I’m pretty new to the diet and in my second week. I did a 4 day SJ fast, a refeed and now am on day 4 of a 5 day SJ fast and plotting on my Saturday refeed. I’m nervous on how much I can eat and what I can cook with. I know the goal is no carb and in one video I saw trying to stay under 500 calories (which seems tricky). I’m wondering if I can cook with oils n butter or if that stuff is too fatty and going to throw things off
Under 500 seems like SO little. I don’t know what video you’re referring to, but AFAIK, Cole has changed his recommendations so ppl don’t starve themselves. I think these days he’s into more slow movement (snake walking), and bigger refeeds when you do eat. (He’s also said to track macros if you have a tendency to overeat.)
From what I know, if you’re doing 5 days fasts w/ only 500 calorie refeeds, you’re gonna damage your metabolism. Fasting is great, because your metabolism theoretically shouldn’t slow down so long as the fasts aren’t super long. But if you eat in a caloric deficit during refeeds, your metabolism will accommodate for that and slow down.
I don’t know what Cole himself would recommend. (His suggestions are always a work in progress.) If I were you, I think I’d probably refeed w/ high protein meals and eat at maintenance — or maybe even at a tiny surplus. Otherwise, it’s possible to gain weight when you begin eating more frequently and at higher volumes. Even if you’re small, you really can’t sustain a body on 500 calories/day when it’s all said and done. You’ll be screwing yourself over when you’re in maintenance. (FWIW: I’m not an expert. This is just what I’ve gathered from far too much googling…)
I think this is the kind of “small thing” that you shouldn’t worry too much about. Fasting for 5 days is like a flame thrower for fat loss and whether or not you cook with oil is akin to throwing rocks, if that makes sense.
Focus on the big things like the fasts themselves, increasing activity level (walking 10k steps per day for example) and staying hydrated with SJ.
Good luck on your journey
I dunno….if you are doing these multi-day SJ fasts often, I don’t think it matters if you grease your pan or not. I’m not aware of “the goal” of the snake diet being no carb and under 500 calories…maybe it is for one of Cole’s versions, but there’s many ways to to the snake diet. When I eat after fasting, I just EAT…I EAT like I mean it. I’ve done his morning OMAD version where I stuffed myself in the morning for a few weeks and it gave me a lot of energy to frontload all my energy rather than backload it. But it kinda sucks to not eat after coming home from work.