Dear Kayla,
My lab results indicated that I was pre-diabetic and this got me to work with a dietitian that truly believes in intermittent fasting. I have been working my way up to OMAD and am comfortable doing this 6 days a week with a looser reign on Sundays. I speak with my dietitian via phone every two weeks. He is now pushing me to do extended fasts to quicken up the weight loss. I am 58 years old and started out at 205. I am down to 183 as of today. I chose to do Wednesday as no meal at all and struggle in the evening when I would be eating. After reading your books, I feel that I am mixing things up too much by trying to not eat at all on Wednesdays. Would it be better in your opinion to consistently do OMAD and leave the extended fasts for plateaus or not at all? Or should I brave through and see if the no eating on Wednesdays will speed things up with weight loss? He feels that if I don’t make substantial loss now, I am getting older and will not get to my goal if it takes too long. Your thoughts??
Thank you in advance for your answer,
Christine L.
Dear Christine,
Thank you for your question. Before we delve into it, I want to remind you and everyone else reading that I am not a dietitian, doctor, or nutritionist. But you wanted my thoughts, and so here they are.
You have already lost a substantial amount of weight: 10.7% of your bodyweight, to be exact. That is incredible progress in my book. Congratulations on your success! You’re 58, and according to the actuarial tables, odds are you’ll live to be 83. You’ve got a lot of time. I don’t understand why your dietitian is worried, but I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.
It’s easy to mis-communicate. Is it possible he misinterpreted something you said? Could he have gotten the impression that you were on the verge of quitting? If you have recordings of the calls, it might be helpful to go back and re-listen to them. If not, you can ask for clarification during your next call (more on that in a minute.)
Since I don’t know your specific details, I’m going to have to make some assumptions. I’ll assume you’re shorter than the average woman, and you have to lose 50 more pounds to get to a normal BMI. I’ll further assume that OMAD 6 days a week with a looser day on Sunday makes it so that you’re losing a half a pound a week. At that rate, it will take you two years to get to your goal weight. The question is, if that’s the case, will you stick with it?
My personal rule is that OMAD is the maximum I will do for weight loss and extended fasting is for other health benefits. However, you are in the driver’s seat on your weight loss journey. You decide which strategies are best for you and which ones are not. It sounds like you do not enjoy extended fasts. If the strategy your dietitian is recommending makes you uncomfortable, I think it’s time to push back on that a bit.
A lot of us who have struggled with our weight also struggle with the ability to say no to others. I am one of those people. What helps me to prepare for an uncomfortable discussion is to role-play. Here’s how I would prepare:
- Write down the plan I feel comfortable with.
- List the reasons this plan is the most sustainable for me.
- List my concerns about extended fasts.
Thus prepared, I would practice the conversation aloud as I’m walking around. I would play both roles, trying to guess what the responses might be, and then practicing what I would say in order to make my explanations clear. I would do this over and over and over until I felt like I had my bases covered.
On the next call, with pleasantries out of the way and when it was my turn to speak, I would seek to understand his position. I would say, “It seems like you are afraid I’m going to quit, even though I’ve already lost 22 pounds.” And then I would stop talking and let the silence do its work. I’m confident that if you do this, he will either explain where he was coming from, or he will correct you and say that was not what he was trying to say. Once you’re on the same page, then you can proceed with talking about your plan in the way you rehearsed.
Ultimately, your dietitian works for you, not the other way round. If the service he is providing is unsatisfactory, you have the option to hire a new dietitian you feel will do a better job. I hope you’ll drop me a line and let me know how it goes!
I wish you continued success on your journey,
Kayla