Combining fasting with low carb 1

[StuntNun]

This thread is for people who want to combine fasting with a low carbohydrate way of eating such as Low Carb Bootcamp, keto, paleo or primal.

Disclaimer – I am not a health professional – I am relying on my own reading and experience. If you have a relevant health condition then consult your doctor before introducing fasting. For example, people with diabetes or high blood pressure often require medication adjustments if they cut carbs or start fasting. In many conditions, medications must be taken with food which may dictate one or more regular meals per day. If you have had an eating disorder, or tend to be obsessive or controlling about food, then fasting may not be appropriate for you. I’m happy to chat about any of these issues but this thread is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Why fast?

1. To lose weight
2. For the health benefits (e.g. reducing insulin resistance, triggering cellular repair, lowering inflammation, reducing blood pressure)
3. All of the above!

Types of fasting

1. Intermittent fasting (for example 16:8)
2. Fasting mimicking diet (such as 5:2)
3. Extended fasting (over 24 hours)

I will describe each of these over the next three posts. Most people start out with, or working towards, either 16:8 or 5:2. Before we get started, my top fasting tip is to make sure you have plenty of calorie-free drinks: water, black coffee or tea, green tea or herbal teas. You may need to drink more than usual because you aren’t getting any water from food during your fasting window.

I might do 24 hours ending this evening and then 40 hours from Sunday teatime.

I'm a bootcamp thread lurker and have been on a LCHF eating plan since 6th November last year and have lost 29lbs to date. I started off doing 16:8 and experimenting with 18:6 then introduced a 24 fast once a week from December then did one 36 hour fast in January. I've continued with fasting 24 hour once a week and as we speak, I am 46+ hours into a 48 hour fast! I feel good and have been out for a long walk in the sunshine, yahoo!
I have a lot of weight to lose so am hoping this will really help with tightening up loose skin and making me feel good.
Thanks for all the support and advice, I am finding it really helpful.

@rockingaroundthemulberrybush well done on your amazing results xx can i ask when you are on a 24hr fast do you just keep to water or do you have any milk in coffee or diet coke??

Rocking extended fasting has done wonders for my skin both in terms of scar healing and cellulite which has all disappeared! I also have a varicose vein that has become a lot smaller; it is still there but flat rather than raised. I was hoping my skin tags would fall off too since they're supposed to be caused by insulin resistance but one of them I've had since I was a child so I guess it's a permanent fixture. I do an extended fast once a month from 48-92 hours depending on how I'm feeling.

Did a 24hr fast today. Finished it at 9pm tonight x i may have ruined though as i had a chicken kebab. I ate a handful of chips and half of the wrap 😣

Aw no Peachey that won't have ruined it. Get back on track today and don't worry about it.

Thanks everyone! I managed the 48 hours and broke it at 1pm with a lovely (locally sourced) smoked salmon salad. I think I could have got to 55+ hours as I wasn't feeling awful, but I was off for a (second) beach walk that afternoon and didn't want to feel awful during the walk.
I'll do another one towards the end of next month I think and stick to 24hr fasts once a week apart from that.
@PeacheyPeach I don't drink diet coke often so just stick to cups of tea (maybe 5/6 throughout the 48 hours?) with a little milk and 4l per day water. The tea & milk is following the Jason Fung extended fasting principles. I am interested to see if I could manage without the tea & milk so will consider experimenting with this (& longer fasts) going forward.

@rockingaroundthemulberrybush thank you xx i did a 24hr fast yesterday and felt great x i stuck to water and had 2 small coffees with tiny amount of milk just to take away the bitterness of the coffee. I think keeping busy in the day helped.. im definitely going to a 24hr each week. But need to have the dinner already prepared for when i finish, as last night it had got late and nothing was ready which was why i had takeout!!

Going for 3 24 hours this week to try and shift some lbs! Anyone with me?

What days are you doing Bestbees? I'm planning to start after Tuesday dinner but I might start on Monday instead depending how I feel.

I'm going for a 48 hour fast from tonight, then back to 22 hours for the rest of the week excluding the weekend.

Good luck @InsanityRocks!

@StuntNun will do Mon, Wed fri. Will eat dinner tonight at 6ish so nothing until 6ish the next day. Have a Delia chicken in wholes spices ready marinading so that I don't have to think about it tomorrow!

Thanks, you too. I am a bit nervous, but going to use the extra time to paint my kitchen, which will have the added bonus of tiring me out

@StuntNun if your goal is weightloss which is more effective a 3 day water fast or a 3 day egg fast? (or equivalent, I hate eggs).

Oneborneverydecade I'd say neither. The egg fast is an okay reset, for example to quickly reverse 2-3 lb of weight gain when you get home from a holiday. It can also be used as a stall breaker or if you need a reset after falling off the wagon. However, in my opinion, it's far too low in protein. If you do the egg fast then I recommend modifying it by adding a small portion of protein-rich but relatively lean food each day such as a tin of sardines, mackerel or tuna, or a small/thin cut sirloin steak. I also recommend reducing the amount of cheese to as little as possible rather than the usual one ounce allowed per egg.

Then there are three problems with a three-day water fast:

1. You might lose a few pounds over the time but a significant amount of that will be the weight of food in your digestive system. So as soon as you start eating again some of the weight is going to come back again right away no matter what.
2. The hardest days of an extended fast are days 2 and 3. So with a three-day fast you're stopping just before you get to the days where you won't feel hungry and may actually feel more energetic. On the other hand when you get to four days or more of fasting you have to be more careful when starting eating again as your digestive system will have shut down. That's why I aim for four days (haven't quite made it yet) and ideally my fasts would be five days long. I always break my extended fasts with a mug of bone broth then wait an hour before having a light, easily digestible meal.
3. When you start eating again you may end up overeating and undo some or all of the weight loss. If you look at fasting groups it's common to see people complaining that they fasted for x amount of days and they didn't lose any weight. I didn't lose anything on my last extended fast although I'm not doing it so much for weight loss (as my BMI is 22) as for the health benefits but I would have been gutted at that result.

I think your optimal fasting plan is either three 24-hour fasts from dinner to dinner the same as Bestbees is doing, or two, perhaps three 36-hour fasts if you think you can manage it and you're prepared to eat well on your non-fasting days. The 36-hour fasts would add the advantage of some autophagy which could be useful if you're worried about loose skin after weight loss.

Are you an experience faster @Oneborneverydecade?
Join me in some 24 hour fasts this week?

Thank you. So something like this that you posted earlier @StuntNun
Monday: lunch and dinner
Tuesday: no meals
Wednesday: lunch and dinner
Thursday: no meals
Friday: lunch and dinner
Saturday: no meals
Sunday: lunch and dinner

I'm not an experienced faster @Bestbees I started 16:8 in about October 20. I've mostly increased it to 20:4 since the beginning of the month along with 2 almost 40 hours fasts. My weight has STS pretty much which is either carb creep, or because I'm within a stone of my goal (or both) (I'm glad your DH and DDad are well).

I do have some lose skin so I might try 3x 36 this week. Whenever I plan for 24 I cave at 20 because I think of lunch things I'd like to eat.

Yes Oneborn except I would prefer to have fasting days as Monday, Wednesday and Friday so I can have both Saturday and Sunday as eating days. Plus if you're doing dinner to lunch instead of dinner to breakfast then that's a 40-hour fast not a 36-hour fast so even better for autophagy. You can arrange things any way you want. Let's say you normally do 16:8 so you only have lunch and dinner. That's 14 meals a week. If you do three 24-hour fasts and have lunch and dinner on the other days then that's 11 meals per week so a maximum of a 21% reduction in calories (Note that although you might eat somewhat more than usual on your feast days you probably wouldn't be able to overeat by 21% by accident.) If you do three 36-hour fasts per week with lunch and dinner on the other days then that's 8 meals a week which is a 43% reduction in calories. If you want to have three meals on your feast days then that puts you back at 11 meals per week so again a 21% reduction in calories but with a bigger difference between your feast and fast days. I'm a firm believer that it's changing things up that makes fasting so effective so you can swap between these methods as you choose, have a full week of 16:8, have an extended fast, whatever works for you, is manageable, and fits in with your life.

Whatever you do, I recommend being guided by how you feel. I tried an extended fast once aiming for 96 hours but had to stop at 48 hours because I was hungry and getting obsessed with food. I lost 4 lb in two days and I think it was a case of my body putting the breaks on because the weight was coming off so fast. It can be worth trying to push through a meal time because you're pretty sure it's a temporary hunger but if you can't stop thinking about food or you feel fatigued, nauseous, weak or dizzy then it's time to end the fast. I worry that trying to muscle through for the sake of meeting an arbitrary time goal that you've set is working against your body, not with your body. Clearly fasting has the potential to trigger disordered or controlling eating behaviours, but also we want eating to be a natural process. I'm jealous of my kids because they can be halfway through a slice of pizza, announce they're full and put it down. After being made to clean my plate all through childhood I no longer have that ability and I find it very difficult to recognise when I'm full. I want to get back in touch with those feelings of hunger and satiety so that I can eat more intuitively and not have to have rules e.g. that I don't eat before 12 p.m. even though I do need that rule at the moment to prevent overeating.

I am going to try OMAD for a few weeks, I feel better while fasting, feel better mentally, so just planning to eat in a one hour window to see how I feel and whether these lbs start shifting a bit more.

Might maybe try an extended fast once or twice per month as I would like the benefits of autophagy (loose belly jelly!)

We had roast pork yesterday, I did have 1 piece of roast potato, I weighed myself this morning & I've gone back up by nearly a pound to 11st 2.6. Never mind, I usually put about a pound on when I have some carbs or a day off, it comes back off again the next day (the roast was delicious & there are lots of leftovers). Today I'm having cauliflower cheese with zero carb cheese sauce, with some of the pork, & some extra (leftover) vegetables.

Very easy to make a nice cheese sauce if you use creme fraiche, grated strong cheese, & a pinch of mustard powder. Stir, pour over your chosen dish, & heat. Or use in a pan. Creme fraiche doesn't split & it's reasonably thick without any flour.

I think I'm going to try an extended fast in a few weeks. Maybe just a couple of days at first.

I'm 19 hours into my first and feeling that I won't manage it. I didn't sleep well last night and I think that's having an impact.

I have the most horrendous ear infection in both ears, just want to wrap up and go to sleep for a week! Still managed 231/2 hours! Helps when it hurts to chew

@ZiggZagg poor you! Make sure you eat plenty of nutritious food to help you get better soon.

@StuntNun listen to your body like you say. How has it gone?

I found it easy today, busy at work. Had tummy rumbles at12. 30 so had a dri k of my own invention : bouillon, pinch of chili, pinch of seaweed flakes and some electrolyte powder. Was delicious. Lovely dinner of delias chicken in whole spices and chard fried in coconut oil with chili a d garlic. Yoghurt and a few berries. Stuffed now! Have

Oh ZiggZagg have you seen the doctor? Ear infections are the worst! I hope you make a speedy recovery. Don't worry about fasting while you're ill, it's more important to get well.

Your food sounds lovely Bestbees. I didn't try to muscle through on my fast. I'm so stressed out at the moment and I'm not sleeping well which doesn't help. I had a huge dinner after an almost 24-hour fast, I think it was 23 and three quarters of an hour! I found out about a new way to do OMAD on the Fasting Method website today where you eat dinner one day then lunch the next so you're alternating 16-hour and 30-hour fasts. I might give that a go this week and save the extended fast for when the DCs are back at school and we've got through swabbing the whole school population three times. It's going to be very busy for the next few weeks. It doesn't help that my DS4 is a school refuser so I'm sure it's going to be challenge to get him into school next week. He's only five and he's already escaped from school twice. Fortunately he was caught both times in the playground or he would have happily walked home on his own.

Oh gosh @StuntNun sound slike a difficult week ahead. I am a secondary senco so sympathise with the school refuse and the attempt to test everyone. Having said that I cannot wait to have the kids back!

How do you manage not eating dinner with the family? I don't like the idea of them thinking I am skipping meals really. That's a big part that puts me off longer fasts. I guess I tell the kids I am eating later which I do sometimes. Think dh will think I am bonkers if I go more that 24hours without food.