How does ADF(Alternate Day Fasting) work?

So I usually really like OMAD, i don’t have to force myself to do it I’m just naturally almost never hungry in the morning or afternoon so I like eating one big meal during the evening. As of recently though my hunger has been intense. I would do OMAD and eat anywhere between 1200 to 1600 calories. I kind of want to eat more without feeling of guilt so I read a lot about doing ADF. With doing ADF i read you can “eat whatever you want” obviously i wouldn’t do that, but with ADF would I be able to increase my calories significantly? Like fast for a whole day and then on eating days eat around 2500 calories? I’m 6’1 193 pound guy for reference. I consider myself lightly active as I have a desk job currently but walk at least 10k steps 5-6 days a week just so I’m not lazy.

Answer

You absolutely would be able to increase if you’re eating every other day. I get into periods where I feel like I’m ravenously hungry but as long as I’m in some feeding window I still eat until I’m satisfied, whether it’s 1,200 or 2,000+ calories. I try to make sure that I eat a lot of fat to try and trigger the satiety signals as fast as I can though, but I still eat carbs. I have cut down a lot on things like crackers, chips, bread, cookies, and other sweets, but I still eat them.

I quit counting calories about a week after I first started fasting and just concentrated on what I eat and my hunger signals. I do record my weight daily to see my overall progress. It’s seemed to work well for me. I think you ‘punish’ yourself enough when fasting that you shouldn’t also do that when you’re not fasting.

Answer

This is basically what I do. I alternate between 24, 36, 48 and 72 hour fasts depending on how much I eat and how long the eating window is. I try to eat guilt free whatever I want with a very short eating window (30 minutes to an hour). I lost 23 lbs in the first 3 weeks.

Answer

I just got back into ADF after baby and I made the transition by first eating >500 calories on “fast” days, now I’m allowing myself >200 calories of dairy in my tea and coffee but nothing else, next step will be true ADF. If I was a purist I’d get frustrated and feel defeated, I’m only doing ADF for caloric restriction so I don’t care about insulin levels, ketosis, etc.

Even doing it “wrong” I’m still losing ~1-1.5lbs/week with almost no exercise and I eat whatever I want (within reason) without counting calories on feast days.