I recently did my first 5 day water fast. After breaking I was absolutely ravenous and in the 2 weeks that followed put all the weight back on plus a couple of pounds extra. Not too long ago I experimented after a 3 day fast by going straight into a keto diet by keeping net carbs below 15g and found I was able to maintain my caloric intake without gaining or losing additional weight. However I’m borderline vegan and do not like eating animal products so keto just isn’t a lifestyle I’m able to maintain.
My BMI is 23. I’m in the normal weight range already so maybe my body just wants to cling to those calories more tightly. I’m usually very disciplined as I’ve been tracking my calories daily for years and have been able to keep my weight steady. I eat only whole, natural, unprocessed foods (no sugar). But damn, after a 3+ day fast the hunger is absolutely uncontrolable. How do you avoid the weight rebounding effect after a multi-day fast? If you white-knuckle it through sheer willpower does the hunger go away after awhile?
There are ways to eat low carb without eating animal products. I personally have not. But years ago knew someone who did. I believe there are some cookbooks, etc that cover this.
Depending on your personal metabolism, carbs may induce cravings and hunger until you’ve consistently been fasting. But it doesn’t sound like weight loss is necessarily your goal? So you might not want to be consistently fasting.
Personally one of the best ways for me to reduce hunger is to eat very high fat meals for a day or 2. Like 80%+ fat. That could definitely be done without animal products. You could always eat low carb coming out of a fast and slowly transition to your regular eating.
I couldn’t figure it out, so I went on a rolling 48 fasting schedule and stretched it out from there. The ravenous feeling subsides with practice. I did 2 72s and a 48 last week, I’m on the tail end of the 72 and I don’t feel hungry at all.
My 2 cents is to try extending the fast. Day 5 is when the hunger disappears completely for me and I start feeling good. Then it’s more about just wanting to taste something.
Once you get to that point, you might be able to break your fast with a little more clarity and assume some discipline with your diet.
But none of this is easy. Simple, but not easy
What do you eat after a fast? When do you break your fast? I’m mostly vegetarian with lots of vegan days. I’ve just broke a 7 day fast yesterday. And I’ve never had that issue despite eating quite low fat in the first days. Usually I break my fasts in the evening with an apple eaten very slowly but this time I broke it around midday because of muscle aches and being out of breath. It took me 2 hours for the first half of my apple and I had the second after a walk. In the evening I had 3 smallish potatoes. Today I didn’t feel hungry at all and so far had 2 raw carrots and will have a potatoe carrot soup with smoked Tofu in the evening. I have lots of veggies and some fruit with cottage cheese in the first days and then add whatever I feel like. But it takes about 5 days for my hunger to return.So for myself I couldn’t do it but maybe have lots of fibre/volume and some fat. What are you craving exactly? Volume or flavor?