Fasting, My Experience
Okay. So. Fasting.
I tried a 18/6 fast for a week. 18 hours of fasting (no food) followed by 6 hours of eating ALL my Macros.
The science behind it makes sense:
Don't take in food for a specific amount of time-------use your body's stored energy-------lose weight.
Personally, it didn't work out for me. I think I ended up eating MORE than when I didn't fast.
My fasting was as follows:
Start fast at 7pm until 1pm. Feed from 1pm-7pm.
Repeat. for 7 days.
Day 1: Worked out awesome. Woke up. Drank iced black coffee. Ate food after the child was awake from nap. Stopped eating at prescribed hour. Eating all your macros, for me, in that amount of time was tough.
Day 2: woke up fine at 7am. Iced black coffee to start my day. HUNGER hit at 9am. I had not been this hungry since I started keto. WTF. Pushed through and the hunger subsided at about 11am. Ate all my macros from 1-7pm. 11pm rolled by, I wanted to eat. Maybe it was hunger, maybe it was munchies. either way, I had a scoop of the DREADED peanut butter. Then bed.
Day 3: Same as day 2. The hungers were real, but they went away by 11am. Ate all my macros from 1-7pm and then some food after the feeding time. More than just a scoop of Pb.
Day 4: Same as Day 3.
Day 5: Woof. I put heavy cream in my coffee today. Ended up eat WAY more than I should have through the night. Macros everywhere! possibly even kicked out of ketosis. Vowed not to do that again.
Day 6: Psssh. I'm done with this.
Day 7: Weight gain and disappointment.
Okay, so I failed at this. But it is okay. It was a learning experience.
It turns out, skipping breakfast and waiting for a 1pm lunch is totally feasible for me. ESPECIALLY if I am working.
This was my first week of summer vacation though. I was home ALL the time and had access to food at will. NOT OKAY.
I start working again every morning for the remainder of the summer. This will help me not eat in the am.
But restricting myself to only a small window of eating doesn't work for me. Having a kid makes sure of that.
So all in all, would I recommend trying a fast?
Sure. Try all the things! Try all the things twice just to make sure the first time was really what you experienced. (My motto on life)
I personally think a 5/2 fast (five days of normal eating/ 2 days of fasting) would work better for me. I would not be able to eat at ALL so no slipping would occur.
Let me know about YOUR experiences in the comments below!
