| | Water Fasting

Continue?

F 25 5’6 SW 179.2 CW 171.2 GW ~140 I started my fast Dec. 30th and planned to end tonight at 8:30. I am considering extending my fast. I haven’t felt hungry since maybe day 2 or 3. I am feeling a little down about my progress. I haven’t lost as much as I had anticipated. I am not doing a complete water fast. I have been drinking zero Gatorade, la croix, and coffee w/ a little cream. Plus my daily vitamins and prescription. I was thinking I might just continue till I get close to my GW. I am not sure if that’s a terrible idea though as I haven’t experienced a long term fast. Any questions/comments/concerns would be appreciated!

Answer

Looking at your stats you likely lost around 2.5 Lbs of fat and muscle combined so far in 6 days.

It would take you over 80 days to fast to get to 140 lbs. That’s of course not reasonable but even 20 days will get you down only 9 Lbs.

You see that fasting is not very sustainable as primary weight loss regimen. However fast is very effective to jump start a weight loss program.

Answer

Well ideally you would be drinking plain water. I’ve actually never fasted while drinking zero Gatorade, and creamer, or la Croix. I have done black coffee while fasting, I’ve seen a few sources say that there is a fat burning benefit to it.

Now I understand completely that there is usually nothing wrong with using fasting for weight loss. My concern is however is that you are using extended bouts of fasting to drop weight very quickly with certain expectations.

TLDR: Stick to 36-48 hour fasts, This will help maintain muscle tissue which is essential in maintaining metabolic health/Speed, while gaining the metabolic benefits of norepinephrine. ADF is perfect for this ebb and flow eat up to +10% of maintenance on your eating day. Again think in months or you will screw yourself over

Depending on what you have to lose, weight loss, ideally the loss of fat only is a process that takes months, yes, months to see significant progress. Now if you are leaner bodied ( I am an idiot don’t know how to read the your stats) you could potentially see progress with-in weeks.

Next is a mixture of Bioscience and studies that have researched metabolism and extended fasting.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed anything

My personal opinion based on what I understand is starting a regime that:

Its only applicable to newbie trainers and individuals with high amounts of available stores energy reserves. Otherwise Insulin Growth Factor or IGF1 is heavily suppressed during extended fasts. IGF1 is vital to muscle protein synthesis or the creation of new muscle fiberd. So you may gain some muscle but the hormone profile in the blood isn’t exactly condusive to the process.

Ok so rambling over. Thankfully lol.

Flavcity with Bobby Parrish < that guy has great info, focus on the brands of food he is recommending. If you are eating like garbage on your eating days you are killing your fat loss gains. Bleaches, hydrogenated oils assault your microbiome and cell membranes, bad for health and fat loss.

If you have any further questions I would be glad to share what I understand on the topic.