Too high expectations. Desire for Instant results. Fasting takes time. One thing I struggled with early on was the referring pizza binge. You fast for a day, eat 3000 calories and undo the work you did. Set reasonable goals. Just take it day by day.
I feel like culturally- for a lot of us- the experience of actual hunger is one we’re taught to avoid. So it’s unfamiliar, uncomfortable, and scary. It hurts and the hurt “means” that it’s bad for us.
I guess I’m suggesting that psychological factors are causing failure more than physical ones.
Will power mainly, the first bit of fasting is more of a spiritual test than anything. Just getting back in the drivers seat of your urges and amazing, and once beginners break that wall, they will be amazed with what else they can accomplish (running, working out, anger management, urges to utilize a vice like drugs and alcohol, etc)
I had to white knuckle omad for two weeks, then it became seamless & nautral for me. I’ve been doing omad for 2.5 years now. I do not think most people can push past the initial discomfort for days or weeks.
There’s a lot of reasons but one we don’t talk enough about is because fasting doesn’t address the root issues with over-eating that some or even many people who try getting into fasting have.
For some its linked to depression or trauma or anxiety or other issues. Its difficult to willpower through that compared to someone who is more mentally healthy. Others have ED’s and don’t realize it and that can make fasting difficult or impossible.
This is also why so many bounced back very quickly when they stop fasting. I don’t mean refeeds but they’ll give up on long fasts or move towards an easy IF regimen and find themselves gaining weight fast.
We all know that snacking foods are designed to be addictive but most processed foods are. Even “plain bread” from the store has sugar in it. A lot of these ingredients are addictive. Fasting literature doesn’t often teach you how to eat ‘clean’ and to get on a diet that’s less addictive to make fasting periods easier. A lot of people sidestep this with keto, which is fine, but not everyone can or wants to do keto.
I think a lot of people see fasting as a quick and easy fix-all could probably benefit from therapy or getting their ED treated first. I would also recommend starting a meditation practice before trying to fast. This is a sensible way to learn how to push back against your body’s signals, build some extra willpower, and to see these signals as separate from you. This applies to hunger eventually as meditation can help you see hunger as temporary and passing, like your arising thoughts in meditation. I think a lot of us find that if we ignore hunger signals for 20-40 minutes they tend to go away. That’s a super critical skill to learn and just hard to master.
I also think there’s a toxic macho aspect to fasting culture, and you can see it in some of these comments, about having “go big, or go home” mentalities and instantly moving to 7+ days fasts from a sedentary processed food-based snacking lifestyle. My advice is to move to 12-12 then 14-10 or 16-8 for a while, then 18-6, then 20-4, then OMAD. Then move to a 2 or 3 day fast. Baby steps are rarely encouraged in fasting culture and I find that problematic. Forums like these will applaud long fasts and tend to ignore the beginner doing 18-6, which is an impressive feat also.
For women fasting can interfere with our hormones and cycles and we have to quit fasts more frequently than men because of it, or can’t do long term IF like men can do.
Lastly, its an extreme thing. Its not easy. There’s nothing wrong with failing fasting a lot before you get it right. There’s nothing wrong with only being able to do OMAD and nothing more. Or 18-6. There’s nothing wrong with taking big breaks from fasting. Or failing many times before you get the hang of it. Compassion helps. This is a hard thing and any success is impressive. I think its very easy to visit a forum like this and see all these long fasts and feel discouraged and quit.
For someone who’s never gone without sugar it’s literally your body craving carbs and sugar first of all after your first time fasting well I should say after your second or third time fasting it becomes way easy and it’s more less the time not even not eating that’s harder.
Trying a long fast first without working up to it which makes them feel so miserable they never try again. Start with intermittent fasting first. Once that is no big deal do a few different 24 hour fasts. Then try a three day. Etc. etc. Don’t try to run a marathon if you’ve never even jogged before.
Start by skipping breakfast for a week and eat just lunch and dinner with no snacks.
Then start lunch later in the day for another week or so.
Then get to the stage where you are so close to dinner then you may as well skip lunch.
Now you’re on one meal a day. Stay like that for a few weeks to a month at least.
Then start skipping your one dinner meal a day into the next morning for a while.
Like someone said. Ease into it.
I found that cutting carbs eased my hunger a lot. Carbs make me hungry.
I fast the entire day every Sunday. It works with my schedule. I can meal prep for a few hours and not put a single bite in my mouth. Every few months I’ll do a 3 day fast. I’ve only done a 12 day fast once and it was brutal and I’ll probably never do that again.
I fail because I get bored. If you can occupy yourself with other things, I find it’s easier.
I’m on day 2 of a 3 day fast and I’m sipping hot tea and reading a book I’ve been meaning to read for months.
I think we don’t realize how challenging extended fasts could be & so we don’t prepare well for them. Also we can get discouraged quite easily when our first time doesn’t work out comfortably for us!
I speak from experience when I say that the first time I dabbled into a 48hr fast, I had a difficult time and had to stop. When I read more fasting resources, I realized that it was because my electrolytes were low — which was probably because of the last meal I had. After that, I ordered good electrolyte mixes (I use LMNT) to have on hand just in case I needed some support. The next time I attempted an extended fast, I was actually able to do it without electrolytes until like the 45th hour or so. So preparing mentally (and also physically) before a more streneous fast helps a lot even if you don’t end up using the physical aids (e.g. electrolytes)!
Lack of motivation to start, which is ironic because it takes energy to break a fast, not continue one. For me, it’s boredom or force of habit why I eat. Figure out your triggers and avoid them to help yourself succeed.
Extended fasts and intermittent fasting require preparation. Learning about it, preparing yourself mentally (not the same) and physically preparing yourself. Beginning fasters learn by doing and by failing. That is how learning, experimental learning, works. They are not “failing.” They are learning the hard way.
How would you do it ideally? You read about it, the stages of it, electrolytes, etc… you’d pick a day to start with a short intermittent fast. Push back breakfast to brunch for a week. Then skip breakfast. And do 16/8 for a month. Then push it back to tea time, make it 20/4 for a month or 2. Then try OMAD or maybe jump into a 36 hour fast, then 48, them 72… all the while learning more by reading. Basically, make a plan to ease into it, to prepare yourself physically. That will help you not to have to learn the hard way.
You gotta enjoy the experience. It’s not just getting to the finish line that counts. All the time in between is quite enjoyable. Once you get your head wrapped around that, it’s easy. And by the way, there is no “failing”. I don’t know what you mean by that.
They are not already in ketosis.
They’re not prepared, mentally or physically.
They’re impatient and want fast results, so they aim to start with extended fasting when they haven’t even done IF.
They haven’t made sustainable lifestyle changes to encourage weight loss when that is their ultimate goal. It’s easy to gain weight back, even after extended fasts.
It is difficult to assert self control when it comes to food because food is engrained into your mind more than most things as something you have to have 3 to 5 times per day. I’ve always been a fan of (delay don’t deny), but more recently I hot a point in my life where I decided to go full keto and IF, and I have since found a ton of easy recipes for foods that I used to eat. For me it’s a mind game and I’ve always found difficulty in going without the tasty things. I would say you have to find your way of doing it that mentally makes you satisfied, I do 20 to 22 hours fast, and a couple hours eating, and I eat keto at that for probably 6 days out of the week. This method seems to work for me. There are a lot of good recipes out there that help you stay in ketosis even though you are eating, but if you can delay till it’s dinner time it should get easier, I’ve done it so long that my stomach never even really gets to feeling hungry anymore, I just start eating every day that I get off work. Hope that helps…