Fasting has really worked for me. I've been doing it for nearly 2 years. Better mental clarity, better weight and less sickness. I'm doing a version of the 5:2 diet though
I've read about this and recognize the potential benefits. I want to give it a try.
1. How does one get started ? Specifically, how do you combat the irritability and headaches at the onset ?
2. What are some good online communities to join ? 3.What are the best practices and what should I know ?
Headaches at onset have various causes, some unavoidable (coffee withdrawal for many, carb withdrawal for most), some are (insufficient electrolytes or other nutrients).
Make sure you don't start with a vitamin deficiency, and add a little bit of salt to your drinking water.
Sodium only is insufficient and bad advice because absorption and retention of most alkali metals is competitive. A balance of potassium, sodium, calcium and traces of magnesium are essential. Playing Russia roulette with a heart-attack or an intestinal blockage is unnecessary.
I got started with a girlfriend, specifically. For the first month, we agreed to do the following:
1) No breakfast
2) Only coffee (no sugar, sweeteners) or tea during the day
3) Go out for dinner every night. No cooking. Don't eat to excess. We mostly went to different sushi restaurants and had different rolls every night. Under $40 for two.
4) Eat a healthy breakfast on weekends and maybe have some popcorn or nuts or whatever to balance out whatever nutrients may have been missed during the week.
It was the easiest diet I've ever tried. The first few days weren't rough at all, contrary to my expectations. The anticipation of restaurant food (as a reward for the daily fast) did a lot to keep my mind off hunger, or at least reframe it: restaurant food was a reward, and I wasn't hungry, I was maximizing my future enjoyment.
We also saved a lot of time -- no groceries, no dishes, no meal prep, aside from some egg dishes on Saturday mornings in bed.
After that first month, we were both down 8-10 pounds, and conditioned to fast... Importantly, we didn't feel as though our diet had cost us anything socially: we could go out every night and eat together, the meals were so important to us that we had genuine excitement about what was for dinner, and this by itself was a good topic for conversation while waiting for the sushi to arrive.
At the end of the month, we had both shifted from passivity towards more active-executive control over our daily lives, especially our diets. To go a day without food is nothing, now. If either of us ever need to lose weight, it has become easy: we can simply eat less until we reach a goal.
I do 2:5 (working week without food, eat only on starting friday night) very often (another one due next week), and I don't have headaches. Basically, I just don't stop coffee! I have one coffee in the morning to get a kick, and that's it.
For metallic taste in mouth the best is sparkling mineral water. Oh and I wear socks in bed, because I get cold (I usually never do!)
personally I don't like fasting just 2 days, you get the 'disadvantages' of fasting (hunger the first day) with very little 'advantages' (autophagy). I think that 3 days is a minimum for a good 'return on investment'.
I have done this for the past several years and it has helped tremendously with weight control but has vastly improved energy. The onset of the headaches is intense to say the least but stay the course as it is really worth it. And don't shoot yourself in the foot by going crazy on the days you are eating.
Be prepared for two to three miserable days when you start. You will have headaches and depending on your choice of drinks before fasting you may experience severe sugar withdrawal. If you are/we're a major carbohydrate consumer you will likely feel like you have the flu for hothouse two to three days. Just know that you can get through it and you will come out on the other side feeling so much better. Just do yourself a favor and clean out your pantry ahead of time to eliminate those items that "call to you" so that you don't feel tempted. You can't eat what is not there without making the conscious choice to go to the store to buy something.
That depends on what your normal diet is like. But, if you've been eating healthy and occasionally doing some fasting, it'll be much less of a shock to your system.
Personally, i've never got headaches from fasting. But, I do get extreme appetite, just as I normally would when i'm not fasting. Also, occasionally, I do get some sugar withdrawal systems as well, when i fast really aggressively for several days at a time.
I find the most convenient form of fasting to be the 16 hour daily fasts, which I do almost everyday. Those are very easy to execute and stick with.
This is interesting. Overall I had a pretty healthy diet prior to my start in fasting. I rarely ate things that contained sugar or no more than a very small amount, I did not drink carbonated drinks (although I drank green tea), but I LOVED CARBS. My go to snack was always Cheez It's or Chips. I did not eat more than a handful but I did that probably 2x a day. I also loved fresh fruit which is very high in carbs. To say that I felt Like I had been run over by a truck from the carb detox was an understatement. But it only last 3 days give or take but it was a miserable 3 days.
Now after years of regular fasting I have no troubles. If I overindulge during a non fasting period I pay for it with mild headaches but nothing like at the beginning. I think at the beginning i simply put my entire body a bit into shock and I was not prepared for the intensity of the headache and achiness. I stuck with it and am glad I did. Now it is very simple and works with my lifestyle really well.
Ketones are a superfood? That doesn't make sense to me as superfood isn't a real term.
Here's an article stating that improvement in BP, lipid decrease, and increased insulin sensitivity occurs in fasting. Not so sure about the rest of the vague claims made in the article.
Instead of picking out one food or another, I'd just like to generally highlight that the human body can use two sources of energy, carbs - glucose, or fats - ketones.
For ketosis to occur, you need to be starved of carbs and loaded with good fats. In effect, your body does turn into a fat burning machine since you literally use fat to fuel your activities and life.
The article stating improvements in various aspects of health seem to align with other studies of positive effects on our bodies upon adapting ketosis as a primary source of energy.
I can actually speak from expertise on this! I've done fasting for the last five years (daily, eating once between 6-9PM), but this advice mostly comes from endurance road biking.
You can find "Salt-Free Salt" products in most supermarkets, typically in the spice section, it's a niche product for people on very low sodium diets. I believe the biggest brand name is "No Salt" -- these products typically contain potassium chloride, calcium, and some magnesium salts. Because of this, they're an excellent hack for athletes, anyone operating in extremely hot weather, and anyone looking to start a fast.
To make a (more or less) isotonic solution for hydration, add one teaspoon of the potassium salt and one teaspoon of normal salt per 1L of water -- this will give you a solution with a balance of sodium, potassium, and small amounts of magnesium and calcium that's around 0.9-1.0% salinity.
Personally, I adjust my diet to include slightly more of the potassium salt.
Thanks for this info. I forgot about the No Salt and Salt trick in water from my running days, but it really does work. Thanks for this reminder because hydration is really the key to success in fasting.
There are some pills which contain lots of minerals, you could supplement with those. They have no calories or hardly any (and you apparently need more than 10 kcal to break a fast)
Has anyone combined fasting with intense physical activity/exercise? I enjoy long runs and HIIT workouts, but when I've gone straight into a workout after work before dinner, I always seem to lose energy and feel horrible. Would working out during fasting make this worse?
Wouldn't recommend fasting for HIIT or any super intense activity, but the long runs may improve. I'm saying this since sugar is a lot quicker to be transformed into energy by the body than fat.
But we're all different, so, you could give it a try :).
I have done multi-day backpacking trips while just consuming water, green tea and some nuts/dried fruit once a day. I was fine. I had plenty of energy each day.
This only really works if you sit in a chair all day. Why not just exercise instead? You can still fast, but eat once a day in the evening if your heart is set on it.
Nobody with a physical job could pull off days of fasting like this, it's totally unsustainable.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 52.4 ms ] thread1. How does one get started ? Specifically, how do you combat the irritability and headaches at the onset ? 2. What are some good online communities to join ? 3.What are the best practices and what should I know ?
Make sure you don't start with a vitamin deficiency, and add a little bit of salt to your drinking water.
The purpose of restricting your diet is to restrict calories, while not being nutritionally deficit.
This is very important to keep in mind in order to prevent long term deficiency diseases.
1) No breakfast 2) Only coffee (no sugar, sweeteners) or tea during the day 3) Go out for dinner every night. No cooking. Don't eat to excess. We mostly went to different sushi restaurants and had different rolls every night. Under $40 for two. 4) Eat a healthy breakfast on weekends and maybe have some popcorn or nuts or whatever to balance out whatever nutrients may have been missed during the week.
It was the easiest diet I've ever tried. The first few days weren't rough at all, contrary to my expectations. The anticipation of restaurant food (as a reward for the daily fast) did a lot to keep my mind off hunger, or at least reframe it: restaurant food was a reward, and I wasn't hungry, I was maximizing my future enjoyment.
We also saved a lot of time -- no groceries, no dishes, no meal prep, aside from some egg dishes on Saturday mornings in bed.
After that first month, we were both down 8-10 pounds, and conditioned to fast... Importantly, we didn't feel as though our diet had cost us anything socially: we could go out every night and eat together, the meals were so important to us that we had genuine excitement about what was for dinner, and this by itself was a good topic for conversation while waiting for the sushi to arrive.
At the end of the month, we had both shifted from passivity towards more active-executive control over our daily lives, especially our diets. To go a day without food is nothing, now. If either of us ever need to lose weight, it has become easy: we can simply eat less until we reach a goal.
For metallic taste in mouth the best is sparkling mineral water. Oh and I wear socks in bed, because I get cold (I usually never do!)
personally I don't like fasting just 2 days, you get the 'disadvantages' of fasting (hunger the first day) with very little 'advantages' (autophagy). I think that 3 days is a minimum for a good 'return on investment'.
Be prepared for two to three miserable days when you start. You will have headaches and depending on your choice of drinks before fasting you may experience severe sugar withdrawal. If you are/we're a major carbohydrate consumer you will likely feel like you have the flu for hothouse two to three days. Just know that you can get through it and you will come out on the other side feeling so much better. Just do yourself a favor and clean out your pantry ahead of time to eliminate those items that "call to you" so that you don't feel tempted. You can't eat what is not there without making the conscious choice to go to the store to buy something.
Personally, i've never got headaches from fasting. But, I do get extreme appetite, just as I normally would when i'm not fasting. Also, occasionally, I do get some sugar withdrawal systems as well, when i fast really aggressively for several days at a time.
I find the most convenient form of fasting to be the 16 hour daily fasts, which I do almost everyday. Those are very easy to execute and stick with.
Now after years of regular fasting I have no troubles. If I overindulge during a non fasting period I pay for it with mild headaches but nothing like at the beginning. I think at the beginning i simply put my entire body a bit into shock and I was not prepared for the intensity of the headache and achiness. I stuck with it and am glad I did. Now it is very simple and works with my lifestyle really well.
Here's an article stating that improvement in BP, lipid decrease, and increased insulin sensitivity occurs in fasting. Not so sure about the rest of the vague claims made in the article.
https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2...
For ketosis to occur, you need to be starved of carbs and loaded with good fats. In effect, your body does turn into a fat burning machine since you literally use fat to fuel your activities and life.
The article stating improvements in various aspects of health seem to align with other studies of positive effects on our bodies upon adapting ketosis as a primary source of energy.
You can find "Salt-Free Salt" products in most supermarkets, typically in the spice section, it's a niche product for people on very low sodium diets. I believe the biggest brand name is "No Salt" -- these products typically contain potassium chloride, calcium, and some magnesium salts. Because of this, they're an excellent hack for athletes, anyone operating in extremely hot weather, and anyone looking to start a fast.
To make a (more or less) isotonic solution for hydration, add one teaspoon of the potassium salt and one teaspoon of normal salt per 1L of water -- this will give you a solution with a balance of sodium, potassium, and small amounts of magnesium and calcium that's around 0.9-1.0% salinity.
Personally, I adjust my diet to include slightly more of the potassium salt.
But we're all different, so, you could give it a try :).
I know people that backpack the same distance and they are consuming 4000-5000 calories per day!
(Libin before https://www.incimages.com/uploaded_files/image/970x450/14814...)
Nobody with a physical job could pull off days of fasting like this, it's totally unsustainable.
This is basically just anorexia.