ADF 36:12 clean fast 6 week trial

[Dolia]

I'm going to be giving ADF a proper go for 6 weeks to see how I go, before the madness of the Christmas season starts.

36 hour fasting, clean fast with only water, black tea & coffee and unflavored electrolytes half way through my fast. 12 hour eating window to have 3 regular meals, but mindful of eating plenty veg, beans, pulses and quality meat/protein.

My weight has been slowly creeping up since starting HRT (I know correlation is not causation!) and I'm struggling to maintain let alone lose.

I've tried 18:6 albeit half heartedly and had done success but plateauing after losing just a few pounds, at least I'm not gaining I suppose.

I'm 50 next year so that's a huge incentive to get to a healthy weight! I would like to be one and half to two stone/ 15kg lighter, I'd considered Mounjaro but I'm under 30 bmi, I'm around BMI of 28. I even went as far as knocking a couple of inches off my height on the voy site before I caught myself on!

I did a full down day on Friday followed by an ip day yesterday, started fasting again at 7pm but by midnight I was starving so had to eat. Doing a bit more reading I realise I needed to have a 12 hour eating window and try and get three meals in. I
only managed a bowl of veg soup, Greek yoghurt & berries & seeds, and a chicken & veg stir fry with wholegrain rice for dinner. It was hard to eat more.

BUT this means I don't have to worry about up days on an office day - I will have breakfast at home, lunch in the office and dinner at home, which overall should make a proper ADF routine easier.

I will allow some flexibility for social occasions to try and coincide with an Up day, reverting to 18:6 when required, so I never fast longer than 36h. I'll be staying off alcohol for my trial.

CW 77.5kg
1st goal 68kg
Final goal 62kg

I use the zero app & happy scale, and do a mix of weights/yoga/swimming at the gym (which I currently do but I need to be more consistent) and get at least 10k steps in a day regardless.

I'll update for anyone interested & lurking in a similar position.

Just over week in and I've done 3 down days, really enjoying having a proper cup of tea with milk or two on my up days!

Not managed a complete schedule of up/down due to social events this week but I'm pleased how it's all going in general.

Still a bit of a struggle to eat on my up days, forgot to have lunch on a office day, remembered to eat about 4. Eating well (ie both sufficient and good quality food) on an up day is definitely key.

0.5kg down on happy scale, I was down a kilo or two already from 18:6 so not expecting huge starting water losses.

Well done on your fasts and weightloss

Thank you! I appreciate the reply, I'm updating for both my own accountability and for anyone who might be thinking of doing this themselves.

It's been a reasonably good week, a wobble on Thursday night where I succumbed to the temptations of a Halloween sweet stash later in the evening, which was probably due to not having eaten enough that day. It did make the next days fast hard!

I get quite hungry around the 22h mark, but if I can get past that then I manage fine until the morning, I'm guessing that's when there's a move to ketosis? I was really excited last night to know I could have breakfast and lunch today, despite not being particularly hungry when having that thought 😊

Happy scale average showing another half kilo down.

Hi!

Seems like you've had a good start- well done!
I'm not doing this particular fast, but I am interested in your progress as I am very similar weight and have a similar target! I too have played around with 16:8, 18:6 and 24 hour fasts. The longest I've managed was about 28 hours - it wasn't too bad but think I'd struggle on a regular basis.

I am currently doing 5:2 (500 calories on fasting days and up to 2000 on non-fasting days) with 16:8 thrown in there as well! Had a good fasting day today - made some low calorie soup which filled a hole! Doing exercise where I can (mainly HIIT) to increase the calorie deficit. Currently around 75kg, and will feel comfortable at 70kg.

Hope your 36 hours are going well!

Hello. Are you still doing this? What progress have you seen?

I did my first 36 hour fast yesterday and really enjoyed it! Just doing some research on the benefits of this and also just did a Mumsnet search, which brought this thread up.

Yes still doing ADF, although not as religiously last couple of weeks, too much on with Christmas events! (And too busy to update!)

I've maintained a 4kg loss since starting and clothes feeling looser.

I really got on with it as a plan, so I'll be picking it back up properly after the holidays.

Huge congrats @Dolia - that's great progress and commitment!