I plan on water fasting the weekdays except for wednesday and eating on wednesday and the weekends. How does exercising play into this? I am planning on doing light exercises on my fasting days. And doing heavy exercises on my breaks.
Is this a good fast plan? What should I expect?
If you’re new to fasting I’d recommend against such a plan. Start with intermittent fasting, work up to 24 hours, then 36 hours, then extended fasting. This plan sounds like going for too much too fast, a potential set-up for failure.
Agree with @anon2571578 that you should work up to this. Once you are have that “fasting muscle” built up, 2 x 48 hours a week is not a bad strategy, although what you have suggested is more fasting that 2 x 48. It’s important to re-feed in between fasts to keep your metabolism up. Too much fasting and too little eating will lower your metabolism.
Ethan, are you already following the keto way of eating?
If so, then maybe slip into eating and non eating windows, for example 16 hours water and 8 hour food window. Then maybe try some one meal a day days. Then depending on how you find it, progress to longer water only fasts.
It can be tough to fast from the standard western diet.
Thank you for the warning. Is the wednesday break not enough to keep my metabolism up? What would you suggest instead?
Besides starting out slow. If this fast plan is too much I’ll make a new plan. However, I am already quite used to just eating one meal day. I just never thought of it as fasting before.
You didn’t mention how long you’ve been doing keto, but that’s a key detail. If you’re just starting keto, give your body some time to get fat adapted. You’ll be glad you did. You may find that plain ol’ keto feels fantastic, and is all you’re really looking for. Fasting is great, but it’s not necessary by a long stretch. It can be a great help in addressing insulin resistance and lowering blood sugar, and a host of other things, but not everybody has those problems.
Assuming you’re fat adapted, I agree with everyone else that what you’re proposing is still a bit too aggressive. At Dr. Fung’s IDM clinic, they recommend either two 42-48 fasts each week, or one 72 hour fast each week. That’s it. They know what they’re talking about, and their results speak for themselves. It’s pretty easy to wear out your “fasting muscle”, especially if you take on too much too early. You know you’re doing it right when it’s effortless.
It might be helpful to know more about your current stats, and your goals as well. If you’re 11% bodyfat trying to get down to 9%, fasting probably is not a good idea! If you’re 40% trying to get down to 20%, fasting makes a lot more sense. The more bodyfat you have, the easier fasting is, and the less lean body mass you will lose.
The rule of thumb is that you should get 2 consecutive days with 2 meals each day between extended fasts, and they need to be in excess of maintenance calories. If you’re going to fast, make sure you feast! Restricting calories between extended fasts is big no no. Doing that will slow your metabolism down in a hurry.
When it comes keto, I think it make sense to start with the basics, and add complexity as progress allows. Start with staying under 20g carbs/day, protein at 1g-2g per kg lean bodyweight, and fat to satiety. You can track calories, but don’t take orders from them. Eat to satiety every single day. After 4-6 weeks, if you’re making progress towards your goals, add in a day or two of exercise. If that stalls your weight loss (assuming you even care about weight loss), stop exercising until you start making progress again. When you’re able to make progress on strict keto and exercise, add in a bit of fasting. That’s my 2 cents, but everybody has their own approach to keto and their own goals.
The one thing that rarely works is tackling keto, fasting, and exercise all at once right out of the gate. That’s asking an awful lot from your body!
I think you should ease yourself into fasting. I did and it was much easier to build my plan. Right now, my plan is actually very similar to yours. So I think yours is actually reasonable. I fast on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I also do a five-day fast once a month And it’s seven days instead once per quarter
It’s not. As you spend the next several weeks getting fat adapted and building up to longer fasting windows, read The Complete Guide To Fasting. Or if you are on a budget you can get most of the info you need from Jason Fung’s blog.
Do not try extended fasting until you’re Keto adapted and can intermittent fast every day for a week without trouble. You also need to practice proper salt and electrolyte intake with hydration - very important habits for fasting. That would be my recommendation.
If your body is unprepared, it will break down lean mass and reduce your metabolism instead of losing fat.
The particular regimen you defined is probably the worst in my view. You fast for two days - just long enough to suffer all the damaging effects, then cycle back to food to stop from getting into proper fasting Ketosis… just to go through another lean mass loss cycle… then repeat. If you’re trying to lose muscle fast, I think that would do it.