I’m just wondering how some of you manage to deal with intense hunger pains, especially when you’re first starting out. What helps you the most? I drink tons of water, try to portion my meals smaller, but it feels like torture if I go more than a few hours without food.
Is it at night, after dinner, while you’re watching TV? Like then?
Because it so, you should have a list of what specifically you had for dinner and remind yourself by listing it off that you can’t possibly need nourishment so soon again.
If it’s in the morning, lean hard on black coffee. Be as busy as you can and exercise if you can. And get away from food.
If it wakes you up from a sound sleep and you’re laying there in misery, you gotta drown it in water.
And also, this one works…brush your teeth an extra time. Nothing is more antithetical to eating than teeth brushing. It will help you create distance from the desire.
I had a hard time with the hunger pains too, the first month of IF I would try to eat something small and much healthier. For example, a handful of carrots and then wait a half hour to see if I was still really hungry. Whereas before, I would grab a giant bag of chips and eat excessively.
After 2.5 months, I don’t have the hunger pains anymore. So I had to slowly adjust to IF and readjust my food choices.
Drink more water or hot tea when you’re hungry, eat more when you’re in your eating window - being hungry is one thing, but “intense hunger pains” probably means you might just not be eating enough. No more than a few hours without food giving you those? Maybe too much sugar? If you’re just starting out, give it a week or two.
Also, get busy when it happens.
I worked my way up to my fasting times. I started out by cutting off any food after 6pm. Then 5 pm. Now 4:30 pm. I also held out as long as possible in the morning. First 9 am, then moved it in half hour increments. I’m now eat at 11:30 most days but have been able to extend that to as late as 2pm. I’m going to attempt my first 24 hour fast this weekend.
Definitely resonate what everyone has said. Some of my tips:
-Lean on black coffee and caffeinated tea during the early day and decaf/herbal teas later in the day.
-During fasting, its important to maintain your electrolyte levels, since you arent eating and likely drinking plenty of water, your body loses electrolytes– especially during longer fasts. So in addition to helping you curb hunger broth,pickle juice or olive juice will address this Here is some more info on that. Broth is my true savior as it feels like I am eating but it is essentially 0-10 calories so it doesn’t technically break your fast.
-Keep yourself busy and if possible away from your kitchen or food.
-When you do break fast, yes you can eat carbs, but try to make those complex carbs, avoiding refined carbs/sugars because that will boost up your insuline and will trigger hunger within a couple of hours.
-Learn about insuline and how it drives weight loss and gain, and is why fasting works so much better than other diets alone. I would highly recommend reading/listening to Life in the Fasting Lane or The Obesity Code. These books explains the science on why fasting works, how insuline triggers hunger and affects weight gain/loss, how to use it in your favor, and tips and tricks around fasting, including on how to deal with the social aspects of fasting. Example, you feel like you can’;t go out to dinner anymore with friends or enjoy Thanksgiving, but no, instead plan ahead and do a longer fast before, then go and enjoy yourself!
-Avoid aritifial sweeteners, these also spike your insuline and will make you hungry.