Rolling 48s or 72s? Advice needed.

I am a 46F, and my current weight is 210lbs. I apologize in advance for the long post. The past two years were very stressful and took a toll on me. I have rheumatoid arthritis and I got really sick in March 2020 and was admitted in a high dependency unit in the hospital with a very bad pneumonia because I was on immunosuppressive medications (biologics for my RA) following discharged, my doctor decided to stop the biologics, especially with the COVID situation and I was started on steroids. The steroids, the lockdown, and the stress contributed to me gaining 50 pounds in two years. I am off steroids now and my joint are better, but I am desperate to lose weight. I have fasted on and off in the past few years with great results and would like to go back to fasting for health reasons and for weight loss as my weight bearing joints hurt when I walk long distances. I did few 48s and 72s and honestly I felt great on both, but prefer the 72s. I want to start rolling 72s, but I am afraid my body will adapt to this protocol and I will stop losing weight, especially that I have around 75 lbs to lose. I would be grateful if you could advise me on what schedule to follow. I clean fast usually, and I would like to lose at least 40- 45 pounds by end of March ( starting a new job- which requires a lot of walking and standing). I am planning to start walking as well- something I enjoyed in the past and helped with my stress levels, and eventually add strength training to the mix.

Answer

I don’t think your body will adapt to it, especially not before you lose all the weight you desire to lose. Here’s what I did for a month, and it was honestly my favorite fasting experience ever, I only wonder why I didn’t do it again, instead I went a little nuts and started a month long extended fast, lmao. Definitely having the polar opposite experience now.

I call it rolling 3:1, so basically fast 3 days (72’s basically), eat for 1 day (I didn’t do keto), and repeat. After about a week, maybe week and a half, I felt fully fat adapted and had incredible strength and energy. Like it felt non-stop, but I’ll admit that I didn’t push my endurance enough to really know how long I could go, though I spent like an hour+ lifting weights (full body workout) at the gym and then, uncharacteristically I might add, decided to do a half hour of cardio afterwards.

I typically went to the gym on the evenings of the 3rd fasting day, to take full advantage of the built up growth hormone from all that fasting, and then eat the next morning. Over the course of the entire month I kept losing weight consistently, and honestly felt amazing. Highly recommend this routine to anyone wanting to lose weight quickly, and likely build muscle at the same time.

Answer

You lose weight when you consume less calories than you burn. No amount of getting used to fasting is going to change that.

Also I would like to add that 45lb in 3 months sounds rather steep and might be too much of a shock to go that fast. Just something to consider, maybe aim for something a bit slower?