Paleo diet and fasting: what works and what rebounds

Paleo, keto and fasting: losing 12 kilos and putting them back on

There's a scene that repeats itself at any Spanish family lunch: someone announces they're giving up bread, sugar and milk, and in two and a half months they go from 84 to 77 kilos. No gym, no scale, just walking a while each day. Beer, of course, is off the table. The case is not an isolated one. Another story tells of 12 kilos in four months, 9 kilos in two and a half months the trinc year and 5 kilos in a month on the third attempt. The recurring key: not exceeding 50 grams of carbs a day.

The problem arises when someone puts the calculator on the table. Losing 24 kilos in two months works out at about 3 kilos a week, almost half a kilo a day. Without dieting and with a bit of exercise. The arithmetic doesn't add up, and that's where the real issue begins: how much of that loss is fat and how much is water.

What you lose in the first weeks of a low-carb diet

Muscle glycogen is depleted, and the water stored with it goes too. That's the core argument of those who deflate the initial enthusiasm: after three weeks you look less bloated, you've lost kilos, but it isn't fat. The weight drops, your waist narrows, and the mirror deceives you for a while.

Against that, the defence of the paleo diet rests on evolution. The human body has spent one or two million years adapting to what existed before the Neolithic, and only 10,000 years eating grains and dairy. Far too little for natural selection to do its work. Under that logic, cutting carbs means returning to the original design.

The nuance comes from someone who has been at this for years without being a purist: no formal paleo is needed. It's enough to cut back on carbs and eat plenty of vegetables, fruit, eggs, dairy, nuts and berries. The label matters less than the habit.

The calorie deficit and muscle: where almost everyone agrees

The approach gaining ground in the discussion is the least segarro: calorie deficit, real food and strength training. Muscle burns energy at rest, raises your basal metabolism and helps produce testosterone. Without weights, barbells or calisthenics, fat loss leaves you a thinner body but also a softer one.

The list of what to cut out is short and shared: processed food, soft drinks and sugary beverages, constant snacking and beer. Beer, moreover, according to one comment in the thread, is liquid bread with alcohol. The sugars in alcohol do exist, even if you can't see them on the label.

The obstacle isn't the fridge, it's the bar. Giving up beers and tapas reduces your social life to zero, and that's where any plan falls apart. Keto promises sirloin steak and salad, but the Spanish dinner table is an ocean of risottos, pizzas and pasta. The pragmatic conclusion: if you can't cut it to zero, cut as much as you can.

Intermittent fasting: from 14 hours to glycogenesis

Intermittent fasting comes up as the easiest route to sustain over time. Skipping lunch on weekdays, because the body gets used to it over the years. Each body sets its own limit: after 14 or 16 hours without eating anything, glycogenesis kicks in and hunger becomes unbearable for some.

The advantage of fasting is that it doesn't require cooking differently or giving up social dinners. The downside is that it doesn't forgive the binge that trinc. And here the same old problem returns: the rebound effect. Anyone who loses 10 or 15 kilos and goes back to their old habits as if the slate had been wiped clean regains the weight and then some.

The method that requires no diet: walking and taking the stairs

There's a thesis gaining real traction that doesn't mention a single gram of protein: the problem is the car. In rural areas and residential neighbourhoods where everything is done by car there's more obesity than in European cities where people walk. Park 20 minutes from work, walk briskly, skip the lift. Just that, while eating normally, is enough to lose weight.

The objection is obvious: the metro and the streets are full of people who do that every day and don't have an athlete's body. Genetics deals different hands, and those who aren't favoured need to watch what they eat. Exercise improves health, but without a diet it doesn't fix excess weight.

The most striking figure comes from a gym veteran: on an amateur paleo diet, with two 12-week steroid cycles a year —injected testosterone and an old-school oral— his blood tests came out better than when he was eating six or seven times a day, weighing out rice, pasta and heavy oats on a scale. The anecdote proves nothing, but it makes one thing clear: the body can take more than the manual says.