to my regularly-scheduled fast. 42 hours on the clock. Let's go, metabolism! :)