One of the nice perks of eating low carb and regularly doing ~48hr fasts is it's completely removed any hangry phase of being from my existence. I just choose to stop eating whenever and without even thinking about food 24hrs have gone by. The next best perk is not having to waste any time on meal-prep/eating/pooping those days either.
The only thing I would like to add is that going low carb does not necessarily have to be extreme (20gms per day or similar). It could be just cutting out high GI foods, or having such food in small quantities after your main meal. Tolerance for carbs varies in individuals and all you need to do is find your limit. Also, 48 hours fast is great but you can do as little as skip a meal every day (say 16:8 intermittent fast) to start seeing benefits: improved mood and energy.
I wanted to chime in just to make sure that people do not read your comment and say "oh, that's beyond me." A small step in the general direction of reducing carb intake and fasting for a few hours a day will go a long way for most people.
Whenever I skip a meal, I always feel "Hangry" without fail. So I am sceptical about this. How long do you have to do any kind of intermittent fasting to actually start feeling the benefit? (What are the actual benefits?).
From what I have read, our body is healthier with "regular" cycles / habits - sleeping and waking up at the same time, eating regularly at the same time, exercising at the same time etc. so that all the "body clocks" (apparently we have many, like for sleep, releasing hormones etc.) get in sync. So things like intermittent fasting kind of goes against that logic because it creates stress in the body. (Though I have read that intermittent fasting can be helpful to reset some of the body clocks, but I am still not sure how to best use it in our daily life. Islam, for example, prescribes monthly (full day) fasting every year, but because of the lunar calendar that is followed, this happens at different period every year. That's one established / tried and tested way of doing it "intermittently". Some sects of Christianity and Hinduism prescribe some particular days every year for fasting. That's another way old way of doing it. But is there a scientifically studied way or regimen in our modern times to do this safely and effectively?)
> Whenever I skip a meal, I always feel "Hangry" without fail.
How often do you skip meals? You have to make your body get used to your stomach being empty and burning fat. It is like walking, if you don't do it regularly then all the systems in your body that are there to burn fat aren't ready so they wont work properly. But if you practice it regularly then after a while it wont phase you at all, humans are made to function well without constantly eating meals.
It has nothing to do with low carb btw, I can do it just fine with high carb. Just have to get used to your stomach being empty from time to time.
> it creates stress in the body
Yeah, and training makes your muscles hurt and damages them when you haven't trained in a long time. Still training regularly is the healthy thing to do, and then your muscles will be just fine. Similarly skipping a meal doesn't damage you if you are used to it, your body just starts burning fat instead and everything continues like normal.
Also, try to predict what happens when your body isn't used to burn fat, and instead you just eat more every time your body starts to try to burn fat? Do you think that is healthy?
> Yeah, and training makes your muscles hurt and damages them when you haven't trained in a long time. Still training regularly is the healthy thing to do, and then your muscles will be just fine.
With training, it matters greatly how much and how often you train. It is easy to over-train and even easier to cause yourself an injury.
> Whenever I skip a meal, I always feel "Hangry" without fail.
In my experience, this is a kind of carb withdrawal. If your body is accustomed to not having a lot of carbs available constantly, you won't suffer from this. If you're eating lots of carbs, and especially sugary foods, the day(s) before IF, you'll get hangry.
As with any form of withdrawal, coming out of it doesn't happen overnight though. You need to soldier through a few days and then it subsides. The first time I did this it took me around 1 1/2 to 2 weeks of IF. After that, I could go 20-22 hours without feeling hungry or hangry.
These days, when I fall off the bandwagon, it takes me a couple days only as I'm more used to the feelings and sensations, and I guess my body knows it needs to adapt.
This is highly anecdotal and empyrical though, so take it with a grain of salt.
While reading I was just going to ask if there are more non-anectotal evidence for doing this? And also, are there information sites where one could start to try it on oneself? :)
> In my experience, this is a kind of carb withdrawal.
I generally avoid high GI foods, and consume carbs with high fibre content only so that the sugar is released more slowly into the body ( https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/a-good-guide-to-go... ). I am loathe to completely avoid all kinds of carbs as it is essential for our health.
Yep, choosing your carbs wisely is the better approach. I didn't mean to say you should avoid them completely but I can understand why you might have thought that from my post.
This. 10 years ago I started a weight loss journey of some 50kgs or so. Biggest takeaway ever was the tremendous benefit of becoming metabolically flexible.
The freedom in daily planning and mental stability (never hangry) I can recommend anyone.
Low carb, skip a meal every now and then. Gets you 90% of the way there.
Can folks recommend any articles/books that shed a light on time-restricted feeding done safely while incorporating vigorous exercise? I'm someone who historically gets "hangry" (according to my wife) and starting 2 weeks, I accidentally skipped breakfast two days in a row and
1. felt amazing
2. surprised my hangry stopped kicking in
I'm someone who previously could not tolerate skipping meals and totally caught off guard that my "hangriness" stopped flaring up. Would love an explanation for this (starting to take ice cold showers first thing in the morning coincides from the accidental fasting so not sure if cold showers confound my perceived benefits of fasting)
He at least refers to physiology and his videos avoid taking about toxins, acidity and other woo too much.
I accidentally did a nearly 60 hour fast for the first time ever last week as a result of watching that channel and doing some reading. Ate dinner on Monday, I was aiming for 36, felt fine on Wednesday morning so extended to 48 then decided to push on and skip dinner. Woke up at 3am on Thursday feeling such a genuine hunger that made me realise I’ve never been more than ‘peckish’ for most of my life. I caved and ate a small spoonful of ghee (pure fat) which lit my brain up like fireworks. Hunger immediately abated, the physical relief was incredible.
The main advice I followed was to drink more water, probably about double my usual consumption and take electrolyte salts.
I definitely don't do low carb diet, don't do any kind of fasting and I don't get any of this.
I can skip breakfast altogether, if I don't do any sport I can skip lunch too and don't feel much difference. My wife (and her side of family generally) is opposite - feeling weak and irritated when hungry.
Genes play a big role, as in everything body-related.
For sure, but it does seem riding a glucose roller-coaster affects the probability one will experience things like cravings and irritability on the dips. Just modulo that with genetics.
I'm currently in the middle of a hardcore body recomposition routine that involves eating 200g of protein a day on a 1400-1600 calorie budget (so ~60% protein, but not keto)
Workouts are mentally draining, and obviously muscle gain is slow (some people think you can't gain muscle and lose weight... unless you're a competition prepped body builder with 6% body fat you don't need to worry about that).
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Before toning things down a bit I had a few episodes where I'd enter ketosis, not necessarily from avoiding carbs, but from completely depleting my body's glycogen stores during a workout (cyclists and runners know it as bonking).
It can be a horrible feeling because a truly deep part of your mind is convinced it's trying to preserve you, and it deeply affects your emotional state. Each time it happened I'd spend the next day feeling like crap despite upping my carbs again
I am a 60 year old lifelong cyclist, ectomorphic build. I have fasted for 24 hours (dinner time to next day's dinnertime) once weekly for about 5 years now. When fasting, I incorporate moderate exercise throughout the day, usually periodic sets of pushups and pullups, sometimes a 30 or 45 minute ride.
I can report I have no problem maintaining muscle or body mass with this regimen.
Further I can recall a few minor hangry episodes while fasting, early on. But like fasting itself, it became progressively easier for me to fast over time.
You would have a difficult time maintaining and gaining muscle mass with frequent, long fasts. Your muscles need protein to repair/recover/grow. If you don't provide it from food, your body will cannibalize it from wherever it can. This is one of the reasons it is recommended to increase protein intake, distributed throughout the day, when in a caloric deficit.
Honestly I was more wondering about the 48 hour fasts. At first glance, I'm assuming it might impair recovery over the long term if the regimen is high enough intensity. I would assume if you're in more of a maintenance mode it could work better or even in a deficit
I don't train particularly hard and mostly just do cardio stuff, like lots of pushups daily.
Based on what I have experienced I think it's fine provided you're still maintaining an overall balance in the long-term. As in, on the non-fasting days you're eating enough of (if not more than) everything your body needs for your training regimen.
I just drink some mineral water whenever I'm hungry.. It completely rids me off the hungry feeling.. not permanently, but when I feel hungry again I just drink some more mineral water and I'm not hungry again.
