One 24 hour fast a week has helped where 5:2 did not

[Lemonthyme]

I have a good diet, being sober and exercising a lot, perimenopause was starting to cause weight gain. With some levels of change to my diet to cut out the crap, this changed to stability (which would and did cause loss when I was younger). There was one thing though that pushed me into trying something different and that was my HbA1c result which was 5.8%. So despite doing EVERYTHING the NHS tells you to do to be a healthy weight, I was still overweight and very close to prediabetic (other countries would already class this as prediabetic).

I've not had another HbA1c result back since I started once a week 24 hour fasting on top of everything else I've done but what is changing is I'm losing weight. Total weight loss is c. 1-1.5 lbs a week so not huge but consistent and enough that it's really starting to be noticeable.

I have been so fed up since perimenopause hit with things not working. I'm really pleased something is and it kind of makes sense that if there's good evidence that intermittent fasting works to improve insulin resistance, if IR was my problem, that would have been making it harder to lose weight so it is a complete lightbulb moment for me that it's probably been that.

As for "how" as that's what I would have been wanting to know. I "read" an audiobook on the science behind the hormones of weight loss and it advocated one 24 hour fast a week (or possibly two) for insulin resistance and metabolic flexibility as your body has to switch to burning fat. Two sounded terrifying but one sounded possible. They then went onto explain that all you do is finish eating dinner on, say Monday at 6pm then miss breakfast and lunch the next day, eating dinner on Tuesday at c. 6pm or later. Well that sounded less frightening even though that is 24 hours, it's actually only missing 2 meals. I'd originally thought about doing it just once a fortnight but when I tried it, realised that it was easy enough (it only gets a little harder from 4pm onwards) and if anything I now almost look forward to my fasting days. What's more is if I'm busy with work, it's actually easier.

I'd previously tried 5/2 though and didn't lose an ounce. So I wanted to share this with people in case you've tried one form of "IF" type approaches and assumed they all didn't work for you (although I'm not really sure if 5/2 is really IF).

Top tips I have is to have herbal or spice (not fruit) teas so they're calorie free, black coffee and plenty of sparkling water. I don't personally have any sweeteners anyway but I think most people avoid them when fasting. Also if you find you're struggling and exercise a lot like I do, sodium can be depleted by fasting so another tip is to have some electrolytes or even a pinch of salt (e.g. in coffee) if you're struggling.

I genuinely cannot imagine stopping doing this now unless I'm advised to medically. It's far easier than any other method I've used to try and lose weight. I'm a total convert.

It does sound as though you have found something that works for you OP, which is great, as a lot of people seem to get a bit flummoxed by peri gains.

I don't want to pour cold water, and also stress that I am no expert, but also felt it maybe needed mentioning on this thread that I had understood that the best way to avoid gallbladder issues when dieting was actually NOT to skip meals. I had a friend who was doing really well with IF then got blindsided by this.

I hope that isn't too negative - and with luck someone can chime in and explain how to avoid gallbladder problems while incorporating fasting. I think drinking lots of water also helps.

I finished my fast - 36 hours.

I may give it another go next week

I tend to keep it to a Mon, Tues or Weds depending on my week, work, if I'm away.

Someone told me I sounded like I had an eating disorder on MN recently but didn't elaborate. But I think it was also the same person suggesting that counting every calorie and weighing every food I ate was a good approach.

Any weight loss method if used to an extreme can become an eating disorder. If you are worried you have the propensity for that then it's probably not the right method for you but then also many others wouldn't be either.

Wow. I've never gone that long. It's the going to sleep feeling hungry part I can't get my head around. How was that?

I did do a bit of googling this morning because it was new news to me. It tends to be if you're losing weight rapidly (irrespective of method but fasting is mentioned as some people go overboard with it) i.e. >2lb per week. I'm nowhere near that. Also if you do have gallbladder issues the first point of treatment is fasting and water.

It is a good idea though to keep watch on gallbladder issues though but advisable for any dieting from what I've read, especially if you're choosing to eat low fat diets.

Thanks for sharing that as a risk factor though, I wasn't aware.

I've been doing three 42 hour and one 18 hour a week and am down nearly 10 lbs in a fortnight (most of that water, I'm sure). I'm 64, menopausal, hopelessly insulin resistant, and have been yo yo dieting for 50 years. It's hard and I can't say I love it but it is working. The mental part is the biggest battle but that's been true for half a century, no matter what "diet" I'm on. The inflammation is going down so my knees hurt less. It's encouraging me to continue.

That sounds like a lot. Is it under medical supervision? Hope you're ok.

Is that a joke? That only leaves 24 hours a week you aren't fasting unless I'm going mad.

Day 0: fast starts whenever you stop eating.
Day 1 nothing
Day 2 6 hour eating window
Day 3 nothing
Day 4 6 hour eating window
Day 5 nothing.
Day 6 6 hour eating window.
Day 7 6 hour eating window, the end of which puts you back at Day 0.

So it's skipping at least 13/21 meals a week, assuming you squeeze two meals into your 6 hour eating windows?

Yeah the maths was boggling my noggin too.

My process has been to miss 2 meals a week. So if you have 21 meals a week I'm having 19. It does seem very restrictive and a very rapid weight loss.

Like any weight loss, fasting is prone to disordered eating. I really hope the poster is ok.

I'm fine - thank you for your concern. I'm eating 8 high fat, high protein, low carb meals a week. I'd love to eat more often but I can't lose an ounce if I don't restrict like this.
I'm following Jason Fung's protocols, in case anyone is interested.

Losing 10lb in a fortnight though is a lot. 1-2lb a week is normally recommended putting you at 2.5-5x the rate of recommended weight loss. It might be advisable to get support on whether it's the right kind of pace as otherwise you may lose muscle rather than fat.

I have no illusions that this rate of loss will continue! I'll be lucky to lose 2 pounds a week and will be content with 1. This isn't my first rodeo with fasting.

Ok I will stop interfering. But I'm concerned if I'm honest.

AND remember that gallbladder!!

Do you choose a calorie-restricted or healthy dinner when you break your fast or could you,l have, say, a lasagne without ruining things?

I hear lots about how you have to break fasts with specific foods but I haven't found that to be the case. I just have whatever I fancy

Yeah I've read that too. I quite often end up having my version of pork souvlaki with tzatziki and a cucumber and tomato salad (mostly because I can't be arsed to do the rest towards a Greek salad) dressed with cider vinegar. For some reason it's often the dish I crave at the end of a fast. Then I follow that up with fresh fruit or dried fruit and nuts if I'm still hungry.

I would and still do eat lasagne, I just make sure I make it from scratch with wholemeal lasagne sheets because I'm trying to focus on protein and fibre and either make it veggie with lentils, peppers, mushrooms, courgette etc or do a meat version (normally with some veg in too). I don't restrict foods like that, I just make sure they're high protein and fibre.

I started doing extended fasts last year. The first one I did over 24 hours ended up being 72 hours. I have no idea how that happened, it just became easier after the first 24 hours so I carried on. I did a few more - one 96 hours - and the first night was always the worst. Day times tended to be easy, on occasions I felt the best I have done for years!

Annoyingly after doing a few of these i somehow lost the ability to do it, try as I might I could never get past that first night until last week. It was an absolute night mare. i started the fast at 10 am, was fine during the day, even got to sleep fine but then woke up at 2am was awake for about an hour but finally got to sleep.

I am doing a 72hr fast this week.
Half way through!
Sunday- Wednesday evening.

Although I might have a cup of tea with milk tomorrow. I have a pretty physical job and tea helps keep me going.
I'm also having the odd zero calorie electrolyte tablet in fizzy water.

My biggest issue is boredom and my brain not shutting off to sleep

I naturally do 16:8 and haven't lost a lb (I don't eat breakfast, never have)
How would 1 x 24 hour fast help?

As long as you don't over eat the other days you're cutting 1500/2000 calories out of your weekly allowance

Unlikely it's normally only 2 meals you cut out. So possibly only about 1000 calories.

I won't be able to find all the references, but the book I read (and I read some papers at the time) were citing evidence in a couple of areas. Firstly around how it supports with insulin resistance. If you have insulin resistance, then weight loss is much harder. It's like a double whammy. You have the insulin resistance probably because of weight gain then it causes lots of problems in losing weight.

Problem is with a lot of papers on IF that they lump methods in together. Like 5/2, 14:10, 16:8 and 24 hour fasting (although this is often alternate day fasting which is a bit much IMO).

The book I was reading though also claimed that human growth hormone was increased by 24 hour fasting (a quick google again suggests there's good evidence for that and that's one of the differences between 24 hour fasting and time restricted eating). HGH prompts fat burning while protecting muscle mass and also it prompted autophagy. Autophagy is again a difference between that 24 hour fast and shorter fasting periods. This is meant to reduce inflammation.

Then there's also the fact you're draining your body of glycogen in 24 hours and you have to switch to fat. You're probably getting to that around 20 hours but it's enough to force your body to start burning fat.

Now I know someone will come along and say "but there are papers telling you that it's only as good as reducing calories". Yep there are but again what they do is lump in together all kinds of IF and it's pretty hard to find a "clean" paper with just one type and rarer still for it to be 24 hour fasting. For me, at least, I thought there seemed like there were logical reasons why a 24 hour fast might work and I thought I'd give it a try and it is.

There are also people that swear by calorie counting and 5/2. Tried both and didn't work. So I think rather than there being a "one size fits all" solution to weight loss, we all need a little trial and error. Be evidence based if that's your thing and try a few things out. But I was getting close to thinking "do I need drugs here?" While I was 28 BMI at my heaviest so I don't think quite heavy enough to qualify for WLI, my HbA1c was very close to prediabetic. I could see where I was headed and that probably pushed me to try something that felt a bit more "extreme". Now I've recently got down to 25.7 so well on my way to "normal".

😅 entirely depends what hours you fast?
I generally eat 3 meals in a 24hr period as I'm sure most people do

Ah, that's what you're misunderstanding.

It's 24 hours from start to end. So, you finish dinner at, say 6:30 pm, then the next day you eat dinner starting at 6:30 pm. That is 24 hours without eating but it's only actually two meals not eaten. Does that make sense? I think you're thinking of a 24 hour period starting at midnight and finishing at midnight but that would actually be a much longer fast because you wouldn't actually be eating (unless you snack) after you finish your dinner and have breakfast 2 days later.

So it would be, say, finishing eating at 6:30 pm on day 1 and not eating till perhaps 8am day 3. That's far longer than 24 hours.

(For info, the original post explains all of this.)