I am 19 yr old female ballet dancer but currently don’t have quite as demanding of a schedule, although I do extra cardio and pilates/yoga sculpt. I have a past of odd eating behavior and trying every diet to ever exist, all resulting in disappointment. I am overwhelmed by food and not 5 minutes go by where food does not cross my mind. It is so exhausting and I feel that a fast would allow me to reset my body and mind. I have tried a 3 day fast in the past but lasted 30 or so hours and felt too ill to continue. I was wondering if there is something I can do to avoid this and have a successful fast. I understand it’s not a “diet” to lose weight, although that is also a goal as I have put on weight recently just from seriously overeating salty+sugary foods while being with family. I hope that I can go 3 days, if I am feeling okay I would like to go longer. I am begging for any advice you can give. I want to stick to it and challenge my mental strength and reap the benefits of a water fast. If you have any positive water fasting experience, please share… and if you have any negative experiences, please let me know how you coped. Thank you!
3+ day water fast
Are you currently fasting, or how long have you been doing keto?
They don’t suggest fasting right away until you are fat adapted.
I am sure intermittant fasting is fine as we do that in our sleep but you may want to do a bit more research on extended fasting without being fat adapted. Just an idea.
Make sure you understand the salt, magnesium and potassium needs of your body. Also if you feel crappy, you should break your fast. Eating LCHF might be all you need to do right now.
I find listening to a variety of resources helpful in staying focused on eating the right foods. Look into “Naturally Nourished” podcast. There are some great tips for anyone but especially helpful for youthful women.
You are a dancer so you are used to really relying on your body. Maybe now would be a good time to learn to listen to your body and work in sync with it rather than fighting it. There is no one way to do mindful healthy LCHF lifestyle; we each have to learn what works for us. If you really want to be in control of your health and your appetite/hunger, continue to try to learn all you can and do the things that sound right to you. If something isn’t working move on and try something else. Experiment and have fun.
Did you need medical assistance with the “odd eating behavior”? If so, perhaps you would want to find a dr. who supports LCHF/Paleo/Keto style eating and work with them.
As someone else has mentioned the electrolytes are critical for feeling healthy. Also you are not fat adapted so fasting will be harder on your body. You might want to work up to multiday fasting. Start with 16:8 or similar protocol. If you haven’t done so read Dr. Fung’s guide to fasting book as well. Listen to the podcasts on fasting by the 2dudes and the Oobesity Code to understand fasting better.
Good luck on sorting it out.
I’ve been doing keto for around 4 months and never intended fasting. I’d had 2 disastrous attempts when I was a carb-burner and also lived with an eating disorder so didn’t want to risk it. But I found that after I was fat-adapted, it just seemed to happen naturally. I didn’t plan to fast, it just happened that I wasn’t particularly hungry one day, didn’t eat and just kept going for 3 days. I actually couldn’t understand anyone fasting, I thought they must be so ravenously hungry that it must be torture to not eat for DAYS. But that wasn’t my experience at all. There was a little bit if hunger now and then, but passed quickly having salt or bouillon cubes in hot water. It was SO much easier than I thought it would be and I felt great. I could almost feel by body using my excess (about 25kg) body fat as fuel. It was like my body was saying -" hey, I’ve just found all this fat I can live on for the next 3 months so don’t worry about eating!".
The reason it wasn’t too difficult is that I am fat-adapted. I wouldn’t recommend anyone who is not fat-adapted to try to fast.
My suggestion is that you take your time…don’t rush fasting. You need to follow keto for a while to become fat-adapted first. When your body is ready, it will tell you.