A Fat-Burning Machine

By Michael Erlewine

It’s all about keeping the protein up and the sugar and carbs down or out. If you stop consuming your own fat, the body will try to reinstate the fat-storage mode that gains weight.

The biggest rebound trigger to regain all that I lost is reintroducing refined carbohydrates and sugar quickly. They spike insulin hard, refill glycogen rapidly, and suddenly your body is back in fat-storage mode. It stops consuming your own fat.

If you add carbs, add them slowly and keep them complex — vegetables, legumes, small amounts of whole grains.

It is quite a feat to exhaust the sugar and glycogen and turn the body into our eating its own fat instead. It can be hard to switch, so while you have it consuming its own fat, run your weight down to where you need it to be.

When you get to that point, then you can start to slow down the weight-loss rate and begin to introduce a food plan that will not cause instant rebound and weight gain.

I have the weight down, now let’s keep it there.

I am very close to the weight I want to be (about 160 lbs.), only about five more pounds. At that point the situation is delicate and I will need to throttle back consuming my own fat and be very careful not to introduce sugar and carbs too quickly.

Go slowly and incrementally. Don’t stop fasting all at once. If you’re doing extended fasting periods, shorten them gradually over several weeks rather than ending them abruptly. Give your metabolism time to recalibrate.

Add calories back in the right category first. Protein should be your first increase — it’s the least likely to trigger fat storage and will protect the muscle you have. Think eggs, fish, chicken, Greek yogurt. Not carbohydrates first.

Keep carbohydrates low for a while longer. The biggest rebound trigger is reintroducing refined carbohydrates and sugar quickly. They spike insulin hard, refill glycogen rapidly, and suddenly your body is back in fat-storage mode. If you add carbs, add them slowly and keep them complex — vegetables, legumes, small amounts of whole grains.

Weigh yourself consistently. Once I hit 160, I should weigh myself every morning or so under the same conditions. If I see 162–163 creeping up, tighten back immediately rather than letting it slide. Early correction is easy; waiting until I’m back at 170 is hard.

What your maintenance diet probably looks like.

Based on what has worked to get me here — higher protein, moderate healthy fats, lower refined carbohydrates, and an eating window rather than all-day grazing. I don’t have to fast strictly forever, but keeping a compressed eating window — say, eating between noon and 7pm — maintains much of the metabolic benefit without the intensity of active fat-burning fasting.

This is underrated. Active weight loss gives us a clear goal and measurable progress. Maintenance has neither — the goal is simply to stay where you are, which feels less motivating. Building in a small acceptable range — say 160 to 163 — rather than a hard number gives me flexibility without losing the guardrail.

The Honest Reality

A small amount of rebound is almost universal and not cause for alarm — some of it is simply glycogen and water refilling, which can add 2–3 pounds without any actual fat gain. If I hit 160 and see 162–163 after transitioning, don’t panic. Give it two weeks of stable eating and see where it settles.

My instinct to think about this now, while still in the fat-burning phase, is exactly right. The transition is where the work either holds or unravels.

We are running on diesel.

[Midjourney graphic prompted by me.]

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As Bodhicitta is so precious, May those without it now create it, May those who have it not destroy it, And may it ever grow and flourish.