Maybe I am just not familiar enough with Fung's work to see the throughline. My understanding of his work is that fasting + his special green tea (with licorice and ginger) allows you to manipulate hormones so you can lose weight.sure. I would agree that one should be cautious with overextending what works for some and applying it to all.
this affords me another opportunity to clarify and bound the extent of my views.
Limitation of scope:
to zoom out and call back to @offwidth 's chart above, I believe that this implicit normal distribution exists outside of my useful paradigm.
I believe that I exist in the tail of this normal distribution curve. How Deeply into that tail is a question that I find to be entirely difficult to quantify.
I believe that there is a spectrum where some nutritional compositions have effects on their subject and at some varied rate of sensitivity, or magnitude. I believe we can all be found somewhere on this spectrum.
There are those, for whom, this hormone-driven paradigm, within which Jason Fung's works lives, is most applicable, and least applicable.
As I mentioned above, for my Female friends who were cross-fitters and were using my experience to try fasting and eating more carnivorously - I discouraged them from continuing when they were open with me about some of the complications they were experiencing. And they continue to do just fine for themselves, today, in maintaining their desired fitness levels, without fasting and restricting carbs to some low levels as I do.
I do believe that a slimly held majority of the population should absolutely feel free to disregard my explanations - insofar as a problem isn't a problem until it's a problem. I don't pay any mind to them eating however they like. I don't have any comments to offer someone who's succeeding. Instead, I'd like to listen and learn from them. hence my deference to anyone around me who was thinner and seemed in control of their weight. I asked for their advice, and they gave their answer.
As to the enervating force behind why I would launch such arguments:
In my view of the populace at large, and the amounts of the medical literature I've read though I actually regard this tail, in which I reside to be a rather fat tail. The area under the curve here seems to be a lot taller than a standard curve.
the percentage of the populace, of people who might be similarly situated to be - does not seem to me to be anything resembling an insignificant fraction of the population. One of whom is one of my oldest friends who is roughly a carnivore, and fasts from time to time, purposefully, around his body fat management and his very successful time under the barbell. during one deployment they had little to do other than lift weights, where he achieved > 300-400-500 on his lifts and was happy to have at one point measured his arm circumference to be greater than his head. And, now, he is a sergeant major in the JSOC in special forces and can keep up with the young troops in his unit, and looks better than some of them. he's a bit prideful of his girlish figure and he credits eating like this for helping him stay fit and trim in front of the troops.
And I do my best to limit the form of my arguments to that which I know best. my own evidence that I've seen in my own life and in those close to me, who upon seeing my success gave it a try, and in many cases got what they were looking for out of it.
And so when I see something that has worked for me, that I've seen work for others, in very deep and meaningful ways, which have lifelong positive outlooks, I am inclined to defend it in general; for all the reasons I've posited.
And most of all - I struggle with how far out of reach that book Protein Power was for me. how maligned Dr. Atkins' thesis was in the public eye. how not one - NOT ONE - person, until that one sergeant ( to whom I accidentally owe a great deal ) mentioned Protein Power. I feel similarly about the (Now understood to be simple time tested) basic information that StrongFirst purveys. Ultimately, the basic principles of how to actually build muscle and increase my strength (from pedestrian untrained levels) were gate-keep-ed away from me, by those who would intercede, who were louder and more present in the marketplaces for such information vis-a-vis-pop-fitness-publications. I am startled at how unlikely my encounter with these paradigms was, and how they lay beyond a thick fog designed to direct my attention to other things which turned out to be much less helpful.
that's why I launch such arguments. I hope to leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind me for those similarly situated. because what I hated most was the hopelessness I faced for so many years fueled by so many defeats and setbacks; which ultimately were sourced from all the well-meaning but incorrect advice that was so thickly prevalent everywhere I looked.
You are clearly an example of how fasting + protein focus allowed you to meet the goals you had (have). I guess someone like Fung (and perhaps yourself, but I don't want to speak for you) sees that as effectively manipulating hormones, and I see that as effectively reducing your calories.