November 2023 IF/EF Fasting Chat Thread - All Welcome

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #1

Here is the new thread for November. Enjoy!

#2

I am pretty serious now: I go for 1-2 meals with a small eating window and trust I can do it this month, at least nearly every day.
Yesterday was still October but with a 2 hour eating window and TMAD (highly unusual combo even from me), today was almost TMAD with a 6 hour eating window.
I ate most of my food for lunch both day as usual. Maybe I manage to do some OMAD at 4-5pm soon.

Good luck, everyone! I need a little but I am determined (and usually nicely satiated in my fasting window) and that helps.

(Bob) #3

Iā€™ll be intermittent fasting all month, eating within a 6-8 hour window, typically between noon and 8pm. I also do a 24-40 hour fast on the weekends.

(B Creighton) #4

I am going to start my annual intermittent fast and keto cycle next week with three 24 hr fast days/wk. I am now weighing between 171 and 175. My goal is actually not to lose weight, but to lose the last vestige of pudge at my middle, and get down to 11% body fat from my current 18% while gaining more muscle.

I recently intoduced a new dish into my routine - tabaoule made with hemp seed. It wasnā€™t too bad, and I may try incorporating hemp seed in my nut mix. I am going to introduce a protein powder smoothie for lunch on my non-fast days to try to promote more muscle growth. I will check back in at the end of the month with my results.

(Geoffrey) #5

Since I mostly eat OMAD I intermittently fast nearly everyday unless you count my one bulletproof tea in the morning. So I generally go 20-22 hours fasting.
Iā€™m planning to do at least one or two 48 hour fasts and at least one 72 hour just for kicks.

#6

I am very pleased now, of course I canā€™t possibly now what happens later but I just had a pretty decent OMAD sized meal with great macros and satiating food :wink: So I hope I will be nicely satiated (or not satiated but still not really hungry in the end) for 24-26 hours!

I was waiting for an OMAD day. Today has good chances but I ate early as I got hungry earlyā€¦ But I did everything else right so I am hopeful. YAY!

If November continues this superbly, I will bring back my old plan about attempting EF on Mondaysā€¦ :wink:

Good luck (and whatever else it takes), @scaperdude! You have some serious goals!

I just want to lose some fat from my about 40lbs extra for now. And take my workouts seriously :frowning: October wasnā€™t so good but I barely or not improve for months! :frowning: I had enough of that.

(Amy) #7

Ugh, Keto has worked well in the past for me. Now that Iā€™m 50, my body has given me the finger. One would think that being able to fast for 30+ hours would help in weightloss. I am not at all hungry and have to force myself to eat most days. Iā€™m guessing instead of being fat adapted I go into starvation mode? :woman_shrugging: Heading to the Doc on Tues to get new bloodwork done. The past 30 days that scale as not moved and it is really ticking me off. :face_with_symbols_over_mouth: No NSVā€™s either.

(Chuck) #8

I fast an average of 19 hours every day, I eat a moderately low calorie diet, I donā€™t count calories or nutrients, as of this week I am officially at my goal weight and I am learning to maintain my weight. But more importantly I listen to my bodyā€™s needs and eat accordingly. I am concerned due to the colder temperatures because I seem to always eat more when it is cold.

(Robin) #9

My only advice is to keep under 20g carbs and ignore the scaleā€¦. like put it on the top shelf of the closet.
Keep it simple. Forget about fasting, eat the right food when hungry, and let it just happen naturally. And yes, things can take longer as we age. Patience is key.
You got this!

#10

Unless some unusual individual thing is going on, as far as I know, just donā€™t starve and you wonā€™t get into starvation mode. Eating enough is important. I never worry about it as no way I eat at a huge deficit for daysā€¦

(KM) #11

My quarterly EF started after dinner on Saturday, so Iā€™m around 40 hours now. Probably keep it up til Wednesday morning, about 84 hours. So far itā€™s a breeze, aside from my mouth being bored.

(Robin) #12

Mouth boredomā€¦ great description for a very real issue!

#13

If I remember well, Japanese say it like that. So it must be a thing for people. I never feel this or rarely and drinking works there. When I donā€™t eat for a while, itā€™s more like in my mind. I miss eating even if I donā€™t need or want food, itā€™s a bit weird.

But I never fast for a decent time so I donā€™t even want to talk about it.

Today I was hungry and had an OMAD sized meal, thatā€™s as far as I can go now. November is carnivore so I have multiple meals a day. But sometimes I can eat like in the pastā€¦ And on carnivore, a biggish meal is enough. In my past, having a 1600-2000 kcal lunch didnā€™t mean I wonā€™t eat a similar sized dinner if I go to a party or cake competitionā€¦
I came a long way.

#14

Yep, it was a decent sized lunch, over 2000 kcal. And as it ended just before 4pm, itā€™s very realistic to plan a 24+ hour fast! This big of a meaty carnivore meal can last quite long and it canā€™t be hard to wait until 4pm and more. Of course, I never can be sure but being too hungry until then? Highly unlikely.

(Bob M) #15

My wife is having a hard time too. Eating keto, yet the scale doesnā€™t move or even goes up. Menopause is part of it.

Have you tried something like a PSMF (protein sparing modified fast, really higher protein, lower calorie, keto)? Listened to a podcast with a woman who advocated that diet for women nearing menopause. Unfortunately, they did not dwell on that topic.

(KM) #16

I never thought of myself as an emotional eater, but what Iā€™m noticing this time around is that even though Iā€™m not hungry, I start feeling a desire to eat when things go wrong. After having my trip plans scrapped for the third time in a week, I found myself standing in front of the fridge nodding and murmuring, ā€œI should probably have some cheese,ā€ like Iā€™d suggest an aspirin for a headache. Well no, I probably shouldnā€™t. Iā€™m not hungry and Iā€™m in the middle of trying to accomplish something useful, so why is my mind telling me to ditch my progress right at the moment when Iā€™m also being torn down by someone else? If you canā€™t beat 'em, join 'em? Is this my ā€˜self soothing languageā€™? More like self-sabotaging language, I really need to learn a new tongue, ha ha.

#17

Did a 72 hour fast that ended Monday afternoon. Pretty damn easy really. I didnā€™t have any real hunger. A bit of weakness and feel colder than normal. I also wake up earlier in the morning. Dropped 4.8 lbs ending a bit of short stall in weigh loss. Overall know its good for me. I usually just do 48 hours and will do another one of those starting next Sunday.

#18

Congrats!

{Food will be mentioned, I wonā€™t blur those words.}
Meanwhile I didnā€™t do my 24 hour, oh well, itā€™s surely not easy when I try to end my day with a (>2000 kcal but stillā€¦) lunch. I blame cream a bit and try to keep my dairy to the minimum now. I wanted zero but itā€™s not easy on carnivore when I am bored of meat and donā€™t have many eggsā€¦ But I keep it as low as I comfortably can. Itā€™s like many other things. I have plans, I know what I should doā€¦ And then it semi-surreptiously creeps in. Dairy and fat is scary like that. Protein isnā€™t surreptious, if I eat, I eat protein (what else?) so no wonder that one goes high. Itā€™s not even a problem but it brings a lot of fat if I donā€™t focus on LEAN meat AND little fat.
Thatā€™s why EF would be nice as I eat a ton on eating days and I will stay fat forever this wayā€¦
But I canā€™t even do a tiny eating window nowadays. Sometimes it happens, today it is about 4 hour, itā€™s not too badā€¦ But itā€™s not 2am yet so who knows if I am finishedā€¦ (My trust in myself is very low at the moment. I have hungry/peckish days. When I look at my macros it turns out nope, I just need my protein and getting it is too much fat. Itā€™s very hard to get lean meat here. Today it was supposed to be easy as Tuesday is the pork day so Tuesday and Wednesday have good chances to get my usual lean pork but no, the supermarket was out. No quark either, another good low-fat high-protein item and NOT meat, itā€™s a big positive for me right nowā€¦ There was some of the low-fat version as people prefer the fattier kind, understandably but that sucks, I buy the normal version, itā€™s low-fat too but tastier.)

I stop venting. But I am struggling since many, many years and I canā€™t eat little enough fat to lose any fat and itā€™s a bit annoying sometimes when it pairs with meat boredom, hunger and spending way too much time on eating and wondering about what on Earth can I eat :frowning:

(Bob M) #19

Well, Iā€™ve been having difficulties lately. I can make OMAD but not 36 hours. I get too hungry. Not sure why, maybe working out (exercising) 6 days a week doesnā€™t help. When I had success before with 36 hour fasting, I was able to do these because I took a day off of exercising, then had a day of fasting. Now, Iā€™m exercising two days, then trying to fast, then exercising 3 days, then a day off. I may have to rethink this if I want to fast.

#20

How did you measure your body fat percentage? Are you not concerned that doing 24 hour fasts you will also lose muscle? From 18% to 11% body fat is a huge reduction in fat (60%+). How will you accomplish this and in what time frame?