The Science of Fasting (4 Viewers)

[SystemShock]

I think it simply boils down to giving the body more time to use up and clear out all the crap that's hanging around in your organism.

 

[SWJJ]

What are you eating for your meals during that period?

It varies day to day. Sometimes I can eat clean protein (fish and chicken) and veggies, sometimes Its trash carbs (breads and noodles.)

I have 3 kids, 4, 6, and 8. Just getting them to eat ANYTHING is a challenge. So I try to keep portions in check, but I'd say when they are picky eaters I eat more garbage. Also my alcohol consumption influences how healthy a decision I am making with food.

 

[Tapxe]

Also my alcohol consumption influences how healthy a decision I am making with food.

More than anything else, I suspect my shying away from alcohol has been of great benefit to me. I'm down another 2# since starting this post. And that's after I went to a Ball Sat night. Much alcohol and cake were eaten. After lunch Sunday didn't eat again until Tues lunch. It was a light lunch of stir fried veggies and I only picked at the rice. My guess <300 cals.

I've been eating only cashews, pistachios or peanuts for dinner ~160 cal's each time. My lunches yesterday and today were horrible ~1000 cal's each. Hot wings are my weakness and one does not try a new soul food restaurant and ignore the smothered fried pork chops, red beans, and rice & gravy. I did stick with water tho.

 

[FLEA]

Im typically eating 1200 to 2000 calories. Occasionally more than that(im looking at you weekends), I find this tends to help break your body out of a plateau period. I eat whatever the hell I want, so long as I keep the portions in check. I usually stick to two meals and a snack. My window for a while was 11 to 7, currently it is probably 1pm to 9pm. I don't usually eat after I go run, I eat before cause otherwise I would be pushing my window to 9 or 10 hours. I am pretty sure the best time to exercise is right when you wake up, but I haven't been able to get myself to go to sleep at a decent hour, ever. I don't follow any real science based diet though, I just go with the flow. I'm sure if I really got into the do's and don'ts about when to eat during the circadian rhythm and exercise, I'd be dead sexy by now....

Hunger/Cravings are easy to manage now.

So how far do you run? I run between 5 or 6 miles every other day and then on a weekend I might run 12 -14 miles. How do you refuel your body and muscles? My body cramps up if I don't refuel it with protein after a run. This sounds very interesting I am just not sure it would be good for a person who burns up as many calories as a runner does; as they do not have a lot of (if any)fat reserves and then you would start burning muscle.

 

[Tapxe]

So how far do you run? I run between 5 or 6 miles every other day and then on a weekend I might run 12 -14 miles. How do you refuel your body and muscles? My body cramps up if I don't refuel it with protein after a run. This sounds very interesting I am just not sure it would be good for a person who burns up as many calories as a runner does; as they do not have a lot of (if any)fat reserves and then you would start burning muscle.

Long term fasting would definitely be dangerous if there's no fat reserves. Maybe schedule your fasting days on the days you don't run and eat normally the others. Something like run, eat normally, then skip until dinner the next evening. Then eat normally until after your next run.

But it kind of sounds like you have a healthy diet and exercise routine so I don't know if there'd be benefit to trying it.

 

[kcirdor]

So how far do you run? I run between 5 or 6 miles every other day and then on a weekend I might run 12 -14 miles. How do you refuel your body and muscles? My body cramps up if I don't refuel it with protein after a run. This sounds very interesting I am just not sure it would be good for a person who burns up as many calories as a runner does; as they do not have a lot of (if any)fat reserves and then you would start burning muscle.

My feet have fallen arches/crooked, so I can't "run" or else my knees and ankles will hurt to much to stand on them. I am sure once I get closer to my proper weight I can start running if I focus on how my feet land. I 'run' on the elliptical for an hour typically and I end up according to the machine 'running'/moving my arms and legs about 5 miles on average. That's without pushing hard. I am usually watching Hulu or Netflix on my phone while running. I haven't moved much weight since the Holidays because I fell out of the habit of going 3 and 4 times a week, but the fasting and calorie counting have helped me continue to make progress even without 100% commitment to the physical work. I'm still about 60 lbs overweight so my body has plenty of fuel left to burn. I haven't had cramps, and I was slightly sore in the beginning but I think my body had adjusted to the work so I probably wasn't getting much out of it by that point other than the heart rate, which serves its own purpose, eliminating waste. It's just a matter of making sure you stay hydrated so your body can do the work it needs to process your waste and get it the **** out of your body.

I swear I am on the laziest diet ever, and its the first life style change that has worked longer than a few months.

 

[insidejob]

I have a friend of mine who lost 100lbs and kicked diabetes fasting. guy was over 300lbs at one point and took control of his life. His doctor and his friends got worried about him because he got skinny so quick. He did become a little preachy about sugar.
understandable because of the lifestyle change. Kinda like if you quit smoking crack you're most likely to tell people " yeah that crack is bad for you." lol.

My ex-girlfriend and I both did the master cleanse back in 2010 or so and I went 42 consecutive days with no solid foods. Just the lemonade concoction that you drink while doing it. I lost the 75+ pounds that I put on when I quit doing dope and drinking that I never put back on (because when I started eating again, I paid attention and ate about half as much food as I did pre-fast) and never had any energy issues or anything like that after the first couple of days doing it. We planned on doing it for 30 days but for some odd reason weren't ready to stop for almost another two weeks.

Back then, I was still a vegetarian but have since gone back to full carnivore. Fasting is a wonderful experience if you're doing it right and for the right reasons. Ever since doing that master cleanse, I've never wanted to do it again, but I do fast for 5 days every six months. I'm actually starting the first one of this year on Ash Wednesday. I'll do the second one starting on the day after Labor Day. Using the holidays makes it easier to remember and easier to be held accountable when many people expect me to be fasting on those occasions. I'll be eating a lot of Dong Phuong king cake between now and then.

I'm looking forward to checking out the documentary in the OP. People's expewrience with fasting is always interesting to me. Going back to pre-biblical times, people have used fasting for all kinds of different physical and spiritual reasons and have had very different results depending on the motivation and method used. The hardest thing about fasting for me is easing myself back onto solid foods when it's over. I don't want soup for two days when my stomach gets its first taste of food, I want a damn filet cooked medium rare - but I know the hell that would cause my delicate GI system and follow the rules because of it.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I've been doing intermittent fasting off and on for about 3 years now. I mainly do two 24 hour fasts a week. It's pretty easy... the trouble I have is trying to eat a normal meal when I break the fast. It's actually easier for me to go 36 hours and have a normal breakfast... but since I usually do a really hard workout in the mornings, it's really hard for me to give maximum effort if I had eaten in 36 hours, so I do the 24 hour fasts instead.

I'm probably going to switch to a 16-8 fast and try that for a while.

I'm intrigued by the idea of doing a 96 hour fast, but I hate not eating when my family is having dinner.

 

[Tapxe]

I'm intrigued by the idea of doing a 96 hour fast, but I hate not eating when my family is having dinner.

That's what got me. I'd planned on a 5 day fast when I started Sunday. I got cocky after going to lunch with the crew and only drinking water so I did it again and failed that time.

Oddly it wasn't the hunger that got me, it was because I felt obligated to eat at the restaurant since we were three but only one was ordering unless I and another ordered. We flipped a coin and it came up order...

 

[Zack Lee]

there is a conventional logic that said to eat something small in the a.m. just to get your metabolism kick started. I would always eat a piece of dry toast and half a grapefruit for this. Has this been completely disproven? What I am getting at is would this maybe work if you were otherwise doing the fast with the exception of this small meal? Or is it an all or nothing.

I know how to lose weight, that isn't an issue. I really want to try this for the energy gains and good feeling some describe.

 

[xaeniac]

do you cease workouts on fast days?

 

[Tapxe]

If I understand it correctly, the carbs would be bad as they stop the ketosis. There are however some ketosis diets where a small amount of carbs as a percentage are taken. I'm not concerned as much with the ketoacidosis aspect as I've plenty of fat stores. If you lack those, you probably need to be properly monitored and nourished to be safe.

 

[Tapxe]

I believe it's ok to exercise. I don't skip it but my routine is simply a set of under desk pedals that I use throughout the day. I usually don't really break a sweat and I burn from 400 to 1000 cals a day according to the very questionable readout on it.

 

[SystemShock]

there is a conventional logic that said to eat something small in the a.m. just to get your metabolism kick started. I would always eat a piece of dry toast and half a grapefruit for this. Has this been completely disproven? What I am getting at is would this maybe work if you were otherwise doing the fast with the exception of this small meal? Or is it an all or nothing.

It's been disproved, along with eating many small meals throughout the day. The only thing eating small meals throughout the day does, it helps people who are hungry all the time control their food intake.

I know how to lose weight, that isn't an issue. I really want to try this for the energy gains and good feeling some describe.

I think the energy gains and good feeling come from the detoxification of your body. But if you don't eat enough calories and (very important!) you don't sleep enough, no matter what you do, you'll feel run down and without energy. At least that's how it is for me.

 

[CapitalCitySaint]

A guy I know at yoga went on a 7 day fast at the end of 2017. He said he came out of it feeling more alert and everything seemed more vivid. He also looked skinnier (he was a normal size to begin with) than before he started.

I want to try a fast but I work out once, sometimes twice per day. I'd have to stop working out in order to do it. Perhaps I should try one or two days and work my way up.