Good luck on your first fast!
I’ve done 7 day, 3 day and 24hr fasts before, and I”ve found the 24hr fast the hardest! The first 24-36hr is when you’re adapting from burning glucose to fats, so you’ll definitely experience cravings. What helped me in the past is just having a grain of Himalayan salt (or any rock salt), and it works a treat.
And yes, there is a risk of overfeeding afterwards. Especially if you’re feeling strong cravings during the fast. Just remember that it’s more a mental need than a physical one. Plan breaking your fast ahead, so that you don’t reach for more.
One of the things I love about fasting is that it reteaches you to listen to your hunger cues, and I’ve become more mindful of how I feel after eating certain things.
I did my first 36hr fast last month. Today, I’m doing my 6th. It gets easy, really quickly. But the first one was, for me, mostly about being mindful and trying to listen to my body.
For my first fast, it was really helpful for me to chart and graph it by the hour. I charted four symptoms by the hour (X axis) and magnitude (Y axis):
HungerMoodEnergyFocus
Seeing how these symptoms varied over time was super instructive. Plus, when I experienced something like hunger, it helped me disassociate from it: “It’s not hunger, it’s data to be noted.”
I blacked out my sleeping hours on the chart, which helped me to understand that it’s really just a ~15hr waking fast, if you do it right.
36hr fasts get really easy, really soon. I look forward to them now — almost like a spiritual experience. I go 16:8 IF on normal days. With the 36hr fasts, I’m down 11.4 lbs in the past 28 days.