I have been reading the wiki, and I am still unsure what is necessary for a fast. If you don’t mind, can you post your fasting “routine”? Meaning, when are you taking suppliments, how long are you fasting, etc?
I would like to do extended fasts, but initially it seems a little overwhelming. thank you!!
I personally do intermittent fasting so that might be a good move for you while you work up to extended ones, too. I started with 16:8 but now do 18:6 or 19:5. I would happily do OMAD if I had a gallbladder!
So far, I’ve only done one 24+ hour fast. It was for 40 hours and I didn’t do anything special. But I did make sure to stay very hydrated!
I started with 16:8, quickly moved to OMAD (one meal a day), and now have just started a 5:2 (fast 5 days, eat on the weekends). Last week was my first week, and I had zero issues. I just made sure that I started taking electrolytes on Day 3, 4, and 5, and then my transition to food was seamless.
I typically fast Su M W F and eat one meal in between. Don’t have to fuss with supplements that way. I have been doing this for just over a month and have lost 20 pounds. I was feeling really good today, so I decided to push today’s meal til tomorrow.
IF! I’ve settled into 18:6, sometimes 16:8. I do omad with a evening snack, sometimes. I try not to make it too complicated for myself. This is a permanent change for me so it’s really just how I live now!
It’s definitely working, because I’ve already crushed my goal for the year (31 lbs. lost as of today) and am working on next year’s goal now. :)
I take my supplements when I break my fast each day.
I don’t usually have breakfast anyway so by default it’s 16:8 most days. But I don’t much mind if I eat earlier on some days.
In general I just do what I feel like. I do a couple of weeks of adf, or rather m w f, but I found I can’t sustain it longer than that at a time. I’ll have 36-60 h fasts when I feel like it. For those I don’t take regular supplements but will take some when I think of it. Then I’ll do 7 day fasts about twice a year. I don’t more often because I empty my colon with glaubers salt for them and you’re not supposed to use that more often. For the long fasts I try to eat low carb in the week before and I am supplementing with hydration tabs to get to about 100-150% of daily recommended amount. I do have tabletts but I feel I deal better with liquids on an empty stomach. Coincidentally I’m on the first day after a 7 day fast right now and this time I added a multivitamin drink per day. I don’t really think it’s essential for 7 days (but would for sure add it with longer fasts) but it adds another flavoured drink to my day. For breaking the longer fasts I eat an apple very slowly and hours afterwards or the next day will have some potatoes or potatoe carrot soup. When that is going well I’ll have it for a couple of days adding cottage cheese (or yoghurt) with banana or plain. I’m not eating a lot of meat in the first place so I feel that would be too heavy for me after a fast. But I hear a lot of people add meat early on. Then I basically add whatever veggies and protein I feel like. Also fermented foods like Sauerkraut or Kimchi are great to help you gut flora. Especially after a longer fast my body is pretty good at telling me what’s OK. Since I also use the fasts as a reset I try to avoid heavily processed and sugary food.
Those are the technicalities. But I find it helpful to know what to expect, so here goes. You might expect a slump around day 3 or 4. For me this means feeling very low energy, cold, shaky, overall sick. It helps to drink some electrolytes and force yourself to move a bit and should pass within a few hours to a day. I try to walk 10-20000 steps a day and notice that, like everything else, I can keep going for a long time but will be much slower than usual. I also get out of breath easily. I do get muscle aches if I don’t keep up with electrolytes. Hunger isn’t so much an issue but you’ll feel like you have so much more time not thinking about, preparing, and eating food. Plus not tasting anything is kinda boring. Hence me using flavoured hydration tabs and multivitamin.
I do a 48 hr starting Sunday evenings, have a meal on Tuesday evening, and then roll right into a 68-70hr fast through to Friday evening. The weekends are more social so this lets me navigate more flexibly and is working well for me. Have lost 16lb since mid-June.
41F SW170 CW154 GW135
OMAD every day for the last 5-6 years, but I’ve started doing 48h fasts once a week for autophagy, not weight loss.
I have inadvertently done 72h fasts but they are incredibly difficult to do if you ARE NOT severely depressed and in crisis (joke but true for me) … I second what others are saying… it is much easier if you’re already consuming very little carbs. Result for me was weight loss I didn’t need, but what I really would like to know is the autophagy effects on the body, which apparently is impossible to find out outside of a lab…
What is “extended” for you? For me it’s 72h, but for others it’s 5+ days…
I’m not an expert obviously, but I think it is relative also. If you normally eat 3 meals every day, you’ll likely get similar fasting effects if you fast for 24 as someone who eats 1 meal a day and fasts for 48… Can someone commit on this?
I started doing 36hour fasts with one or two eating windows in between at the first of August for autophagy and weight loss purposes.
I usually start in the evening after my last meal of the day, fast the whole next day and then break the fast after the second night around lunchtime or later, depending on how i feel. I then roll imto another fast that evening or have another normal eating day before starting another. On eating days i try to eat at or below maintenance, never over.
When Im fasting I start the day with black coffee and stevia. I do not take any supplements. I start using electrolytes right away and keep sipping them the entire way through. I may have another black coffee in the afternoon. I use home made snake juice. At night I may have some bouillion if I feel like I am going to break. (Home made clear broth with himalayan pink salt).
I take any supplements during my eating windows. Im very sensitive to the electrolytes so i find i need them right away and if I dont get a good enough dose I start getting headachy and weak.
I go to Uni on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s. I’ve been doing 86 hour fasts so I show up to Uni leaner. I start my fast at 11:30 PM Saturday and I end my fast at 1:30 PM Wednesday when i get home from Uni.