JUNE 2024 IF/EF Fasting thread

(Robin) #1

June is busting out all over.
Who’s fasting? Howz it going?
Advice? Questions?

#2

I’m doing a three day fast! I started yesterday and plan on breaking it Monday after my gym training session.

#3

Okay so I guess it’s really time for me to take fasting a bit more seriously… IDK if I could do EF this month but if my body will be on board, I manage the other part somehow…

I talked about EF with my SO and he said he could never do it, he needs energy on workdays and he refuses to ruin it his precious weekend. Yeah, he totally seems someone needing his frequent meals (well, 3 per day, my meals are way more frequent in my way smaller eating window :stuck_out_tongue: ). EF isn’t for everyone for sure.
But I could do it until I dropped my carbs :frowning: I want that again.

But my basic plan is definitely not eating anything until lunch (it’s usually at 3pm, sometimes later, sometimes earlier on weekends) - it’s very easy as I don’t get properly hungry early (but if I take it very seriously, it means I should avoid coffee as I may be able to drink it black, I rarely prefer and do so. no coffee until 3pm, it’s way more difficult than it should be… but it should be easy if I figure out how to turn some mental switch) AND if possible, skipping lunch.
So, for June (starting on Monday and I am not fully sure about weekends, I like to be all wild and free there…), I try to wait until I get properly hungry or really tempted or feel the need for refuel. I want to break the habit of eating lunch just because it’s lunchtime, my SO came home, I am not fully satiated anymore, I have food and it looks nice and I can use some enjoyment… I have these all and they make a very tempting offer… But if I can easily wait, I should do so. I made attempts in the last several months and I was successful here and there. If I avoid lunch, I usually can wait until dinnertime and that sounds good.

I plan to keep playing with fat fast or similar days. Skipping lunch suit them, more motivation, I can use that. Breaking habits is quite hard for me. My track record isn’t good at all.

Good luck, everyone!

#4

I decided on skipping every lunch unless I really, really, really need food (the chance of that is minimal). I mean, yes, I kind of planned skipping lunch every day in the past but nothing like that. It will be my default, not some “oh, if I am not hungry AT ALL, not even close then maybe I should?”. I only skipped lunch when I had zero desire or need to eat, I was still satiated and everything. And that’s rare. So… Nope. I won’t eat lunch and that’s it (yes, I will if there is a big need… but that is fine, it won’t make me too indulgent). I am curious what will happen. I may cling to this forum a bit more than usual hoping it will help a tiny bit.

Good luck, everyone!

I wish we still had group fasts. Tiny groups would do. I have other plans until Wednesday but then I may go for some shorter EF!

#5

Hello! I’m a lurker of several years. I’m not a comfortable
‘sharer’ but I wanted to give back to the forum with some of my story.

I’m a low-carber. In any given week I’m usually carnivore 3 days, keto 3 days and low carb 1 day, mixing between one and two meals each day. For a very long time, about 6 months, I’d also fast at least 36 hours one day a week, basically skipping meals on one day a week. This felt great and worked really well. Over about 6 months early last year, I went from 215 (where I had hovered for the 20 years between 25 and 45) to 165. At 175 or so, I was starting to find it a lot harder to fast. I’m female, 5’3" and even at 165 still have a considerable amount of weight left to lose so that was really puzzling. I started having a hard time controlling snacking, etc. It took me about 4 months to decide what I though the issue was: I had slowly replaced fats with protein, eating more lean meats, dropping cheese, etc. I spent a couple of month re-feeding on fats, popping my weight back up to 180 where I have plateaued… but this is not a negative. My energy has jumped back up, I’ve gone back to skipping meals without an issue, the snacking has stopped, etc.

My partner is gone for the next 5 weeks, the house empty, so I’m taking the opportunity to do an extended fast. I prepped by making sure all prepared foods, all left overs, etc., are out of the house so there is nothing I need to worry about ‘spoiling’ which can be a convenient excuse. Since I will be alone, I won’t be swayed by someone else cooking, or eating patterns. The kitchen is closed. :smiley:

During this fast I have water or tea (loose leaf. No additives, etc. I’ve never really seemed to need it.

I am now at 24hrs and going strong. I try not to put a goal on my fasting duration. If I am feeling really rough then I plan to have several very high fat meals and try to return to the fast but you never know. Sometimes fasting is like flying… and other times it’s similar to falling.

I appreciate that this is a place I can discuss fasting and not have people concerned or worried JUST because I’m not eating. Thank you.

(KM) #6

Are you planning to fast for five weeks??

(Robin) #7

Welcome and thanks for sharing. There is personal power in stating our goals.

#8

No. My plan is to fast as long as I’m feeling good, feeling strong. Sometimes my hormones get in the way and a fast lasts roughly as long as it takes me to get to the kitchen so I don’t like to commit to a certain period and then feel as if I’ve failed for not meeting a goal.

Theoretically, the 35 days that my partner will be gone, I would like to see it break into three time periods. A long fast, a short refeed, a second long fast, and a week refeed before my partner arrives. I may be alone in this, but the first few days after EF are not pleasant in the bathroom so I like to get that over before they return. It also allows me to regain some weight before seeing them so I don’t feel pressure to try to maintain the low weight from EF.

I wanted to mention something else that I do when fasting that fits my partner being away. I go out. It really doesn’t matter to where (antique stores, thrift shopping, discount grocery stores, etc) as long as I Ieave the house at about 10:00 am, just before I would normally have my first meal, and am gone until after 3:00 or so, after my second and last meal would be over. My partner and I jokingly refer to it as 30 stores in 30 days, a reference to the Alcoholics Anonymous saying 30 meetings in 30 days. I make a commitment to go out every day specifically when my habit of eating would be strongest.

The fall back position position is that if I DO eat, I commit to carnivore, preferably zero carb.

#9

Robin,

Thank you. I see how gracious you always are to the newbies and I really appreciate that about you. I have a lot of anxiety about sharing but since I gain from others…

#10

I am sorry, I will try behave better in the future! (I will probably won’t.)

Not so much, many people experience this as far as I know. There is a formula for how much energy we can get from out fat reserves per day and while it clearly has its limits, it’s probably common that people with less fat to share find fasting harder even if they could do it just fine before, due to the inability to get enough energy from their reserves. It makes sense. But we know some people can do EF without extra fat, only with the healthy amount.
But there may be other reasons we lost the ability to skip a day moderately easily. I got that when I dropped my carbs (I did it in a few jumps and my fasting abilities got worse accordingly). Part of it is that it’s harder for me to a proper sized last meal without carbs and carbs has the best long term satiation for me (it’s just a hypothesis but it seems so. they have the worst short term satiation effect though, that’s why I can eat a big carby meal and that easily lasts for a day or more) so I hope that now that I finally have no problem with eating a bigger carnivore meal if I do it right, OMAD and EF will be possible again. The right kind of carnivore food is pretty satiating too, after all. Maybe I had mental difficulties too, I do love eat and I am not the same person I was years ago.

It’s highly logical, even necessary for someone like me (except the freezer works too). I HATE wasting food, any kind, almost no matter what.
And even if it’s a short fast so the food won’t spoil, temptation is a serious thing :smiley: I always go for a fast when I properly ate up my food (or put it into the freezer or my SO is willing to eat it but that’s risky if it won’t happen quickly… Discipline isn’t really in my vocabulary and personality, you see).

It’s good you can do it (though lack of food makes it safe anyway). I spend hours in the kitchen every day, no matter what and I can’t even avoid it as it’s in a central place of the house, I come downstairs and I am in the kitchen, the bathroom can’t be reached without it and the kitchen has no walls to separate it from the rest of the house. And I am at home all the time, with a food addiction and I can’t even try to resist temptation… I cook too, that actually helps :wink: But EF is still in my future as long as my body stops wanting food each and every day. I had no appetite yesterday but I still needed food. Why? I have so much fat and I am so well-fed… One day I will push a little more.

GOOD LUCK! :heart: Sorry I digressed all the time as it is my wont. I am a bit more in this thread nowadays, trying to soak up some help to do OMAD and later EF. It must happen.

Good idea, I probably will do the same when I reach that level again…

There’s that but people here aren’t even idiots. I mean, once I frequented reddit fasting threads… They were quite bad sometimes. Forcing fasts, no matter what. Do you feel miserable and yell at your boss a lot? No problem, be strong, that is the right thing to do. I felt so alone with my more sane opinion. Pushing it a bit, fine if one is that type or have a good reason but sticking to it, no matter what?! No, that’s wrong. Fasting is like running a marathon: if we clearly feel things got way too hard and we damage ourselves if we don’t stop (or we don’t even really have an option to finish it), we should stop. Even if it’s disappointing. There will be another time. Maybe we didn’t train enough with shorter fasts/runs… Maybe we weren’t ready for some reason. But we should see when it’s better to stop.

Just like my attitude :slight_smile: But I couldn’t go beyond 24 since years with it :frowning: I hope I can change this! My extended fasts always were quite nice. Or at least funny (it seems skipping sodium for 5 days have interesting effects on me, thankfully I was fine enough). Oh yes, what about electrolytes? Do you know your symptoms or just start to take some after a little while? I know I am fine if it’s only 2-3 days but if I would sweat more or something, I just would get a funny feeling and that would remind me. And I deliberately would eat salt later. I can’t drink salty water, it’s eating salt for me. Never felt the need for other electrolytes during EF but I never did more than 5 days anyway and plan 2-3 day ones in the future.

I am looking forward to read about your experiences! Wow, it seems rough to me, I don’t think I am a short refeed type! How short?

How much experience do you have with EF? I have minimal, a few 2 day fasts and one 5 days, no problems there. I always ate normal afterwards expect the longest one where I had a few bites in the evening first and ate normal only the next day. Reading about other people, I can consider myself lucky. Having problems when refeeding would scare me off but I do want the benefits of days long fasts… Nothing too long, I don’t want to lose muscles and it’s inevitable if the fast is long. (I would get hungry anyway, I always do.)

I don’t need going out to skip a meal (or the first one) though that may or may not help… It helps if I don’t need food yet but it doesn’t if I am a bit hungry. Walking let alone more strenuous exercise make me very hungry then.
No, I need for my SO to be away (and not having freshly made tempting food, that too). Few things are as triggering as he coming home and sit down to lunch at the time when I am very very very used to having my first substantial meal since decades. Lunch skipping is challenging but I will do it in June, hopefully many many times. I am determined and I make sure I don’t have tempting food at lunchtime. So if I make food in advance because it needs hours and I don’t have hours when I finally get really hungry, I don’t finish it. The finishing touches make it many times more appealing to me, it makes no sense to skip that step :wink:

And I have a plan to come here when it’s a harder time. I can read or watch things I am very interested in too… And I should find some other major joy than eating, especially for EF where I actually skip a whole day. I have luckier days when I don’t miss that joy but usually it feels odd. I need to work on it as it’s rare enough for me not to feel the physical need to eat so when that happens, I don’t want to fail mentally!

You should give that to me (well I don’t want anxiety but some restraint wouldn’t go amiss).
You write well, you have a very smart approach and everything. I see no problem in writing about your goals and the community can help :slight_smile: I am a somewhat independent stubborn type, resistant to most advice as I know myself best but when I still could do EF, it only happened during the old monthly group fasting… I wrote it before but I wish for some common fasting again. Maybe someone starts one when I will be ready too. Somehow my brain works this way, there was a specific time even month and it was easier to start then and the knowledge that other people do it too helped too. A little extra push but I needed that. I have this with many things, if I just can start any time, I have worse chances.

I had an OMAD carnivore-ish (I had a tiny amount of plants, we have such lovely things in the garden… it was surely safely below 1g carb from them and I am fine with that amount) day yesterday, yay! :smiley: I am quite happy with it. I was not particularly hungry until 17:30 when I had my meal. I was hungrier in the next 2.5 hours but it wasn’t too bad and being busy helped. I have some idea why I was hungry, I will try to do better in the future (but I decided this many times before)… Oh well, it was fine.
Lunch skipping was easy and as I wrote, I wasn’t very hungry even at dinnertime but I did start to feel the lack of focus that signals the need for fuel. And the soft hunger too. I LOVE that hunger, so convenient, just a sign but not bothersome.

Today I plan a fat fast OMAD day, eating at the same time. I do like our shared meals and my SO has pretty fixed mealtimes on workdays. The dinner can be a bit later, it’s not super fixed… But it’s virtually always between 17:30 and 18:30. Very good time for me.

I am curious how long my OMAD will last this time! It usually falls apart in a few days if I can do it to begin with (I couldn’t do it for long even on higher-carb) and it’s not a little break, I just can’t do it again for a while. But I am serious about lunch skipping in June. At least on workdays.
I want to skip a whole day somewhere in 2024. Preferably soon. I am nothing if not stubborn and I got more determined.

I go away already. I should do these comments when it’s my hardest time anyway, not when I am still nicely satiated… Oh my, it’s 2:36pm, skipping lunch won’t be hard today either! (I can’t do it if it’s hard.)

#11

My fat fast day went well. I wasn’t fully satiated right after my meal but it was temporarily and not too bad. I got really hungry at 16:30 and started to eat at 17:43. Kitchen work helped as usual, I had to make my simple meal anyway.

I try to keep at dinner OMAD hoping that one day I manage to skip that single meal too.
Fat fast is quite amazing, the very low protein can’t trigger my hunger and the fat calories help with the already existing baby hunger. Well, except right after the meal but I can handle it. I can stand both my before meal and after meal hunger much better than in the past! The first one is very cute, the latter is worse but no big deal, it’s often more like lack of satiation, not really hunger but sometimes I have a small hunger attack, yesterday I did, today it was fine, satiation arrived much earlier too!

(icky) #12

Hi @Morgan1

I’ve done long extended fasts like that before… I’m currently on Day 8 of a fast… Not sure how long I’m aiming for… I had some mild cravings yesterday and thought maybe that was a sign of my body wanting to eat, but today has been fine. I’m trying to lose some menopause weight and would love to lose a few more pounds before I stop…

#13

8 days is dedication! I find that I gain back nearly everything I lose during a fast, over a period of a few weeks feeding again but that the weight distribution across my body changes. My waist tends to lose but then the regain appears to be more ‘hormonally appropriate’ for a woman, breasts and butt, etc.

I’m planning to keep tight macros control for a few weeks, perhaps longer, after. I wonder about carbs creating a stronger rebound effect while Im in recovery.

Do you have an exit strategy?

#14

48 hours down and feeling fine. I have noticed that after a few days my jaw aches a little. Maybe from lack of use?

I avoid ‘real’ exercise while fasting because it spikes my hunger and can make me tired. What I try to do instead is near constant low level movement. I want to use up, to expend, any energy my body makes accessible so that it provides me more. I think many people do this by walking. I do this by hula hooping. If I have down time, I put on a movie and hoop fairly slowly. Nothing vigorous, Im just trying to avoid the trap that is my couch.

#15

I have a stationary bike for video watching but I just can’t use it for a proper time like a normal bike… Maybe I can learn it with time, it’s not like I used it much yet. I love walking, that’s some easy exercise, fresh air, watching animals and other things in one here. Sometimes mushrooms are included as well, that’s fun.
But walking makes my hunger worse too. It’s fine if I am not hungry to begin with.
I don’t want to make my workouts on a fasting or even fat fast day but I probably will try that, just out of curiosity, I want to know how I feel and if I feel a change in my needs. But I am not comfortable not to eat my protein after lifting. (I am fine waiting some hours, actually, I must with dinner OMAD but not days.)

It’s past midnight here, I am fine (a bit hungry…) but I am glad I plan eating properly tomorrow… Fat fast and OMAD is already a step forward for me. EF will happen eventually.

(icky) #16

I broke my fast this evening on Day 9…

I had a bit of hummus, which I really love…

I think I’m going to try fasting 3 days a week for a while…

I need to somehow shift this menopausal weight…

#17

Wow, this was quite something to do! 3 days a week sounds tough too, good luck! Eat well on the other days to get your nutrients! Okay you surely know that… I am curious how you plan your non-fasting days… And I wonder if there is something to read about this, 3 days fasting per week, probably yes, some people do EF quite regularly… Good luck!!!

To me, even a fat fast* is a bit unusual though easy enough (and super convenient and fun!). The day is fine but next day I want to go wild :smiley: At least it was the case today. Maybe it will change. Now I go for another fat fast day… This is what I can do at the moment, it’s more than what I could in the past… It must have some effect.

*or something close, I don’t always reach 90% fat as it’s not what naturally comes to me even when I focus on some of my fattiest favs. I could do it 90% every time but I am not sure it’s needed to accept the tiny unnaturalness. I probably would quit anyway.

#18

It’s interesting to me that you chose to break your fast with carbs. No judgement, I’m just used to seeing a little bit longer of fasts with something like eggs. How did you feel afterwards?

#19

72 hours down and feeling good. All the time prepping for the fast has really paid off. I’m not experiencing any hunger or dropping energy. This may be the easiest fast I’ve ever done. Things can change very quickly but my urge to eat is very low.

My mood may be enhanced because I found some excellent items at the thrift store today, including a 21" Nambe tray (handled) and Eileen Fisher wool pants. Those two things were about 2% of retail so it would take more than a little hunger to make me a grump! I will float to the end of the day… I am a thrifty soul.

During my fasts I have water and tea, usually lower caffeine. I do NOT try to fill my stomach with water to help with hunger. Instead, I tend to sip, sip, sip all day and aim for 8 cups spread over the 16 hours I’m awake. I think this may be part of why I don’t seem to have any electrolyte issues, because I’m not flooding my system with water. Who knows, right?

#20

After my very well-fed 2.5MAD day it was easy to skip lunch despite I lost my satiation already.
But it’s 3:30pm now and I am hungry. It’s good there is no lunchtime anymore, I am not triggered. Just hungry. Maybe it will pass, it usually do.

Sorry to write about such meh things but I use this topic to keep fasting now. And at least it’s short.

It’s so great I needn’t to cook much lately. My SO cooked his own food on Sunday (he needs other things but he gets care of them too or it’s just 1 minute work) and my fat fast days helps immensely.
Finally I manage to do the dishes, quite easily, even, it can get out of hand when I cook various things and experiment and whatnot. But we have extra work as picking and canning fruit (cherries, specifically) now… Positioning our big ladder is no easy feat! At least I can handle fasting while doing these. Not for several days but on any day I plan to. Like today, my fat fast day #2 of the week. It will be a proper, fatty one. My plan says 92% fat now but I always mess with my plans a bit.

I am a bit less hungry now. But no weakness or dizziness, I can’t and don’t want to handle that. Hunger is just a hint for the vague future. Dizziness or losing focus is a serious warning. And if I lose sight and balance for a second, yep, my body has its temper tantrum again, fine, body, you won, I start eating now (or when I can). That’s rare but it’s not like I ever force fasting. Even when I did, I usually just got a strong, annoying, painful hunger in the end. But the last time was so very long ago I am not even sure I still get that. I experienced lots of “hunger goes away without eating” in the last years while I never did before. My hunger used to get stronger and stronger - except on EF but I didn’t really had a proper hunger there to begin with, that’s why I was able to do it…

I am still hungry, I better focus on something else.