I don’t meant for weight loss, I mean health benefits as in autophagy, clearing out toxins, giving your organs a break type stuff
Hunger is probably one of humans, and animals, most natural sensations. Being hungry is normal, genuinely enjoying eating when you do eat probably is as well. Satiating hunger insistently on a moments notice is what’s strange.
I do intermittent fasting 18h, 5 days a week. It started as an attempt to curb my ulcerative colitis, which worked so I have just continued that.
I do 72 hour fasts every two or three month between. Total about 5 times now. I drink water and coffee and a bit of salt. I break the fast with some nuts and avocado and then some mild soup usually.
The first day I find most difficult, the hunger is most prevalent, then it subsides. I think about food often but not in a bad way. More as inspiration what I should eat when the fast is over. The second and third day my body is a bit weaker so no intense physical activity. But my mind is clear, almost a bit electric in a way. I enjoy that clarity. After the fast I feel fantastic, energetic and rejuvenated.
I do it mainly for the reported health benefits like autography. Probably will continue doing it till I die
It seems that the clear state of mind and burst of energy is a universal effect of people who fast properly. Do you know if your fasting has had positive effects on paper like with your bloodwork and liver tests?
Haven’t done any of those since I had my episode. They were improved then, but that was mainly because my body didn’t lose any blood and could absorb the nutrients from the food. But it would be interesting.
The last time I fasted I had some inflammation in my right hand. That went away the second day of fasting. I had it for two weeks and it didn’t want to go away. So maybe the fasting helped.
do you take any meds for UC additionally ? or are you able to manage entirely by fasting ?
None. When I get to go to the doctor I was already healed up to normal. I told him what I’ve done to get better. He wasn’t interested and prescribed some meds. Took them för two weeks and then I stopped. Thought it would probably be fine without them, which was correct.
clearing out toxins
you either have a healthy liver or you don’t, stop with the ‘detox’ bs
if only my alcoholic father fasted enough, maybe he’d still be alive with a healthy liver!
So you don’t believe that depleting your glycogen stores and going into ketosis is efficient at releasing fat soluble toxins?
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Edit: I saw in the comments that you were looking for true fasting for minimum of two days, I have only tried for two days twice and my body went into lockdown. I couldn’t move and it felt like I was depressed. I do not think my body can handle it. And I do not want to waste two days of my life again just laying down being not able to do anything. But I will keep my comment here if ppl are interested in my other experiment with some of the same benefits when it comes to how I felt and my well-being.
I did an experiment where I didn’t eat normal food for dinner I only mixed veggies, oatmeal and water and drank it and ate an apple as a side dish.
My lunch and breakfast was not changed much. The only change to my lunch was that I started eating sweet potatoes instead of pasta.
I have problems with low blood sugar and hunger so I wanted to test if I could lessen it with potatoes (and meat) for lunch and oatmeal and veggies for dinner, especially oatmeal, it has a lot of good health benefits like keeping the blood sugar more balanced, lessen inflammations and making you feel fuller for a longer period. The first month was great, I didn’t feel hunger in the same way anymore for the whole day, I had more energy, my blood sugar didn’t drop like a bomb around meal time and I was happy. But then I started experimenting with tastes, I used milk instead of water and then also stoped adding celery (did not go well with milk). Tried using berries and other types of veggies or even less veggies and more fruits. After maybe 2,5 months did I feel really hungry again like extremely hungry, it hurt in my stomach in a way I have never felt before and I got migraines and felt like shit. So I stoped the experiment. I think the whole experiment was around 3 months. Now do I eat like normal, the only thing I still do is eating an apple almost every day after dinner. And I crave crispbread that has an extremely healthy taste to it in the evening… It is very weird.
I would like to try the experiment again to see how long it takes until I feel like shit and also write down what I mix together with notes on how I feel, to get a better understanding of what happens and when.
I appreciate any experience people want to share. Did your blood sugar end up being low again after going back on a regular diet?
I do this all the time because of my ADHD hyper-focus. It’s how I stay so slim (unhealthy as fuck on the inside, I’m sure)!
I only eat once a day for years now. Not really for weight loss, but rather because it saves a lot of time and allows me to spend more time on preparing one really satisfying and healthy meal instead of just snacks and fast food. I still eat sweets and stuff if I feel like, but it’s easier to control and keep track of nutrients etc.
Do you eat a whole days worth of food in one meal?
Yes, usually I eat ~1800-3000 kcal for dinner.
What do you eat?
I’m on a vegan diet and I would say that I eat quite a big variety of food. Many vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, beans, lentils, rice, quinoa, chick peas, pasta variations, also some meat alternatives, soy yoghurt etc. I rarely eat exactly the same meal twice, but improvise a lot.
That sounds like something I’d like to try tbh, could u give like 4 random meals you’ve had recently?
I usually don’t write it down, so I hope I remember it correctly:
Yesterday I had:
- Gnocchi with leek, soy chunks (“minced meat”) and basil
- Smashed cucumber salad with roasted sesame and black onion seeds
- A salad with pasta made from pea flour with beluga lentils (ingredients were left over)
- Lentil waffels (crispy flat bread similar to rice cake, not sure if you can buy these outside Europe) with hummous
- Muesli with lupine yoghurt and walnuts
- Chocolate
The day before I had
- Pasta made from pea flour with a bolognese out of eggplant beluga lentil and nutritional yeast
- Bake-off bread with bean puree
- Caesar salad from sugar loaf (?) with blended almonds and hazelnuts
- Two bars from caramalized peanuts (“Mr Tom”)
- Vegan gummy bears
Another day before:
- Grilled veggies (zucchini, corn, mushrooms, green peppers)
- Grilled seitan steaks
- Chick pea waffels (similar to lentil waffels) with soy cottage cheese
- Pop corn
Yet another day before:
- Rice with green flageolet beans, smoked tofu, coconut milk and roasted peanuts
- Raw veggies (carrots, green peppers, cherry tomatoes) with cashew dip
- Baguette
- Nuts mix with raisins and cranberries
- Sugar-coated peanuts (vegan alternative to M&Ms)
Thx dude!
I used to do 36 hours a week, as an experiment. Not for weight loss. Maintained my weight.
Results: lower LDL cholesterol. Sharply lower. Blood pressure lower only while fasting.
Side effects: migraines. I tried to arrange it so there was not so much time fasting before sleeping but would usually wake up with a migraine.
Never fasted more than 2 days voluntarily.
What did you allow yourself to consume during the fasts and how did you break the fasts?
Did you LDL go back up when you stopped fasting?
Just coffee. I would eat a late breakfast one day, then stop eating, coffee (no calories) the next morning and then nothing until supper, usually around 8pm.
Yes the LDL went back up. I know it was related to the fasting and not weight loss - I am not fat and maintained calories overall to keep my weight stable. I had been sort of stumped, like you are. Obviously if someone is overweight and loses weight that will have benefits, there wasn’t a lot of research on people of normal weight fasting and not reducing. I got the one measurable benefit, but no improvements I could feel in any way, and the headaches were pretty bad.
I intermittent fast the majority of days and have done so for nearly the last decade. I have a chronic illness that affects my GI tract, among other things, and it helps a lot.
Not getting hangry is a huge perk. Once my flight got stuck for hours in a small town airport with no food nearby. I was watching people get so weird about not eating for a few hours, but I was able to just be okay.
When I gotn UC, I started intermittent fast. Since then I havent had any more episodes. About 6 years now.
And yes, I have some coworkers that almost freak out if they don’t get lunch.
I have mast cell issues, so a bit similar. I still get the occasional food flare up, but just giving my guts a break works wonders.
Yeah, I went to the bathroom 8 times a day with blood in the stool. 2 weeks of intermittent fast together with probiotic food and I was back to normal again. Just in time when the doctor had time to meet me. I’m really grateful that it helped. Never needed any meds and I can eat what I want (but I still eat healthy food most of the time)
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD015610.pub2/full
Meta-analysis on ca. 2000 people - intermittent fasting no better than weight loss diets.
Personally I just find it much easier to skip a meal completely than to start eating and stop before I’m full. Restricting calories could work just as well, it’s just a lot harder for me to execute with continuity.
I only eat from 5-8 PM. I started it for weight loss a few years ago, which worked alright. I lost 30 pounds, but have since gained a lot of it back. It turns out you can eat a lot in three hours once your stomach gets used to it.
However, before starting the diet I had chronic heartburn, acid reflux, and trouble swallowing sometimes. All three went away after a week on the diet, which is enough for me to keep going.
There are other minor benefits, like saving money/time from not eating so often. At this point I don’t feel hungry at all until 4:00, so I never shop hungry.
I try not to eat after 8pm and mostly don’t after 7pm because of heartburn/reflux. I think that is all you really need for just that.
That’s awesome that it’s worked for your gastro issues, I would have thought trying to eat all your food at once would aggravate reflux. The body is a wild thing.
How many calories do you think you usually get in during your feasting window?
I have found that some specific foods still give me a little heartburn, which I avoid. But yeah, I still don’t understand it. Especially the swallowing issues, but apparently not eating lets my body reset or something.
When I first started the diet it was 800-1500 calories per day, but now I snack while I’m cooking dinner, have double or triple portions, and have dessert right before the cutoff at 8:00. So probably about 2500.
There are still days where I only get 800-1000 calories, like if we’re at someone else’s house for dinner. After 8:00 my body just seems to accept its fate, so I’m not scrounging for food or hangry anymore.
It’s been a long time, now. My takeaway: I turned into a monster on fasting days, so much so that my friends would whisper when they saw me approaching. It worked, in that I lost weight. It would have been easier for me to lose weight by just eating better food.
As with all things diet and nutrition, I also learned that what works for me definitely might not work for someone else, and that something that doesn’t work for me, might. Everybody’s metabolism is weird and wonderful and you need to figure out what works for you.
Right now, I figured out that not eating after 18:00 (6p) improves my sleep a ton. If I had to restart, I would just “fast” by imposing an evening cutoff for food/calories.
Lost 60lbs from it. My eating window was 930am-530pm. You still want to try to eat healthy while doing IF.
Started 5years ago at 334lbs. Am ~225lbs today. I stopped actively doing IF ~3 years ago though.
Have you been able to keep the weight off after stopping IF?
Generally, yes, but through IF I’ve made diet changes that have stuck with me to this day. No longer having Cereal is one of them. It was too easy to just eat the stuff. I also already enjoyed unsweet tea and sparkling water so that’s helped too.
I also took walks around me neighborhood (about 6000 steps) about 3 times a week.
It also helped me to weigh myself daily so I can see if my efforts helped and that motivated me to continue my routine.
I should mention that IF is 60lbs of my ~110lb weight loss. I did hit a wall around 270 and received some help by taking phentermine while continuing IF. That got me to 227lbs.
Good for you for making such a big step (no pun intended) towards healthier living. I do find that a lot of people who go on a long fast or fast regularly have this change in their relationship with food. It’s like you push yourself to do someone out of your norm and then you realize it’s not that hard to resist cravings after a while. Exercise is definitely important, hope you keep it up!
At times I won’t eat until midday, if not until dinner. If I do eat before then, I lose energy, I think it boosts metabolism and energy. I am just not hungry in the morning sometimes I’m not trying to fast per se.
I’ve used it extensively to lose weight. The main advantage to it is how incredibly simple to execute it is compared to trying to “properly” restrict calories. Big things to watch out for are making sure you get all your micros, and that balance your dietary needs (Fiber, macro ratios) in your eating window.
Of it helps you to go on a calories deficit, go for it.
There is no benefit in fasting rather than any other kind of first that less your calories intake. The rest is physiological, good if it works for you.
The end goal is to get into a balanced diet, for this fasting is bad because doesn’t teach you to eat better, just less
