Why do you fast?

#1

My friend has been a follower of keto eating for longer than me. She finds eating high fat, little and often gives her better results than fasting. She feels it keeps her metabolism ticking along better and fuels her ketosis. No science, just her personal experience.
Now I’ve joined this forum I can see lots of fasting converts and I’m interested as to why. Everyone is different so I guess I will have to experiment but I would love to know people’s different reasons for fasting and its benefits to you. Many thanks. Lucy

(bulkbiker) #2

When I started keto I had just been diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. By starting with intermittent fasting I not only lost weight but also had fewer insulin spikes.
I skipped breakfast (and have done ever since) extending my overnight fast until lunchtime at the earliest. Worked well for me.

(Ethan) #3

This is my new response for why I do anything keto or fasting:

I have insulin resistance, as measured by hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels), which has many symptoms, such as weight gain and obesity, poor cholesterol levels, heart disease, and type-2 diabetes. I am treating the insulin resistance by reducing my body’s insulin requirement and production through a ketogenic diet and periods of intermittent and extended fasting.

(Mark Rhodes) #4

I fast for these reasons in order: 1. Repairing Insulin sensitivity. 2. Decreasing Insulin so that on refeed after a workout I send that food to my muscles. and on EF’s 3. Use autophagy to repair and discard what I don’t need. 4. use GH timed to my workouts to elicit better recoveries.

Finally by decreasing my insulin resistance I hope to better access my fat stores and thereby continue to improve lipolysis when I am not fasting.

(Arlene) #5

I have not been able to get good results from fasting either. After 24 hours with no food, my ears start ringing and each day I just feel worse and worse. After “pushing through” the hunger and suffering for several days (my longest fast was 9 days), you would expect to see some decent fat loss for my efforts, but the scale barely moves, and if it does, I gain it back when I eat again. When I just concentrate on eating ketogenic choices, I feel good all day and my weight drops steadily. I keep trying fasting because it’s supposed to be good for us in so many ways. Maybe someday I will be able to go past 24 hours. FYI, I can not do too many 24 hour fasts in a week without seeing the weight loss stop. I think my body just thinks I will never eat again. Who knows.

(Chris) #6

I was missing the last piece of the puzzle for sustaining a healthy body size. This was it, combined with extremely strict food choices.

(Bacon for the Win) #7

the body can be in one of two states…fed or fasted. The fasted state is where the magic happens. Insulin is driven down, blood glucose stabilizes, autophagy take place, and best of all, fat burning happens.

(Mark Rhodes) #8

In November IF/EF chat post I was talking about my wife:

I think that you can still insulin resistant thereby making it more difficult to fast as you cannot access those body fat stores. I can drop 10-15 pounds on a fast. the wife might lose 3 on the earlier fasts. Looking back I think that the early fasts she was fat adapted but still not capable of easily achieving lipolysis. Basically, she was starving. Her hunger was terrible. 3 months later and using OMAD two weeks leading up to the EF were she totaled a 6 pound loss. We are fasting again this week and next prior to Thanksgiving which if we eat any extra carbs should not pose a problem as long as we stay keto.

So overall it is about correcting the imbalance of all of your systems. Good luck!

(KCKO, KCFO) #9

I do it because it gave me the results I was seeking. I started in Aug. '16 at 170lbs. with Atkins induction, this past March. started reading about fasting and put it into practice, before the end of April I was below my original (141lbs.)goal weight. Been in maintenance since then. Currently IFing almost daily, with some EFasting added in a few times a month.

I like my new body, I like the way I feel fasting and just after fasting. I know not everyone likes it, some don’t see results but for this 68 yr. old lady, it sure as hell has worked out for me better than anything else I had done in the last 35+ yrs. since I started yoyo dieting. I’m lucky, I did start doing lower carbs 40/30/30 diet in the 90’s so I have not gotten T2D like so many others I know. Sugar was never my drug of choice, it was grains, breads primarily. I self medicated with them. Keto stopped that and I gradually added more carbs back in, I have days I can do 50 grams, but mostly it is 20-30 grams. If I bounce up higher than I want to be an extended fast usually settles me right back down.

Good luck on your Journey. Try IFing, if that is easy try once a day eating, if that is easy, try for 36 hrs. and see how you go.

#10

Your experience sounds similar to mine.
I don’t see weight loss happening as I eat keto and IF, but my point is that I don’t seem to have any noticeable results from fasting. It’s as you say, just the other wonderful health benefits that I am hopefully reaping.

(Siobhan) #11

The actual act? Because I’m not hungry. Sometimed this will go on for a few days, sometimes only 24 hours. i just listen to my body.
Some side benefits are autophagy and improving insulin sensitivity over the long term.

I also find it is helpful when I’m working on an article and about to hit the deadline as I dont have to stop to eat, and I’m more focused.

(Arlene) #12

Mark, your comments were so encouraging to me. I know I am fat adapted. I rarely eat breakfast, sometimes one, sometimes two meals per day, depending on if I’m hungry. Always in ketosis when I wake in the morning, and all day my ketones just get higher. Sometimes I eat proteins alone, sometimes with green veggies if I feel like it. Basically I believe I am dong things correctly, and I have been doing this for 11 months. I hope fasting is more effective for me in the future, like in the case of your wife. Thanks for your input.

(Allie) #13

I’ve only just started to use fasting regularly and even though I wasn’t actually looking to lose more fat, the scale tells me I’ve lost 5lbs and apparently (Tanita scale so not accurate I know) 1% bodyfat. Although, the reason I started incorporating fasting was actually for the benefits of autophagy. Currently I’m on a random mix of 16 / 8 and OMAD as well as complete days of fasting at the start of each week - last week I fasted 50 hours from Sun to Tues, this week was 40 hours from Sun to Tues morning. I’m taking care to pay attention to my body and if it says “feed me now!” I’m feeding it.

#14

It started as an accident but now fits my Monday through Friday lifestyle. I no longer need worry about time for lunch as I scoot from one side of town to the other trying to put bacon in the refrigerator.

(Allie) #15

Yes it certainly frees up time not having to worry about food! :slight_smile:

(James Willis) #16

haven’t really done serious fasting yet (closest thing has been delaying a meal here and there) but I figure that if things go well, my answer to this question will be “no reason, I just forgot to eat!” :grinning:

(Richard Hanson) #17

Spot on!

Let the magic happen. I fast for 60 hours every week and the primary goal is to improve insulin sensitivity while down regulating IGF1 and mTOR.

Warm Regards,
Richard