JUNE 2024 IF/EF Fasting thread

#21

I wouldn’t even break it with eggs. It’s better to break it slowly with things that will be easy on your digestive system, which is why bone broth is the most preferred food to break it with. Then after about an hour, you eat something with healthy gut bacteria, like yogurt or fermented foods. Then you wait another half hour or a bit more before eating normally. Works for me every time. The one time I just went right into solid food after a fast was not a pleasant experience. LOL

I think three days every week is a bit much and might eventually stress one’s system and create havoc, leading to undesired results. A 24-hour fast once a week while doing a 16:8 IF is usually effective, and a 48-hour fast every few weeks. But a 3-day is best used once a month; anything longer is best quarterly. At least that’s what I’ve learned in my research.

#22

24 hour is just OMAD, I can’t get a proper deficit that way. I would go for 40-48 hour fasts but I have no idea how often (if I would be able to do EF to begin with, of course). Once a week sounds okay but I don’t KNOW and would listen to my body.

Do any of you have any idea about how often a fat fast day may be okay to do with plenty of extra fat? I have about 50lbs at this point? I can’t possibly know but it sounds about right. Wow, it sounds a lot… I suppose it’s individual but still, it is useful to have some info.
Or low-cal or low-protein if people don’t normally do isolated fat fast days…
My previous not quite fat fast day had 30g protein (unusually high but worked. and I even had sugar in not tiny amounts… high fat in percentage is effective :D), I planned 15g for today (it’s what I got when I tried to get 1000 kcal using some of my favs) and I only had a single day between them. I planned 2 (mostly for mental/emotional reasons, not physical ones) but I ate so wild yesterday I felt I need this.

(icky) #23

Yeah, I didn’t really give it much thought… Just went with what felt right in the moment… After not eating for 9 days, I figured it was okay to have a treat… And I felt fine… no digestive issues or anything like that…

#24

I wanted to say that I agree with Juju that 72 hours each week may work against you.

I start our each monday fasting. I fast usually 36 to 48, occasionally 72 hours and I think that is a very strong action for each week. I would say that out of 12 weeks of my eating pattern that 2 of them are 24 hours only (omad effectively), 4 of them are 36, 4 of them are 48 and 2 are the 72.

I am now moving into perimenopause myself, at 46 years old. And I completely sympathize that it seems like its never going to move but please be careful that prolonged fasting doesn’t trigger your body to shift into a famine mindset.

No shame in the hummus decision. I was only surprised because I avoid carbs for a few days after a longer fast as it makes me bloated and gassy. :stuck_out_tongue:

#25

I think the idea of ending a fast with a probiotic sounds really smart. I’ve never tried that before and might do that when I reset back to a normal eating pattern. Thanks for putting the idea out there!

In my mind, it seems unbearably sweet but I imagine I could suffer through it. :wink:

#26

96 hours (4 days) and doing great. I was feeling a little weak this morning so I did a round of salt on the tongue, letting it dissolve and repeating until the salt didn’t taste good anymore. That perked me up very quickly. After a few hours I did it again and this time the salt started tasting bad quicker than I expected, so the first round seemed to have worked.

I am planning to break fast tomorrow, just shy of 120 hours (5 days). I plan to eat a near zerocarb program over the weekend and if I’m feeling good I’ll restart the fast on Sunday afternoon.

I will break fast with my favorite, skillet fried pork belly! I also have some precooked sausage planned. It’s high quality sausage with no sugars, etc but it helps to make sure I’m taking in enough salt between fasts.

I hope this helps anyone trying to find their own way with extended or intermittent fasting.

#27

I wonder how much it matters if one skips 3 days a week in one or in 3 fasts… As I remembered I saw people fasting on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And there are the OMEODers though that’s rare and probably tricky…
I will try 3 fat fast days next week, that’s more modest but I only do it if I feel ready for it. They all will be isolated, I think about M-W-F and the days starting with T will be my workout days. And I do OMAD when it will be easy to do. I had 3 OMAD days in 4 days, it’s great, I couldn’t do it since too long! And the odd one happened after a low-cal fat fast day when I both physically and mentally wanted lunch. I am pleased now but I really expect some EF later!

#28

I broke fast as intended today. About 4 hours short of 5 days. I’m always just short since I start a fast after the second meal of the day and then end it with the first. :stuck_out_tongue: It can make me feel like an underachiever.

I was feeling a little sluggish but otherwise good. It certainly felt like I could go a couple more days without discomfort if I needed to. I find that the anticipation of a fast can actually be worse than the actual fast. Go figure.

One of the things I like about an extended fast is that it reduces my stomach capacity. If I am careful to reduce the size of my intake the first few meals it feels like I can coast along for quite a while with a fuller sensation when I eat. Sort of adjusting my auto pilot. One of the things I’m still working on is eating slower so my stomach has more time to sound the alarm that it is full.

I broke it with a slice of ham, 3/4 lb (measured raw) pork belly and 2 oz of hard cheese. A very calorie dense meal. Because of that, I was still so full from my early meal that I skipped my second. For me, that really feels like a strong indication my body is happy with what I’m doing. There is no urgency to eating, no relief that I’m eating again, etc. My body was happily eating my own fat, now is happily eating some pig fat and there is no real distinction on it’s part. I’m doing something right!

I always have loose stool several times after breaking a fast, and really quite soon. It can begin 15 minutes after a meal and maybe continue (2 or 3 episodes) for about 90 minutes. What I think is happening is that my body sends out the notice that new food is incoming so all the older food is to sent onward in order to make room. That could be silly but it feels right. I don’t feel sick, etc, just urgently need to use the bathroom.

I plan to be starting the fast back up on Sunday after second meal.

#29

The loose stool is connected to how you break the fast. You can lessen severity by breaking it slowly with bone broth.

I got my insights for fasting from Dr Fung and Dr Eckberg

#30

I start to feel I get addicted, in a good way :smiley: Fasting despite a tolerable (not just borderline or soft) hunger isn’t just doable now (I always ate when I got somewhat hungry in my more distant past, often way earlier…), it’s preferable, dare I say enjoyable? :smiley: I will eat when I feel a real need but until then, I enjoy the bliss of fasting ~

Okay, I am very well-fed, my body is quite fine without fuel but still, I got some hunger in the middle of chopping wood (one of my fav activities even/especially when challenging. I don’t do very much at once, no need but it’s highly enjoyable, too bad my SO loves it too so there is so little for each of us…) and was sure I will eat with my SO. Oh I am so good at skipping out lunch together now :smiley: Even when a bit hungry! Good job, me. And it requires zero self restraint and willpower. It’s just what comes to me.

3:46pm, I won’t wait for very very long but I am still fine. And hungry, yes, baby weakness started too but I feel fine, in very good spirits, my appetite is below zero and I will really need to eat very soon but I still can last a tad more ~. I never push myself and I am curious.

I had some not black coffees already (clean fasting is still not what I am doing but I will hide my coffee or something…) but it was very low-cal. Good enough for today. Not for tomorrow. I plan fat fast days on M-W-F but won’t push it if I don’t feel like it. And I don’t plan to do so many regularly, it’s just an idea for now. Lunch skipping should continue too, of course.

(icky) #31

Yes, I really like this “reset” function of EF too…!

#32

I actually got busy and failed to post yesterday.

I had pork belly, ribeye, deli sausage and cheese during my break. On prior fasting… sessions I had problems with feeling sick and even vomiting. It took me a while to figure out that I was eating too ‘clean’. By removing processed foods, even the mild cheese and deli sausage, I was not taking in enough salts, etc. Now I make sure to have some each day and the nausea has never recurred. It also helps to have several flavors in those meals so I don’t feel bored and inclined to seek out more variety.

I started fasting again as of Sunday afternoon, fasted 48 hours and have just broken fast again. 48 hours isn’t particularly long for me but it’s a nice middle ground. Having said that, I went ahead because I found I was thinking about the fridge a lot. I thought I could smell the leftovers! LOL. A little bit of thinking and I realized that I am likely about to start my menstrual cycle. At nearly 47 years old I’m starting perimenopause and my cycle is erratic but this is shortly before it would normally begin. This explains why I’m feeling more of a hunger push at 48 hours than I would normally expect. I’ll feed again for the next few days and then try again, again keeping to the cheese/sausage/steak cycle.

As an aside, since it’s accepted medically that hormones push me to eat just before my cycle regardless of my intake, during pregnancy, etc… why did we ever think that over eating the rest of the time was just me being a slacker?

#33

It can be hard to keep it! When I have something tasty on the plate, and I’m almost done I often think I’ll just finish it off. That’s particularly true if there’s not enough left to save. I really have to try to focus on not stretching my stomach capacity with a bunch of little extra bits.

Something I do that is a little silly is that I have a super stretchy braided belt. You know, those awful things from the 80s? I put it on in the morning regardless of my needing it, and pull it pretty tight. It’s only about 1.5" wide so it certainly doesn’t work as a girdle but It keeps pressure on my lower abdomen and brings my attention to how much food I’m eating.

#34

I don’t disagree and I’m very interested in trying it at the end of this cycle. I think the use of a probiotic is very intriguing as well. I’ll report back at the end when I use it.

#35

I have odd days. It seem OMAD and possibly the low-cal fat fast-ish days have a strange effect on me. They do the opposite I would think, actually but I am not surprised, my body has weird logic sometimes.

  1. I was wary about eating as fatty as I desire and more… What if it makes me want more fat on my normal days? I can’t afford that! But nope, I easily did one of my lowest-fat day in my whole life recently. Oh. So the 85-92% fat days make me so happy and satisfied that I finally got to enjoy my fatty favs without negative effects, in the contrary that I could handle low-fat meals. Yay! (It was 50% and I rarely go below 60% even after training myself to eat lean and like it. The liking part didn’t go soooo well but I had some success.)

  2. I lost a big part of my eating abilities. I fast and eat low-cal too easily and this week I had problems with eating properly. I just don’t want my food (okay, it was not tempting leftovers but whatever I tried, I just felt too full too easily). I use huge eating windows to manage to eat well after my 2 low-cal days (one was not accidental. I just had my OMAD, tracked 2 days later and it turned out it was super tiny. like a tad more indulgent fat fast day just with way more protein, obviously). I wasn’t hungry but had serious energy problems, felt weak and physically miserable… My workout (the part I actually did) went well but couldn’t do it all the way long (not like I ever do…) as I just got too weak at some point to bring myself to try. So I decided to eat a big, indulgent meal or rather two. And I just couldn’t eat properly. It’s very disturbing as while I clearly will get my nutrients somehow, it’s NOT ME!
    But it’s new and fun and helps with fasting and no way it continues so I am more glad than not while being still annoyed a tad. It was just this week, things will be okay soon I am sure.

Today I ate my leftovers, it was high time… Not all but the old ones, the new ones can wait for 1-2 more days… I am SO full (not my stomach, my food is dense) and I starved in my life (just a bit and I was well-fed before so no harm was done) and that was so, so more enjoyable than eating when I don’t want to… :frowning: I am more into fasting than eating this week and it’s weird and I need my food too. Right? I do, I was weak in a weird way, not the usual sudden dizzy weakness that is my hint to grab some food.

Why can’t I just do some proper EF already? :frowning: I am hopeful it can happen soon! And I will be very careful not to have too much food at hand. (Even my freezer is full. The cats had other perishable food to eat. Rare combo…)

I am looking forward what will happen in the future (and how much I managed to eat, I haven’t tracked yet). Tomorrow is a nice peaceful fat fast day again, yay! (Or a fasting one if I am lucky!) I don’t even want to think about food now…

(KM) #36

Well not sure this belongs in the fasting thread, but I’ve had several June celebrations and two social events in the last three days, and I’m feeling it. I didn’t go binge-crazy with the food, but I definitely stepped well outside my guidelines. That’s the downside to keto - a day or two of higher carb eating puts on that 3-4 pounds of water / glycogen more or less immediately for me, I’m like a sponge. It’s easy enough to take that back off (or so I say, we’ll see how it goes), but in the meanwhile I feel disgustingly flabby and all my clothes are a little tight.

So, the second half of June is discipline time. I’m 121.2 this morning. 117 is my happy place. (112 is my really happy place, but I’m willing to let my body decide that part). I don’t have any social “excuses” on the horizon and it’s supposed to be horribly hot for the next week, so it’s a good time for some strict ketovore, no alcohol, and an EF. Gonna be accountable here and chart the progress.

Sunday: 121.2. Waist 27.75, thigh 21.25. 8:30 am: Large (very large) cup of coffee with 1/2 c half & half and 1 scoop collagen powder, nmn, D2 & K drops. (“Coffee” from here on unless I change it. Same mug every day. ) Water, mint tea and seltzer throughout the day. 6:00 pm ketones approx. 1.0. 8 oz Kielbasa, 1 oz olive/mushroom tapenade as a dressing on approx. 1C mixed salad greens. [olives, mushrooms, onion, olive oil, a splash of balsamic and a splash of tamari.] Water with ACV. Multivitamin, keratin pills & aspirin. (“Pills”.). I think that’s everything I put in my mouth today.

#37

The last days were a chaos. Tiredness, stress (something went wrong in the water system again… it’s what it does sometimes. fixed but it was a pain), other things… My eating was all over the place and that’s not nice. But new week and I go back to my normal plans, lunch skipping and the like. I still can’t eat much at once but if I get properly hungry, maybe it will be enough for a smallish OMAD meal? But there is nothing wrong with 2MAD either, I just don’t want to start to eat too early and without a real need.

Oh I made a plan with different days for every day that may work… I will totally stray as it is my wont but flexibility is important anyway, the order isn’t super important. Monday is supposed to be a normal carni OMAD day (with my full body workout) before Tuesday’s fat fast OMAD but I don’t feel like eating now so who knows. I want a lean day every week too :slight_smile: That’s fun and very doable now that I can eat very fatty on some other days :slight_smile: I always was very interested what would happen if I got my protein before my fat went very far and now I can try it out! I just will make sure I don’t get two low-cal days in row again (not eating anything doesn’t count, low-cal and EF are just too different).

So fasting feels so very nice now. But I typically have this until I get too hungry or something. I like eating and fasting alike. But too much of either is obviously bad and very unpleasant.

I weighed myself this morning. Ouch. It seem my weight can fluctuate nowadays, it’s so weird as a few years ago I weighed the same every morning, no matter what I did. Maybe a tiny difference after the wildest days.
Oh well, it doesn’t matter a thing how much I weigh now, it will go back real soon.

Oh I quit coffee for a while! It’s good for many reasons but this way I can have proper, clean, true fasting windows :smiley: I drink tea but that’s fine in my books, even black coffee would be but I always add something and it may or may not trigger eating earlier (it doesn’t trigger hunger right away, it’s way too tiny amount for that but it may wear me down mentally or whatever). And anyway, I want a normal fasting window, not zillion coffees with a few kcals in them. It easily is more than a few but I can keep it low. It’s fine it it helps someone else but I don’t want to drink coffee to begin with. I went too far with it for too long. Tried to quit many times, usually with zero result, sometimes a tiny bit and now I feel determined to try better on many areas of my life including this. It should be super easy as long as I have no access to my coffee…

(KM) #38

Monday: 7:00 am: 120.6. Coffee. Trace ketones. 1:00 pm 2 oz sheep’s cheese, a “pina colada” - can of zero calorie coconut flavored seltzer with a teaspoon of pineapple juice. Half a cup wild blackberries on my hike. Half a rack of ribs with butt rub, green salad with tapenade. Trace ketones.

Butt Rub - no kidding. :laughing:. From Costco of all places.

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#39

No coffee yesterday, yay! :smiley:

I skipped lunch, yay. It starts to feel normal at this point.

But I couldn’t get satiated easily… Yeah if I eat something (as I always do) without embracing 85-90% fat but don’t eat some proper protein source in a normal amount either, it won’t work - not even after well-fed days. No problem, I ate second and third mini-dinners, still not a bad day but could be better. Anyway, I like one proper meal if possible. So I keep at my lunch skipping and try to have some clearer idea about my meal, not this “I ate so much, let’s try not to eat anything substantial today… but I still got hungry so let’s get this little thing and a bit of that”. I should have known myself better (but I surprised myself before and lack of appetite interferes anyway. I was merely hungry, they don’t always meet in my life).

Lol :smiley:
It doesn’t matter but I still like to know the carb and calorie content and they didn’t tell me that. Stupid label. I am not used to that in Hungary… Well the salt has none, multiple ingredients are high-carb so… No idea, doesn’t matter, it’s just me and my desire to know things. At least no sugar unlike in BBQ sauces, those are insane! Never used any in my life, BBQ isn’t even a big thing here or wasn’t until moderately recently I guess…? Or I just wasn’t in those circles…

(KM) #40

This is a powder. I use about a teaspoon of it on a rack of ribs, maybe less. I agree, it’s irritating when the serving size is so small that they don’t have to list, but I didn’t see any high carb ingredients at all, at least not for these quantities, and I’d estimate it’s half salt. I’m guessing less than 1 carb added.

I basically give myself a free pass cooking with herbs, onion, garlic, peppers and other spice powders as long as they’re a small accent flavor, and with no added ingredients like sugar or MSG. (Decided to ignore the microcrystalline cellulose, hey, what’s a little hydrolized dryer lint in the big picture. :smile: Probably will go ‘cleaner’ next time but this is a huge jar, even with my profligate 4X the serving size listed, this will season 200 racks of ribs. I’ll probably be buying another jar of bbq spice for my 100th birthday.)