Ask HN: Are You Fasting?
How often do you fast or do intermtten fasting? What do you usually do differently during that time? Does it affect your work? What advice would you give to someone who has just started and is getting acquainted with it?
What I love:
* Total mental clarity during the first half of the day, can focus fully on work or life responsibilities without a single thought about food.
* Freedom to not have to organize the day around food (making choices, planning logistics, "wasting" time). Pays off big time when traveling.
* Never inconvenienced or slip into grumpy mode when for whatever reason I don't get food.
* Eating a lot of high-quality home-cooked food - as I love cooking (when I have time) and I don't depend on eating out / ordering food / quick-prep meals as much.
* Bonus: great ROI of the occasional first alcoholic drink of the day (on a more or less empty stomach). Not a health advice!
If I fast, I generally get moody and all I can focus on is food. A lot of friends fast for religious reasons too, and the overwhelming majority of them get cranky instead of more productive and able to focus.
I felt fine, but BMs got annoying. I now eat twice a day just to keep things moving. And coffee.
I can't say I notice any difference at all in how I feel or weight or anything.
TBH, I don't really consider anything like the above fasting, and have only really fasted I guess once, when I was having a rather bad stomach issue. Day 1 was pain. Day 2 was lethargy. Day 3 felt like some kind of enlightenment. Mentally awake, but I was weak and my brain cloudy. It was a strange feeling of being mentally active but not able to really do anything with it. Maybe my body was giving me faux energy and alertness to go hunt with?
It was interesting, to say the least, but I haven't made a habit of it.
I have lost 30lb since 01/01/2023. Just cut out junk, reduced portion sizes & only drank alcohol at weekends.
At the beginning of Great Lent there are also three days that I try not to eat anything but usually it's not possible for me because of work, so I pick something small in the evening. Also during Great Lent I don't eat breakfast (to not break my fast ;)). Oh, and on Sunday if I attend Eucharist in the church I don't eat and drink anything before that.
Trying to follow these rules gives me a lot of joy and rhythm to my life. It makes me appreciate food, and also has made my diet simpler also in days that I'm not fasting. But the point isn't to restrict food but to be able to focus more on the spiritual struggles and tame your passions.
Below 48h of fasting, you don't enter ketosis, so you miss out on many benefits.
But never stop drinking water througout any type of fasting.
We are all different, but I am pretty sure you can enter ketosis after 18-20 hrs fasting
Until then, it's autophagy as in "converting adipose tissue into energy stores", so you're safe. And I don't think we use "autophagy" for this meaning.
It takes between 18h and 24h to deplete the liver, but that is without taking in consideration the contents of the GI tract! There are plenty of carbs and proteins in the GI tract at any time, and that takes around 1 day to digest too.
So I don't know how you managed to shortcut all of that, but I'm extremely interested!
My weight loss IF diet is 20:4. Keto is just raw or cooked food including raw healthy oils. I completely avoid risky foods marketed as keto friendly.
Once optimal weight is achieved I switch to 16:8 and swap keto for mediteranian diet
There exists so many plant oils, olive oil, nut oil, etc. Avocado is also almost only fat.
In meat-keto, you'll eat saturated fats, maybe heated fats, read meat maybe too (bad for CVS), most probably a ton of sodium... no thank you.
Saturated fats are not the enemy, but I guess I won't convince you of that. Red meat? That's the best. Heated fats??? Yes, it's a broth, it will be cooked for hours, if not days... I usually make it with bones of beef, and very little salt, definitely not a ton. Also, because it is bought as raw meat / bones, no other preservatives are added. Another question could be what that poor cattle had been eating, quality meat is certainly not cheap, and you need to pay attention to where you buy it.
Another option is chicken broth, that's more protein though, and no bone marrow.
Either way, the first sips of broth after a week of fasting taste like heaven, and you also don't need a lot (maybe a deciliter?), still you will feel completely full and well fed. I love this feeling!
But you forget easily that keto is not eating only fats. You can take reasonable amounts of proteins too (lentils, soy...), tons of fibers (salad, cabbage, celeri, any leaves basically), ...
Why? Because I am not hungry in the morning and the canteen opens at 11:30 (and there are less people then - I am in France where between 12:00 and 13:30 the world stops and everyone is downstairs queuing up to eat).
The effects? From 101kg to 85kg with 3% fat. Just kidding - I did not see any difference and I am still overweight (despite biking and eating healthy - this is probably one of these rare cases where thyroid-induced metabolism is the main culprit).
I also followed (and plan to follow again "~tomorrow") the JFEH diet. It works great (JEH stands for Just Fucking Eat Half (TM), a Scientifically Sound Diet (C) where you eat about the size of your fists put together). I really need to get back to that.
I can think really clearly vs the days that I don't fast and also I would say that my productivity is higher in terms of what I achieve. It has the downside that at 5PM or around I'm already without energy and I stop working compared to normal days when I'm okey up to 11pm.
I also pray 5 times a day as is usual, I'm not sure if that is relevant as afaik it has been found to have similar effects to meditation.
Finally I eat dinner and drink around 9PM
Instead of food I hit the gym or walk the dog. My work is improved IMO - I'm faster, more alert and find it easier to problem solve and focus. I'm a CTPO for a finance and payments company so if it was a negative, I'd know pretty quickly.
Happy to connect/chat about it -- even if it's for accountability
I sure hope it's the former!
I've been following a similar schedule (72-96h during weekdays, social activities permitting), primarily for weight loss, but I'm surprised with with how productive I feel compared to normal or even time-restricted eating.
I hit age 40 soon and I think my metabolism has slowed a lot, I still weightlift and run but there's definitely been a shift in what I can eat and stay comfortable with
Interestingly first thing they teached to American Injuns, was "warm meals thrice a day" and the result can be seen in the Indian population even today.
During these fasts I have water and nothing else. If I feel inclined to exercise or if I'm peeing excessively I will take electrolytes in the form of powder in water, but that's it. In the morning I'll have black coffee. So technically this is called a "dirty fast".
Initially it sucks. The first day in particular can be a bit hazy. Tip of tongue syndrome, tendency to hyper focus on a single thing, etc. It is objectively terrible.
After about 24 hours it becomes a very smooth feeling and you feel mentally agile. It might be placebo but it feels like more mental agility than when not fasting.
After about 48 hours it becomes peaceful on top of all that. Forgiveness comes easier, anger comes slower, you will feel like you should do less harm, things like that. It's a bit of a trip. Hunger is still there, might even be roaring with hunger at this point. Sense of smell is greatly sharpened.
After 72 hours you no linger are hungry. It's scary. There is just no desire to eat other than a psychological worry that you're missing whatever vitamin you're recently obsessed with. You might ask yourself "what's happening to my nicotinamide riboside reserves" and other such questions. However, physiologically there is not much hunger at all, and it is a bit scary because you know that you need food so it's strange and makes you mistrustful of your impulses to experience a disconnect between instinct and need.
Beyond 72 hours it stays the same, you've evolved beyond needing food and bowel movements and are closer to machine, you can get a lot done and you will have more time than you know what to do with. If you're someone who enjoys indulging in earthly pleasures you might be extremely bored.
Disclaimer the following contains information about fasting, it is not qualified medical advice as I am not a doctor nor am I claiming that it is safe:
My "advice" to someone who has just started is to take it slow, primarily for medical reasons. Electrolytes aren't exactly safe to tinker with. If you have a heart condition I would say straight up don't do any extended fasting. However if you want to know how it feels like to fast then work your way up to an extended fast, try an all day fast then resume regular eating for 3 days then try again. Then work up from there. Don't become obsessive about whether one calorie from sugarless gum breaks a fast, focus on the discipline required to fast through meals and let that discipline strengthen other aspects of your life. Also, take a very thorough accounting of your own health. If fasting causes you to lose minerals, you should be able to notice it right away. Take careful care of your teeth and nails so you can see any potential warning signs before they become issues. If anything goes wrong just resume eating, there is always tomorrow. And remember that water is your friend but if it is absorbing too much electrolyte out of your body then use powdered electrolytes to stay balanced.
Lastly, in general, and in stark contrast to the above, I do NOT recommend fasting to most people unless they hunger for a challenge that requires immense self-discipline. You can get plenty of metabolic health benefits from IF or OMAD without nearly as much discomfort. You can say "I'm fasting" and simply skip breakfast or dinner. It's almost a no-brainer especially if your only goal is weight management.
Source: me about to be 72 hours fasted