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Any intermittent fasters in the house?

Apple_Robert

Apple_Robert

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Sep 21, 2012
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In a van down by the river
I am curious as to how many intermittent fasters we have on the forum. If you are an intermittent faster, what got you into fasting, what kind of fasting do you practice, and how long have you been fasting (years)?

I have been doing it for the last 3 years to help my body even better at fat burning (for running purposes) as well as for better mental clarity.
 
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I do daily time-restricted fasting for an 16-hour window, typically 6 pm - 10 am. I haven't been doing it very long, but seem to be sleeping better, have no more heartburn, and generally feeling sharper. It wasn't a hard transition because I typically don't eat until 10 anyway although I have coffee before that. I'm also restricting some carbs, but if there's a day doing so makes me particularly cranky, I ease up.
 
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WildSky said:
I do daily time-restricted fasting for an 16-hour window, typically 6 pm - 10 am. I haven't been doing it very long, but seem to be sleeping better, have no more heartburn, and generally feeling sharper. It wasn't a hard transition because I typically don't eat until 10 anyway although I have coffee before that. I'm also restricting some carbs, but if there's a day doing so makes me particularly cranky, I ease up.
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Do you plan to work towards a longer fasting time for better cell regeneration and detox? Teaching the body not to be carb dependent is hard for a lot of people because they have trained their body that way for so many years.
 
Apple_Robert said:
Do you plan to work towards a longer fasting time for better cell regeneration and detox? Teaching the body not to be carb dependent is hard for a lot of people because they have trained their body that way for so many years.
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No, this fasting schedule feels just right and balanced to me, and don't feel deprived in any way. If I eat too little during the eating hours I can get light-headed, so not going to push it beyond what I'm doing.

I have no concerns about the whole detoxing thing because I feel when we take good care of ourselves, our bodily functions--our kidneys and livers--take care of all that. If detoxing seems important, one needs to ask what's being consumed that's so toxic. There's little medical evidence (from trusted sources like the Mayo Clinic) that toxins are eliminated after being on one of those diets, even if people feel a little different afterwards. I feel it's better to have a sustainable good long-term diet.

What type of intermittent fasting are you doing?
 
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i have in the past and it was awesome. once my kids start back to school (next week) i will start again. my kids are active teenagers so when they ask for lunch with me i usually agree for family interaction. once they get back to school i plan to get to one meal a day in conjunction with low carb.

i like the idea of longer fasts but with my kids and husband it isn’t practical right now since i am chief meal preparer.
 
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WildSky said:
No, this fasting schedule feels just right and balanced to me, and don't feel deprived in any way. If I eat too little during the eating hours I can get light-headed, so not going to push it beyond what I'm doing.

I have no concerns about the whole detoxing thing because I feel when we take good care of ourselves, our bodily functions--our kidneys and livers--take care of all that. If detoxing seems important, one needs to ask what's being consumed that's so toxic. There's little medical evidence (from trusted sources like the Mayo Clinic) that toxins are eliminated after being on one of those diets, even if people feel a little different afterwards. I feel it's better to have a sustainable good long-term diet.

What type of intermittent fasting are you doing?
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At the moment, I am doing a 4:3. I eat normal for 4 days (alternate) and fast for 3 days. My fast days are 24hrs. I am slowly increasing the fasting time towards 48hrs.

I don't sleep that well to begin with (for some reason) and the fasting can affect it more at times. The weird thing is I get up and most days I don't feel tired even though I didn't stay asleep for very long at any one time.
 
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mollyc said:
i have in the past and it was awesome. once my kids start back to school (next week) i will start again. my kids are active teenagers so when they ask for lunch with me i usually agree for family interaction. once they get back to school i plan to get to one meal a day in conjunction with low carb.

i like the idea of longer fasts but with my kids and husband it isn’t practical right now since i am chief meal preparer.
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I can see why it would be harder in your current state of flux (so to speak). How long do you usually keep to your fasting regime?
 
I do OMAD, with dinner being the one meal.

I don't necessarily do it for weight management, more because I function better in a fasted.
 
I have done fasting. The longest was 60-hours. Wanted to do 72-hours, yet had to cut it short. It is a water fast, with salt if hunger sets in.

I started OMAD, Carnivore 2-years back (lately on and off Carnivore).

You can fast and drink tea/coffee. As long as you don't consume calorie items, dairy, sugar -- that will break the fast.

Some people, especially children under 18 (need nutrients to grow) and those with a BMI under 18.5 should not fast.

Fasting can help with Diabetes, but get medical supervision before starting.

*this is not medical advice, just research I have done.
 
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Got my first 50 hour fast today. I had planned to only do 36 but, I felt good and decided to keep it going a while longer.
 

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My longest fast ever was around 6 days. No food or drink besides water with salt. Wouldn't advise but after the first few days of difficultly all of a sudden I felt very energetic and mentally clear. By day 6 I realized it would be unhealthy to continue so I ate some watermelon (long fasts have to be broken with water heavy food to ease your stomach back into things) and it was the best darn watermelon I've ever tasted.

I've done intermittent fasting before and feel like I want to start again but with a much more aggressive schedule of only eating every other day, perhaps only drinking tea and water on the fasting days. My previous intermittent fasts were all based on not eating between certain hours of the day (like the poster above talking about not eating after 6pm)

Apple_Robert said:
At the moment, I am doing a 4:3. I eat normal for 4 days (alternate) and fast for 3 days. My fast days are 24hrs. I am slowly increasing the fasting time towards 48hrs.

I don't sleep that well to begin with (for some reason) and the fasting can affect it more at times. The weird thing is I get up and most days I don't feel tired even though I didn't stay asleep for very long at any one time.
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So you mean 4 days eating throughout the day but only eating once every 24 hours for the other 3 days? Or do you mean not eating at all for 3 days straight?

In your experience do you think 4:3 is better than fasting every other day for 24 hours at a time?
 
zakarhino said:
My longest fast ever was around 6 days. No food or drink besides water with salt. Wouldn't advise but after the first few days of difficultly all of a sudden I felt very energetic and mentally clear. By day 6 I realized it would be unhealthy to continue so I ate some watermelon (long fasts have to be broken with water heavy food to ease your stomach back into things) and it was the best darn watermelon I've ever tasted.

I've done intermittent fasting before and feel like I want to start again but with a much more aggressive schedule of only eating every other day, perhaps only drinking tea and water on the fasting days.



So you mean 4 days eating throughout the day but only eating once every 24 hours for the other 3 days? Or do you mean not eating at all for 3 days straight?

In your experience do you think 4:3 is better than fasting every other day for 24 hours at a time?
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On the fast days, I only eat once. I think I will go to OMAD moving forward on normal days as I don't normally get hungry per se during morning and afternoon.

Congrats on 6 days. That is a heck of a long time. I do just water or real lemon juice mixed with some water to get a little salt during my fast days.

I got a few belly growls during the 50 hours but, they went away pretty quick and the experience (overall) was pretty easy.

As to your question, I think it depends on what your overall goal is.
 
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Irrespective of what kinda fasting I take on again I know for sure I want to completely eliminate as much processed sugar as possible from my diet. I really believe the many people that claim sugar is the primary cause behind many mental fog issues (as well as general health issues we're all aware of). As others in the thread have pointed out a big benefit of fasting is increased mental clarity so I want to optimize for mental state and general energy as much as possible.
 
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The longest I've done a full fast is 48 hours - that is no food, no drink, just air.

I do a complete fast at least once a year for a day.

I will do a food fast for two or three days but get some calories from fluids. I do this once or twice a month. I am doing it this Sunday and Monday to prepare for a dentist appointment on Tuesday.
 
Yes, 36 hrs (well, 32>36 hours) once every two weeks for the past couple of years. So not as committed as some of you on here. Started as a can I / can't I sort of experiment and just continued. A few things I've found and YMMV so a lot of this might be subjective.

Surprisingly OK to do once you learn to ignore your internal clock on the day. Towards the evening I get lethargic and can get cold easily - sleep comes easily as a result but I can wake up very early without meaning too.

I haven't had the super focus some others report, although I've found I can function pretty much as normal during the day but I do quite often get a mild headache on waking which are apparently quite common. (A little salty water the night before seems to help.) It goes quite quickly the next day.

Without even realising or intending to I quite quickly lost around 6>10% of my weight which hasn't come back, so if your goal is to loose weight then I'd give it a try. The next day just about anything tastes fantastic.

One of the most awkward things, though, is that it can be a pain for other family members (missing the family evening meal etc) so if you're starting out have a chat with them beforehand. Other regimes might well work better here. I'm now at the stage where the kids think I'm just a taxi driver anyway so don't even really notice what I do anymore but if they were younger (and as they're girls) its something I wouldn't have wanted to make too much of a big deal out of, or normalise too much. (We have some family friends who have lots of issues with their daughters in that department.)

Anyway, enough rambling, I recommend it and have often thought that while we've been around in out present form for around 300,000 years we're probably only the second or third generation in all that time that's always had more than enough to eat and always been warm... I think that's probably the most common sense reason to try it.
 
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If you have a watch which measures body stress, see what happens about 15 hours after you start your fast. Your stress levels should go down along with average heart rate.
 
Currently I do 19 hour fasts Monday-Thursday (eating 2p-7p) and 16 hour Friday-Sunday (eating 2p-10p).

Pre-covid I had done some more extended fasts on occasion as I traveled for work so I would eat breakfast Monday morning, hit the road and not eat again until I got home Friday night, only having coffee and cream or water in between which I now realize wasn't really fasting but just seriously reducing calories but I was proud of myself for doing that for essentially 4 days.
 
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icanhazmac said:
Currently I do 19 hour fasts Monday-Thursday (2p-7p) and 16 hour Friday-Sunday (2p-10p).

Pre-covid I had done some more extended fasts on occasion as I traveled for work so I would eat breakfast Monday morning, hot the road and not eat again until I got home Friday night, only having coffee and cream or water in between which I now realize wasn't really fasting but just seriously reducing calories but I was proud of myself for doing that for essentially 4 days.
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One of the benefits of fasting is reducing the workload and stress on the GI system. Liquids-only is similar. You're getting calories but with far less stress on the body. I will drink Gatorade or take electrolyte tablets on a long fast - you don't want to wind up in the hospital for dehydration.

One thing about fasting is that you get some extra time that you wouldn't have to spend for meal prep, cooking, cleaning and disposal - and the time for eating itself.
 
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Do you guys have an app to you'd recommend for tracking the fasting and overall progress?
 
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