| | Water Fasting

Does it matter how many calories you eat during your eating window?

Obviously you shouldn’t eat an absolute massive amount of food but would you still lose weight if you had maybe a normal sized dinner and then snacked on candy and other stuff during the eating window? I’m doing 20 hour fast, 4 hour window. I’m also quitting sprite (the only soda I drink so technically all soda), and all fast food. I am now taking daily walks which I never did before btw

Stop Fasting Alone.

Get a private coach and accountability partner for daily check-in's and to help you reach your fasting goals. Any kind of fasting protocol is supported.

Request more information and pricing.

Answer

You’ll have to try it. Ultimately, you still need to be able to empty your liver’s glycogen stores within your fasting time and still have fasting time left for actually burning fat to lose weight. You might be better off with 22:2 or 23:1 where there is just less time to eat

Answer

I find it easier to jump back into a fast if I keep the foods low carb and healthy otherwise I’m counting down the mins til I can eat junk again. But this guy ate 5000+ calories refeeds and still lost weight. I think he just lost it slower than if he didn’t eat that much. But he did whatever would keep him consistent. https://youtu.be/_P3z0qzytlI

Answer

If you’re getting rid of the soda and the fast food, why not eliminate the candy?

You’re just adding empty calories that do nothing but give you a sugar high and then crash.

It’s probably better to track your calories in the beginning.A meal being massive or small can be deceiving if you aren’t tracking the calories.

Answer

For me, I would be miserable the 20 hours of fasting if I ate bunches of carbs in my eating window.

Carbs set off hunger hormones. Ymmv

As for weight loss, it depends. Like, how much candy are we taking about, lol?

Answer

I’ve been posting in a weight loss sub and shilling intermittent fasting against a wall of CICO. I saw your post and got excited thinking someone was finally dieting right lol. Then I realised I’m in the fasting sub lol.

I feel like eating should be contained in meals. So maybe eat. Then if you want to have sprite just turn that into a final meal and then stop. I feel like eating for a full 4 hours via snacking is not ideal as snacking is what we’re avoiding.

But I’m curious if your results differ from my thoughts. If you will have success snacking in the 4 hour window.

Answer

Short answer: what you eat and how much you eat will have an effect.

How MUCH of an effect is unknown. As was pointed out, you have to burn thru yoru glycogen stores to burn fat and carbs like candy and stuff will restock the glycogen fast, so more of your fasting window you’ll still be stuck unable to burn fat. Simple carbs also will make fasting harder. However you need to come up with a way of eating that you can live with long term.

Your calories (and carbs) are like a budget. It’s better to spend it on quality stuff, but if you sometimes spend it on candy or snacks, that’s ok, as long as you stay in your budget. Not everyone has to track their calories and macros, but IMO snackers usually do.

Related Fasting Blogs