Hello everyone! This is my first post here! I’m F 5’1 and 150lbs with 37% body fat.
I’ve tried to lose weight many times especially with fasting but it has been a mental struggle with all of the stress I’ve been dealing with in daily life and just lacking confidence in myself with my weight/the way I look and just giving up a lot.
I’ve recently discovered dirty fasting and it seems perfect for me to stick to and slowly transition into water only (with electrolytes of course). But I’ve been hearing different opinions on this subject and some people say the insulin spike from zero cal/zero sugar drinks or bouillon doesn’t matter and some say they do and will stall weight loss. I’m in this purely for weight loss and don’t really care about autophagy/the mental clarity for right now so I’m kind of stuck on what I should do. I figured I could still do an extended fast if I did something like clean fasting for 16 hours and dirty fasting for 8 or clean fasting for 20 hours and dirty fasting for 4, etc. Sort of like IF but I’m still not eating anything (except the bouillon/zero cal sweet tea in my ‘eating window’) for 24 hours . If I did it that way would the insulin spike still matter? What are you guys’ experiences?
I want to do extended 48-72 hour fasts using this method!
Thanks!
This is just my personal opinion here, but I would start slow. Work up to 16 hrs with 8 hrs still eating, and when that feels comfortable, extend your fasting window, but not by more than an hour a week. With weight-loss you really want to avoid stressing your body, or a hormone response (with cortisol etc) can make it harder.
Over time, when your weight-loss stalls, you can go longer, to OMAD etc. That’s usually a great way to loose weight. IF is a longterm solution, and patience with weight-loss usually pays off. Good luck!