Prior to this point, all the tips, tricks and tweaks that I've shared with you can help you maximize the effects of ketosis. They will help you flip the script from using blood sugar as your main energy source to burning fat.
You probably have already lost quite a number of pounds prior to this point. So far, so good. But if you are serious about taking things to the next level, focus on the following modifications.
Please understand that these modifications are not easy. It's a good idea to master all the previous chapters first.
Lock them down. Know them backwards and forwards. Incorporate them into your lifestyle. Get used to them.
Once things have gotten "easy" and you've totally gotten used to the previous modifications, now is the time to level up.
Start to Regularize Your Mealtimes
You need to start giving yourself certain rules regarding your meals. If you notice that there is a certain pattern for your hunger cycles, get them down in writing. Try to regularize them.
The key here is to strike a deal with yourself. If you don't eat within these fixed regular times where you're normally hungry, you resolve not to eat at all until the next period.
This is a big break for a lot of people. But once you get over this hump, the fat, seriously, just melts off. It's unbelievable because you reduce your calorie intake quite a bit.
And the best part is that once you get used to this, you don't even miss those calories. This is because you have resolved to know your hunger patterns and internal body clock schedule intimately.
This takes quite a bit of self-awareness. This definitely takes quite a bit of time and effort. It's not like you know these already.
Because a lot of people with shifting schedules are very distracted. It turns out that their bodies actually have fairly fixed hunger cycles, but they wouldn't know it because they are focused on their other schedules.
They're focused on their work schedule. They're focused on going to and from their home. But once you zero in on your hunger cycles and you regularize these in terms of your mealtimes, you make quite a bit of progress.
Because eventually, you would be able to skip meals if you're not feeling hungry within a specific period of time. And then you would be able to wait until you're hungry again for the next period. Also, your mind gets used to it and you are able to stick to your meal times.
Eliminate or Greatly Reduce Snacking
Prior to this point, you can still snack. But eventually, once you've regularized your mealtimes and your hunger cycles become more controlled and fixed, you can start eliminating snacking.
Now, please understand that this is not going to happen overnight.
You've probably been snacking all your life. Welcome to the club. That's how most people are. That's perfectly okay.
But once you have a good hold or control over your hunger schedule, you can make amazing progress in greatly reducing or flat out eliminating snacking.
I know it seems like a pipe dream right now. It seems almost impossible. But you'd be surprised as to what you're capable of if you put your mind to it.
Start with a gradual reduction. It doesn't have to be big. You don't have to be a hero. You're not looking for some sort of great leap ahead. You just want to make a little change.
You'd be surprised as to how quickly you can do this because you've taken the right initial steps, which is to regularize your mealtimes.
Eventually Scale Down to One to Two Meals a Day
I have to admit, if I were to tell this to you upfront, it will probably set you back. You probably would be thinking, "No, this guy is crazy. This is not going to happen. I eat regularly, I eat three square meals a day, with a few snacks in between."
Believe me, I understand where you're coming from because that was my mindset.
But once I was able to regularize my mealtimes and I was able to practice everything else in this book prior to this point, this was the eventual conclusion. Seriously. This is where you're headed.
Because if you did everything that I've told you correctly, this is where you will be. You will be able to scale down to one or two meals a day.
Obviously, you're going to scale down to two. Then once that gets easy and predictable, scale down to one.
Now, why is this a big deal? Even if you load up on food on that one meal a day, you still cut out a tremendous amount of calories from your diet.
If you also adopt some sort of modest exercise program, this can go a long way in burning the fat off.
By modest exercise, I'm not talking about you running a marathon. There's no need to do that. You don't have to become some sort of triathlete or fancy yourself as some sort of ironman or ironwoman. No need to be a hero, once again.
You can just walk around the block or you can bike around. It doesn't matter. Any kind of moderate exercise is enough to tip the scales, especially when you've reduced everything down to one to two meals a day.
Scale Down to One Meal a Day
In this section, I want to make it clear that this is not you going down to one meal every once in a while. This is not you going down to one meal a day, three times a week. Instead, this is you scaling down to one meal a day as an iron rule.
Now, this might seem a bit hard. And it is for a lot of people. But if you followed all the steps above, it's easier to get to this point than you care to imagine.
You've laid the groundwork, so making the transition is not really as abrupt and as hard as you think. What's important here is that when you decide to eat only once a day, it has to be a commitment.
The deal is this: you choose to eat only within a certain time window. This is called intermittent fasting paired with a keto diet.
When you make this deal with yourself, this means that if you go past the window, you're going to skip the meal. You wait until the next day.
That may seem harsh, but when I started this, I was shocked at how easy it was because I would go by a whole day forgetting that I actually did not eat anything for the whole day. That's how natural it felt once you reach that point.
That's the secret to intermittent fasting. It's a commitment to eat within a certain time frame.
You need to be on the same page with your primary care physician. Any advice here that I give you must be run through and approved by your doctor.
If you engage in any kind of fasting, make sure you talk with your doctor first. Still, when you adopt intermittent fasting, it really turbocharges your weight loss and it exaggerates the weight loss effects of the keto diet.
If You Can, Adopt a Day to Day Fasting Technique
This is really taking things to the next level. With a day to day fasting technique, you're basically eating within a certain time window one day, and then completely avoiding any food the next day, and then going back to eating.
Now, a lot of people never reach this point. This is purely optional. But if you want to really level things up, this is definitely a good candidate.
Some people even take things to a whole other level. They would go two days fasting, and then three days eating, and then back to two days fasting. That may be too extreme, but it's definitely an option you should explore once you're able to pull off all the other steps described above.