Fasting - Have you tried it?

Stuff

Stuff

Stuff

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Any of you chaps ever done it? It's now 11pm on Thursday night and I haven't eaten anything since last Sunday. I'm currently getting my only calories from black coffee and water with lemon juice squeezed in. I also use the zero kcal electrolyte tablets mixed with water, just 'cos electrolytes are important!

I'm probably going to end this tomorrow, but chose to do it purely as a test of mental strength. This is the longest I've been without food since I was born :D

I weighed about 82kg on Sunday and I'm currently down to 79.5kg. I'm well aware this loss is primarily water weight. Up until today, I've felt fine. Today, I was lacking a lot of energy. Stairs was a real challenge, and my legs have been aching all evening. Mentally, I'm absolutely fine. I'm likely in ketosis now. I know people that have done fasts for 7, 14, and 30 days. There's a load of links I could give to say this is a healthy thing to do, and equally a load of links to say it's unhealthy. Either way, I feel mentally strong for doing this.

Please feel free to start the abuse now ;)
 
ganesh said:
I thought I was in La Cuisine not Non Cuisine.
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Fair comment :D
Moses said:
I've done four days before, after there was a BBC programme with Michael Mosley where they did that... I found it fairly easy, tbh... like you, I just wanted to see if I could do it, etc - it was called Eat, Fast, and Live Longer, if you're interested. IIRC, that was to do with getting IGF-1 levels down and put the body into a maintenance mode of sorts, but definitely don't quote me on that! I think the person in the programme who advocated it said he did a four day fast every few months to have that effect. Actually it's still on iPlayer, that's cool... http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01lxyzc/horizon-20122013-3-eat-fast-and-live-longer

What's your reasoning for doing it? I can't see long, complete fasts being a great idea... but stuff like intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting, 5/2 diets, etc are fairly mainstream.
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Ah thanks for the link, I'll watch that tomorrow!

Reasoning: I've read up on the health benefits and after eating everything under the sun last week and non-stop binging, I thought I'd make a change from Monday (You always have to wait till Monday :p). It was my day off on Monday, so I got up around 11:30, and then had a fair bit to do.. Hit the gym about 3:30pm, and by the time I'd finished there, I hadn't eaten for the day. I've done a 2-day fast before and thought this would be a good start (with no effort!) to start another. I haven't done it with any set goal in mind, I'm just taking it day-to-day. Very pleased to have made it this far though, as I generally have a very bad relationship with food, so I feel I needed this :)
 
I don't think I could survive doing this, but good luck to anyone who tries. How does just drinking provide you with what you need to not feel hungry all the time?
 
Stuff said:
Any of you chaps ever done it? It's now 11pm on Thursday night and I haven't eaten anything since last Sunday. I'm currently getting my only calories from black coffee and water with lemon juice squeezed in. I also use the zero kcal electrolyte tablets mixed with water, just 'cos electrolytes are important!

I'm probably going to end this tomorrow, but chose to do it purely as a test of mental strength. This is the longest I've been without food since I was born :D

I weighed about 82kg on Sunday and I'm currently down to 79.5kg. I'm well aware this loss is primarily water weight. Up until today, I've felt fine. Today, I was lacking a lot of energy. Stairs was a real challenge, and my legs have been aching all evening. Mentally, I'm absolutely fine. I'm likely in ketosis now. I know people that have done fasts for 7, 14, and 30 days. There's a load of links I could give to say this is a healthy thing to do, and equally a load of links to say it's unhealthy. Either way, I feel mentally strong for doing this.

Please feel free to start the abuse now ;)
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What's the point? No really, what is the actual point? You're meant to eat to survive. What's the point in going against what your body needs?
 
I do intermittent fasting
Sunday is gym day ill eat between 2500 and 3000 last meal being a shake before bed around 10ish
Monday the only meal ill eat is dinner around 6 which is around 700cal
Tuesday gym day so a repeat of sun

so on so forth etc etc

Im mostly doing to get by bf% down started the year at near 25% bf down to between 18.5 and 19% but only lost around 5kg scale weight (from about 80kg) so put some good mass on too
 
Can't say I see the point in pointlessly fasting.

I've been intermittent fasting for about 7 years now, usually in a 16-8 fast-eat ratio. Purely because this protocol is most adherable for me, I've never been a huge fan of eating early morning and always favour large meals towards the end of the day, particularly after exercise/training. I've actually performed many of my best/strongest lifts fasted.

I will on occasion fast for longer periods up to around 24 hours, usually if I have a particularly calorific social occasion approaching, so as not to exceed my calorie target for the day or if I'm just busy and not particularly hungry.

Whilst negative metabolic adaptations take in excess of 72 hours to start to occur from lack of nutrition, I don't really think what you've done is particularly wise from a performance point of view. As you say, your legs are weak and you've struggled with stairs.

To clarify fasting isn't a 'weightloss miracle' and thermogenics (calories in vs calories out still apply). What fasting does though for many is make lower calorie intakes more adherable via less regular but larger meals.

If your calorie intake were to remain the same with both a '3 square meals' & 'Intermittent fasting' approach, you weight would largely remain unchanged.

Out of interest what made you take this, in my opinion stupid approach by not eating for several days? Have you done any reading on approaches to healthy and sustainable weight loss?
 
I tend to not eat if I'm not hungry if I'm by myself doing little physical work (i.e. job apps at the desk where it's not causing concentration issues).

I started having sugary and puddings (al a french) but in the end I found that it was causing me to feel like crap - usually from the sugar drop off.. that then made me snack more..

Instead I now simply have a main meal, steering clear of sugar and pudding, often after a large meal I'll not feel hungry for the next meal time, or even at breakfast after having a coffee - that's all I need.

Doing physical activity is different and I tune it (as best I can with the mrs attempting to stuff me with food).
 
I fast every day from about 7pm to 7am when I break the fast.



At the moment I spend most of my day eating. Marathontriing really forces your bdy to beome an eating amchine. It is really hard to stop loosing weight.
 
stuie said:
I do intermittent fasting
Sunday is gym day ill eat between 2500 and 3000 last meal being a shake before bed around 10ish
Monday the only meal ill eat is dinner around 6 which is around 700cal
Tuesday gym day so a repeat of sun

so on so forth etc etc

Im mostly doing to get by bf% down started the year at near 25% bf down to between 18.5 and 19% but only lost around 5kg scale weight (from about 80kg) so put some good mass on too
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6% of 80KG = 4.8KG :confused:
 
Everyone is saying there is no point in fasting, total waste of time etc.

I thought it was widely accepted that is the other way around and that medical professionals are really taking notice of the power of the human body with calorie restrictive diets / fasts.

Basically the science goes that every day we constantly bombard our bodies with processed, refined, modern foods, way in excess of what the human body needs. The human digestive system has a massive relentless nonstop task of breaking all this down. A fast gives the body a rest and an opportunity to cleanse and heal.

I fasted for 4 days years ago. The one thing that I remember distinctly was the really strange clarity of mind. My brain just felt much sharper, really quite hard to describe. I had a similar feeling when I decided to go vegan for 3 wks for the hell of it.
 
I've started intermittent fasting, as I've put on 8kg since my boy was born in June 2014 and I'm turning into a middle aged blob, which I'm not going to let happen.

I chose this method as I'm never hungry in the morning but am always very busy getting me and the kids ready for work / play, so it massively suits my lifestyle. Anything that makes things easy is generally a good thing to try in my book, with the added bonus that it's sustainable long term. It's also a pretty sociable way to manage weight, as there aren't too many breakfast-related social activities.

I eat at 7pm each evening then miss breakfast 4-5 times per week, fasting for 24 hrs 3-2 times per week. I'll sometimes have breakfast, in which case I'll call it a cheat day and move on.

I've been doing this for a month now and am getting on with it really well, I've lost about 1.5Kg but more importantly, it's EASY. Being so busy at work, skipping lunch helps me out as I don't have to leave too late. Before if I took an hour lunch and left at 6.30, now I can work through lunch and see my kids for an extra hour in the evenings.

Exercise wise, I am struggling slightly, but that's more through lack of fitness than lack of calory intake.

I'm drinking loads more water to reduce the feeling of being hungry, though I'm getting used to the pattern now. Next is to reduce beer intake and avoid using it as an excuse to pig out on crap food in the evening. I'm using evening meals as my daily cheat meal and that needs to stop!
 
I've just got back from an full board holiday in Spain .. Man did I pack it in the food was amazing

I think I'm going to eat very little for a few days to give my body a break
 
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