When I first started keto 10 weeks ago I did IF after the first 2-3 weeks. I did great eating once a day, not hungry, etc. so then I tried a longer fast. I aimed for 3 days but had to stop after 61 hours because I got nauseous.
I started IF again this past Monday with only eating twice a day, then Tuesday I went to once a day. But it seems like each day I get hungrier and hungrier.
I am doing zero carb - mostly bacon, eggs, fish, shrimp, or pork as I can’t stand the smell of cooking beef or the texture. For fat I mostly use butter or coconut oil.
So what am I doing wrong? It’s taking me forever to get fully fat adapted. I don’t eat much when I eat my one meal because I get full quickly. Is it just not enough calories? Should I give up on the IF again for a while? Or will the hunger gradually decrease and go away as I continue fasting?
Really appreciate all the help and encouragement I get from this site!
Fasting Questions
You probably are fat adapted. Hunger is a complicated thing. I don’t have a whole lot of success with fasting either. I’ve found that hydration can mange you hungry, electrolytes can get out of whack, etc.
I would be patient and keep trying. Also consider increasing your food intake for a day or two before trying to fast. Let us know how it goes!
@cbingel
Probably a good idea to increase food for a few days. I have let myself get stuck in the old mindset that once I start fasting I have to keep doing it.
Thanks!
Google “ketovangelist megan ramos.” You’ll find a podcast of Bill Williamson interviewing Megan Ramos that provides a wealth of information about fasting, and it may help you figure out what you need to tweak in order to successfully fast.
Go listen to the Switching it Up episode of the 2KD podcast. It talks a lot about how routine and pattern can be the enemy of progress.
@cbingel
Wait…I may have misunderstood what you were saying. I thought you meant give up fasting for a few days but are you talking about feasting before fast? I have heard of that but know nothing about it. How does it work and how does feasting before the fast help with the fast?
Thanks!
Re. feasting and fasting. Feasting doesn’t mean to stuff yourself or go beyond your carb limit. It means to not be frugal with your portions or calories. Since you are going without food for some period of time, and it is having the effect you seek, you might think that cutting portions on days you eat might be efficacious. Not so.
I just finished listening to this. It was a huge help! I took notes and will start following her suggestions. Thanks for the info!
Some of the benefits of fasting are a decrease in your basal insulin level, and an increase in autophagy, which is your body’s process of recycling old and damaged cells. By eating higher amounts of food while keeping to a ketogenic ratio, you can increase your base metabolic rate. Doing this prior to a fast may increase the positive impact of the fast, like the insulin level and autophagy. So in these feast days you would not be fasting, you’d be getting your metabolism used to the idea that there’s food present so that when you do fast, it will try to support that increased metabolic rate by using more of what you’re already storing prior to decreasing your metabolic rate.
Keep in mind, I’m neither an expert nor a scientist, so please take others opinions as well!
The idea that calories in = calories out was the hardest thing for me to get over instictually. I was fine with the idea that my body could run on fat, as trying to run on my previous diet had made me so sick. But CICO seems to defy normal laws of thermodynamics, until you learn more about metabolism and how it works.