I’m going to start the fat fast diet in like 4 weeks. Can someone help me with how many calories I should be consuming? I currently weigh 220 lbs. at about 14% bodyfat and eat 5000 calories daily to stay at maintenance. I know the diet says to eat 50% calories but the BMR calculation is way off for me. I first used John Berardi’s calculation from his Massive Eating and experienced to see what my BMR is. The 5000 represents days I lift. So if I did 50% cals it would be 2,500 calories but according to Fat Fast it would only be like 1,500 calories. My goal is lose 10 lbs. of fat in 2 weeks. I’ll settle for 7-8 lbs. if 10 is not doable. Someone help me. Thanks
3500 calories in a pound of fat. 10 pounds of fat in two weeks??? I don’t think so. you’d have to cut calories to almost nothing and then the bulk of what you would lose would be water and muscle. Take your time and do it right.
I realize I’m probably a low-credibility poster; hey, I wear my inexperience on my handle so people can make allowances! But seeing as no one else has answered…
If you haven't read Brock Strasser's Fat Fast Experiment (parts I & II), do so. It may answer some questions for you.
I suspect your 2500 calories seems (and is)high because you’re basing it on Berardi’s Massive Eating Diet rather than the caloric intake that is usually recommended. JMB acknowledges that the figures he comes up with sound high, but bear in mind he is aiming at athletes who need a caloric surplus for muscle gain. I suspect that wherever you are reading to use 50 per cent calories is using a lower baseline caloric intake than JMB’s Massive Eating. (Hey, even JMB’s title for his diet indicates that his figures are beyond the norm.)
After you read Brock Strasser’s Fat Fast Experiment, you might contact him for some details about the diet. He has talked about modifying the diet, so it would be interesting to hear if he has anything new to say.
For what it's worth, I did the fat fast diet several times. When I finally got it right (I made some huge errors initially), I lost seven pounds in about 10 days using flax seed oil and Methoxy-7 and dirt cheap whey protein. And when I say 7 pounds, I mean I lost 11 pounds and after pigging out, I ended up at 7 pounds off. That four pounds seems to be pretty consistent for me for my water/food in gut rebound. I have no idea how much lean body mass I lost, but I was definitely more cut and thinner in the face, but I lost a bit of that with my pigging out! (Mostly resolved dehydration, I'm guessing.) At this moment, I'm in the middle of another cycle of fat fast after some CKD. I lost about 9 lbs in about 24 days on the CKD (using just Adipokinetix and 5-HTP and some extra yohimbe bark standardized for around 20mg yohimbine)and I'm down another 4 pounds now after a week on fat fast, but I began using Androsol, Tribex, T2, Methoxy-7 a few days ago on top of the other stuff already listed, so perhaps I'm maintaining lean body mass. (I'm also on about 1300 cal/day, like Brock.) From what my scale tells me (it's an electrical impedance measuring unit to determine body composition), I've lost less than five pounds of lean body mass so far, but LBM has held steady if not gone up a little since I began fat fast. Hope that helps.
I suppose you’re right Paul. Aiming for 7 lbs. is more realistic. In order to achieve 10 lbs. of fat loss in 14 days I would have to create a 2,500 caloric deficit daily. If I’m consuming only 1,500 calories and exercising then I AM creating that deficit and more. As I said before, from experience I’ve noted that I need to eat 4,500 calories daily to maintain bodyweight and about 5,000 while exericising. My goal might be difficult but it is possible.