After a fast, what do you gain?

#1

Do you gain waterweight and foodweight only? Not bodyfat?

#2

Quite a wide question which I expect may depend on the variables of the person involved and what they choose to eat afterwards?

If you go straight into ā€˜pureā€™ ketosis uncompromised by carbs then I would predict you would return to a normal healthy stable weight/body fat.

I lost most of my ā€˜unnecessaryā€™ weight by fasting I expect a lot of that was ā€˜waterā€™ and possibly connected to inflammation? My fasting is not easily kick starting any more weight loss at the moment; and I anticipate that is possibly because:

a) my fat is more ā€˜pure fatā€™ and body wants to cling onto it as emergency fuel,
b) at a stone over where I would like to be; in fact my body feels this is a pretty damn good weight and isnā€™t happy with my ego trying to control my weight!

But thatā€™s just be speculating after 2 months of IF and EF on and off and getting used to low carb.

(Alec) #3

Depends on what you eat after the fast. If you donā€™t go mad on your refeed, then it is likely just water and food weight. You should be down the amount of bodyfat you burned during the fast.

(Omar) #4

You are not supposed to gain any weight If your metabolism is motivated to be elevated.

If you gain it means your metabolism is shut.

But feast and fast even if you gain weight it is an effective way to fix metabolism.

which means that repair time is needed.

#5

Thatā€™s completely dependent on what youā€™re eating after and how your body reacts to it.

#6

Yes,I forgot to say if you eat keto afterwards. Thanks guys!

(Doug) #7

I do go down in weight while fasting, and most of that is water loss. 3 or 4 pounds of water. 10 days is my longest fast, and most have been 3 to 5 days. The bigger we are, the more fat we can lose per day - commonly 0.3 to 0.6 pounds per day. If I lose 0.5 lbs (200+ grams) of fat in a day, then I think Iā€™m doing well.

If I lose roughly 2 lbs. of fat during a fast, itā€™s hard to ā€œseeā€ that on the scale, because normal weight fluctuations due to varying water retention are larger than that, for me. Even after gaining back the water from not fasting any longer, it may look like I didnā€™t lose any weight at all, or maybe it looks like 4 lbs. were lost.

Going from keto eating to eating a larger amount of carbohydrates will cause further water weight gain, for sure.

Gaining back bodyfat after a fast - I think this is due to fairly unusual personal circumstances. Either one has eaten far over their energy usage, resutling in fat storage, or one has something else, something comparatively rare, going on.

Unless we are talking about a relatively very long fast - where many pounds of fat were lost - then itā€™s hard to figure out exactly whatā€™s going on, since the fat loss (and potential fat regain) will have been small enough to be easily masked by other things.

(KetoQ) #8

Iā€™ve been doing keto since May 15. Was doing 23/1 IF/OMAD. Once a week I did a 48 hour fast. Tried to keep very well hydrated, especially when on the EF, so I could keep water losses to a minimum. Hereā€™s my last five EFs, and just finished one yesterday. All weight measurements were morning wake up.

Jun 6 279.4 (start fast 10pm)
Jun 7 278.8
Jun 8 274.9 (broke fast 9pm)
Jun 9 276

Jun 18 273.7 (start fast 10pm)
Jun 19 274.1
Jun 20 270.6 (broke fast 9pm)
Jun 21 270.8

Jun 26 271.2 (start fast 10pm)
Jun 27 271.9
Jun 28 267.2 (broke fast 9pm)
Jun 29 266.9

Then I did a back-to-back fast, where the meal that broke my fast on Jun 28, was the last meal of my new fast, hence the overlap of dates.

Jun 28 267.2 (start fast 10pm)
Jun 29 266.9
Jun 30 262.8 (broke fast 9pm)
Jul 1 264.2

That said, I slowly kept gaining back and stalling and it took me 12 days until I got back under 262.8 when I completed my most recent fast.

Also in response to the stall, Iā€™ve been changing things up. This past week Iā€™ve stopped doing 23/1 IF/OMAD and eating 2x daily, at 6am and 9pm. Also upping calories from average of 1700/day to 2000/day.

Jul 10 266.4 (start fast 10pm)
Jul 11 267.2
Jul 12 262.7 (break fast 6am)
Jul 13 263.1

Hey, I got to put all this spreadsheet info to use at sometime, right? :slight_smile:

#9

Just finished a 48 hour fast. Wanted to make it to 3 days but my head didnā€™t feel great so decided to stop. Had drunk loads of water, electrolytes etc etc. This is only my second attempt so not too bad. Will try again next week for the 3 daysā€¦ Last time it did kick start a stall in weight lossā€¦

(karen) #10

Typically on a three day fast I will go down 4-5 pounds (water, digested food, glycogen, fat and probably a little muscle) and then eventually back up 3-4.5 over the course of the next few days, so a 1/2 - 1 pound ā€œpermanentā€ weight loss for three days of water fasting. The body fat percentage on my scale is inching down, so I believe that pound is mostly fat, not muscle.

ETA: I put ā€œpermanentā€ in quotes because obviously I can re-gain it depending on my diet in the future.

#11

Fasting is not a ā€œone and doneā€ tool. If weight loss is the goal, it needs to be implemented on a repetitive basis. If you want a fixed regime, pick one where you experience no/little regain. At one end of the spectrum, for some people thatā€™s means a 20 hour fast (4 hour feeding window). At the other end of the spectrum, it may mean a 42 hour fast (alternate day fasting with 6 hour feeding window). For me, it meant eating one meal a week.

Or, keep it simple and just donā€™t eat until youā€™re at your desired weightā€¦