The one and only fasting video you need to see.

[LifeTransformer]

Let's hope that this doesn't happen



Thanks for posting this. I've been curious about fasting lately, as I recently heard a radio interview with a nutritionist who does it regularly.

No problem! Many people do these days.

 

[Paul David]

I actually started the 5:2 diet yesterday, need to shift around 1 stone of christmas weight!
I run around 3 miles on a treadmill four times a week.
For the 2 fasting days i'm not supposed to eat more than 600 calories. Yesterday was the first fasting day and i did my 3m run in the morning as usual and then around 11.30am i ate a tin of mackeral (fish). Then a tea time i had a ham toastie. I did start getting headaches around 10-30-11pm but i'd also been staring at a PC screen for hours.
I actually thought i'd feel worse than i did especially with exercising on the same day.
Roll on tomorrow for the 2nd fasting day of the week!

 

[David Kotevski]

This isn't IF. You would get more benefits from skipping breakfast and eating at lunch or something.

Guys, if you try to do the extreme of this you will probably fail. Fasting needs to be a lifestyle if you want it to work. The most sustainable ways are with IF or every second day fasting. I prefer IF with a eating window of 5-8hrs. I stop eating at around 6-8pm the night before, then I won't eat until about 1pm the next day. I have been doing this for over 6 months now without any effort. Once you get past the first couple weeks, your stomach will stop sending signals to your brain that you are hungry. Also, like Fung mentioned, there is increased mental acuity. If I'm not working, I can get way more done between when I wakeup and my first meal. Sometimes I actually forget to eat and have to force myself to eat around 3pm even though I am not hungry.

There is also something called respiratory quotient. Basically, there is a estimated certain point of where your body will begin to burn fat. If you are active during the fasting period, this is considered to be around 12-15hrs for men. If you have a desk job, it is around 16-18hrs of fasting. So if you are having a breakfast - not eating - then eating dinner. You are not getting any benefits from fasting.

To use the analogy in the video, you want there to be a period where your fridge is empty and you have begun taking food from the freezer before you refill your fridge again.

As for BCAA, this is probably the only supplement I can actually feel the difference from taking it. BCAA can be used in two ways, for fasting or for recovery. It is usually marketed for recovery. If you want to weight train during a fasted state, you should be taking BCAA or at worst whey protein. There have been studies to compare taking BCAA vs completely fasted training and overall, the benefits of BCAA to stop muscle breakdown outweight the little extra fat you burn if you don't take it.

Hope that helps.

I should've been more descriptive. What you said is very true. But I do it a little different after experimenting on myself for a while. My breakfast is under 30g of carbs and and throughout the day if I get hungry just eat cashews and water but at night I feast on carbs and have noticed tremendous results in muscle fullness and a better appetite as a result as well.

 

[21elnegocio]

If you've ever wondered about fasting, why/if it works, or how it works. Then this is the video for you:

I read about fasting a couple of years ago and started implementing it as soon as I could.

I first started with what I'd call a "moderate" fast where I made sure to not consume any calories for 12 hours every day. I didn't use the 5/2 method, and I didn't go strictly "Paleo" either.

The result? I lost 40lbs in about 6 months. The majority of it fat/water weight (FYI I didn't use one of those BMI tests to be exactly sure).

The video above is about as good an explanation of why and how it works as I have ever seen. If you've got 30 minutes to watch it, I suggest you do. Unless you're an adonis already of course.

P.S. Please forgive me for trying out a tiny bit of copywriting in the process. I need some practice .

@LifeTransformer haha you read my mind man, I was going to fast today until Saturday. I fasted a couple weeks ago for 4 days (I was trying to go for 7-10 days but wasnt able to) and lost 4 pounds. I want to do it for about 2 weeks straight but your damn mind plays tricks with you telling you to eat when in reality we have enough food in our body to feed of.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

@LifeTransformer haha you read my mind man, I was going to fast today until Saturday. I fasted a couple weeks ago for 4 days (I was trying to go for 7-10 days but wasnt able to) and lost 4 pounds. I want to do it for about 2 weeks straight but your damn mind plays tricks with you telling you to eat when in reality we have enough food in our body to feed of.

That's the tricky part. When your stomach starts rumbling and you think you need to eat.

I found drinking water, tea or coffee helped. I only really had that feeling the first few days too because my body soon got used to it.

Just to be clear, I have never done a full day fast. I've adjusted my diet to give me 14-18 hours per day where I don't consume any calories.

 

[21elnegocio]

This might be a good video to watch for anyone who wants to do fasting.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rzx_LAf6dk

 

[21elnegocio]

That's the tricky part. When your stomach starts rumbling and you think you need to eat.

I found drinking water, tea or coffee helped. I only really had that feeling the first few days too because my body soon got used to it.

Just to be clear, I have never done a full day fast. I've adjusted my diet to give me 14-18 hours per day where I don't consume any calories.

I drink the same thing when I get hungry, I try to drink carbonized water as well. It fills you up, but yes it is tricky sometimes. Try doing it for 1 whole day without eating its not as bad as one thinks but there is so much food thrown at our face that we start craving things.

 

[LifeTransformer]

Oh, one more very important thing...

The best part about IF isn't the fat/weight loss (though that's good too) -- it's something called "autophagy." Look it up. The scientist who first presented the research on autophagy won a Nobel prize in 2016 for that work.

Basically, the principle is that, when your body goes into fasting mode (fat-burning mode), your cells start a process whereby they shed damaged components (called organelles), which makes the cells healthier. In some cases, this process will also trigger cell death in unhealthy cells. Long story short, this process allows cells to live longer/healthier lives before they die off and are replaced and don't allow damaged cells to live longer than they should.

When you are constantly eating, your cells never have the opportunity to undertake the autophagy process, which (in theory) leads to higher incidence of disease and amplifies the aging process. If you've heard about the aging benefits of a calorie-restricted diet, scientists believe that it's this autophagy process that provides those anti-aging and increased life expectancy benefits.

In other words, fasting may directly contribute to staying younger, remaining healthy and living longer.

Someone is even trying to use Autophagy as the basis for an information product. But you're entirely right about it.

Rogue Health and Fitness and others talk about Autophagy frequently.

 

[#nowhere]

hah my problem is the exact opposite, i struggle to gain weight. I try to at least eat 2000+ calories a day. I eat one big meal with side snacks to go with it lol

Then a long fasting regimen with fewer meals could possibly be the wrong choice in this situation...

 

[Everyman]

I started IF more than three months ago (16:8) immediately after reading about it. No mental preparation. No waiting. Skip breakfast mode - the easiest. I didn't lose much weight but I also started working out at the gym with weights (I have been working out 4-7 days a week for the last 20 years but not at the gym). Circumference has changed here and there (for better). I cheat sometimes and eat a cake or cookie during my 8 hour window

BUT...

I feel so much better. I stopped having these energy slides after lunch. Like some of you mentioned here I also forget to eat sometimes without any issues. I get full really fast and with smaller meals. My stomach definitely shrank. I have more time in the morning because I don't have to prepare breakfast when my eyes are barely open. There are other positive side-effects, other than weight loss, stomach and bowels working properly again (not bombarded by food every 3 hrs)... Negative is that people around you force you to go every 3 hrs to eat with them. They have to eat that often and it cannot be changed (something with space-time continuum being disrupted ).....

 

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[LifeTransformer]

been doing it for months now and haven't lost any weight!

It's all about the calories, doesn't matter if u eat them in 3 meals or 1 meal.

In fact i hear fasting slows metabolism but who knows if that's true.

Are you counting everything as fasting? By that I mean drinks too (except water, tea, coffee (with no milk/sugar/sweetener).

The first time I tried doing this, without hearing about what it was to be entirely honest, I kept thinking; "why am I not losing any weight? I'm not eating ANYTHING!" And I wasn't at the time, I was on a liquid diet. The problem was that my liquid diet consisted of fake calories (aspartame, sweeteners etc.) and also, I didn't factor in other otherwise non-fast interfering liquids. Black coffee is fine, but add in some milk and you could be breaking the fast.

It's not a settled thing by any stretch either, but it seems to work for the majority. Maybe you need something else? Either way, I hope you find what works for you.

 

[LifeTransformer]

i drink tea with honey during my morning work outs, i don't count that.
actually i drink a ton of tea throughut the day.

I only count meals but i also do my best not to snack for the sake of snacking.

Drinking helps a ton with any stomach churning feelings, but those feelinsg also lessen over time.

In the past if i skipped breakfast I would feel a hunger pang on the train to work. Now i can go almost the entire day without major hunger pangs. I get a small one at 16+ hours maybe.

But it varies a lot too, tis the human body after all lol

You should count it, that's probably why it isn't working. Properly fasting means zero calories.

How many calories in a teaspoon of honey? (21 according to google, but probably varies a lot).

 

[luniac]

Ok, I just read this whole thread. Today, my wife and I had a little time out doing errands together....with no kids. We decided to have a quiet, late by our practice lunch which turned into both of us eating restaurant dinner portions. In short I feel like a stuffed slug. I'm reading a thread about intermittent fasting while at the same regretting my last meal. (It was delicious, and we enjoyed the time alone, but I regret packing all that sea food and pasta down at 3:00 this afternoon.)

I skipped dinner and won't consume anything but coffee and water until my post workout protein shake at about 8:00 tomorrow. That will be 15 or 16 hours (not exactly sure what time it was when I put down the fork.)

Good timing, great thread. Thank you.

 

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[jlwilliams]

Older article I've just come across that is worth adding: Fasting for three days can regenerate entire immune system, study finds

That title is click-baity of course, but could "detoxing" be as simple as fasting for 3 days? Not: Going to a sauna retreat in the mountains, and eating grass for 7 days while doing chakras in your wife's gym gear?

Just last night I was reading "Tools for Titans" where a very similar thing was said.

 

[#nowhere]

@jon.a

Hope you are doing better now and recover well. Wish you the best!

dont want to offend you, but the body starts to burn off all shit (autophagy) after hour 24 of the fast. This means that the body burns older protein structures of the body and renews them. The garbage is washed out..

Fasting, according to this definition, means NO insulin ouput into the body system. As long as every food and sugared liquid leads to insulin ejection this means water-, tea- and Coffee-onlyfast. Maybe some homemade bone broth for sodium issues.

Only then autophagy can make it's job: to wash out the crap of your body.

 

[jon.a]

Just wondering if you're watching total carbs or if that was recommended? I'd think that sugar intake on a liquid fast without anything to lower insulin might be an issue.

Yeah, I went way down on carbs a few years ago.
No bread, pasta etc.

 

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[FastNAwesome]

@jon.a much luck with the fast and quick recovery.

 

[JAJT]

Interesting.

I googled it (albeit briefly) and it seemed pretty fad-like. Lots of talk on "detoxifying" without any real definitions of what that means, or why the ingredients are important (although I suspect syrup for energy, cayenne for appetite suppression, and lemons for flavor). Or the physical results from a biological standpoint.

Maybe the first few results I googled were just bad examples of the benefits but it reads very much like "trust me, it works, because other people did it and it works, and it's really old, but it works.... toxins.... flush.... natural....heal... repair...".

The kinds of things that really get me excited tend to be heavily medical and measurement based things. An excellent example of what I'm talking about would be this podcast from Tim Ferriss talking to Dom D'Agostino on fasting: Dom D’Agostino on Fasting, Ketosis, and the End of Cancer

All the talk of science, biology, measured results, blood tests, peer reviews, etc... really wins me over to believing that they genuinely know what they are talking about and genuinely want to learn more about it. I actually just listened to Tim's podcast today with an except from the above interview and Tim wanted to hear about strength training under ketosis and Dom even went out of his way to say that it's still being reviewed and that the first review failed and required some re-work. That kind of disclaimer and honesty really makes me think "this guy cares about the truth more than his own beliefs".

I of course do not mean to "shit on" your progress and attempts to better your health. I'd hate for that to be how this comes off as I highly respect you and always encourage self betterment in all it's forms. I just wanted to share my (very limited) knowledge on what I've learned in my short time diving into this stuff.

Regardless - I do hope it works as well for you as you want it to all the same

 

[jon.a]

The first few results are mostly e-commerce sites. I'm only posting to provide a cash study.

Interesting.

I googled it (albeit briefly) and it seemed pretty fad-like. Lots of talk on "detoxifying" without any real definitions of what that means, or why the ingredients are important (although I suspect syrup for energy, cayenne for appetite suppression, and lemons for flavor). Or the physical results from a biological standpoint.

Maybe the first few results I googled were just bad examples of the benefits but it reads very much like "trust me, it works, because other people did it and it works, and it's really old, but it works.... toxins.... flush.... natural....heal... repair...".

The kinds of things that really get me excited tend to be heavily medical and measurement based things. An excellent example of what I'm talking about would be this podcast from Tim Ferriss talking to Dom D'Agostino on fasting: Dom D’Agostino on Fasting, Ketosis, and the End of Cancer

All the talk of science, biology, measured results, blood tests, peer reviews, etc... really wins me over to believing that they genuinely know what they are talking about and genuinely want to learn more about it. I actually just listened to Tim's podcast today with an except from the above interview and Tim wanted to hear about strength training under ketosis and Dom even went out of his way to say that it's still being reviewed and that the first review failed and required some re-work. That kind of disclaimer and honesty really makes me think "this guy cares about the truth more than his own beliefs".

I of course do not mean to "shit on" your progress and attempts to better your health. I'd hate for that to be how this comes off as I highly respect you and always encourage self betterment in all it's forms. I just wanted to share my (very limited) knowledge on what I've learned in my short time diving into this stuff.

Regardless - I do hope it works as well for you as you want it to all the same

 

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[jon.a]

+1 on this. It ruined me on normal lemonade for the next year. First couple days are the hardest, so you've got this.

Did it do anything for you?

 

[MarkNNelson]

Did it do anything for you?

Other than make we want to kill someone?

Yeah, lost about 12 pounds, about 10 of which stayed off. I was aiming for 7 days, and I packed it in on day 6.

Not to take you off track at all, but at some point in the future, you might also want to take a look at the "Potato Hack" thing. Not sure if I ever mentioned it around here before. It gets you the benefits of an elimination diet (unless you happen to not tolerate nightshades, I suppose), but without any of the "I'm starving" mental hubub.

 

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[JAJT]

But if you are interested in trying it out at all hit me up and il link you to all the good stuff I've found regarding ketosis.

Part of me really wants to give keto a try but the other part of me loves beer and pizza.

Maybe I'll pick a month this year though and do a multi day fast followed by strict keto for a bit of a "body reset" though.

 

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[jon.a]

Day 4 done...
-1.2
day to day

I feel fine
7 glasses

Day 3 over...
jon -1.8
Mrs jon -0.4
day to day

I still feel fine. Mrs jon's body is not liking this.
I dropped to 7 glasses. Mrs jon only 5 again. 6 is required. She's going to knock it off today, she can't drink enough.

 

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[Raoul Duke]

I really like Dom D’Agostino. I also like Dr. Rhonda Patrick.

 

[jon.a]

Other than dropping tons of (mostly water?) weight, and the obvious hunger, do you notice any other side effects? Does it make you loopy?



Super low carb like keto is the only thing that's ever worked for me to drop weight, but it also makes me into a literal zombie. I've tried getting through the initial 5 days several times in the last couple months and end up giving up every time. The last time I was so foggy I stood in front of a screen in a meeting, and literally could not say the number that I was pointing at on on the screen in front of me. How do you get over that hump?

nope

 

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[Kade]

Great thread, +rep coming your way.

The tea with honey is barely 100 calories at most.
tea alone is 0 calories, i add nothing to it.
Plus liquids go through the digestive system very easily.

What you're doing (if you watched the video) is; you're about to go into the freezer and defrost some of that shit that has been in there for 3 months, then suddenly what happens? You reach inside the fridge and have a big gulp of calories. You no longer need to enter the freezer because you've got your fix.

The amount of calories is not that important, but honey consists essentially of fruit sugar or fructose, which reacts and raises the insulin level.
Fung is saying that it is much more about the insulin level than it is about the calories. (25:00)

In Asia they used to have little to no obesity even though they had a calorie rich diet.
The obesity rate went from 1% to 13% in 30 years. (40:16)

source:

 

[Millenial_Kid5K1]

I find that paleo, keto, and IF(12pm-8pm feeding period) work pretty well together. If anything, I don't have to try to hit ketosis, I hit it by accident as a natural consequence of eating only meat and veggies.

I've been doing that for about 2 months this year with a break in the middle, and have gone from over 15% to 12% fat. Excited to see my abs for the first time in my life. I hope they don't look weird like some people's.

 

[LifeTransformer]

It's true, I actually do the intermittent fasting diet where I eat a small breakfast at around 6-7am then nothing besides water until 6pm and I feast until 10pm getting the remaining calories for the day have helped tremendously with losing body fat and a better sense of well-being.

I think you might be going the hard way there, but whatever works for you!

If you're sleeping 6-8 hours per night, not eating and drinking calories before and/or after that is probably easier. That's what I do.

 

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[LifeTransformer]

F*ck it. I'll do it. This is January 10th and I weigh 295lbs. When I was in shape I weighed between 210 and 220. I'll stop eating entirely and post results. I've been trying to lose weight for months now.. Let's see what happens.

Thanks for the vid If I get back down to where I want by doing this I will give you Rep. If I die no rep for you.

I wouldn't go that hardcore right off the bat! Say you eat when you get up? Leave it until lunchtime to begin with as an example. It's mainly about giving your body time to use its already stored resources.

Please don't go dying on me .

 

[LifeTransformer]

It has not hampered my muscle gains (even working out in a fasted state using BCAA+ and then fasting for hours after), and while I'm not cutting at the moment, I believe weight loss would be fairly easy.

.........................

If you are severely overweight, you would do better to use severe calories restriction rather than outright starving yourself.

800-1000 calories a day, for a limited time, should be safe enough.

However, you should really consult a doctor about it and get checked before starting and then every month after that to be safe.

I didn't do the BCAAs myself (I'd read about it), but it still worked out well.

Not sure about the second part though, that's exactly what the video tells you not to do because it doesn't work. Would be a good idea to see a doctor though .