My goal is to lose 10-12 pounds of fat, and I’m considering achieving this by doing as many 3 day water fasts followed by 3 days of regular eating (at maintenance or just below) until I reach this goal. However I finished my first 3 day fast and did manage to lose a few pounds, which I immediately gained back the very next day which makes me think I didn’t lose any fat, just water weight. Is it possible to achieve fat loss after a 3 day water fast or does fat loss only occur during longer fasts? If I’m not losing any fat, I feel like I’d be better off just losing weight by staying in a calorie deficit and walking every day. IF both methods would work, which would get me to my goal faster? My sole goal is to lose 10-12 pounds of fat. I’m a 29F. Thanks for your insight!
It generally takes a well fed person 72 hours to reach a state of ketosis. If you break your fast just when your body begins burning fat you basically have to start over. If you want to lose 10lbs then plan on fasting at least 15 days. You lose about 1 lb per day while on an extended water fast. After refeeding one will immediately regain about 3 to 5 lbs of water weight. I usually factor this in when planning an extended water fast. For example I need to drop 10 lbs so that’s 10 days plus 3 days to reach ketosis and another 2 days to offset the refeeding for a total of 15. Everyone is a little different when it comes to their specific and unique biology however so you might need to experiment. You will reach your goal weight faster doing extended water fasts compared to alternate day fasting or OMAD. Also consider adding daily light exercise such as walking to aid the process of flushing your lymphatic system. Obese people often retain excess fluids and lose this first.
Depending on your body composition and muscles, a healthy person might contain 5-15 lbs Glycogen + Water.
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This is why LowCarb/Keto/Carnivore diets work better with fasting.
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Glycogen + Water need Carb. One’s body demands building Glycogen back(priority one) and force you to eat more(grow weight) in all carb diets.
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I am not saying other diets are bad, it just makes you work harder to lose weight.
If I’m not mistaken, you can’t look at 3 days fast as an isolated process from everything else. If you’ve been stuffinh yourself with junk food for the last 5 years every single day and overeating, the results of 3 days fast might be different than you alternate day fasting and intermittent fasting with eating healthy foods for you.
Fasting for 3 days will have a different outcome for you depending on what’s your current progression.
36 to 42 hour rolling fastswill be more effective weight loss will be proportionate to persistent lowering level of insulin.
Rolling fasts help with long term insulin levels in the blood. Also0p avoid binge eating. And schedule eating according to natural circadian rhythm.
Depends on your maintenance calories. It takes a 3500 deficit to burn 1 pound of fat. Considering your maintenance level lowers when fasting and people are generally lazier those days, I’d say 0.5-0.75 pounds of fat burned per day is to be expected.
I’d read Jason Fung for details, but the basic principle involved here is extremely simple: your body burns calories for fuel, and it needs to take those calories out of either your food or your body’s calorie reserves, which mostly consist of fat.
There are about 3,500 calories in a pound of fat and there are plenty of online calculators that will give you a rough idea of how many calories per day your body burns. Fasting for 3 days will most likely cause you to lose 2-3 pounds of fat.