I regret not taking pictures of myself before I began fasting. Even though the scale indicates that I’ve lost a lot of weight, I think I still look the same way I did 3 months ago. My belt is a little bit loose now and my tummy no longer bulges when I wear my shirts so there is definitely some change, but a side-by-side photo would’ve made a world of difference. I would’ve like to see the difference between myself from 3 months ago and today but it’s too late for that. This time, I’m going to take a picture every week regardless if I’ve fasted or not so I can see my progress. There will be ups and downs but all of that’s part of the journey.
I don’t really have a routine, but I’d try to explain what I did in the comments.
The photo and video below are from the EufyLife android app which is a companion app for the smart scale that I’ve been using. I was broke as fuck and couldn’t really afford batteries so the weight check-in stopped.
October 15 SW: 201.7lbsJanuary 15 CW: 170.4lbs————— GW: 130-140lbs
Video wasn’t saved so I posted it in imgur instead: https://imgur.com/a/v01n54p
More info in the comments (might not be for everyone to read).
I’ve been going through a lot IRL recently which led me to being broke. I had to ask for loans from my friends to even have the money to eat and to pay my rent and bills.
I was already aware of fasting some years ago due to a random recommendation from YouTube(original vid deleted but that vid explains it) so I took this hiccup in my life as a challenge and tried to make it into something beneficial in the long run. Some of the electrolytes that are usually recommended in this sub are either hard to find or too expensive for me so my only supplement when I was fasting was this (less than 1USD).
I didn’t have a strict routine. Sometimes I eat once every (these numbers are approximations, but my eating window is consistent at about 5:00 am to 6:00 am)24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, up to 96 hours but no more than that. I was really cautious about refeeding because I couldn’t afford treatment if I were to be hospitalized.
How do I decide when I’d eat? If I’m feeling hungry the previous night, I’d sleep it off but If I’m still feeling hungry when I wake up, I’d eat; otherwise, I’d continue fasting. As for the electrolytes, I didn’t really have a regimen for it. What really got me taking in the salt was the god-awful taste in my mouth. No matter how much I brush my teeth and wash my mouth, it always comes back. The salt helps with that so sometimes I’d dip my finger into the salt and just lick it slowly to temporarily get rid of the taste in my mouth.
As for the refeed, I usually only eat rice. Plain rice without anything because it’s cheap. I can buy 1 cup of cooked rice for about 10PHP which is less than 0.2USD. When I’m really feeling hungry, usually when I fast for 3-4days, I’d buy 2 servings of rice and a half serving of viand which costs me about 1USD. I know that keto would’ve been far better, but this is the best of what I could make out of my situation.
It was definitely hard at the start, but I got used to it. My experience made me re-evaluate my relationship with food. Oftentimes when I eat, I’m not really hungry; I’m just bored. I’ve gotten money recently, so I was able to eat what I wanted, and it was really worth it; however, I didn’t want to derail off of my weight loss journey so some of the money that would’ve been spent on food was instead used in buying batteries for my weighing scale. That decision was the best one I’ve made this year because seeing my progress, although only in numbers, made me happier than any food ever will.
I’m still struggling financially but fasting has made it a lot easier and more bearable. I will be resuming my fasting journey today by taking a photo of myself as a reference. Thank you for reading all the way through. I’m usually a lurker but I really wanted to share this with the community. Thank you r/fasting
