Keto diet, intermittent fasting and autophagy

Five months have passed since my last keto diet post back in May 2025 this year, when I blogged about how I had restarted keto as a spring detox after winter carb-bingeing. If you’re used to my keto posts, you’ll know that as much as I’d love to stay low carb all year round, seasonal eating always gets the better of me in autumn and winter. In between Christmas work-dos, comfort eating when I’m ill and craving stodgy carb-heavy foods in the colder months, during the five years since I first lost 42lbs, I found my weight yo-yoing by around 15-17lbs a year every year, up in winter, down in summer.

Now, anyone with even a basic understanding of the human anatomy would know that weight loss and gain swings are not good for the body. Between 2020 to 2025, I subjected my metabolism to annual crash keto dieting in the summer months to get bikini ready, and overindulging in winter. I tolerated my disordered eating from September to February, knowing that from March to August I’d work hard to lose it.

But not in 2025. This year, my body hit a plateau. Ketosis didn’t work. 16-8 fasting didn’t work. From May to July, I got no results despite a strict diet. My body reached a ‘settling point’ and my weight wouldn’t budge. To say I got despondent was an understatement.

Frustrated, I did some research. I’m more of a reader than a viewer, preferring to consume diet advice in the form of books than TV. I discovered an absolute gem of a book, The Obesity Code, written by a doctor, Jason Fung, who also spoke from personal experience of overcoming his own weight problems.

This book introduced me to autophagy. If you don’t know what this is, in a nutshell, it is a natural process where your body cleanses and recycles dead cells, creating new ones. Intense exercise or fasting can activate the natural process of autophagy in the body. Dr Fung explained that 24-36 hour intermittent fasting would be enough to activate autophagy and kickstart fat burning, even for those in a weight loss plateau.

Desperate, I gave it a go, following the recommended fasting pattern and suggested meal plans.

Lo and behold…it worked! Since 1st August, I have lost 12lbs by skipping breakfast and lunch and only eating dinner. Additionally, I stay in ketosis by only eating a low carb dinner, ensuring that I’m burning fat and not vetoing any good results from fasting. While fasting, I have been doing weight workouts and yoga to maintain my muscle mass and keep my bones strong. I’m well aware that as a middle aged woman, I need to set good health habits sooner rather than later.

Doing 24 hour IF for autophagy is producing slow but steady progress. I’m finding that my clothes are looser, but not my skin. Hopefully since it isn’t rapid weight loss, I’ll be able to avoid having baggy skin on my stomach, face, arms and so on. Time will tell. For now, I’m finding it easy enough to stick to, and hopefully it will help stop my weight yo-yoing as we move towards winter.