Im thinking of doing a 72 hour fast to bring in the new year and I’ve been doing a lot of reading on how to break fast (have a protein rich meal and avoid carbs). One thing I have seen really mixed studies on is if I’ll gain the weight back that I lose and some websites claim that I will not only gain the weight back, but maybe even more. Is this a common experience? How can I avoid gaining weight back?
You won’t gain FAT back on a fast unless you start eating in a sustained calory surplus after you end your fast.
You will gain WATER weight if you eat carbs after breaking your fast. For every gram of carb you consume you hold 3-4g of water.
Doing a 72 hr fast as well over the new year…30th (6pm) > 2nd Jan (6pm) i plan to break my fast witrh sardines and olive oil. Dont eat too many carbs or overindudlge with food the following week to not gain the weight back, think of it more as healing compared to fasting for weight loss.
Not all your weight is fat. During a 72 hour fast you’ll dump water and empty your bowels. People can carry 5-20lbs in their bowels. This all comes back when you start eating again. Your body can only burn so much fat within a given period. You can influence this but there’s an upper limit.
As long as you don’t consume excess calories after your fast you’ll keep off the fat.
It may help you to measure your body fat before and after. You can get cheap calipers on Amazon. There are so many factors that go in to scale weight and people get too hung up on the number. I use bf%, how my clothes fit and how I look and how much I can lift to gauge my gym progress.
Interesting question, but I think if you keep eating healthy gaining any weight will be much harder than it is in full of carb and sugar diet.At the end of the day it’s calories in and calories outAfter fasting you should count your calories
Your glycogen stores and the water attached to them get depleted during a fast. Even when hydrating properly. A lot of this will happen on a strict keto diet as well. Anytime you break a fast or go off keto with sustained carbohydrate consumption for several meals, you will replenish your glycogen storage and the water attached to them. This is usually about 5 pounds for me. 6’5 202 lbs. You also will not have much in your digestive track at the end of your fast. And obviously as you start eating again the food you are digesting will weigh a bit too.
If you go to any daily tdee calculator, find your recommended calories and eat maybe a few hundred calories under, you can literally eat whatever you like without a rebound, 72 hours isn’t long enough for me to have issues with any foods breaking a fast either.