I’ve been on and off IF for a while now but I’ve always found it easier to just fast for 72 hours, have one large meal (I mean really LARGE where I’d eat anything under the sun) then go back on a 72 hour fast.
I haven’t done it long enough to know if it’s valuable long term but I’m willing to give it a try because it’s just super easy and convenient (only cool once every 3 days? How fabulous!)
Usually I do Omad but that leaves me with extreme hanger pains sometimes and makes sleep kinda hard because I keep fantasizing about food I wish I could eat instead of just falling asleep and when I finally do I wake up too early.
I have none of those problems with a 72 hour fast window, hunger pains are less frequent and significantly less extreme, most of the time I forget about food entirely and get the feeling I can go on like this longer than 72 hrs….I can also fall asleep like a baby.
Obviously (or I think) a fast for such long a period is extreme and can backfire, it could cause unwanted health issues without even guaranteed weight loss (damaging your metabolism, or perhaps losing too much weight too fast etc)
And the way I break this fast might be a problem of it’s own, after 72 without food everything starts to look edible, so I would literally eat anything without my usual food discrimination….including unhealthy foods.
So yeah I know it’s not great but I wanna know how bad is it? Is it worth giving a try? Because finding a diet you can commit to is the key and find it really doable (more than others for me)
I don’t think you’re supposed to do 24+ hr fasts more than once a month, but when you do you could go anywhere from 24-72hrs. I know fasting for longer can have additional health benefits, but I’d be cautious of going on week long fasts every month for a year. So maybe once every six months, and limit the other monthly long ones to 72hrs. In the mean time you could fast 20:4 some days and then 18:6 on others when you need a break. Even 14:10 counts towards weight loss and would grant you a significant break.
When you say you lose your normal food discrimination and could eat any + everything, that’s considered binging. You’re more inclined to eat past fullness, and with it being followed by 72hrs fasts, I’d be wary of crossing into disordered eating territory. Speaking from personal experiences only, so I’m just seeing parallels that may or may not be true for you.
However, I would recommend sticking to that time frame + mix with whatever else advice you receive! :)
Food is just energy and fuel. If you are going for weight loss that that would be super effective. For a long term plan you would need to eat at maintenance calories in your feast. So depending on your maintenance calories, it could be completely fine, or not healthy.
For me the feast would be about 6600+ calories. I don’t think I could do it.