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> Has anyone here actually ever TRIED fasting a full 24h day? I've been IF throughout the past 8 months. It's by far the best way of losing weight I've found (

by ux-app 11y ago

> Has anyone here actually ever TRIED fasting a full 24h day? I've been IF throughout the past 8 months. It's by far the best way of losing weight I've found (10kg in 8 months). I'm planning on doing more fasting this month to lose another 2-3kg which will get me to my goal weight. The longest stretch for me has been 5 days. It's hard for me to describe how I go longish periods(some go for a month+), but essentially it is a 100% mental effort. I visualise my hunger as a switch which I turn off. When the switch is off I am immune to hunger. It sounds ridiculous but this kind of visual imagery works for me. I've tried going into a fast without first spending about half a day "tuning" my brain via visualisation and it was a disaster, just as you describe. For me fasting has by far been the best (easiest, most effective) way of losing weight. Before this I spent about 3 months cardio training with only minimal dietary intervention which resulted in huge muscle tone in my legs (had a work colleague once remark : "dude! your calves are fricking huge!") and no noticeable abdominal fat loss. Throughout my fasting I've also been weight training. The results at the 3 month mark are unbelievably cool :)

usaphp 11y ago
By losing weight you mean losing fat or mostly muscles? I know that if are already in good shape then you mostly lose muscles not fat first.
- ux-app 11y ago
  The majority of the weight loss has been fat. I've put on a considerable amount of muscle since Christmas 2014 and the scales show me at 10kg lighter.
- vidarh 11y ago
  From experience bulking and cutting during 10+ years of power lifting, it's fairly hard to lose muscle during short term low calorie diets. It will appear as if you lose muscle as you will flush fluids out of your muscles very early on, and unless you're very lean to start with it's not obvious that this isn't muscle loss. You will also often appear to be weaker - e.g. I don't hit my 1 rep max when I'm not on a protein heavy diet with a calorie surplus. If I ate badly the day before exercise, I simply do not manage to push myself to my limits. There's no way I've then lost muscle to cause that (if I had, I wouldn't be back to normal next workout with a stricter diet). When I'm cutting that effect is much stronger. Couple fluid loss and feeling weaker, and it's natural that people assume they've lost lots of muscle, but it takes quite a while or quite extreme deficits before you actually lose enough to notice. (Even then, training back up again is much easier than the first time)
- abrookewood 11y ago
  I don't this this is correct. I've read a few articles on this (trying to restrict my reading to published studies as far as possible) and it goes roughly (from memory) glucose/sugars first, then fat, then muscle. You may begin to lose some muscle before you lose all of your fat, but this takes a 'while' ... the studies were never clear on how long it takes for this to happen.
eru 11y ago
> For me fasting has by far been the best (easiest, most effective) way of losing weight. Before this I spent about 3 months cardio training with only minimal dietary intervention which resulted in huge muscle tone in my legs (had a work colleague once remark : "dude! your calves are fricking huge!") and no noticeable abdominal fat loss. Pedantry: muscle tone doesn't mean what you think it means. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_tone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_tone)
- ux-app 11y ago
  cool, thanks for the fyi :)
tkyjonathan 11y ago
You are hurting your metabolism. Try reading "The Great Starvation Experiment".
- rhinoceraptor 11y ago
  Fasting is not the same thing as a chronic low calorie diet. Even if there were no health benefits from fasting, worrying about eating every two to four hours must be mentally exhausting.
  - eru 11y ago
    Can't even get a good nights sleep that way!
- ux-app 11y ago
  > hurting your metabolism What do you mean by this? Do you mean I'm affecting the long term ability for my body to extract energy from food? I very much doubt that a few days of fasting would have any such long term effects. Quite the opposite in fact. Fasting has been clinically shown to have many positive side effects. The book you refer to seems to be about intentionally inducing a prolonged state of starvation which would undoubtedly be bad.

by ux-app 11y ago

usaphp 11y ago

By losing weight you mean losing fat or mostly muscles? I know that if are already in good shape then you mostly lose muscles not fat first.

ux-app 11y ago
The majority of the weight loss has been fat. I've put on a considerable amount of muscle since Christmas 2014 and the scales show me at 10kg lighter.
vidarh 11y ago
From experience bulking and cutting during 10+ years of power lifting, it's fairly hard to lose muscle during short term low calorie diets. It will appear as if you lose muscle as you will flush fluids out of your muscles very early on, and unless you're very lean to start with it's not obvious that this isn't muscle loss. You will also often appear to be weaker - e.g. I don't hit my 1 rep max when I'm not on a protein heavy diet with a calorie surplus. If I ate badly the day before exercise, I simply do not manage to push myself to my limits. There's no way I've then lost muscle to cause that (if I had, I wouldn't be back to normal next workout with a stricter diet). When I'm cutting that effect is much stronger. Couple fluid loss and feeling weaker, and it's natural that people assume they've lost lots of muscle, but it takes quite a while or quite extreme deficits before you actually lose enough to notice. (Even then, training back up again is much easier than the first time)
abrookewood 11y ago
I don't this this is correct. I've read a few articles on this (trying to restrict my reading to published studies as far as possible) and it goes roughly (from memory) glucose/sugars first, then fat, then muscle. You may begin to lose some muscle before you lose all of your fat, but this takes a 'while' ... the studies were never clear on how long it takes for this to happen.

eru 11y ago

> For me fasting has by far been the best (easiest, most effective) way of losing weight. Before this I spent about 3 months cardio training with only minimal dietary intervention which resulted in huge muscle tone in my legs (had a work colleague once remark : "dude! your calves are fricking huge!") and no noticeable abdominal fat loss. Pedantry: muscle tone doesn't mean what you think it means. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_tone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_tone)

ux-app 11y ago
cool, thanks for the fyi :)

tkyjonathan 11y ago

You are hurting your metabolism. Try reading "The Great Starvation Experiment".

rhinoceraptor 11y ago
Fasting is not the same thing as a chronic low calorie diet. Even if there were no health benefits from fasting, worrying about eating every two to four hours must be mentally exhausting.
- eru 11y ago
  Can't even get a good nights sleep that way!
ux-app 11y ago
> hurting your metabolism What do you mean by this? Do you mean I'm affecting the long term ability for my body to extract energy from food? I very much doubt that a few days of fasting would have any such long term effects. Quite the opposite in fact. Fasting has been clinically shown to have many positive side effects. The book you refer to seems to be about intentionally inducing a prolonged state of starvation which would undoubtedly be bad.