[removed]
Dealing with food waste, though, can be tough. Unless you carefully plan ahead for that 3 or 5 or 7 day fast, you’re likely to have fresh foods in the fridge that go bad.
You also have to figure that if you’re not doing it for weight loss, or if you eventually gain the weight back, over the long run you’ll have saved zero.
What I appreciate more is the time gained when fasting. No cooking, no meal clean up, no dishes to do. For me, that’s a solid 1 to 2 hours per day.
I totally understand the poverty mindset and even though I’ve never been in poverty I grew up in a family that spent as little on food as possible. I’m considering doing 18:6 this week and next because we have free snacks and lunches at work. Even if I’m only saving like $10 a day or something that adds up.
I remember when I was at my lowest point, I’d buy drive thru fast food dinners every night after work and that’d leave a big hole in my wallet. I also don’t buy coffee either cos I only drink black so it’s not worth it without the milk. Snack foods (chocolate, chips, etc.) are usually the more expensive ones and I don’t buy those either so all in all, I save about $30 a day while fasting which is A LOT.
Definitely saving money! I’m ADFing so I’m only eating half the year! It’s brilliant! I can batch cook and have meals for the fortnight instead of just the week! Definitely have cut my food bill in half for sure!
I find I spend more money as fasting has made me more aware of what I’m putting in my body. I make more of an effort to buy organic and I add things like broccoli sprouts which are spendy where I am. I’ve almost completely cut out any convenience foods which tend to be cheaper. I feel that now I’m eating during a shorter window it’s more important to make every calorie count in terms of nutrients.
That said I wasn’t overweight before I started fasting so my calories haven’t changed. I also don’t drink coffee, alcohol or soda which is where I imagine many will see a big savings.
You save as much as the cost of food, the water to cook it in, and the heat of the oven.
edit–That’s assuming you mostly cook your own food, which is what I do. You save massively more if fasting influences you to not go out and buy.
I just jumped back on the fasting train, but for me it was about 25% savings. A lot of the time I would spend that money on a nice meal out though instead.
We’ll see what it’s like this time, but I assume it will be similar.
I do OMAD… so saving 2 meals and snacks during the day. When on a fast (5-14 days), that will be 3 meals savings a day only for me. I have no problem maintaining OMAD and the carnivore way of life after a fast. I did not jet do the savings calculation, but I am sure it is not less than 1000 USD a month of savings, by IF and carnivore…
Doing ADF currently so I guess I must be saving a fair bit on food. I mostly eat/cook with fresh food that goes bad fairly quickly, though (like spinach, cherry tomatoes, etc), so I struggle to eat it all before it actually expires :/