How often do you fast or do intermtten fasting? What do you usually do differently during that time? Does it affect your work? What advice would you give to someone who has just started and is getting acquainted with it?
I've been doing intermittent fasting for years now, on a not-so-typical schedule: first meal late in the day (5PM-ish) and the second (final) one within a couple of hours.
What I love:
* Total mental clarity during the first half of the day, can focus fully on work or life responsibilities without a single thought about food.
* Freedom to not have to organize the day around food (making choices, planning logistics, "wasting" time). Pays off big time when traveling.
* Never inconvenienced or slip into grumpy mode when for whatever reason I don't get food.
* Eating a lot of high-quality home-cooked food - as I love cooking (when I have time) and I don't depend on eating out / ordering food / quick-prep meals as much.
* Bonus: great ROI of the occasional first alcoholic drink of the day (on a more or less empty stomach). Not a health advice!
I find it amazing how much experiences vary. I think a large part of it may be what you eat when you do eat, and also the quantity. Portion sizes seem to vary drastically.
If I fast, I generally get moody and all I can focus on is food. A lot of friends fast for religious reasons too, and the overwhelming majority of them get cranky instead of more productive and able to focus.
I think the key is simply letting your body get used to fasting. If you only do it occasionally but usually eat at all the socially "normal" times then of course you're going to be cranky and hungry when you decide to suddenly deprive your body of what it is accustomed to. Eventually, with consistent intermittent fasting, that will change.
I find that if you eat or drink anything with calories between waking up and breaking your fast your body switches mode and wants food. Even a black coffee is risky. Maybe something about ketosis.
I do the same lol, it's great isnt it! I also make an effort to cook my "big meal" myself which is also a great habbit! I use my "lunch break" to go to walk to my local market and pick up ingredients.
I've been practicing daily 16:8 fasting, and on top of that, I incorporate a weekly 36-hour fast from Sunday evening till Tuesday morning. Over time, it no longer hampers my productivity, but I remember experiencing occasional fatigue and hunger the first weeks when I started. Consistency is key during the initial phase, allowing your body ample time to adapt to the routine. So keep going!
I generally do not feel too hungry, especially early in the day, so only ate once per day for years. What a lot of people call a 24h fast I guess?
I felt fine, but BMs got annoying. I now eat twice a day just to keep things moving. And coffee.
I can't say I notice any difference at all in how I feel or weight or anything.
TBH, I don't really consider anything like the above fasting, and have only really fasted I guess once, when I was having a rather bad stomach issue. Day 1 was pain. Day 2 was lethargy. Day 3 felt like some kind of enlightenment. Mentally awake, but I was weak and my brain cloudy. It was a strange feeling of being mentally active but not able to really do anything with it. Maybe my body was giving me faux energy and alertness to go hunt with?
It was interesting, to say the least, but I haven't made a habit of it.
This year I decided to try fasting during Ramadan, as I was visiting a Muslim country and all my friends there were doing it. It was pretty interesting to eat the first meal around 4:30a, fast all day (no food, no water, no anything), and then eat again around 6:30p. I also didn’t drink any alcohol during the month, partially because one couldn’t buy it. I accidentally developed a bit of self control, and now controlling what I eat & drink seems to be a bit easier.
Yes, I'm an Orthodox Christian so bit more than half of the year is fast day. Fast day means that I eat vegan food moderately (with some exceptions, like fish allowed on some days) and also don't use oil when cooking. There are four longer lent periods around the year and each Wednesday and Friday are fast days. Although after some big feasts and before the Great Lent (which is before Eastern) there are weeks that are fast free.
At the beginning of Great Lent there are also three days that I try not to eat anything but usually it's not possible for me because of work, so I pick something small in the evening. Also during Great Lent I don't eat breakfast (to not break my fast ;)). Oh, and on Sunday if I attend Eucharist in the church I don't eat and drink anything before that.
Trying to follow these rules gives me a lot of joy and rhythm to my life. It makes me appreciate food, and also has made my diet simpler also in days that I'm not fasting. But the point isn't to restrict food but to be able to focus more on the spiritual struggles and tame your passions.
As a Muslim, this is so interesting. Fasting is such a big part of Islam too, with Mondays and Thursdays being recommended fasting days. Different implementations, sure, but very similar idea and also gives me rhythm in life plus focusing on the spiritual self. Thanks for sharing!
I have tried multi-day fasting several times. Painful to start, but it feels OK in the middle of it, and it feels great after it's finished (works best when immediately followed up by a keto diet, I recommend a vegan keto one, to avoid nasty things).
Below 48h of fasting, you don't enter ketosis, so you miss out on many benefits.
But never stop drinking water througout any type of fasting.
Your liver has a ton of glycogen that it has to go through before being depleted and starting ketosis.
It takes between 18h and 24h to deplete the liver, but that is without taking in consideration the contents of the GI tract! There are plenty of carbs and proteins in the GI tract at any time, and that takes around 1 day to digest too.
So I don't know how you managed to shortcut all of that, but I'm extremely interested!
Another thing not to forget: you need not only water, but minerals with it (sodium, potassium, magnesium...). There was a time when I did not pay attention to this and fasted with water only - the result was very bad sleep and muscle cramps, which are quite scary. Also I lost all my flexibility for a short time. Maybe others are not so sensitive to this, I certainly am.
Vegan keto might be the worst to recommend after fasting, the best / easiest to digest are fats, so a quality broth to break the fast without breaking your digestive tract is what works for me. But I agree that after a multi-day fast keto just comes naturally and easily.
But you forget easily that keto is not eating only fats. You can take reasonable amounts of proteins too (lentils, soy...), tons of fibers (salad, cabbage, celeri, any leaves basically), ...
I eat my dinner at ~19:30 and then lunch at 11:45. This is 16 hours of fasting every day.
Why? Because I am not hungry in the morning and the canteen opens at 11:30 (and there are less people then - I am in France where between 12:00 and 13:30 the world stops and everyone is downstairs queuing up to eat).
The effects? From 101kg to 85kg with 3% fat. Just kidding - I did not see any difference and I am still overweight (despite biking and eating healthy - this is probably one of these rare cases where thyroid-induced metabolism is the main culprit).
I also followed (and plan to follow again "~tomorrow") the JFEH diet. It works great (JEH stands for Just Fucking Eat Half (TM), a Scientifically Sound Diet (C) where you eat about the size of your fists put together). I really need to get back to that.
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What I love:
* Total mental clarity during the first half of the day, can focus fully on work or life responsibilities without a single thought about food.
* Freedom to not have to organize the day around food (making choices, planning logistics, "wasting" time). Pays off big time when traveling.
* Never inconvenienced or slip into grumpy mode when for whatever reason I don't get food.
* Eating a lot of high-quality home-cooked food - as I love cooking (when I have time) and I don't depend on eating out / ordering food / quick-prep meals as much.
* Bonus: great ROI of the occasional first alcoholic drink of the day (on a more or less empty stomach). Not a health advice!
If I fast, I generally get moody and all I can focus on is food. A lot of friends fast for religious reasons too, and the overwhelming majority of them get cranky instead of more productive and able to focus.
I felt fine, but BMs got annoying. I now eat twice a day just to keep things moving. And coffee.
I can't say I notice any difference at all in how I feel or weight or anything.
TBH, I don't really consider anything like the above fasting, and have only really fasted I guess once, when I was having a rather bad stomach issue. Day 1 was pain. Day 2 was lethargy. Day 3 felt like some kind of enlightenment. Mentally awake, but I was weak and my brain cloudy. It was a strange feeling of being mentally active but not able to really do anything with it. Maybe my body was giving me faux energy and alertness to go hunt with?
It was interesting, to say the least, but I haven't made a habit of it.
I have lost 30lb since 01/01/2023. Just cut out junk, reduced portion sizes & only drank alcohol at weekends.
At the beginning of Great Lent there are also three days that I try not to eat anything but usually it's not possible for me because of work, so I pick something small in the evening. Also during Great Lent I don't eat breakfast (to not break my fast ;)). Oh, and on Sunday if I attend Eucharist in the church I don't eat and drink anything before that.
Trying to follow these rules gives me a lot of joy and rhythm to my life. It makes me appreciate food, and also has made my diet simpler also in days that I'm not fasting. But the point isn't to restrict food but to be able to focus more on the spiritual struggles and tame your passions.
Below 48h of fasting, you don't enter ketosis, so you miss out on many benefits.
But never stop drinking water througout any type of fasting.
We are all different, but I am pretty sure you can enter ketosis after 18-20 hrs fasting
It takes between 18h and 24h to deplete the liver, but that is without taking in consideration the contents of the GI tract! There are plenty of carbs and proteins in the GI tract at any time, and that takes around 1 day to digest too.
So I don't know how you managed to shortcut all of that, but I'm extremely interested!
There exists so many plant oils, olive oil, nut oil, etc. Avocado is also almost only fat.
In meat-keto, you'll eat saturated fats, maybe heated fats, read meat maybe too (bad for CVS), most probably a ton of sodium... no thank you.
But you forget easily that keto is not eating only fats. You can take reasonable amounts of proteins too (lentils, soy...), tons of fibers (salad, cabbage, celeri, any leaves basically), ...
Why? Because I am not hungry in the morning and the canteen opens at 11:30 (and there are less people then - I am in France where between 12:00 and 13:30 the world stops and everyone is downstairs queuing up to eat).
The effects? From 101kg to 85kg with 3% fat. Just kidding - I did not see any difference and I am still overweight (despite biking and eating healthy - this is probably one of these rare cases where thyroid-induced metabolism is the main culprit).
I also followed (and plan to follow again "~tomorrow") the JFEH diet. It works great (JEH stands for Just Fucking Eat Half (TM), a Scientifically Sound Diet (C) where you eat about the size of your fists put together). I really need to get back to that.