Alternate Day Fasting - experiences


(Andrea) #1

For those who ADF, what do you eat on your fasting day? I’ve just started OMAD-ing 5 days a week and find it’s great as apparently I’m a bit of a grazer in the kitchen! I have done longer fasts as well but I was wondering about ADF as a way of mixing things up.

Do you limit to ~500 cals on the fast day, or nothing? Coffee? Only eat fat?

Keen to hear people’s experiences.

Thanks!


(Karen) #2

Started ADF again. Have done 2 cycles.
Fasting i have coffee with HWC. or mushroom broth or diluted beef broth, or butter.

K


(Brian) #3

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. If I fast, I fast, no food at all, only water. If I eat, I eat well.

How much do you eat when you’re not eating? Somehow, that question seems odd to me.

But hey, that’s just me. To each their own.

Good luck!


(Andrea) #4

No, you’re absolutely right…it IS a silly question! :slight_smile: I’m thinking of sticking with OMAD for a few weeks as I feel it balances with me and helps me limit my grazing habit. But the ADF has always interested/perplexed me. I think limiting to coffee and HWC (which for me would be a must!) plus not much more would make me way too hungry on “fasting” days. I’ve managed 3 day fasts before ok so maybe I’m with you…don’t eat when you fast and eat when you eat.


(Alec) #5

Coffee and HWC for me.


(Justin Jordan) #6

I found truly fasting (as in, no foods with calories at all) on alternate days to be more difficult than doing, say, a 3 day fast. This was purely psychological.

Doing 500 calories on ‘fast’ days proved to be fairly easy.


#7

If you believe in the insulin hypothesis as advocated by folks like Dr Fung, then 500 calorie “fasting days” would be suboptimal compared to water fasting. If you believe in the results that Dr Varady presents in her Every Other Day Diet book, eating 400-500 calories on fasting days is effective for weight loss.

I’ve tried alternating water fasting with 2000 calorie feeding days. My body is not yet ready for it. It’s not sufficient time to get my BG (proxy for insulin) down to the where I want it to be (under 85 mg/dL). But it is improving, I expect by next year my metabolic health will have improved enough for me to transition to ADF.


#8

I did ADF like Michael Moseley’s 5:2 for 7 months, pretty successfully; I had under 500 cals per day as is suggested on the WOE. But the I realised it was easier to not eat anything on FDs, I was no hungrier. I have black coffee or water unless I’m feeling it really hard then I’ll have cream in coffee. I was doing this for weight loss, so it worked well! But I found I was getting into a bit of a bingeing mode on carbs on nonFDs, so decided to try keto, & feel so much better for it. I presume it’s down to the keto, but I’ve tried EF instead & it’s easier than I thought, so the last month I’ve done 48hr- 60hr fasts & I prefer this now to alternate days- I always find the 1st day is the hardest, once that is past is gets easier, so I’d rather do 3 days all together rather than 3x separate days, if that makes sense? But whatever works for you, if it’s weight loss you’re after… & I guess swapping it about regularly is a good thing. Good luck!
PS I’m terrible for grazing in the kitchen when I cook for others; fasting then keto made me realise how much I do it, quite an eye opener!


(ANNE ) #9

For the month of April I introduced a three OMADs a week, Mon, Wed and Friday, to help move a plateau of weight. Then I stalled again, by beginning of May I was on another plateau. So I spent a week going back to two meals a day as before. Weight did not increase, so happy there. At the end of May I introduced OMAD five days a week, Mon to Fri, and the scale is moving a bit again. I don’t know how long I will keep up the five days a weeks, OMAD, I suppose I will see where it takes me. At some point I hope I will find a new normal weight, and find the balance between fasting, and eating normal keto to stay in a steady state.
If there is one thing I have learned on this wonderful forum is that you just have to give things a go, and with what suits you and your psyche and situation.
I find that work days are best for me to do OMAD, just keeping busy and out of the kitchen is a good thing…


(Omar) #10

I think for metabolism healing and reset to factory settings, water fasting, electrolytes and supplements only.

I listened to one of obesity code podcasts that coffee with HWC will compromise the fast.

Fasting is not supposed to be comfortable. It is a healing mechanism.


(Raj Seth) #11

Was that a trick question? :grinning:


(Raj Seth) #12

Well I guess I’m lucky that fasting IS comfortable for me. Fasting does not HAVE to be uncomfortable- especially when you are fully fat adapted and have plenty of it already ingested and in close proximity to your liver :rofl:


(Omar) #13

What I mean I could live my life on coffee and HWC. In my standard this is good. I am used for fasting to mean deprivation from food. HWC is my favorite food.

Sorry if I implied that fasting is difficult. that is not constructive if that was the message recived.


#14

I don’t find fasting uncomfortable at all. The only challenge is purely mental. And beating that has done wonders for my self confidence- if I can fast for a week, I can certainly do ___________.


(Andrea) #15

…coffee and HWC! The food of keto champions! :slight_smile: