All About Fasting

[BlackCartouche]

I remember I did try fasting when I lived in Oman many years ago. I struggled there a bit because I had fallen in love with the fish curry that the canteen prepared and didn't want to miss out on it.
The next day after the fast I really enjoyed my breakfast! Was very simple bacon and egg but tasted great.

You ate bacon in Oman?

 

[Rich]

You ate bacon in Oman?

Yes, but here I was talking past tense about the time I lived there. My admiration of breakfast here was a reference to last week after finishing a day of fasting.
For expats in Oman Bacon is actually very much on the menu. There are special shops that serve the expat community who stock a range of non-muslim products. It was a while ago and so I forget what the shops were called. It wasn't Bacon Shop but if I was a retailer I think that would be a store I would visit! :)

 

[Rich]

Sorry, I thought someone would know or would very kindly be able to direct me to a place that gives advice on ideal frequency for fasting?

 

[itellsya]

Sorry, I thought someone would know or would very kindly be able to direct me to a place that gives advice on ideal frequency for fasting?

It seems that, for most, rather than fasting for days on end or some variant of, intermittent fasting can bring about the same benefits. Intermittent fasting is where one chooses a number of hours in the day where they eat, and then they fast for the rest. It would be advisable that anybody attempting to do so be aware of any underlying health issues and that they listen to their body and adjust accordingly.

A recent session discussed intermittent fasting:

Q: (L) Oh, and there was one thing I had at the bottom of the list. I guess it goes with diet. I thought it was a good idea to fast one day a week.

A: Intermittent fasting will do.

As for how many hours this eating window should be, according to: Doctor: Intermittent fasting and zero carb diets are safe and effective -- Sott.net

If you are insulin resistant, the keys to avoiding the pitfalls listed in the article on the epidemic of the metabolic syndrome are intermittent fasting and a low carb, high fat diet. I feel that the more insulin resistant you are the narrower the eating window will need to be. Again there are no controlled studies to go by but from experience over the last 3-4 years talking to people about this it seems to me that insulin resistant people, even if it is mild insulin resistance need to keep the daily eating window no wider than 8 hours. For moderate to severe insulin resistance a 6 hour eating window with 2 all you want meals of food that is 70-80% fat calories is the way to go. I personally have found that a 12 hour eating window every other day works out best with my schedule and I have followed this regimen for the last 290 days (I was formerly on the 6 hours per day plan).

Obviously if one has never tried this before, it may be best to try it out once a week and work up slowly, paying attention to how the body reacts.

There are many more articles on SOTT regarding intermittent fasting Sott.net

 

[Rich]

Thanks itellsya That is helpful. Will check out some of those articles.

 

[SevenFeathers]

Sorry, I thought someone would know or would very kindly be able to direct me to a place that gives advice on ideal frequency for fasting?

Dr. Mercola at mercola.com has much information about fasting. He especially recommends intermittent fasting. Here is one of his articles: This Eating Habit Can Radically Shorten Your Life

 

[kolobar]

Sorry, I thought someone would know or would very kindly be able to direct me to a place that gives advice on ideal frequency for fasting?

I'm sorry to be late with my input. I'd recommennd a book, which IMO is a complete guide on Intermittent Fasting:
VanDerschelden, Michael. The Scientific Approach to Intermittent Fasting

Re. the frequency, IMO it depends on your body-mind condition and on your goalsq i.e. what do you want to achieve with the fasting - cure some health issues, anti-aging therapy, lean muscle or just lose weight

 

[WIN 52]

Too much water makes you thirsty and too much food makes you crave more. At least this is how my body has been reacting lately to those two issues. Eating one meal a day seems to work best for now. A good paleo style of eating seems to satisfy the best. It's not necessary to abstain from or restrict food intake for days.

 

[Ocean]

Yes, but here I was talking past tense about the time I lived there. My admiration of breakfast here was a reference to last week after finishing a day of fasting.
For expats in Oman Bacon is actually very much on the menu. There are special shops that serve the expat community who stock a range of non-muslim products. It was a while ago and so I forget what the shops were called. It wasn't Bacon Shop but if I was a retailer I think that would be a store I would visit! :)

It was Al Fair supermarket and still is.
However the government has just put a 100% tax on all pork products!

 

[Nachtweide]

I was amazed when I first read about fasting here. My development was strange. In my childhood, I was rather strong and forced myself to fast. Without success. My hunger was always there. Even though I had eaten less, my weight was the same or even increased. At age 36, I had my first major life crisis. Amazingly, I could not eat anything anymore. For days. There was no hunger or desire. My weight started to decrease very quickly. I only ate when the insulin level was in the basement and I got cravings. After that first crisis something changed in my body. There was no more hunger. So I ate nothing for 1-2 days sometimes. My lifestyle also made regular eating impossible. There were no fixed meals, I ate little but spread throughout the day. At some point, I realized that there was a change. Once I had a normal rhythm, on vacation, I could not stand food anymore. My energy was gone. As soon as I ate and fasted again very little, I was able to work without any problems for 12 hours a day. I also noticed that in difficult times, when my head had to think a lot, my weight had also decreased with normal food intake. At some point I read an article that thinking consumes a lot of energy and calories, which I can only confirm. To this day, fasting is part of my life although I do not intend to fast. There is very little appetite. Strangely, I have an incredible amount of energy and have never gotten sick. Whether there is a connection here, I do not know.

 

[WIN 52]

There seems to be a line/threshold a person can cross, when it comes to eating. Eating when the body needs food rather than eating when your ego demands food.

An interesting observation from someone experimenting with 12 hour fasting.

 

[Temperance]

So I've been seeing some results from IF for the past couple of months. The way I've been doing it is I eat within a 4-6hr window about 4 or 5 days a week, and eat within a 12 hr window(normal work day, breakfast at 6am, dinner at 6pm, very active physical day) 2 days a week. Each 12hr window day is interspersed by 3 4-6hr window days. Low carb most days, but I do introduce more carbs during more physically active days, but not high enough to bring me out of ketosis(going by feel). Been doing this for about 3 months or so now, but I built up the days in which I was fasting before that, and only recently shortened the eating window from 6hrs to 4hrs on some days(sometimes less, just because I'm busy, or too full to eat more than one meal). The reduction of the window came naturally. Paleo ingredient restriction, Keto macro-nutrient restrictions.

My results have been that I've been reducing body fat (visibly), although I haven't weighed myself. There is also a general feeling of well-being(very subjective, but present). I don't get crazy hunger pains, or anything like that, at most maybe a 3/10 hunger, and a bit of fatigue by the time my eating window approaches. I've been drinking yerba mate tea every day, and black coffee some days(on and off, but more frequently than not) outside of my eating window (mornings).
What mostly prompted me to share my results were that I noticed an increase in my immune system strength. Normally, even when taking lots of vitamin C, I wouldn't always dodge getting sick when people around me were getting sick. But this time, my mom who I live with got sick, a lot of my coworkers were getting sick, and I went through a couple of days with low sleep (and one of them, when I was most exposed to sick people around me, we had a really busy shift and spent most of the night out in the cold, soaking wet, and barely got 1 or 2 hours of sleep). So I believe I am seeing a significant difference here, and I'm curious how long I can sustain this for, although I'm feeling very comfortable with it right now.
Anyways, thanks for reading, and I'd encourage others to try it as well.

 

[SMM]

The search results gave no specific results on 'time-restricted eating' so posting this here, as it looked like the next most suitable place.

On Sunday and Monday I work 12 hour shifts. I've noticed that every other day of the week I am able to fast, have one or two meals a day and a 4-7 hours eating window.

When I work these shifts, it's a lot harder. We have short 10 minutes break every 6 hours, which sometimes it's too busy to take fully, and eating locations and options are limited. Recently I either eat a small amount or not at all for the entire shift. I used to take broth with lots of added fat, and found even that didn't help. I tried eating early before work, no good.

I come home after work and it's difficult to not eat then. It's partly comfort eating, as it's difficult to keep a routine these days. The days when I'm not working 12 hours, I'm alright.

There was a Cs session from last year that mentioned time restricted eating and its importance.

So these two days of eating late (around 9pm) though not every week, I really want to address to find a solution that can be implemented as part of a routine. Even moreso now as the sunsets around 4PM in the northern hemisphere and I aim to eat between sunrise and sunset.

What hours between 8AM and 4PM are best? What might be better to eat that will keep me full all day?

When I get back home now, I plan my day to do study reviews before EE so I don't have to go to the kitchen. This is new so will see how it goes.

Sometimes I think it may take redoing the entire kitchen to stop eating late on these days.

@Temperance, thank you for sharing That's great to hear.

I eat within a 12 hour window for these two days also. My concern is that it is 9PM or 10PM that I'm eating and prefer to sleep early and leave 3-4 hours after eating before sleeping.

 

[PopHistorian]

Back when I was younger I did a 21 day fast, the last ten days of which were water only and I have to say that I felt reborn and it lasted for a very long time.

I read about water fasting earlier this year and watched many videos of people who did it. I was most intrigued by the purported detox and autophagy effects. I quickly discovered that its proponents absolutely love it and promise miracles, but physicians in the grip of mainstream thought seem to reject it.

I did a minimal water fast (four full days) about three months ago. I felt great for about two weeks thereafter. Because I got through the hard part (Days 2 and 3), I feel like I should have kept going!

 

[Redrock12]

Back in about '85 I went on a ten day water fast. The first three days were incredibly hard, but after that I stopped feeling hungry, slept like a baby, lost twenty pounds, and felt incredibly good.
Actually, that's why I'm on this topic. I'm gonna have another go at it.