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I tried avoiding carbs but I'm craving

Hi, M23 BMI 29,I I managed to fast for a while year on 16/8 7 years ago, I gave a shot now but with 20/4,been doing good for the past week. However, today I avoided carbs and focused on fats and proteins, so 1st meal was tuna, chicken shawarma with yougrt and salad, 2nd was hamburger with coleslaw and 50g pita bread. I ate 1apple,1 orange and 1 glass of milk in between. However after several hours I started craving carbs, like really bad, all I'm thinking about is getting a kinder bar or a mango to eat.. what should I do? The reason I tried this is that many studies shows that if with low carb diet is better for wieght loss and maintaining muscle since you will be eating more protein

Answer

Yea…50g of carbs per day is not sustainable. I get probably at least 200g of carbs per day. But, I also do moderate intensity exercise 4x per week.

The point of IF is not to deprive yourself. Deprivation = eventual binge = failure. The point of IF is to eat a normal diet in your feeding window and only in your feeding window.

Answer

How much water are you drinking? I’ve experienced being adequately hydrated has helped me massively in curbing my cravings. Eating high fiber foods also helps me personally (adding bunches of spinach or avocado into my protein smoothie for example). Did you have any similar issues when you fasted prior for that year?

Answer

Monk fruit helped me for carb cravings, I made cheese cake balls, sweet without the carbs. Not sure what people say about Monk fruit on IF, but for keto it seemed fine. It’s a serious addiction that isn’t easy to kick. I’m new to IF so forgive my ignorance.

Answer

You mention cutting carbs, but then you report eating pita, apple and orange. These are all pretty high carb/ high glycemic index foods. Think you should consider some lower glycemic index foods if you still are good with carbs but don’t want that strong spike up and down. Alternatively, you could go keto if you are really struggling with the sugar. (Still will be several tough days until you acclimate.) Intermittent fasting becomes much easier (IMHO) when following a keto WOE.

Whatever you end up deciding, I wish you luck!