I am also entering my 6 years soon (1/1/20), and I have found longer fasts to be much harder now than they were about 4.5 years ago when I started fasting. It may be because I’m thinner, with more muscle?
I still try to get one 4.5 day fast per calendar quarter. Lately, I’ve been doing one 36 hour fast per week and one 22 hour fast per week (basically, OMAD), and then eating twice a day otherwise. I personally find OMAD very difficult and I eat too late most days for this.
For instance, that Clark Protocol, I personally would not attempt that. Sorry, Clark, whoever you are.
I am going to be doing this Protocol that @Ilana_Rose told me about, starting on Monday. I have also eliminated all dairy except butter for now until at least November 30 from my food choices.
I am going to do my times from 5:00pm -until 1pm (as I have been doing TMAD for the 20:40 IF times for a long time and I want to stick with that, but eitherwise I plan to start this on Monday. I will probably still only do 1pm and 5pm on Sundays as well, as I do not like eating at the breakfast meal time and I haven’t liked it for years, even pre-Keto.
Honestly, I’m clinging to the extended fasts because that results in weight loss for me, like every time. And it’s fairly effortless, except for the first 24 hours is difficult. No counting calories, no counting macros, and I usually feel pretty great while fasting. But when I’m not doing it, I definitely fall back into the same serotonin-charged eating habits. I’ve tried alternative day fasting before, and what happened was no weight loss, I expect because I was over-eating on the eating days. There was definitely a psychological thing going on there. For me, the appetite suppression I get from a multiple day fast is huge, which is what makes it easy. I expect I wouldn’t get that from multiple fasts per week unless I was eating keto the rest of the time. I think a more successful formula for me will be something like fasting for 7-9 days, then having 1-2 days of healthy eating, including carbs to regulate my thyroid. Just today I inquired at a place for RMR testing and they have a doctor on staff who specializes in hormones and weight loss. I might see what she has to say.
@ctviggen lol…sorry Clark!! I’ve always been lean while on keto, sometimes too lean, so yes that is why I cannot EF. 24 hours is my max. I typically eat OMAD, occasionally 2, but always within a 2 to maybe 6 hr window. This works with my schedule, and I know I’m getting the benefits from fasting most people need a couple of days to activate, such as autophagy, in a shorter period of time based on my activity level and body composition. So I don’t worry about not being able to do long fasts. I’d be miserable as hell…not worth it!
Well that definitely sounds like starvation if we’re talking about a repeating cycle. Good luck with that, I don’t see how that will be sustainable. I’m curious what your plan is when you get to your goal weight. Usually weigh lost this way slows your metabolism to the point people become ravenous. Then when impulsively driven to re-feed with a tanked metabolism most of what you eat gets stored, your body maintains that lowered metabolic rate in order to store most of the foods you eat for the next starvation cycle. Most people gain back everything plus some extra this way.
I have done just this, multiple times --lost 40, gained 50, lost 100, gained back 150, etc. I did this yoyo dieting for years before finding Keto.
ava_ad0re
(Katie the Quiche Scoffing Stick Ninja )
#27
I find this interesting.
As soon as I dropped cream and went to black coffee only, my Ketones shot up over 1mmol and I got the highest ever readings and lowest glucose readings and I’m entirely fat adapted.
I was just throwing something out there to give you an idea of the type of pattern that would be successful for me. Extended fast plus some type of refeeding to maintain the BMR. Do you have any ideas how I can do extended fasts while maintaining my BMR? Note the title of my thread.
I guess everyone is different. In the past, my GKI has been below 1.0 while having heavy cream in my coffee every single day. If you’re not familiar, this means fairly high ketones + low glucose.
I know this isn’t necessarily super popular on here, but extended fasts with refeeds here and there have worked well for a lot of people, and the quick results for both health and weight loss can be motivating and act as a wonderful re-set. I think you have to keep an eye on a few things 1) that you have the fat to burn; 2) that you don’t have disordered eating tendencies [though I don’t think Erin did going into keto and fasting, so you have to keep a close eye on this!] and 3) that you really monitor how you feel as you go.
I dropped 20 pounds in the last few months - and 15 of those in the first few weeks - by getting more aggressive with my fasting for a bit. I actually have a healthier relationship with food now than I did going in, my energy is strong, and (as far as I can tell) my metabolism is just fine. Also I was not really that big to begin with - I went from 147 down to 126 - and generally that’s considered to be a particularly hard 20 lbs to lose.
Like you, I find fasting fairly easy but need to work on the eating part (sometimes great, sometimes not so great).
Do you think you don’t keep the weight off because of how you eat between fasts?
Wow, those are a hard 20 lbs to lose. Good job! Were you around 147 most of your life, i.e. was that your set point weight? How are you eating now? Watching calories? I definitely have not been taking the maintenance part of it very seriously, thus the weight gain. The extended fasts are so liberating for me because they turn off cravings in my brain. When I’m not fasting, my usual brain is seeking those serotonin or dopamine fixes. It goes fine for some time, but then there’s a social situation or we go stay with my cousins, and after a few days it spirals out of control. And then it stays like that well past that occasion. But I think I might have figured out something recently to help with that, and maybe it’s something I just need to maintain the rest of my life, related to my genetics and dopamine. Just needing a “diet” (hate that word) formula that includes extended fasts and refeeds that’s effective for my weight loss and not going to mess with my BMR.
Megan Ramos (of IDM fame) built up to a 72 hour fast (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) followed by a 24 hour fast (Friday) and lost 60 pounds in 6 months. Most importantly, she has kept it off and started with a very broken system.
That is a sustainable fasting / refeeding schedule that might leave BMR alone (if you refeed with healthy Keto).
Regularly fasting longer than 3 days in a row can have diminishing returns and can lead to sleep / stress issues that negate the positives of fasting.
I don’t know my weight for most of my adult life, actually! This spring is the first time I got a scale. But my measurements were relatively stable for years until this fall (within an inch or two for each spot), so my guess is that I’ve been in the mid 140s for a while.
Now I’m doing OMAD (very generous meals, no calorie counting) and one 48-hour fast per week. This is relatively recent for me so I’m still working out the kinks!
The IDM program does recommend three 36 or 42 hour fasts per month but actually, I was writing about Megan’s specific fasting schedule as mentioned in the YouTube video linked below.
The whole video is very interesting and worth a watch for anyone attempting fasting for weight loss but the link puts you right were she mentions her schedule and her 6 month results.
Well, I got a InBody body composition test yesterday. It says my BMR is 1402, which I guess is about what I would have expected. But the whole test was ridiculously simple and no breathing into anything. I’m suspicious of the technology, though maybe if I understood it better I wouldn’t be. Their website says it is 98% accurate to a DEXA (is that considered the gold standard??). The InBody results interpretation also says “BMR is directly correlated with Lean Body Mass”. My Lean Body Mass is apparently right on target with no recommendation to gain or lose. Hmmmm. If these tests were free, I’d be hopping over to a DEXA scan today to compare.
