Intermittent and longer fasting
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@Kirwan Yes, it’s a clear and simple eating pattern. I was fortunate the effectiveness of doing it was proven before I was even labelling what I was doing ! That sidestepped the emotional
snags and has made it fairly easy. I still shake my head about it from time to time. -
Second day into this planned 5 day water fast or as my app tells me, 39 hours done, 81 to go!
As planned I started at 5 pm Sunday afternoon Sydney time.
Doing really well, not feeling hungry now at all. Yes, for the 8 hours when you wake up that first morning, you are naturally hungry. But after that, I haven't felt hungry at all including waking up this morning.
Ketosis should be setting in now well and truly and autophagy should be kicking in now.
Obviously, these are the two biggest benefits of a water-fast for both weight loss and over all health benefits.
I strongly recommend to anyone to do some research about autophagy and the benefits it has on the human body.
Prep wasn't as good as I hoped, on Friday afternoon, the wife who had had a pretty shitty week and day says, let's have a drink tonight. Well those are the magic words so as soon as I got home, I had a gin whilst getting the ingredients to make margaritas and putting together some finger food.
Wife got home and it was margaritas and then a bottle of wine with some light finger food. Saturday was better making a concerted effort to lower carb intake and better quality protein and lots of veggies.
Sunday went a bit array when the wife announced she wanted to make home made pizzas. Can't turn those down so that was lunch. Dinner was at 4 pm and was again, focusing on good quality protein, in this case salmon for the protein and fatty acids.
I actually stopped eating at 4 pm but calling it a 5 pm start.
About to have the only non-water drink I will allow myself, a morning coffee and this time I'll put in a pinch of salt.
Still tossing up as to whether or not I need to supplement some minerals, more salt as well as potassium and magnesium which tend to be the ones most often recommended.
Anyone got any thoughts on this?
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For the longer ones, I've seen people say they have better results keeping their electrolytes up, in terms of health. So the mineral approach is a good idea.
You must have a large amount of willpower, I tried out a longer one over the weekend and got to 44 hours (I had crossfit so can't do that fasted). I can see a 72 hour one as doable, but I was really ready to end at 44. Only hungry during my normal feeding window, rest of the time was fine, just have to keep busy.
Still, I'll give it another spin this weekend and see how part two works.
Five days is impressive!
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I have been doing similar to @beardie
I have dinner, may have a peice of fruit or snack a bit later, but wont eat anything again until >12pm, so going 14+hours, although I do have 2 coffees between 7.30am and 10.30am...so a little cheating.
Some days I am hanging out, but think it is more mental than anything.
I'm not trying to lose more than a couple of KGs, which I have done, so now is more about managing my weight.
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@taniwharugby said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
I have been doing similar to @beardie
I have dinner, may have a peice of fruit or snack a bit later, but wont eat anything again until >12pm, so going 14+hours, although I do have 2 coffees between 7.30am and 10.30am...so a little cheating.
Some days I am hanging out, but think it is more mental than anything.
I'm not trying to lose more than a couple of KGs, which I have done, so now is more about managing my weight.
Black coffee with no milk and sugar is fine, doesn't break the fast. I'm still at one coffee, but I'm new to it so still get a good pick me up from it.
It really is easy to do 16-18 hours fasting, and I find I have way more energy doing that, as you say it's not much of a change to the schedule.
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@Kirwan said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
@taniwharugby said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
I have been doing similar to @beardie
I have dinner, may have a peice of fruit or snack a bit later, but wont eat anything again until >12pm, so going 14+hours, although I do have 2 coffees between 7.30am and 10.30am...so a little cheating.
Some days I am hanging out, but think it is more mental than anything.
I'm not trying to lose more than a couple of KGs, which I have done, so now is more about managing my weight.
Black coffee with no milk and sugar is fine, doesn't break the fast. I'm still at one coffee, but I'm new to it so still get a good pick me up from it.
It really is easy to do 16-18 hours fasting, and I find I have way more energy doing that, as you say it's not much of a change to the schedule.
And if I can add to what @Kirwan has said because absolutely, black coffee doesn't break a fast.
@taniwharugby I would suggest not having that snack, or if you do want to snack, make it a paleo or keto snack, that is, protein without carbs.
This will keep you in an insulin sensitive state which means your insulin levels don't rise. But as soon as you add carbs, then your body starts pumping out insulin. This is best to be avoided until a larger or main meal as increased insulin levels will make you hungrier.
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@taniwharugby said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
@Kirwan I still have milk but no sugar in my coffee...
Then technically, that will break your fast @taniwharugby
If you want to sustain a fast or keep the benefits going, remove the milk. What you can do to keep the benefits going, i.e. insulin sensitivity, is to add some butter to your coffee. You can also add salt which is what I do during this water only fast without the butter of course.
Adding butter sounds crazy but it will keep you in a ketosis state and your insulin levels under control.
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So more than 48.5 hours into this 5 day fast and I have to say the benefits of fasting have really kicked in now.
Energy levels are up as is the concentration and clarity of thought.
My body must now be consuming ketones which is leads to more energy overall as there is more energy per gram of ketone compared to carbohydrates.
Walked home from work, Chatswood to North Sydney, taking the back roads it was a good 6.5 kms. Did it in 1:02 averaging 6.1 km/hr. First time exercising whilst in a prolonged fast and I feel great.
Heaps of energy right now and feel like I could have walked another 4 or 5 kms comfortably.
I will add some extra salt to my water which I will drink over the rest of this afternoon and early evening as well as aiming for 4.5 litres of water for today when I normally aim for 4 litires.
@Kirwan I do need to get those supplements (potassium and magnesium) which I will do tomorrow as I think they will help, especially as I plan to keep exercising during the fast.
Otherwise, 2 down, 3 to go... Bring it on!
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I'm following this thread with interest, not so much l because i want to try it out, but more because I tend to take the exact opposite approach.
For example, I'm back in Palmy for 2 days and 2 nights right now. I just had dinner, I'm already a bottle of red deep with another opened, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow hung over and run 10kms.
I feel like your methods are probably (ok definitely) better and more rooted in science, but I'm determined to cling to mine for a little while yet!
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@voodoo said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
I'm following this thread with interest, not so much l because i want to try it out, but more because I tend to take the exact opposite approach.
For example, I'm back in Palmy for 2 days and 2 nights right now. I just had dinner, I'm already a bottle of red deep with another opened, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow hung over and run 10kms.
I feel like your methods are probably (ok definitely) better and more rooted in science, but I'm determined to cling to mine for a little while yet!
10km isn't far enough out of Palmy
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@mariner4life Fuck you and your Palmy bashing. 32 degrees today here and the wind was only a force 4 tornado equivalent. I parked at the hospital on 4 different occasions today, for some 5 hours cumulative, and it only cost a total of about $8.
Magic
Fuck it is depressing though.
On the plus side, I have learned that there is cricket on tomorrow from 3pm local time, so have loaded up on booze and plan on settling in, post run, for a quality 8 hour session of quality liquor and immense disappointment.
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I know I am cheating, but hey, 6 weeks ago I was also having 5 coffees before 12, so down to 2 and cutting out the snacks from 10am-12pm as well, not sold on black coffeee yet...WIP.
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@voodoo said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
I'm following this thread with interest, not so much l because i want to try it out, but more because I tend to take the exact opposite approach.
For example, I'm back in Palmy for 2 days and 2 nights right now. I just had dinner, I'm already a bottle of red deep with another opened, and I'm going to wake up tomorrow hung over and run 10kms.
I feel like your methods are probably (ok definitely) better and more rooted in science, but I'm determined to cling to mine for a little while yet!
Haha, nothing wrong with that approach at all @voodoo
It's whatever works for you and your current health and other circumstances.
Your approach is something I used to do for years, didn't watch what I ate or drank but kept up the exercise and that kept my weight and overall health in check.
But, the past two years of health issues really limited my ability to exercise when I wanted/needed really meant I had to find a new way to both control my weight and improve my health.
And for me, both intermittent and prolonged fasting are doing exactly that for me.
And my overall goal is to get healthy again, to get fitter to the point where I can go back to eating and drinking and most importantly exercising and playing sport.
But I think the biggest and key takeaway for me is that IF and even PF is something I will continue as long as I can as I think it is a really healthy way to live.
Just think, using IF or what can be better called time limited eating, means that you can eat a "normal" amount of calories and food types, just within a certain window, whether that window is a 4 or 6 or 8 or even 12 hour window.
BTW, now day three and 63 hours into this fast, so over half way through with only 57 hours to go, and I am feeling bloody awesome. Woke up this morning after a decent nights sleep and I feel like I'm ready to take on the world!
Full of energy and honestly, I can't explain just how you get this clarity of thought and what it feels like but wow, you read about it and watch the YouTube videos and they talk about it but until you experience it for yourself... all I can say is it is quite literally mind-blowing!
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@scribe said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
Haven’t read the whole thread but an old pro cycling trick is to drink sparkling rather than still water as it helps curb hunger pangs.
Yeah, I had read similar from various fasting sites and there was frequent recommendations to drink a good quality mineral water which, unsurprisingly, contain minerals. And those minerals include potassium and magnesium, both highly recommended during fasting.
So I did a quick check and found that it just so happens that San Pellegrino mineral water is on sale at Woolies, down to $1.60 a litre bottle so I just went and purchased 4 litres.
Also went to the local chemist and picked up some multi vitamins that have all that I need plus no calories so it won't interfere with the fast.
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@voodoo said in Intermittent and longer fasting:
@RoninWC Very impressive mate. "Only" 57 hours to go, yikes!
Haha, thanks @voodoo
I should now say, only 52 hrs 30 mins left. 67:30 elapsed!
However, just found out that there is a bit of a fly in the ointment with my plans.
A good mate, the captain of my GO's rugby team, is taking the plunge a second time and getting married at the end of Feb. He wanted it all to be very low key but some of the guys from the footy team have insisted we go out for drinks which is from 4 pm this Saturday.
The tough thing is, it is highly recommended that after such a prolonged fast, I should take the first 2 to 3 days really easy in terms of food and especially alcohol.
So the drinks start less than 24 hours after I first break my fast and I don't want to miss this and I don't trust myself to not drink.
So, do I stick to the 120 plan and risk it, or do I break the fast earlier, say 7 or 8 am on Friday morning or even 5 pm on Thursday afternoon to give myself more time for my system to get back to normal.
Bloody hell, I really wanted to complete this 5 day fast but I also really want to celebrate with my good mate.
Decisions, decisions!