JUNE 2018 IF/EF chat - all welcome

#242

Hey everyone, I think it’s finally time to join you. I check out this thread pretty much every month but I haven’t fasted in a while!

Here’s my background with fasting in case any of you has any advice or insight: I can IF without much trouble, and last spring my husband and I started doing two 40hr fasts/week (with BPC). I LOVED it, felt great, leaned out just the right amount, felt clear-headed and open.

Then I did a few longer fasts (3 days, then 5), which both went fine. I was even doing hot yoga during the fasts and felt great. But somehow afterwards - and even now sometimes when I IF - I got kind of panicky when I went back to eating. Like I could never quite get full, and I couldn’t trust my satiety signals. I stopped fasting for almost a year now (except for a skipped breakfast now and then).

I love the idea of fasting, and I’m generally a really big eater so giving my system a break from digestion seems lovely. Also autophagy, overall health… fasting seems so great, but I have to find a way to do it that doesn’t spin me into a weird state about food. It wasn’t exactly disordered eating, but it wasn’t healthy either.

My plan right now is to try next week OMAD, so basically a series of 24-hr fasts. I know this isn’t ideal long-term, but I’ll do it for only 4 days and then if all goes well I’ll go into a longer fast (I’m coming up to a rare stretch of time when a fast really makes sense in my family’s schedule). I’ll come up with some way - eating slowly enough for satiety to kick in? or just arbitrarily stopping at one serving - so that my one meal doesn’t feel like it spins out of control, but I’m eager to check in here with all of you to make sure that I’m on a decent path.

Allie, I’m sorry :cry:

(ember) #243

Hi all, Newbie here, just stumbled into this forum this morning (m in Australia). So to date, I have had pretty much no success. Not this time anyway. Used IF and keto previously in my life with great success. This time… Im older… Im studying now as a mature age student, high pressure. Long hours driving , single parent… But I am beginning to realise the way I was doing keto and IF wont work for me anymore. I was always a sneaky cheater working out all the ways I could get around things… Doesnt work anymore and have seen the scales skyrocket over the last 18 months since the beginning of study ( masters degree). Also not training due to injury anymore. I guess now Im older, hormones maybe changing, likely insulin resistant… But I guess what I am beginning to realise is also is how hard I am finding it to not do shortcuts. SO everyday I wake up and say “I’ll do 24 hrs fast today” and then by the end of the day around 3-4pm I am freaking starving . I end up caving and nibbling or eating, not bad stuff, chicken and veggie soup or a bacon with eggs etc . I RARELY go over my caloric intake and even if I go over carbs, Im not snacking on rice potatoes and sweets, the worst it gets is a slice of apple with peanut butter if I crave a sweet thing or a keto cheesecake. I do wake up to have a BP coffee, which for me consists of 2 tspn ( not tblsp) butter, 7gm of coconut oil and a little splash of coconut cream, I just havent had the stomach to consistently do black coffee on its own. You might find this so silly, but how do I find the inner will and courage to either do 24-48 hr fasts. I hear that if you are quite insulin resistant that you need a longer fast period for the insulin to reset /body to use the stores. Any tricks you have to change my mindset would be appreciated because my issue I realise is mental/psychological block here and because my old tricks aren’t working it feels like I am constantly failing and CANT lose it. Its devastating me. I just secured an internship for a week for a major art gallery and I NEED to be able to fit into some of my old fancy clothes for it. You’d think that would be motivation enough wouldn’t you ? I have roughly 26 pounds to lose as a first goal and then another 8 as my final goal. Im tired of all of this. Im 43 so yes my hormones are changing a bit but I really dont want to buy into the idea that I cant do it. The intern gig is in 6 weeks and even if I lost 15 of that 26 pounds I would be over the moon and at least some of my clothes suitable for the internship would actually fit me.

(Jane) #244

You probably won’t like my advice… but it is my honest opinion.

Keto is not a quick-loss, crash diet and you don’t have 100-lbs to lose so I think 2.5 lbs per week is unrealistic even if you get the fasting down.

Go find you some nice clothes to get you by at a thrift store and decide to do this WOE for the long haul - not to loose xxx lbs in yyy weeks. Stalls happen and really get discouraging when you are trying to meet a weight target by a specific time.

Then in a few months you can enjoy shopping in your own closet.

You should focus on becoming fat-adapted first - it really makes fasting easier. Stop cheating.

Stop trying to fast then breaking down and having 500 calories for the day. You are wrecking your metabolism! If you are “starving” then you are not fat-adapted.

Or try a fat fast first and see if you can do that without caving in. You will get the same effects of low insulin response.

Be sure and drink your electrolytes when you fast.

Good luck!

Btw - I am much older than you (59) and it took me 7 months to lose 30 lbs. Used fasting to break a 2.5 month stall.

#245

@theartbeing
@Janie’s advice is excellent. Seconding all of it! Good luck to you :slight_smile:

(Liz ) #246

Hey friends! Mom (84) said she wanted to do a fast so I joined her. She’s hoping to get the benefit of autophagy if possible, but if not then just the insulin reduction and a break for her digestive system. She looked a bit pale this afternoon so I did give her a salty, fatty cup of broth & her color improved. Don’t want to stress out my elder!

Since dad passed & we moved in with her, my life’s been all turned upside down & I have been hungry at lunch and dinner for pretty much a solid 5 weeks. I’ve listened to my body & been eating 2 meals a day almost every day. But today I feel ready to fast so I’m glad about that! I’ll probably go 40 hours or so.

My weight has been very stable all this time. I’d still like to lose 15 or 20 lbs but I’m not in a hurry anymore.

(Robert C) #247

Is a good place to be mentally! Good luck

(Liz ) #248

Hey thank you.

(Allie) #249

@LizinLowell you’re doing great :heart:

#250

@Shortstuff - :cry:, difficult job to do, but very glad that there are people like you who do…
@LizinLowell- hope that your fast goes well, & hugs to your Mum! :hugs: Hope she does well too!
@theartbeing- I think the advice is good, to get fat adapted properly before you fast. You said though that you rarely go over your calorie intake- not sure what calories your sticking to, but if it’s too low, then your metabolism will lower to get used to that, the advice for keto newcomers is to not count calories, eat til satiety… Might pay you to try just keto without the cheating for a bit & see what happens? Most people say that the fasting muscle needs building up; I started with 24hrs & built up, I did ADF before finding out about keto, so it can be done without being fat adapted, but it’s definitely easier if you wait. In the early days, I would tell myself it’s only one day, you can eat tomorrow… find ways to distract myself & keep busy. Have as a single parent though, it is tough if you have to make food for others.

I’m starting a 24hr fast after eating something I shouldn’t have done yesterday! Worst thing is, the rest of it’s still sitting in the fridge, calling… Majority of carby cravings have gone on this WOE (yay!), but when something’s sitting there in the fridge, looking at me… I’m the only ketoer so can’t avoid the stuff everyone else likes! If it’s not gone tonight I shall give the leftovers away to neighbours!

(Shayne) #251

Like I said, ADF this week. The last time I tried to do ADF, I did 42 hours and then I was not able to do any more ADF that week. So even though I did 96 hours last week, I’m thinking that my fasting day will end with dinner. So maybe it’ll be more like ADOMAD - LOL! I think alternate day 24s are fine - and maybe more sustainable over time for me.

(Liz ) #252

Thank you, it was an easy 41 hours. I thought if you because I got so cold last night! Lol

(Liz ) #253

Thanks it was an easy fast for me & I’m glad of it. Mom did great, she made it to about 36 hours which I think is super for an 84 year old. She’s loading up on fats today & seems to do really well with extra protein.

(back and doublin' down) #254

I liked that you could be there for them. Still a sad moment.

(back and doublin' down) #255

26 hours into a 96 or more hour fast. After my trip to the big city and some big city dining, felt like a great time to back off being in the kitchen and focus on some other projects that need to happen. Plus, won’t be distracted by needing to eat.

Went on a 3 mile hike, great conversation and sunshine. Plenty of energy. Thinking my splurge on Saturday night didn’t do too much damage.

Keep Calm and Let’s Fast On!

(Steve) #256

91 hours in (this is full day #4) of me trying the “changing it up” thing - but, mostly, I’m hoping for healing of my hernia with autophagy. So, we’ll see how many days I can do this for. :slight_smile: 6 was my prior record. That looks pretty easy at the moment.
Not even any broth cheats…water, green tea and electrolyte drink. (well, I had some ACV in water to keep from getting heartburn because I took an ibuprofen).
As always day two was the hurdle to get through. :slight_smile:

I am one of those “keto unicorns”, so i won’t comment on what the scale has said…I don’t want the ladies throwing things at me! :wink:

#257

Today is day one of my 4 planned OMADs for the week. The fasting part is relatively easy for me; the challenge will come at dinner. My intention is to re-incorporate fasting with calm and reasonable eating on the other side, so tonight I want to savor dinner and then pay attention to satiety (and not let “dinner” spill over into 3 hours of mindless nibbling!).

I figure that if I can practice this for a few 24-hr fasts this week, then I can handle a 5-day fast coming up soon.

#258

Just checking in - I had a nice dinner, then brushed my teeth (to seal the end of eating for today!) and then took a lovely walk with my husband. So far so good: day one OMAD complete.

#259

36hrs; didn’t sleep at all well, very cold…even though there’s a heatwave in the UK! I often wake early when I’m fasting.
@Madeleine - I do have a similar problem with knowing when to stop after fasting, I’ll watch your experiment with interest!
@LizinLowell - your Mum did so well, a 36hr fast at her age! Hope your fast is/ was okay!

(Allan L) #260

The only way I can cope in a heatwave is to fast. I get very cold when I fast even though I have lots of stored body fat to fuel my metabolism and enjoy fasting during heatwaves as I feel a normal temp.

(Allie) #261

This is what I’m doing, well OMAD yesterday and now fasting.