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I keep hearing stories like this so I'm sure it's a common experience. But the one time I fasted for a week, the last 36 hours were a torture of continuous hung

I keep hearing stories like this so I'm sure it's a common experience. But the one time I fasted for a week, the last 36 hours were a torture of continuous hunger, and my body has been highly resistant to more fasting since. I used to do regular multiday fasts but haven't done any since. If you try it, it's probably best to follow the advice to stop when it gets bad and don't tough it out.

jijji 4y ago
the longest that I fasted was about 3 months and the biggest challenge that I faced was that if you omit protein from fasting then you have this weak/tiredness feeling throughout the time that you're fasting. what I found is that if you drink One of those 30g protein shakes everyday and a vitamin B complex vitamin (which supposedly breaks down lipids/fats) during the fasting, those feelings went away. on average I lost about 1 lb per day of body weight by doing such a fasting,.. and then after about 2 weeks of fasting it appears that your stomach gets smaller, and you become less hungry as a result, and the desire for food itself decreases.... during that 3 months I lost about 50 lb, and I think only because I would cheat once per week on Sunday.
- hirundo 4y ago
  Back in the 90's I lost 120 pounds on a multi-month protein shake "fast" ... and then gained it all back plus more. In total, despite the wonderful if brief relief from morbid obesity, it was a highly negative experience that I don't recommend, at least for weight control.
  - twawaaay 4y ago
    "protein shake fast" is not a fast. It is a calorie restriction diet. Probably the worst kind you can imagine. I lost 60 pounds once, then regained it back and then some. I lost it again but the second time I made it my mission to understand what I do and make it stick. It seems to be working. It is better to get healthy to loose weight that loose weight to get healthy. With healthy habits and healthy food your body will naturally shed unnecessary weight over time. The second time I lost weight, for good, I focused on building good eating habits. Learning new healthier recipes (to displace unhealthy food). Running every day. Intermittent fasting rather than restricting calories. Building metabolic flexibility so my body is good at living off of its fat stores. I was loosing up to 15 pounds a month for three months straight while not feeling hungry.
twawaaay 4y ago
This is probably because your body has atrophied fat burning metabolic pathways. I would suggest to start with regular daily fasting. This means you eat within short window of time every day (max 4-6h) and the rest you get by with no calories. It takes about 2 weeks to a month for a person to adjust depending on your overall health, age and whether you are insulin resistant. Once you get adjusted, you can try to restrict carbs a bit. Carbs are responsible for most of the hunger feeling. When I cut carbs my hunger ended completely. Cutting carbs (with restricted eating window) will force your body to adjust to functioning on your fat stores alone. Please, be mindful none of this requires cutting calories. You can eat as much as you want, just keep your feeding to a short window every day and try restricting carbs and replace them mostly with fats. Ideally you would also want to pay attention to what kind of fats -- refined ones are usually the worst. Hunger is your body signalling inability to get fuel for its critical processes. Given that most of us have hundreds of thousands of calories of fat (even if you look relatively lean), it is a bit preposterous idea that should be understood by your body having large stores of fuel but being unable to access them when it needs. This might be because there is insulin present (any levels of insulin basically block your fat metabolism). Or it might be because you have never exercised your fat metabolism and now suddenly you require it to provide a lot of energy which it is not equipped to do. This is solved by simply exercising it which means allowing your body to metabolise your stomach content and then waiting some more so that it has to reverse its processes to start metabolising fats. 16-18 hours is what is necessary to get there and that's why 4-6 hour eating window comes from -- so that you can train your fat metabolism a bit, every day. With healthy fat metabolism you should be able to go on a prolonged fast and it should be enjoyable.

jijji 4y ago

the longest that I fasted was about 3 months and the biggest challenge that I faced was that if you omit protein from fasting then you have this weak/tiredness feeling throughout the time that you're fasting. what I found is that if you drink One of those 30g protein shakes everyday and a vitamin B complex vitamin (which supposedly breaks down lipids/fats) during the fasting, those feelings went away. on average I lost about 1 lb per day of body weight by doing such a fasting,.. and then after about 2 weeks of fasting it appears that your stomach gets smaller, and you become less hungry as a result, and the desire for food itself decreases.... during that 3 months I lost about 50 lb, and I think only because I would cheat once per week on Sunday.

hirundo 4y ago
Back in the 90's I lost 120 pounds on a multi-month protein shake "fast" ... and then gained it all back plus more. In total, despite the wonderful if brief relief from morbid obesity, it was a highly negative experience that I don't recommend, at least for weight control.
- twawaaay 4y ago
  "protein shake fast" is not a fast. It is a calorie restriction diet. Probably the worst kind you can imagine. I lost 60 pounds once, then regained it back and then some. I lost it again but the second time I made it my mission to understand what I do and make it stick. It seems to be working. It is better to get healthy to loose weight that loose weight to get healthy. With healthy habits and healthy food your body will naturally shed unnecessary weight over time. The second time I lost weight, for good, I focused on building good eating habits. Learning new healthier recipes (to displace unhealthy food). Running every day. Intermittent fasting rather than restricting calories. Building metabolic flexibility so my body is good at living off of its fat stores. I was loosing up to 15 pounds a month for three months straight while not feeling hungry.

twawaaay 4y ago

This is probably because your body has atrophied fat burning metabolic pathways. I would suggest to start with regular daily fasting. This means you eat within short window of time every day (max 4-6h) and the rest you get by with no calories. It takes about 2 weeks to a month for a person to adjust depending on your overall health, age and whether you are insulin resistant. Once you get adjusted, you can try to restrict carbs a bit. Carbs are responsible for most of the hunger feeling. When I cut carbs my hunger ended completely. Cutting carbs (with restricted eating window) will force your body to adjust to functioning on your fat stores alone. Please, be mindful none of this requires cutting calories. You can eat as much as you want, just keep your feeding to a short window every day and try restricting carbs and replace them mostly with fats. Ideally you would also want to pay attention to what kind of fats -- refined ones are usually the worst. Hunger is your body signalling inability to get fuel for its critical processes. Given that most of us have hundreds of thousands of calories of fat (even if you look relatively lean), it is a bit preposterous idea that should be understood by your body having large stores of fuel but being unable to access them when it needs. This might be because there is insulin present (any levels of insulin basically block your fat metabolism). Or it might be because you have never exercised your fat metabolism and now suddenly you require it to provide a lot of energy which it is not equipped to do. This is solved by simply exercising it which means allowing your body to metabolise your stomach content and then waiting some more so that it has to reverse its processes to start metabolising fats. 16-18 hours is what is necessary to get there and that's why 4-6 hour eating window comes from -- so that you can train your fat metabolism a bit, every day. With healthy fat metabolism you should be able to go on a prolonged fast and it should be enjoyable.