My first assumption would be that you have been in the phase of eating processed foods (or what we usually call junk foods). I might be wrong, but that’d be my first guess, because if your nutrients, vitamins and minerals are in a good place in general, and the healthy eating habits have been in place for the most part, increasingly strong hunger probably wouldn’t be there.
I might be wrong, though, and maybe you could tell us more about your diet patterns for, say, the past year.
I’ve seen people recommend others to first eat healthy, lots of various things, even don’t count calories, just fill up with good, nutritious foods for days or weeks without indulging in snacking, keeping it to, say, 1-3 meals a day and without indulging in processed foods, sugars. If I recall correctly, the hunger levels and hunger experience should, in theory, stabilize and fasting will be a better experience because under the “normal” hunger hormone levels and decent sugar levels, hunger shouldn’t be an issue.
As we can see from the stories of others, people fast and eventually even lose the feeling of hunger and feel like they can go even longer and longer.
On the other hand, when I eat junk food, I want to eat them a lot, often and even indulge in them when im not actually hungry, and if I don’t, I feel the cravings intensify even a lot more.
What do you think? Is it possible that what I’ve described above could be applied to you? Or your dieting habits have been good?
It’s gets easier over time. The first few fasts I did were hard and miserable. Now it’s second nature and I don’t even really feel hungry most of the time. Keep at it and you’ll get there.
It took me almost a month of doing fasts and extending the time of them slowly.
Fasting is like a muscle. You can train it ;)
Seriously, a year ago I couldn’t go over a day without food. After that i slowly increased the time, learned how my body responds to things.And tbh, after day 3 its so much easier.
My first fast was 2 weeks, I ate fat heavy meals with no carbs in the run up in order to offset the potential “keto flu” from the hungriest days a bit. I started on a Friday and took the Monday off, by Tuesday I could go into work just fine. I was definitely hungry the entire 2 weeks but it wasn’t awful. First 3 days and last 2 were the worst. Sleep was negatively affected throughout, but not too bad.
Try not to think about it. When I get hungry, ant around 28 hrs in (doing a 48 hr), sucking on a few little crystals of Himalayan salt helps me. I think once you work on strengthening your fasting muscle, you’ll do great!
I’m currently on day 6 and planning to keep going until next year. Physical hunger is honestly temporary, it’s strongest around day 2 and goes away within a few days of that. From then on it’s all psychological.
To help you get through the physical hunger portion, it helps to train yourself. Before this fast, I spent a few weeks trying to fast as long as I could. But usually I’d last until the evening and it would turn into impromptu OMAD, but sometimes I did make it the whole day. Basically the more meals you skip, the more fat adapted your body becomes, making resisting physical hunger that much easier.
Another strategy is to keep yourself busy in order to avoid thinking about eating. When I’m feeling hungry, I find that playing video games, going for walks/shopping, and doing chores helps distract me. Some people have success with watching TV but I usually want a snack while I’m watching, so it hasn’t worked out for me.
Bottom line is that it’s all about training, distracting, and motivating yourself. Then even if you fail, just try again tomorrow, again and again until you either succeed or all the mini successes add up over time from all the meals you skipped, lol. There are many protocols you can follow that some find easier like OMAD, ADF, 5:2. So I encourage you to just experiment and keep at it, eventually we all get there as long as we don’t give up trying.
Okay this is what you need for a successful fast: electrolytes, nutritional yeast; lemon water with ACV and magnesium citrate to relax at night, go for long 3-5 mile walk.. this will help get your mind off food.
The first 48 hours or even 72 hours is when you’ll find it hard, but its temporary, and what would be the point if something wasn’t a touch of a struggle, I enjoy the challenge of things like that. Also Na and K with water is good to help curb hunger, balance electrolytes etc.
Sleep will be off a bit during that 72 hours, your pumping noradrenaline into the blood, don’t stress it, you’ll sleep but less, should fix itself around day 4-5 well does for us.
Good luck.
The first 2-3 days are the worst.I know its difficult, but try not to focus on the cravings.I feel the more you freak out, the more your body also freaks out.Find a distraction. You arent literally starving so you should keep that in mind.I’ve done three 12 day water fast and I find drinking tea, lemon water, and chewing gum are a huge help.Make sure to keep your electrolytes up to help.