Dr Fung confusing beliefs on calorie consumption and extended fasting?

So I know that Dr Fung believes in not calorie restricting (at least that's the only info I've been able to find). He says if you do a smaller eating window every day, you should still get the same calories in, just in a shorter amount of time. He even says to possibly avoid OMAD because he worries it'll be too hard to get sufficient calories in that time. But Dr. Fung also advocates for longer extended fasting, even up to 7-10 days (but not too often). He does say not longer than a month but that's the only length restriction I found him talking about. So does that mean if I do a 7-10 day fast, he expects me to eat double for the next 7-10 days? Because I would never naturally do that unless I was consciously counting calories and stuffing myself on purpose. On a side note I don't get how you lose very much weight with 0 calorie restriction at all. But please read my next paragraph to see what I mean by calorie restriction: I always eat till I'm full during eating windows, so I'm never *consciously* calorie restricting because I do feel like *that* is a bad thing. But is the natural overall calorie restriction that **WILL** happen when doing a 10 day fast (unless I super consume on purpose the next week) a bad thing? Thanks for help. :)

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I think, at least from what I’ve read/heard, the part about getting in the same number of calories in a smaller window is incorrect. I think he advocates eating the amount you normally would at that time.

For example, if you normally eat 2400 calories spread across three meals, if you skip breakfast (or any other meal) you would just get 1600 from two meals.

The remaining fuel for your body during that skipped meal would ideally come from fat stores, which are unlocked because you’re keeping insulin low by eating nothing during that time. So your body still gets the 2400 it needs.

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Fung wants you to stay away from the calorie model. It is not useful. Hormones drive the nutritive process and are the key not calories. For example, eating 100 calories every hour is different than eating 2400 calories once a day. This is because you are getting constant pulses of insulin so the body never gets the signal to burn its own fuel.
Since we are not concerned with calories, we neither eat “the same amount” after a fast nor make up the amount so there is no deficit. We simply eat to satiety EVERY TIME we eat. Get in touch with your satiety signals. After an extended fast, eat a small meal to break it. Wait a few hours and assess your satiety. Then eat to satiety.
If you don’t know satiety, use a -10-10 scale. Zero is nothing. -10 is the hungriest you’ve ever been, 10 is how you feel after a thanksgiving dinner AND a competitive eating contest—so nauseous you can tear another bite. Try to be at a 3-6 after eating, slightly full but you could definitely eat more. Rely on your satiety signals once they come back in balance. That’s what the hunger hormones are for.

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Another thing to consider is that he says our bodies have two basic modes, burning fat or storing fat. So, if you eat at a calorie loss all day and never let your insulin levels drop, you stay in fat storing mode. Where as, when you eat in a smaller window, your body has enough time to lower insulin levels and to start burning fat. You want your body to think you are still eating the same amount of calories, so your metabolism doesn’t drop. This is why he advocates for alternate day fasting. I could be off on my understanding, but that is how I see it.

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Actually, I just joined Reddit now specifically to ask a similar question, which you may have answered for me. You said he says to get the same calories in a shorter amount of time. I have read three of his books on the subject and am going to go back to see if I missed that. I know its definitely not in his guidelines on various fasts, which are otherwise very detailed.

To answer your question as to how to lose weight without any calorie restrictions, he details how the model of Calories in - calories out = fat is flawed and that you can’t think that way. It works very short term, after which your body adapts to the amount of calories that are coming in and then you’re totally screwed for a lot of reasons.

None of the above has anything to do with a 10 day fast. If he said you have to match calorie intake over a shorter timeframe - and it makes sense that he would have said that for the reason outlined above - if would be only when you are eating (Intermittent fasting), not an extended fast which is completely different.

Put another way, restricting calories is completely different than removing calories. When he talks about restricting, it means for IF. For longer fasts, its not ‘restricting’ its removing, so what he says about restricting is not meant to be interpreted for longer fasts.

When you break your long term fast you just eat normally. He recommends priming your system with a small snack then wait 30-60 minutes before you dive into a full meal.