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The problem with this is that it can be counterproductive in the long run. The whole idea of fasting is to avoid metabolic slowdown caused by non-insulin controlled caloric deficits, and what you are doing is an extreme version of that.
Fung has a chapter describing this and using The Biggest Loser participants as one of the examples. They all managed to lose weight, but the majority of them get all their weight back and more in a year or two.
This is because it takes a few hours at least for your body to be able to access fat reserves after each insulin spike. By consuming small amounts of foods with high insulinic response (like milk), your body has more insulin spikes throughout the say, but since you are in a large deficit your body also does not have enough glycogen to keep your body running. The only way out is reducing expenditure, i.e, decreasing your metabolism, and the research shows that this can have medium to long run persistence.
So, IMO, if you are going to do this at least be as close to keto as possible. Peanut butter and pickles should be ok, and almond milk is much better than regular milk.0
“Eating during fasting” is oxymoronic and detrimental to the truth of it.
Say that you’ve heavily restricted your calories and be proud of what you are doing. As you should. Kudos and carry on. You are doing a very difficult thing, seemingly well. You are commendable.
But you are not fasting.
There are a lot of good comments here. I just want to add one other thing, if you think your milk in coffee, or a spoon of pickled onions can make you fast longer from 24 hours to say 36-48 hours, then my personal opinion is that you should go for it. You should eventually aim to get off these fasting aids, but if it helps you reach a longer goal now, go for it.
I fast for weight loss and often do the same if it helps me to keep going. I’d rather do a ‘dirty’ fast than none at all and I try not to be critical of myself for it (hard for a perfectionist, but being a parent and working full time is teaching me to take the ‘good enough’ route in life sometimes!).
I usually have 3 coffees or so with milk (I have twin babies who don’t sleep at night so coffee is my comfort at work and it helps me be a semi functioning person!).
I’ve also found that when I’m fasting I really enjoy cooking for other people (I used to see it as a chore and now I look for new recipes and ingredients when fasting 😂) so I’ll try a mouthful of any new dish I’m making. It just adds to the experience and psychologically helps me to keep going. I have to be careful not to have carbs or more than a mouthful though, because I end up feeling more hunger and thinking “well I’ve technically broken the fast so might as well have ALL the carbs”.
I guess I find black coffee and water is good enough for me, but whatever helps you feel better is what counts. And as long as you feel good losing weight and improving your health, I wish you the best in your fasting journey.
If what you’re doing works for you, and you’re achieving your goals, then you do you. There are many people who say fasting is water and electrolytes only. That even black coffee is breaking a fast. If fasting purists wanna feel that way, then that’s fine, but don’t let anyone guilt you into feeling like you’re doing something wrong if what you’re doing works. At least you’re not giving in and eating spaghetti and meatballs lol.
As of last night, I’m finally feeling like a person after working on Tuesday at my local polling place. I’m an election inspector, and worked from 4:45 AM until 10 PM. When I was finally home, I ate my first meal in 26 hours. my new round of fasting started at whatever time in the middle of last night that I fell asleep. Yeah, I ate for two days. Zero guilt. I’ve been doing pretty good so far, and lost 10 pounds since I started. I will say that I minimized my carb intake somewhat, but didn’t sweat it much.
This is a “big picture” lifestyle thing. Don’t sweat the small stuff. You’re doing GREAT!!!
Yes, when I fasted before, I would eat things like pickles. I would have cream with coffee, and abuse diet coke or other 0-50 calorie beverage.I like you don’t really care for the autophagy benefits just yet. I have since moved to clean fasting and have noticed almost no hunger pangs. But, after my experiment is over, I prefer dirty fasting, and will go back to that.However, I will say, I was doing a 72 hour fast, was on day two when I decided eat a piece or two of pork belly was no big deal. You know because it is mostly fat and fat doesn’t spike insulin etc etc. Well, let us just say that day I had to break my fast early, the hunger was too great😂
Do whatever helps keep you sane. Obviously at some point, it’s no longer a fast, but I’d say staying under 100 calories a day is close enough. Put a mental asterisk by your fasting record if you feel the need.
I add a little half and half or heavy cream to my coffee, no sweetener. I’m also fasting for weight loss and not autophagy. Dr. Jason Fung has endorsed having a small amount of cream in coffee without sweetener and it works fine for me.
If it works for you and you are getting the results you want. Do it. Even Dr Fung says under 50 calories is nothing but a blip. Your body goes right back down.
I will sometimes have a kosher dill pickle. It crunches, has salt and 5 calories. works for me.
I am careful about “bites” only because most of them make me hungry. But pickles or even drinking pickle juice is great for me. No sugar just vinegar, spices and probiotic.
If you’re just fasting for weight loss then you probably aren’t setting yourself back too much. That said, a large part of weight loss and maintenance is psychological. You don’t need a teaspoon of peanut butter or milk in your coffee to get through 24 hours with no food. The same thought pattern leading to this behavior is likely what led to the gain in the first place and what will lead to ultimate failure to maintain long term. It’s really less about what we are doing in the moment and more how that plays on to our wider lifestyle.
With your method, your insulin will spike whenever you eat peanut butter or drink milky coffee. The higher levels of insulin stop the liver from activating your fat burning metabolism. In my case, such dirty fasting only made me exhausted (no fat burnt for energy) and hungrier. I have started and abandoned dirty fasting for many years due to this. Personally I could succeed only after doing clean fasts after I read Dr Fung’s method. But, if you are successful, then obviously your method works for your body.