Hey so I'm new. Sorry if this is a newbie kinda post that's been answered a thousand times. But if anyone is feeling generous I would appreciate some advice.
I tried the snake diet once last year. It didn't turn out great, but i think that's mostly my fault. After having a couple months where I spiraled onto other diets and did a lot of experimenting on what made me lose weight best and easiest. I settled on a mixed carnivore diet that allowed for very small amounts of veggies, fruits, and animal products like eggs and milk/cream. Originally I was just eating when I felt hungry, but eventually I did intermittent "fasting" to dictate when I should eat.
That led to some great results, lost 20lbs. But I have between 40lbs and 55lbs left to still lose. I'm currently now at 45 hours fasted and wanted to ask if I should go a full 72 hours or as long as I can? I have a pretty active job as an HVAC Technician where I mostly install AC systems and heaters, which keeps me moving up and around attics along with pushing/pulling heavy bulky stuff around.
I have noticed some strength and energy dips in my day today. I don't want to get injured or unable to do my job, I am leaning to end the fast at 72 hours as I want to stay safe. But I do feel like I can go longer, which is why I'm struggling to decide what to do.
Any advice is appreciated and if you have any questions just ask, I'm a pretty open book.
Answer
Just go with how you feel. Your well-being and ability to earn should be paramount. As long as your honest with yourself about whether you’re ending of the fast because you need to, not want to. You can build up to the 72 and getting 48 hour fasts in is also a huge fat burner.
Answer
If you can make it the 72 hours then go for it! I personally don’t see a reason to go beyond that. I will do a mix of 24s/48s/72s around family functions so I can have dinner with my wife or eat at a party
Since you do have a physically demanding job some weeks you might not be able to get to a 72 without feeling like death and that’s fine. As long as the scale is dropping you are good
Answer
Fasts longer than 72 hours are not recommended. That’s when you start getting into muscle loss territory. Eat a good clean sizable healthy meal with plenty of protein after 72 hours, then see how far you can go again. Some people do one meal every three days just like that but it’s tough. You’ll still see great progress if you have one meal every one or two days too.
And there’s nothing wrong with just fasting for 72 hours once a week or whatever frequency you decide on. So long as when you are eating you’re doing it at or below maintenance and then really hitting the fat loss on fasts you’ll keep making progress.