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'm still doing my monthly fast but I've started splitting it up rather than doing the full 96 hours. So I'll do 42 hours then have lunch and dinner then do another 42 hours. I think I need to rethink my approach to fasting because I was doing an extended fast in the first week of the month but I suspect I need to time it around my menstrual cycle. If I try to extended fast in the last week or two of my cycle then I find it a lot more difficult.

I’m just going to tiptoe back on to the thread for my own accountability really. Completed a 42 hour fast this morning and had spag bol for lunch (not low carb but easing myself in after a long time with no fasting) and hopefully going another one now. I will probably have to plan my Thursday lunch better. Probably fillet steak and cauliflower mash with a lot of butter and garlic, or some roast chicken thighs.

I have nothing planned in January at all, so hoping the stretch of the month ahead is helpful to getting a bit thinner.

Hello - I'm on bootcamp this time but have been combining with OMAD for about 10 days now. Weight dropping quickly for now.

During the day I do have tea / coffee with dairy or almond milk, water with cider vinegar and a little sea salt, and bone broth at lunchtime.

Tend to eat 2 meals a day at weekends though.

Should I change it up a bit? Am I actually doing the wrong thing by eating this way? It's not a struggle but I don't want my body to think there's a scarcity of food

@missfliss I wish I could help but just joining the thread so I'm thinking the same as you! I've recently read 'why we eat too much' and the book agrees that IF is a good thing for blood sugar and insulin but yes, starvation mode is a thing so how do you safely fast for 24+ hours without inducing leptin (I think it was) changes that slow metabolism / increase appetite.

My evening snack attacks are ruining my IF at the moment so hoping here might get me back on track. Going to use the Simple app again as that was really helpful.

I think reading down thread that the trick is in not being too predictable and tricking your body sometimes - so today I will have 2 meals ( bacon and avocado on a weekly low carb roll ) for lunch and then dinner - back to OMAD tomorrow and maybe mix it up by having 2 meals a day in the week.

Still managing strict bootcamp foods though for now.

I've lost 3.5 pounds this week ( bmi 27) which is obviously great but probably not sustainable without screwing up set weight - so I need to consider what to do going forwards!

Does anyone want to get back into extended fasting? I'm currently 39 hours in and wondering how long I'll go this time. The current plan is to fast until Friday.

For some reason this thread doesn't come up on I'm On so I keep missing new posts.

@missfliss doing OMAD during the week and 2MAD at the weekend should keep your metabolism going although I think Dr Mindy recommends three meals one day a week to be sure. The problem with OMAD is that it often works at first for weight loss and then you plateau after a while so if you have an extended stall for a few weeks then you might need to change things up. Hopefully you're eating plenty and getting a variety of foods so that your micronutrient needs are met.

@FusionChefGeoff 24-hour fasts shouldn't affect your metabolism unless you're doing them every day. With evening snacking I think habit is often the culprit. I notice that if I have a snack one evening then my body expects one the next evening and I'll be hungry. So if you work hard to break the habit one night, for example by having a bath or going to bed early, then the next night you'll probably find it much easier to dodge the snacks.

@StuntNun (and others!). There's a really interesting piece here from the Zoe study about IF, as well as sign up details for a huge study they're hoping to run, to explore IF and its benefits (in humans as opposed to mice).

The sign-up is here

Late to the party but starting today!

@LesLavandes - do you mean the Zoe study/intermittent fasting or the Pre-Christmas Boot Camp? If it's the latter, you're on the wrong thread

Morning, I seem to have without planning slipped into an extended fast, I last ate at 11pm on Monday on nights and went to bed like normal yesterday, when I woke up I wasn't hungry so I thought I'm not eating for the sake of it. Have woke up this morning still not hungry so will leave breakfast till after I've walked the dogs. StuntNun I know you do extended fasts, how long do you normally do it for? And how often? I feel really good. Not sure I could have planned it.

@ditavonteesed how did your fast go; are you still fasting? Once you've done one extended fast you'll find subsequent fasts much easier. I do a 3-4 day fast once a month for health reasons. There are many different fasting patterns if you decide you want to make it part of your lifestyle. You could try for a 36-hour fast once or twice a week and see how that works for you. Some people like 24-hour fasts but you get greater benefits from 36 hours.

One word of warning, it can be impossible difficult to fast in the week before your period so watch out for that if you try a fast and can't make it through.

@StuntNun it was fabulous I feel great, I ate at 10.30 before I went to the gym as I didn't want to risk feeling light headed. So 35 hours I think. I could definitely incorporate it into my life, post nights would be easy as I normally only have one meal anyway. I wouldn't have believed I could actually do it if I had planned it.

Fasting definitely isn't as hard as people think it will be. I think there's an assumption that when you miss a meal you will continue to get hungrier whereas, in fact, the hunger subsides when you get past your usual meal time.

Thank you @StuntNun and @ditavonteesed

Encouraged by what I've read on the threads recently, I started a fast last weekend. I had an exceptionally busy Sunday where I couldn't work out how to fit in any meals ...

Ate as usual on Saturday around 6pm, drank my usual 3l water on Sunday and did all the fun stuff, gentle walks and trip to the theatre. Are as usual after yoga on Monday evening say 7pm.

Call it 48hrs and really no hunger. I could have continued Monday evening but decided to quit while I was ahead. Mostly it's a sign of how much of my eating is recreational or even just out of habit than due to hunger. I'm still in the overweight BMI category but only just.

I'm looking forward to finding out whether it still works as easily as this when (if) my reserves of fat are a tad more depleted than they are at the moment. I purchased a few extra continuous glucose monitors so I can check what is happening to my blood sugar as well as my appetite.

Onwards and downwards.

Hi everyone, I followed stuntnun and ditavonteesed here from the boot camp thread because I’m very nosey interested.
After reading the first few posts in this thread I’m now thinking that a fast when I fly home could be a good option. I’ve a 10hr flight back to U.K. on Sat/Sun where the plane food will be carby & there’ll be nothing LC to take from the hotel. It’d be a 22/24hr (ish) fast. 10 hours of it in the plane overnight & sleeping (fingers crossed). I’ll be home by 9am but can keep fasting til lunch. So bfast Sat @ 8am Mexico time / 2pm U.K. time
then fast until Sunday lunchtime ish. I think clocks go back too but still a 24hr ish fast. Do you think this is doable? I can get water at airport and ask for herby tea on the plane, even get tea bags from hotel & get hot water from airport etc. Anything else I should be thinking of please? or I could have hotel lunch and do shorter fast? What are your thoughts please?

@NotDonna if you're not used to fasting then you might find 24 hours a challenge. It depends on you though. I had to work up to 24 hours but if you're the kind of person that regularly misses lunch without realising then it would be much easier. Certainly, plane food is generally incompatible with low carbing.

@NotDonna that's sounds ambitious.

I might try it again on Thursday as I have a single night shift again.

I've accidentally decided to fast

I've eaten at lunchtime today and just do not feel I want to eat now, so I'm not! I'm going to go home and have a chai tea and read my book in bed

I do love this WOE, the effect on my appetite and how you actually know you're not dependent on food (emotionally for me!)

@NotDonna I can only really fast after sticking to strict bootcamp for a week or so, really does help if you're fat adapted. If I tried to fast after eating carbs I'd die of hunger!

Great name by the way, I am Donna

I regularly do a 20-24 hour clean fast, it really increases my energy levels and makes a huge difference to what I can get done in a day, it's like a turbo version of me!

Occasionally I'll do 48 hours but I find it difficult to sleep (my brain performs really well when fasting, it just doesn't want to switch off when I want to go to sleep) and, as it can be psychologically difficult to not eat at some point before bed, I use the insomnia as my excuse!

For weight loss it's better to fast for less predictable periods but I'm mainly doing it for energy so I try to only eat in the late afternoon/early evening.

I lost a pound on the fast be interest to see if it sticks

@ZiggZagg i used to get called Donna so often!!

@StuntNun @ZiggZagg and @ditavonteesed yes, I think maybe it is a bit ambitious. Im just so very very keen to avoid the carby airport/plane food. I don’t usually have breakfast so often go 8pm to 12noon albeit not massively LC & not this last week as I’ve been doing boot camp where the rule is to have bfast. Decided to follow the rules and have bfast to avoid wanting snacks etc. Plus the bfast here is ok - avocado, salad, sardine or scrambled egg & smoked salmon. Only one day did I have to have a muffin & mini pizza as on a day trip. Ive not snacked so maybe the bfast has worked.
Instead of 24hrs fasting Maybe I have a hotel lunch then fast until we are home. I need to find out airport transfer time as I’ve a feeling it’ll be lunchtime. If that’s possible it’ll be a 17hr fast (ish) and for some of that I should be sleeping (hopefully 8 hrs of it… ideally!)

Whatever you decide @NotDonna you can always give fasting another go once you're home.

29 hours and 5 mins!

Going to try 48 hours next weekend. I forgot the energy fasting gives you, the clarity