Going to 24-hr fast Labor Day to give my system a good rest. However every other time I’ve tried to fast, I get psychologically in a bad place: obsessive intrusive thoughts about food, hunger pangs, and ultimately I end up giving in and binging.
Help! I want to successfully fast, as I see the benefits and want to incorporate 24hr fasts and IF into my lifestyle. I’m premed and the break from food, cooking and spending is not only strategic but welcomed!
Your advice?
I’ve done multi-day fasts before but somehow I still sometimes have a hard time with “omg, I’m not eating!”
Here are a few things that work for me:
keep really busy
be super indulgent about non-food things (bath, reading… whatever feels like a treat)
remind yourself that during non-fasting days at any given moment you’re probably not actually eating, so this moment (that you’re having trouble with the idea of not eating) could just as easily be a moment during a non-fast day since 95% of the time that you’re not in the middle of a meal anyway.
have a glass of water/cup of tea and then turn around and WALK OUT of the kitchen and just change the (internal dialogue) subject
Hunger really does come in waves - usually there are roughly 8 peaks per day in ghrelin secretion, and even in fasting subjects a pulsatile pattern corresponding the normal mealtimes was observed:
Thanks, all. I live on the beach and the weather is great. Going to spend the bulk of it studying in the sand. That will keep me busy and out of the kitchen.
I’ll also check out that link, as the science behind the hunger waves sounds interesting.
I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’m pretty good with fasting at this point, but I still get that really insistent hunger from time to time.
The bad news is when it becomes really intrusive my digestive juices start flowing and I get stronger and stronger heartburn each time it happens. Luckily it’s only happened on the last day of my extended fasts so far so I didn’t have to stop early, but I’m entirely certain that I would have had to.
The good news is the food thoughts and urge to eat don’t really bother me anymore. Even when it’s pretty much all I can think of that’s not what breaks me. I’m so used to fasting from both IF and extended fasting that, while not comfortable, is easily bearable. If you aren’t used to IF then going 24 hours without food is going to be a challenge the first few times, but it gets easier with time.
If you haven’t done IF at all then start doing that. Go 14 hours first, every day, then after a week or two up that to 16 or 18, then go up to 20. Once you’re at 20 hours then 24 hours is pretty close by. If you can manage to eat all your food in a single meal then you can fast pretty much 24 hours every day. It’s important you don’t skimp on calories though. If you don’t eat enough you’re going to get hungry in a way that doesn’t really let up. You’re always going to want food in some way and your body is always going to periodically remind you to eat, but both of those are fleeting feelings that will pass with only minor discomfort if you’re not actually lacking energy. If you find yourself becoming more and more hungry every day, eat more. It’s okay to break your fast early one day, or extend your eating period a little bit if you’re still hungry, that’s not failing that’s just taking a small sidestep to regain your balance.
Once you’re comfortable with 24 hour fasts you can look into extended fasting if you’re interesting. Going 48 hours is no big deal if you can do 24 hours. It’s going to be a little tough at first, just like starting IF is, but nothing more. After that 72 hours is the next step, and it’s probably the hardest one so far but not by much. Once you’ve done 72 hours you can go pretty much as long as you want after that. Any longer than 48 hours though and I strongly recommend you Read The Book and Follow The Instructions as things can become a bit dicey if you go for longer periods (beyond 72 hours) without knowing what’s up.
Good stuff all around but you really summed it up nicely Berengal, couldn’t have said it better myself!
I’ve easily done IF. It’s the 24 hour fasts that get me. However I just finished my last meal before the fast (2-egg omelette with spinach and cream cheese cooked in butter, with Lite Salt and a spoonful of sunflower seeds, raw unsalted). Also filled my 24oz tumbler with water and a sprinkle of potassium salt and pink Himalayan salt, to sip on intermittently throughout the night (I have another water bottle with non- brackish water to keep filled with me at all times).
I’ve got lots to keep me busy:
-academia
-Great Dane fur child
-messy apartment that needs cleaning
-plus–the beach in my backyard. Naps in the sand and beach meditations if all else fails and I feel myself starting to cave.
Also, I have the Forums and am listening to the 2 Keto Dudes podcast.
Eyes on the prize: my fasting goals…
-break my plateau (SW 199, CW 169) I’ve been at 169lbs for 3 months. My goal weight is 150.
-become better adapted to IF/ transition to one meal a day. I want this Labor Day fast to be my precursor to one meal a day. Breaking my fast on Tuesday morning with pork sausage, bacon, cheesy eggs and a spoonful of mayo. Ideally this will be my only meal Tuesday and I can effortlessly transition.
Sounds like you have a good plan then. Keeping busy really does help. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that the one thing that makes fasting much easier is being fat 
At 169lbs you may be overweight, I can’t judge by the weight alone, but it’s nothing like being 250lbs and as a result fasting is going to be harder for you than for some others.
I’m 5’7". Not obese but overweight. Yes that actually makes a lot of sense… I’ve less body fat to feed on while fasting. Oh well. Challenge accepted!
Remember Megan Ramos’ advise to put pink salt on the tongue, so it is absorbed faster, I find a good pinch helps with those hunger waves.
Also when you break your fast, have a small amount of something fatty, a fat bomb, single slice of bacon, etc. and wait about 20 mins. or so to eat your regular meal. It does help your system get going properly again.
All the best, you have a good plan. Which I had a beach to hang out on for Labor Day, enjoy!
So I tried the salt tongue trick and it worked, totally cut a craving.
Which, at only 3.5 hrs in is probably just a boredom craving. Although I’ve no reason to be bored as it’s bedtime for me, but it makes me mindful of just how much of my eating might be unnecessary, boredom eating.
The body seems to have a hell of a “memory”. I can fast for seven days and if the 7th day is a saturday, it never fails, I get ravenous at 5PM, our normal “feeding time” on Saturdays. It’s just habitual hunger and it passes, especially with a big glass of water or the salt trick mentioned above.
Best of luck in achieving your fasting goals!
14.5 hours in, and true hunger is starting to set in. However it’s manageable; I see what y’all mean it’s like a pang but with salt on the tongue you can easily ride it out like a wave. My energy levels are fine though (could be the black coffee).
So far so good! When all is said and done the fast will end up being about 36hrs not 24.
Woo-hoo! Nice work your doing, and I hear you with the salt…I just popped some onto my tongue before clicking on this thread 
I’m beginning a fast today and trying not to overthink it. I’d like to go for several days, but NOT focusing on it is the best way for me to move along more easily. As long as you can keep your mind occupied with other things and have that water and salt available as needed.
This sounds like you’re on your way to great success, even to 36 hrs, wow!
I like to fast that way. I skip eating for one whole day (or two) that way I sleep through the last ~12 hrs when one is normally in ketosis snyhow!
I eat a full day of my normal meals, stop eating around 7PM that way, I get the first 12hrs. in, so any struggle that comes after that is easier to deal with and pink salt was a game changer for me. I often find after 36 hrs. I can usually go onwards easily for another day or two.
Practice makes perfect. 
21hours in, still holding strong. Want to make Holiday last forever? Fast.
Keeping my tongue salted, and tried drinking plenty of water but on an empty stomach it makes me nauseous. Black coffee has been better.
All day I’ve had a nasty filmy taste in my mouth! Feels like morning breath all day.
To take my mind off food I decided to paint my nails and talked on the phone with a special guy friend. Mental concentration peaked at around 16hrs and dropped off thereafter; so much for studying all day. Mostly lounging around listening to podcasts.
I can, though, see myself easily doing 16hr fasts on a regular basis; doing 16-8 IF. We will see re: 1 meal every 24hrs. I’m getting a little ahead of myself.
Extended fasters: what do you experience at 24hrs? 36?
It isn’t. A great phrase I think I read on here is ‘emotional hunger comes on quickly and is felt in the mouth, physical hunger is felt in the belly and builds slowly’
My longest fast is 5 days and I haven’t yet felt physical hunger. It’s all in the head (and your mouth)
Same here, 5 days is my longest. I have seen descriptions of what ‘true hunger’ feels like from some people on this forum, as well as other places, and it apparently is very compelling, really not dismissable as the more “mental” stuff is. It still may be a struggle to know the difference, and real hunger could come on pretty fast for people with low body fat percentages or for other reasons.
I’ve seen some people say that the 18 hour point is tough - digesting one’s last meal is done by then, and body stores of glucose and glycogen are going down. And also the “2nd day” deal. Once I had gone more than 2 days on a fast, subsequent fasts were really pretty easy, ending almost entirely because of boredom, social committments, etc.