I’ve been doing IF for a little over a year now and the longest fasts I’ve done have been 24 hours. Typical days for me are 19-22 hour fasts, and as I approach my menstrual cycle I’m more lenient and do shorter fasts depending how I feel. I’ve lost ~15-18 pounds and have a goal to lose ~36 more and need to change up what I’m doing.
Anyway, could use any encouragement to get beyond the 24 hour mark. Ive been feeling extremely full lately and want to amp up my fasts a few days a week, possible delve into ADF or 5:2, or 4:3 if I can. But for now, just today’s 36 hour fast is the goal.
No one in my real life understands why I’m fasting, so don’t have much enthusiasm support, so it’s easy to give in at 24 hours for dinner.
As of the time of making this post, I am almost a third of the way through the 36 hours and feeling motivated!
Update: I’ve made it through 20 hours, my normal time I start eating but I am so motivated to keep going because of all of your support!! Will update later 🙂
I just started IF on 11-Jan-2023. Was doing usually 20:4. On weekends, my buddy and I would drop that down to 16:8 just because it was easy and okay with us. Three days ago I felt good after \~22hrs and thought about going 36, but it was steak night, so I didn’t. Last night it was pasta night and I thought that I’d be okay without that. So I tried for 36, which would have ended at 9am today. I’m still going. Will make it to either 1pm or 5pm today depending on when my buddy breaks his fast he started last night (16:8 = 1pm, 20:4 = 5pm). That would put me back on track for the next fast starting tonight somewhere between 8pm and 10pm. It all depends on our mood at the time.
I didn’t “prepare” for this. Just felt good last night and decide to give it whirl since it was only pasta. If I didn’t make it, that was perfectly fine for me. I was fully prepared to get up and have something small in the night if needed. I don’t want to be miserable. That makes this too much like hard work, and it doesn’t have to be. My stomach was growling good for a few hours before bed, which is about the time we start our next fast after eating window. I just went to bed and slept great. Woke up feeling much better than I did going to sleep… even though I didn’t feel “bad” at all when I went to sleep. Just rumbly in my tummy as Pooh would say. But no rumbly this morning. Some rumbly now, but not enough to not wait another 1-5 hours.
Anyway, you got this. Sounds like you have the commitment all on your own. Encouragement from those around you is always nice to have, but you sound strong on your own and can do it.
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Good luck.
This has been my first week of OMAD (basically 23:1) and for social-plan reasons, decided to try my first 36 hour fast yesterday / today. I am currently 25 hours in and came here for encouragement as well!
I often print a word doc that just has one line for each hour of the day, and I try to plan every hour so I am distracted from wanting to eat. I have specific work tasks listed out, a work training I need to complete, I’ll take a long shower at some point, run an errand, take the dogs for a walk, watch an episode of TV, pick up the baby from daycare, and play in the yard with her. I also get myself excited to brew some mildly flavored black coffee, or a tea I haven’t had in a while!
To avoid electrolyte issues, I just started putting electrolyte drops in my black coffee. I don’t want something like a headache to be the thing that causes me to break a fast early!
Great job so far, you’ve got this!!
I do Omad dinners. The only difference to get to 36 hours is skip dinner, and couple hours later go to bed. Wake up and eat breakfast. It’s often a couple hours longer than 36. I’ll then eat breakfast (a rare treat) and then fast until dinner the next night (another ~36 hour fast).
Not hard at all. It’s kind of a reward to have the breakfast.
I actually just finished a 36 hr fast a little earlier! After you’re already at 24 and the day is ending, you know you just have to make it through bed time and then the next day you’ll have a (hopefully) delicious meal. That’s usually what keeps me going. If I make it that far, might as well push through it.
Drink lots of water and tea if you like it. You’ll feel amazing once the 36 hrs are accomplished!
Also, I did 36 hrs because I had trouble losing a few pounds I had gained (I’m mainly maintaining rather than actively losing weight). That was the boost I needed and I’m back around my baseline weight. So it’s a pretty good way to reset things if you feel stuck.
You got this!!!! I think the hardest part of the 36h is right around that 24h +2h timeframe. Drink a herbal tea and push through it and by the time you go to bed it’s easy peasy….wake up tomorrow and see how you feel before breaking it. I find that 41h is better for me and do them 2x a week.
The most fun I’ve had was keeping a journal of all my hunger pangs. You will notice a pattern of when and how long your hunger pans last for and it makes it easier to think “ this will only last x mins” I can do this !
You got this! I’ve been on 20:4 for about 3 months and do a 36-hour fast every 2 weeks (Sunday-Tuesday). The biggest thing I’ve learned from doing the 36-hour fasts is pacing the amount of water and tea I drink. At least for me, pacing water and electrolyte intake throughout the fast is so important or I start getting dehydration headaches.