do you think it would be harsh on the body? I’m so tired of failing at just trying to eat normal and sensibly. I’m also an emotional eater and right now go thru some heart crushing times. I’m struggling all I can to just not binge eat. I’m even on Ozempic for weight loss but it’s a waste. It doesn’t prevent me or make me feel any different.
What are your thoughts on that kind of IF schedule?
I alternate between 18/6 and 48-hour fasts and it works great.
Typical week (Sunday start):
18/6, NOMAD, OMAD, 18/6, NOMAD, OMAD, 18/6.
For 18/6 days I eat at 12pm and 6pm, OMADs I eat at 6pm. NOMAD means “no meal a day” :)
Edit: guess I should give credit where due, I got this schedule through The Fasting Method / Coach Nadia.
For binging/emotional eating, you’re just going to need to resolve it, and that’s outside of the scope of planning fasts I think. Even on a 16/8 you should be eating two meals during your window, not snacking in-between. You should treat 6-7 of the 8 hours as a mini-fast.
You SHOULD NOT practice fasting if you have an eating disorder.
Even while fasting, you need to eat sensibly. I think first you need to get a hold of your eating habits (binge eating), as this is sounding (not a healthcare professional) like disordered eating.
I’m so sorry you are going through this, but I think meeting with a food therapist, nutritionist or dietician will help you. Take care of yourself!
In the beginning I used to do 36 every week and go back to 18/6 but now I do 20:4 most days and it works for me. You can do intermittent fasting any way that works for you. This is why it is so convenient.
I do OMAD (so basically 24hr, maybe can be considered 23/1) on weekdays, and 16/8 on weekends, and so far it’s working pretty well for me.
If you do find yourself wanting to binge, go ahead and plan to have a large meal, just try to load up on non starchy veg firs. That way even if you try to stuff yourself you wont be able to overeat too bad. Try reducing sugar as well. That can help with some of the cravings over time.
I’m on Ozempic too. Maybe you should contact your endocrinologist and explain your dosage/lack of response. You didn’t mention how long you’ve been taking it, but it may take time for your body to respond. I’d contact your doctor.
I’m doing that every week.
Even right now, I’m on my 24h fast.
(warning: Wall of Text incoming! xD )
One thing I have to stress before you consider this to be a “sure go ahead” reply is that this works for me, but because individuals are different with different circumstances and attributes, you have to carefully walk around the subject before going for it. This is NOT a medical advice or diet recomendation!
I’m currently in a state where a 24h fast is barely any different from a regular 18/6 day where my schedule gets messed up and I don’t get a second meal.
But in order to get it “so easy” I was working my way up in small increments and was always ready to call it quits and return to a 18/6 if anything feels wrong.
Now with with all the preamble I can also tell you that I’ll be having 2 meals when this 24h ends, one right at the end of this fasting period and one tomorrow early in the morning and then I’m heading into a 48h fast which is a weekly habit for me.
Since I don’t know where you at in your IF journey, based on your post I’ll assume you’re about comfortable with the 18/6, but have not done the 24h fast yet.
I have been there too, and the way I approached the first 24h fast was to insert a day in the week where I stretch the fasting hours from 18h up by 2 hours.
So this week on one day you go 20/4, following week 22/2, and then you find yourself at 24h.
If the stretch goal for the week feels like a struggle dial back one hour from the goal and keep repeating the weekly schedule until that one occasion with a longer fasting period feels barely any different from the usual 18/6 days.
Say you feel okay with 20/4 but 22/2 giving you discomfort of constantly being hungry, then you dial back to 21/3 and stick with it until you’re comfy.
The benefit of inserting a longer fast day into your weekly schedule is that it nudges your system out of the comfort zone once it got used to the 18/6 schedule.
Personally I’m doing the additional 48h weekly because I’m having a superbly slow digestion and I can’t accurately measure what my “empty weight” is where I don’t have to guess how much of my weight is the meal still being digested.
Mind you I got to the 48h mark with the same incremental approach, and I didn’t combine the 24h and 48h fasting days in my weekly schedule until recently (currently on my 18th week into my IF journey)
I hope you don’t consider my case to be an model schedule to follow, but an example of that something like this can be done, as long as you make sure in your eating windows you get in the calories that are suitable for your life style and your meals are varied enough)
i do 20:4 every day. my body struggle to adapt to longer. I also eat keto. so when i eat its mostly salad and some meat. this morning I was hungry to the point where my stomach was rumbling and burning so i had a fast break at 11,thats still 16 fast. I drank some kefir, about 125ml, for the probiotic benefits. is kefir ok to drink?
I see most people here have advice about the diet, and I think it’s all good. However, I would suggest dealing with the heart crushing times in conjunction with your diet. It’s hard to focus on our daily goals when our mind is hurting. Find the help you need by talking with whoever you need to talk with. I don’t know what you’re dealing with, but talking with someone can really help. If you need resources, I or someone here can probably help. Your diet will be much easier to handle when your mind is in the right place. I hope you are able to see success!
I do! I actually do alternate day fasting where I fast for over 36 hours every other day. It helps me empty my bowels completely and keep a flat stomach. BUT I’ve been having some digestion problems, so I’m trying to change this habit (along with binge-eating) and try my previous 18:6 IF schedule again.
I just realized that if I fast for 24 hours and then go back to 18:6 schedule, it would be almost like 42 hours before I have another meal. Because my 18:6 is between 4 and 10:00 p.m.. which I think I should move that up to either two and 8:00 p.m. or 3:00 and 9:00 p.m. I wonder if I can handle that. Someone check my timing, is that right? 42hrs of fast?