Hello. I have been keto since 4/18. Weight loss stalled In October/November. I have had success with keto. Lost 40 lbs and mostly kept it off (still up about 5 lbs since Christmas) I Began to incorporate intermittent fasting. My problem is that when I begin to add more fasting I tend to binge and unable to stay keto. The old cravings come back with a vengeance. I would like to incorporate more fasting for autophagy and diseases prevention. But since the holidays I have increased carbs way to much and am struggling being satisfied with my “keto” version of anything. Then my brain wants more carbs and I make excuses that if I didn’t eat for 60 hours I should be able to have that brownie… this is worse than beginning keto last year! does anyone else struggle blending keto and fasting? Any tips would be helpful!
Binging with Intermittent fasting
I would think your choice on what to binge on is the real problem? Why would you choose to eat a brownie instead of meat and fat? See: What to eat after an Extended Fast, from Live Q&A with Megan Ramos Obesity Code podcast
And trying to fast for 60 hours if you have little experience with fasting, not good! See: Fasting Physiology – Part II by J. Fung
@KetoLunaMom - YES, I struggle also. Took the fasting route (for better or worse) along with keto as the best way to stabilize (keto) and lose (3 to 5 day water fasts). It is a rough road but you have to look at yourself in the mirror (nothing on). Sometimes I see no scale changes but obvious muscle for fat differences. With fasting, so far, no loose skin.
Binging, a mental thing, about your identity.
Are you a crazy person that just wants carbs. (probably not)
OR
Are you a regular person in a negative-food-environment that just needs to wake up to the fact that many hyper-palatable foods are always going to somehow come into your mind?
I do think it is more mental. When I am keto I can feel like I am “cheating “ add butter to my steak, to make a fab bomb or whatever and still feel good. I feel great while I fast, but the restrictions catch up at the end and I want to eat all the things. And I probably do need to break my fasts with better food to maybe decrease the cravings. The SAD diet is so convenient! I just can’t believe how quickly I threw all I have focused on with keto out the window. I have done 3 fasts between 40-60 hours. Each time I pushed myself out of ketosis after the fast.
Hi @KetoLunaMom,
You may want to add the @ before a name like @RobC or else there is no notification.
Just saw this just now by chance.
As you can see from your own writing - the 72 hours after a 72 hour salt water fast are just as important as the fast itself.
Coming back with some butter sautéed greens and a fatty steak (but an otherwise plain) meal (self-limiting) is very different from all of your old favorites over several hours.
@RobC Thank you! (I haven’t posted much. Still learning) I appreciate the responses!
Don’t stop - you did not learn to ride a bike with one-day-on and 10 days of analysis toward perfection.
Simple solution, stop the fasting, start eating keto reliably and until the cravings are back under control. THEN re-access the situation.
Very difficult without a descent sized sample diet, aside from dumping the fasting for a while make sure you’re satisfying yourself with the meals you eat. Many people overly restrict when doing keto and if you feel like you’re on a “diet”… you will fail. Only a matter of time. Luckily we can literally eat MORE than normal dieters without guilt, it’s really only a small amount of stuff that’s off limits for us, you’re currently hijacked brain is reminding you why right now! It’s just not worth it! Everybody has different triggers. I can go out and eat real pizza, breads and things like that and go right back to 100% keto next day without issue, I can fast for a week and not think twice about it. BUT if I eat the super sweet terrible carbs like donuts, pastry’s or real ice cream… I’ll have about 2-3 days after where my brain starts trying to sell me out and if I give in during that it’s typically a week long binge of sneaking crap I shouldn’t eat. It took many screw ups to be able to identify that being what was going on when it first started but being keto for a couple years you figure yourself out pretty good. For the time being fasting seems to be a trigger for you, and is showing you that your brain has be re-programmed to want the sugar. Undoing that has to be priority #1.
@lfod14 thank you for the advice. I do feel the “diet mentality” with fasting. I do not feel restricted like that with keto. But meshing the two together is not working for me at this time. I will try to focus on just keto for a while. I felt so strong before, On occasion I could have some carbs (usually when work ordered in) and was fine… but I think it was when holiday sweets came around and I have struggled in and out of ketosis. Still haven’t gotten back to the feeling great like I was. I assume because of the inconsistency. Thank you for listening. I appreciate the support
There is a kindle book you might find helpful, written by a psychologist who had binging issues himself and over came them :
