Hey everyone I was wondering if you had any advice for me. I’ve been fasting for a while now and have been having great success, I’ve lost 38 pounds and feel better than I ever have before. I recently shifted over to OMAD with Keto. and recently completed a 48 hour fast. I wanted to do another 48 hour fast after the holidays as I’ve had a couple cheat days and want to get serious again. However my wife and other immediate family don’t support what I am doing at all. No matter how I explain how great fasting makes me feel, how I have energy and I feel good. I’m constantly told what I am doing is unhealthy and not ok. I try to ignore it but whenever I am with everyone and I am not eating like they do they give me crap. Any advice, I can ignore my family but my wife i respect and want her to understand but she doesn’t seem to support me.
I may get downvoted, but maybe consider sticking with a plan that doesn’t involve multiple day fasts?
That’s what I personally would do. I get to fast 16:8 or 20:4 or whatever, and my family doesn’t think I have an eating disorder. win:win!
I see your point of view, though OP. It is tough to get push back from those around you when you are trying to better yourself, especially family.
Does you’re wife need to lose weight too? Does seeing you lose weight leave her feeling bad about herself? It’s sometimes a low self esteem thing when people try to sabatoge other people’s efforts to get healthy.
Either that, or she really doesn’t know. Is there a show you can watch with her? Episode 3, Disney+, Limitless with Chris Hemsworth - they go into lots of detail about fasting.
I strongly recommend refraining from explaining why IF or extended fasts are beneficial. You’ll never convince them and you’ll exhaust yourself in the process. I hate that that’s how it is, but a lot of us do not tell people about fasting to avoid exactly this.
Regarding your wife, is it possible to have a calm, one-on-one convo with her outside of the holiday and extended family time? Maybe procure a few short informative YouTube videos? Ultimately, she doesn’t have to understand your approach or want to do it herself one day, but try to communicate how your approach works for you. Hopefully she can understand the latter.
When I started losing weight from IF, my family immediately noticed during our videocalls (we live in separate countries). They were happy for me until they found out that it was through fasting. They told me that it’s OK for short-term weight loss, but it would be bad for my health in the long-term.
Obviously, they don’t understand how fasting really works. So I tried to explain, but they still insisted they were right. I just gave up and let them think what they want. I’m the healthiest in my family, and that’s already an achievement.
All this to say, people outside this lifestyle rarely understand it. It’s something we just have to accept. You can try to teach them, but older generations may already have a rigid mindset about these things and will not accept any other explanations. Just ignore and keep on doing what you’re doing.
As to your wife, you said she’s pregnant. There’s many hormones and whatnot going crazy inside her - perfectly normal when making a new human. Maybe she’s just having a difficult time adjusting to gaining weight while her husband is losing them. Or maybe she hoped that you can join in on her cravings at random times so she would have someone to share food with but it usually falls on your fasting period. I don’t know - I’ve never been pregnant, but I’ve seen friends become so weird while they were growing humans inside them.
Be patient with her, and as one commenter said, help her find something that’ll make her feel as good as you feel doing IF. Understand that often, it’s the hormones that are making her say or do things she normally wouldn’t say/do. I’ve heard date nights and massages are good for pregnant people. :)