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Comment by nsxwolf | Hacker News Reader

I did one meal a day for a few years and lost an OK amount of weight and felt pretty good. But then I fell off the wagon and it wasn’t easy to start up again.

So now I’m trying a 48 hour fast once a week, and not changing much else. Starting week 5 tomorrow, and it’s looking promising so far.

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> But then I fell off the wagon and it wasn’t easy to start up again.

Just wanted to say, based on my extensive experience with fasting, this is normal. There seems to be a psychological barrier about how easy it 'should' be or 'used to' be, and you beat yourself up about it which makes things even worse.

Every time I've made a habit of extended fasting, or prolonged intermittent fasting, and taken a break longer than 6 to 9 weeks, restarting is very... very hard.

I'm curious if you considered a 4 day fast every other week instead. The first two days are the hardest days of an extended fast (hungry, lethargic), so you might find this approach easier and more beneficial.

I’ve found coffee and the occasional 200mg caffeine pill with 400mg of L-Theanine helpful to push through the first day of a multi day fast, when your body is complaining about burning up its glucose reserves.

I’d love to give this a try, do you not workout during these or?

Yes, I work out daily, 30 minutes on a row machine, 30 minutes strength training. Strength training has been found to protect muscle tissue from wasting during fasts, and the cardio is because I enjoy it.

I did the same thing but I just went to 80~85% of my usual lifting weights and a 3km walk in my lunch breaks.

That's an interesting idea. The only thing that would give me pause is I know I'd get a lot of "Oh, look, dad is being weird and not eating dinner with the family all week again". The 48 hours is basically "hey I'm skipping dinner tonight".

How’s your energy level throughout the 48h fast?

I feel pretty good, the only issue is just a sort of stomach discomfort that isn't quite hunger and not painful. More of an "empty" feeling. But mentally I am focused.

I don't have any hunger the whole time as long as I don't drink any coffee. For some reason it makes me ridiculously hungry and I just give the whole thing up.

Coffee is high acidity and I remember reading (can’t source) that it should not replace breakfast for that reason.

Wondering if replacing it with green tea could provide some of the caffeine in less acidic form.

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