I also highly recommend the zero fasting app for tracking. Super simple and really clean app that makes tracking fasts simple.
Start small and see how it goes. I find the 16/8 routine tends to work best for me personally with 36 hour fasts sprinkled in every couple weeks.
That timeline as "fasting" is funny to me up because that is basically how people used to eat in 20th century USA, pre-obesity. You'd eat three meals a day, all reasonably sized (or even small by todays standards), and at specific times. No you can't have a snack, that would ruin your appetite!
But now people are addicted to food and abuse it rampantly as is evidenced by the majorities waistlines and health care expenditure, it's terrible for us all but it's not only the most culturally acceptable form of substance abuse, it's widely encouraged and even celebrated. Strange times.
Even small fasts seem to sap my concentration and critical thinking. Once I eat again I feel like I think better.
However I have no problems on keto, or even just a consistently low-GI low-carb diet. If anything, fasting seems to improve my discipline and "depth-first" thinking.
Absolutely.
> Even small fasts seem to sap my concentration and critical thinking. Once I eat again I feel like I think better.
That's kind of normal when you start with (intermittent) fasting, may take at least some days until it gets better. Especially if are on a high carb diet and already developed some degree of insulin resistance your body is unable to fully switch into fat burning mode while the glucose stores are already depleted. This results in low energy and food carvings. Once that is regulated well your mental abilities likely won't suffer.
It's key to not refeed carbs at all during fasting (no juices, honey, etc).
I also occasionally do keto between the fasts which might have helped my metabolism switching to ketosis more quickly.
Ketosis is - in brief - a metabolic state where the body primarily used fats to burn for energy. Our bodies are perfectly suited to operate on ketosis. But this is only reached if glycogens are completely burned which means to u need to avoid refeeding carbs entirely.
Basically it is simpler to eat nothing at all, than to eat at a caloric deficit.
Think of it this way: our bodies have evolutionarily adapted to be able to live off our fat reserves (when overweight).
I recommend reading material or watching videos of Dr. Jason Fung, a Canadian nephrologist who makes compelling well-sourced arguments and explanations.
I'm only speaking of IF, but yes. Multi-day fasts may be different, but I actually think best right after my workout during my IF window.
The effects are so pronounced I'm considering just eating a single meal each day right before bed.
On a carbs based diet, it feels like there's an animal inside me craving for food all the time. Then I feel drowsy and sleepy if I don't eat anything for even a few hours. As a developer, that's terrible. I feel really bad.
On a fat-based diet (e.g less than 40g of carbs/day), I feel absolutely great, and I don't feel hunger. When lunch comes, I feel just empty, but no craving at all, no hunger. Then the fasting becomes easy.
The caveat: switching from carbs to fat is not pleasant, takes a few days and isn't any fun. If you break it with a piece of cake, then you'll have to make the switch all over again and it won't be pleasant again.
That said, I have gone through fasts and said f-it at hour-mark 34 because I was on a deadline.
It's not a religion, so do what works for you - but I would at least try it.
I am not overweight, but I see that IF can increase growth hormone and testosterone, and increase insulin sensitivity, which are of interest to me. I would like to know if I am better doing a couple of longer fasts peer week, or if skipping breakfast would be enough. (Longer fasts feel like they have more benefit, but are more effort, especially when I am trying NOT to loose weight).
Does anyone know of anywhere good to compare the benefits of different IF protocols?
Edit: Thanks all! This’ll help me progress from 16/8 to consistent longer fasts.
I time it so I start the fast towards the evening and then it ends mid-morning - so you're only really pushing through one full day without food.
I'll have coffee/tea for caffeine and electrolytes seem to help depending on your situation.
Start with several smaller fasts before going full 36 and if you need to eat before the full 36 hours are up, don't kill yourself.
The biggest realization is just coming to terms with how much what a lot of people think of as "hunger" is often just boredom or cravings and not actual hunger. That was eye-opening.
Anyway, if you like, try avoiding sugar leading up to avoiding fasting.
Modern food intake also trains the digestive tract (most notably stomach) to never be empty, and we end up confusing signals of hunger with an empty stomach.
I heard that Japanese (or was it China? Korea?) people have this rule of thumb of eating only up to ~80% of stomach volume; no idea if it’s factually true but having this rule of thumb of not filling myself to the brim as we seem to culturally do currently seems to be extremely positive I’m my experience.
Letting go the social baggage of “bon vivant” and “oh my god I’m so full this was soooo good” seems to be just as hard as not smoking when many around are smoking.
“one should eat to live, and not live to eat” says Molière, but even being acutely aware of that, I struggle to fight the deeply ingrained social pressure, as even most foodies/fasters I know seem to subscribe to this “all you can eat” way of life (although with healthy food)
Goddamit when I was feeling great, all sporty and fit (athletic even, dare I say) everyone was saying I was too thin, and now that I feel like shit having some 10+kg excessive weight to shed, everyone around says there’s no need to, and worry a lot when I don’t take a second or third serving.
The traditional Buddhist notion is that one should eat to the point where one more mouthfull would fully satisfy oneself.
Fasting helps to change our relationship with food. It's about proactive control and not succoming to the minor inconvenience of feeling a bit hungry.
Personally, I’ve gone more than 14 days several times, I usually start when not feeling very well (and lacking appetite) which makes even the first couple of days trivial.
If you do want to go farther than 36 (at your own risk of course - I am not a medical professional and this is not medical advice) make sure you are well vitamined, well hydrated, and well electrolyted (e.g. with snake juice) - very often, need for some essential vitamin/mineral masquerades as hunger or appetite.
Isn't that how anorexics end up unable to eat at all, though? They go so long without eating that the "good" bacteria that permits digestion disappear so they're no longer able to process food.
Good bacteria can likely be reinstated by the body itself (the appendix is a cache for them), from food, or if all else fails - by FMT. I’m not an expert on this, and may be wrong, but from a lot of reading - any anorexia symptoms and processes seem to be entirely absent from mindful fasting.