I cycle up and down four pounds of mostly water during each 36 hour fast. I only weigh myself 12 hours or so After breaking the fast. Any difference from the last post fast weighing is, I pray, real weight loss.

L

Thanks Simcoeluv.
I think I knew that already but had a temporary brain freeze!

Hi Lilymartin, no one knows your body like you do. Fasting for 24 hours really pretty major and enough time for you body to be getting fasting benefits. I think it is smart that you know when to call it quits. Maybe you’ll be able to fast longer in the future, but that isn’t really the point. The point is we are trying to improve our health. Fasting is just a tool to help do that.

Personally I think the biggest improvement I’ve had is cutting about 2/3rds the added sugars out of my diet. At least for me that really curbed my hunger and probably even allowed me to start fasting. While I sometimes go over my self imposed 20g limit a day, at least I now know what to expect and I can deal with it. I lost about 17 pounds and over amount 10 inches around my waist in 3 months when I started mostly avoiding refined sugar. Sometimes there is more to losing weight than just calories. I was so shocked by the result that is when I started studying about hormones and eventually came across fasting.

I think there are a lot of different things that probably impact people.

Brief history of my weight

* 233 lbs (106 kg) BMI 35+ Started with eat less exercise more, worked well for about a year. Lots of hunger. Low weight was 202 lbs (92 kg).

* Two year plateau where I kept eating less and exercising a LOT more. Average workout was over 800 kc / day. I gained 5 lbs over the two years and was always hungry. It was really miserable. By calorie math I should have been easily losing more than a pound a week. Most days I had over 1000 kc deficit by the numbers. My body had adapted to less food. I did lose some fat, but it was slow painful progress. Ending weight 207 lbs (94kg)

* In May I cut all deserts and hunger went way down. Shocked by that, I cut most refined sugar from my diet. In three months lost 17 lbs and almost 10″ from my waist line. In Aug. I had to buy smaller pants and belts. But the weight loss stopped at 189 lbs (86 kg).

* In July I started trying some fasting and at the time I mostly eat back the lost calories. In Aug. I did one 30 hour fast. In Sept. I start random fasting for up to day and trying not to eat back calories, but the end of Sept. I started the 5:2 approach. Now I’m at 177.3 lbs (80.6 kg)

The best part is I’m no longer hungry all the time and am enjoying life a lot more. I also have more time because I’m not exercising so much and while fasting I tend to get more work done.

HI dykask
thanks for your reply. Yes, knowing your body is really important. I think that is why some of us gain weight or at least don’t lose it, because we ignore the signals our body sends when we are full or have eaten sufficient for our requirements that day. If we continually override our ‘ full’ signals, we get to the stage where we don’t feel full , plus of course the BSL levels rising, insulin and all the other associated physiological responses.
I don’t stress about what I eat and that helps keep the cortisol and anxiety hormones at bay.

Since doing the 5:2 intermittently I have found the fast days leave me feeling generally ‘better’ physically , can’t really explain how..

I am however very mindful of how I eat all days of the week, not just fast days. Plus I am eating so much less than pre 5:2 and mostly not feeling at all hungry. As I’ve previously said, I’m not obsessive about FD but keep to a very low calorie intake or just liquids.
The horrifying ‘aha’ moment was realising just how much food I was mindlessly eating without regard to hunger or my body – just stuffing my face really. – before going on to 5:2.

With Christmas not too far away I still plan to do Dr Michael Moseley’s BSL quick weight loss over short time diet as soon as life doesn’t get in the way!
So good to fit in to clothes that haven’t fitted for some years.

Jray, I think fasting has been used for thousands of years. There is reference to it in the bible! Probably a sensible approach to keeping the body healthy even way back then.

J-ray & Dykask… Welcome to this thread, J-ray. It is encouraging to know you have your weight so in control. I am excited that you want to know about fasting for health reasons anyway. My own experience: lost 26 lb of fat in 10 months of 5:2 and am maintaining that loss with 5:2. If I was more “diet minded” I would be able to maintain at 6:1, but the reason I like this way of eating so much, I don’t have to think “diet” ever. I am on 5:2 for life.

I have had little experience with fasting 60 hours in recent yrs, Dykask. Because of being on 5:2 for 38 months, if I determined to fast longer I could. I really am impressed that you worked up to longer fasts with 20, 30, 50 hrs, etc. I am assuming you are not eating 500 calories on these fast days, but liquids only like water, broth, tea?

My own experience is like others, it was maybe three months on 5:2 before I realized I have plenty of energy for a work out on 500 c. Day. I must insert here that a work out for me is an hour and 10 min. Includes stretches. I do this only 3 days a week. And like other’s experience, I am delighted my body feels better on fast days. I would like to fast for extended period as you have Dykask. I am encouraged you did it in gradual steps. That is the way I think…gradual increase or decrease as the matter may be.

Wrapped up at 40 hours. Weight was down to 175.8 lbs. Basically the same weight as when I was in college and meant my wife. I knew I was husky but I still have plenty of fat I can lose. However 5:2 is really working for removing fat, far better than any other approach I’ve tried. It is also nice that when I’m eating I don’t have to starve myself but can eat a reasonable amount of food!

Hi Lard and welcome:

Here are some tips that might help: https://thefastdiet.co.uk/forums/topic/the-basics-for-newbies-your-questions-answered/

Good Luck!

Hmm, there are no posts on American thread. Where is everybody?

Hi Lard, that is good news. I find the fasting really improves how I feel too! I often look forward to the fast days. It might just be the change of place but not having to eat also saves time!

Hi Larry:

I’m not sure how you define ‘fasted state’. If you are talking about going toward ketosis, the answer is no. Ketosis is defined as the body getting a majority of its energy from fat. But the fat can be either dietary or internal. Atkins followers go into ketosis around 4 days after beginning the induction phase which has them eating 20g or less of carbs daily. So your coffee, when combined with no other food, will not disrupt your march toward ketosis.

As far as eating when you are not hungry – why? The body is pretty good at letting you know if it is hungry or not as long as you are not eating processed carbs (processed carbs short circuit the hunger warning systems in the body and cause a person to be constantly hungry). It is true that until you get ‘keto adapted’ the body can ‘run out of gas (carbs)’ if you are doing any high intensity exercise like running or aerobics, but if you are walking or doing other longer term but ‘mild’ exercise there should be no problem. You might google Jeff Volek for some of his speeches on exercise and keto adaptation. I believe him to be the current ‘expert’ on the subject.

Good Luck!

Hi Larry:

Fat will not spike insulin. Just a general comment here – I see a lot of people proclaiming they eat protein to stave off hunger but they do not mention fat. I think for some this is a remnant of the low fat diet craze where fat was vilified. But the fact is protein is unhealthy if eaten in excess (more than a constant 30 to 35% of total calories). Fat, on the other hand, can be eaten in large quantities without harm. That is why the Atkins (now known as the HFLC or LCHF or whatever) diet has about 60 to 70% fat, 20 to 30% protein and around 10% carbs as a breakdown. Most people don’t know that the body can live quite nicely without any carbs, but will die without fat or protein.

You may experience the ‘Atkins flu’ if you try a 4 day fast. It occurs as the body is forced to depend more on fat for energy than carbs (goes into ketosis). People that do multi-day water fasts often say days 3 and 4 are the hardest – they are for me, too. But just as in Atkins, after the 4th day there is absolutely no hunger, cravings or pangs. You have to complete the process to understand. Most quit before completion because they don’t feel good and stop.

My standard advice is simply to do 5:2 correctly (go to bed, get up, eat 5/600 cal. or less while awake, go to bed, get up and eat to TDEE or less and do this process twice a week) and work toward making your two diet days water fasts. Everything else will fall into place as you come to understand how your body responds.

It isn’t easy, but it is simple. Anything more complicated, in my opinion, is a waste of time and energy.

Good Luck!

Hi lily:

I am aware of a November challenge on another thread on this site, but am not aware of a November challenge on another site. Could you please let me know what the site is?

Thanks!

Hi LarryNYC, I think that even the bullet proof coffee will interfere somewhat with your fasting hormone levels depending on what hormones you are concerned about. Even fat has some impact on insulin levels but it is much smaller than proteins or carbs. Fasting impacts other hormones like HGH and for that it is probably less clear what the impact is since there is so little research in human fasting. I think the largest impact though is just slowing down your use of your own stored fat. Fat consumed will likely be in the blood before your own stored fat.

All that being said, does it really matter? If you are making reasonable progress and the bullet proof coffee makes it possible for you to maintain your fast, then that is probably more important than the impacts of it. 400 kc is only about 45 grams of fat. If you are losing more like 200g of fat, the impact is not that great. There have been some studies that show improved insulin resistance and other benefits with intermitted fasting. Just because you might be slightly slowing down the accumulation of some of these benefits doesn’t mean you won’t gain them. The biggest benefit is probably from reducing your stored fat. So if the coffee makes it work for you then it is better than not fasting at all.

Against my own advice I just made a cup of miso broth which has about 25 calories worth. 1.9g of protein, 0.7g of fats, 3.2g carbs and 630 mg of sodium. It seems I can’t easily do a workout on a FD without a little something. As soon as I started drinking it my stomach clamed down. I am about 22 hours into this fast.

I’ve had 3 fasts where I yielded and had some of the thin soup. Two some hours after a workout and one when I was about 50 hours into a fast. I think I could have toughed it out, but while I think it is better to stick to a pure zero calorie fast, I just don’t think is it worth being miserable. A big part of the 5:2 diet benefits is I feel much better than when I was doing potion control. Then I typically felt worse than I’m feeling right now. 3 years of being hungry all the time is enough.

Hello,

I am starting in low carb high fat diet during my non fasting days. I wanted to try the alternate day fasting as it think it would give me fastest results. I would like to implement 5:2 once I am in maintenance mode. So happy to see everyone here. I hope there are some active posters.

I have been watching a lot of youtube videos on LCHF and intermittent fasting. I have done 2 – 10 day water only fasting in the past year but have gained back the weight. I have read and listened so much information on benefits of fasting that I want to make it a part of my lifestyle.

Check out these podcasts:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6PyyatqJSE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R-eqJDQ2nU

There are many books on benefits of water fasting as well.

Anyways, I would like to improve my health and lose about 25 pounds.

Hi ADF, I hope 5:2 will be successful for you. I think the idea is you keep fasting, just dialing it back to one day a week when you get to your idea weight.

A 10 day fast is far beyond anything I’ve done so you have a lot of experience with fasting! Thanks for the links.

I’m with you dykask…I’ve never done that well on cal restricted diets either. The only way I’ve ever been able to lose weight and keep it off has been with fasting, which I have regrettably, in the past taken to some pretty crazy extremes. But this way of fasting is so easy and it works so well! Seriously, I took off 20 lbs. in nothing flat (well, okay, it’s taken me through August which is not all that fast) but I haven’t missed eating and the inches have melted off too, in a good way.

I’ll check out the youtube links, but I can’t even imagine putting butter in my coffee. Have any of you drank butter tea the way it’s consumed in India? That was a stretch for me but since it was all there was, drank it I did, but I had on my game face every time because it was terribly salty and weird.

There is tons of research on hormones and excercise which I’m pretty sure you could get from The College of Sports Medicine. Also quite a bit about when to eat when on excercise regimens.

This particular diet is so easy to do and works so well I’m sticking to this. I’ve just been not so focused the last 2 weeks. I’ve kept calorie counts low and within range but I’ve been yo-yo-ing 2 lbs. gained, 2 lbs. lost. When I weighed in this a.m. it was down to the low end of that yo-yo-ing so the bargain I made with myself was not to do too much damage and on M 11/14 fast again in earnest and stop having a glass or two of wine with dinner. We walk with our dog between 2-4 miles every day and I do between 20-50 push ups three or four x’s a week. So, after a lifetime of serious and not so serious dieting I have finally found what works best for me and this is it. Now, the caveat for me is I have to be very careful b/c I’m on two anti-coagulants for heart issues, most notably a titanium aortic valve and eating this way tends to really wack my INR (the measurement of these two drugs) but when I talked to my cardiologist about what I’d been doing all summer he was so pleased at my getting 20 lbs. off he told me to stay the course but be vigilant and careful about my INR. I generally check it 2x a wk. He also was most interested in my keeping this weight off, which after the last couple of weeks I’m pretty sure this is becoming a way of life now and one that works well for me and isn’t brain death to follow and stay on.

The trick is finding what works best for each of us and hey LarryNYC, if drinking butter or oil in your coffee works for you, go for it. I like it black and strong without any additives like salt, sugar, butter, etc. I’m eternally grateful that coffee is acceptable again. 🙂

I’m renewing my effort to get below 150. We’re going to the mountains for Thanksgiving so will have more control over that feast and will fix things lower in calories. Wish me luck.

Thank you dykask!
As I mentioned, I am really interested in implementing fasting as a lifestyle. I see the benefits far beyond losing weight. I think it just takes time to get used changing my behavior and thinking on food and what it is really meant for. I used food for many other things other than just nourishing my body which I want to change. For me, I want to see food as for what it is, to nourish and support my body not anything else. You know, the emotional eating, using food as a social glue…etc

I have learned so much about how I view food during my 10 water fasts. I would have mental and emotional hunger for food far more than physical hunger. I think this will take time to change but I am willing to do that work. One of the things I have really enjoyed was the liberation from preparing and eating and all that goes into meals but it has been really hard thing to come to appreciate. 🙂

I actually started last week but didn’t quite keep up with tracking my feeding on eating days. I definitely over ate this past weekend. I think it is going to be really important to for me to realize and adjust to understand that the eating days DOES NOT mean binging or over stuffing myself. we are suppose to eat normally but this is the part that I am having a bit of challenge with.

Have you guys found that you are wanting to eat way more than necessary on your eating days?

I hope this does taper down and my natural appetite control takes over. I really want to “reset” my system.

Hi Mollymoticon, welcome to the start of fasting! You may need to work with a doctor to manager your medications. I sincerely hope it goes well for you.

crowmama it warms my heart to hear others have had similar difficulties with traditional calorie restricted diets. While I did lose some weight, about 26 pounds over three years, from 233 to 207 the price was very high. This year with mostly cutting out refined sugar and adding fasting I’ve cut my weight 30 lbs since May of this year. The last 6 months have been so easy compared to the prior 3 years. 4 years ago I was a firm believer in eat less and exercise more, it took 3 years of suffering to make me realize that there is more too it. However what is really shocking to me, after fixing my diet some and learning to fast, the calorie math is actually sort of working on a weekly basis. When I was eating reduced calories mostly constantly and exercising like a dog, I couldn’t lose weight and felt terrible. There is a big difference between working with my body instead of trying to forcing my body.

ADF12kgLess, Dr. Rhonda Patrick runs some very in-depth interviews! I thought I had a better good base of knowledge but after a few hours of listen to some of those interviews I’m amazed by how much I had never even heard about! There is some amazing research going on.

Thank you–I figured out the answer re: the meds. Yes, I need to work with my endocrinologist.

I was surprised how easy my first fast was, until I woke up at 3 am starving! I decided to eat an apple because I wasn’t going to be able to sleep with that level of hunger.

Generally I am happy with it though. I ate most of my calories at my evening meal, and I didn’t binge at night. The things I found hardest to avoid were wine and carbs, as I mostly drink wine and eat junk at night.

The thing I liked the most about it was how delicious the food tasted at the evening meal….I was so hungry and it was like the most delicious food I had ever eaten.

Also, I see why this works in that I ate breakfast today, but I did not eat any junk….I do not want to eat junk. I already am so much more aware of what I am putting into my mouth.

Thank you–

Hi. New to the group. I am in New England and I have stubborn post menopause weight gain. I tend to overeat when stressed or bored. I like the fasting to get control. Yesterday was my first fast and I did well until bedtime. It was hard to sleep with my stomach growling. Today I am doing low carb and so far so good. I would like to lose 20 lbs so anything is going to help. I actually love exercising so that is not my problem. Looking forward to great discussions!!

So I was experimenting with local types of salty foods in case I need it after working out while fasting and really consumed a lot more salt than normal. Also in my family this is a period of rich meals as there are 3 family birthdays and Thanksgiving all within four weeks.

Anyway the extra salt and rich meals bumped my weight up to 183.7 lbs this morning. Today is my heaviest day of the week, but that is 3 lbs more than I expected. However my weight has already dropped down almost two pounds and I haven’t started fasting yet. I’m just surprised by the impact of the extra salt on my weight. I knew salt causes water retention, but this is the first time I ever actually measured it. The good news is that I’m still down almost six pounds from when I started the 5:2 in early September even at this higher weight. That is six pounds lower from a plateau where I was actually eating less than I am now. There is no doubt that the fasting really makes a difference vs just eating less without fasting.

@tokyotogo very interesting. At least your husband should be able to notice if you did have problems. A year ago I thought fasting was crazy but now I even sometimes prefer fasting to eating, but I think that is mainly because I really had a hard time with the standard calorie restriction approach. My body feels better with the fasting and I had some long term skin problems that have just gone away. However the main benefit I see is less fat and not so much loose skin.

My wife isn’t sold on fasting but she has stopped teasing me about it. My last trip to the states in August I bought 34″ waist pants to replace my 38″ waist pants. A couple pairs were a little tight and now they are getting on the loose side. Results are hard to argue with. Also my overall eating has also become healthier.

Hi Guys
Great to have fellow Americans here!
Paul
Washington dc

I’m one month in and have lost 12 pounds, about four of which are illusory water. I measure at my minima, at the end of a fast, to avoid confusing water and fat.
Right now I’m 40 hours into a fast, number seven I think. I may try to go beyond 48 hours this time. Gulp.

Question: I have a glucose meter and am trying to interpret it. I guess it is an imperfect index of insulin. I suppose it misses insulin release triggered by protein ….
I have a ketone meter on order.