I’m usually a “honesty is the best policy” person. Unless I’m dealing with one of my toddlers and their fragile mind around Santa, or that monsters are afraid of the color purple.
Give them a partial truth, tell them how long you’ve been fasting for, tell them that you’ve lost X weight/bf% so far and feel really good, plus the willpower boost from not eating for long periods of time/ a whole day.
But also tell them that your only doing ADF for now, or OMAD and pizza doesn’t fit you macros and you’ve got skinless lemon garlic chicken thighs marinating in the fridge for you when you get home.
Don’t hit them with a “Rolling 72s” or “Snake Juice” or anything too extreme and you shouldn’t get too much “well, let me tell you about the thing I know nothing about”.
Just say you’re not hungry. There shouldn’t be a problem with that. If they get upset, just don’t hang out with them. They shouldn’t be particularly interested in your eating habits in the first place.
Straight forward. If they try to give me backlash and a lecture, I just respond with something like “oh” or “interesting” and look away to my phone or food. When you start educating people, it becomes a big back and forth thing, but knowing how to freeze people out just makes them feel awkward. So then they don’t do anything. Keep in mind, if someone starts digging for info or makes unprovoked comments, it’s because they want a back and forth. I don’t give it to them.
I got you. It’s kinda like when you tell someone you’re not drinking. Suddenly they start projecting onto you and get all defensive about how much they’re drinking. So when you’re not eating same thing kinda happens and they feel insecure about how much they’re eating. I just say I’m fasting to challenge myself and add It all looks so great and can’t wait to try what they made when I’m all done!
Have you got plans for the day already set? When I meet up with friends for the whole day, we would always go for food out at a restaurant, maybe some drinks, so I would want to know before hand if they weren’t eating at all.
Firstly so I can eat beforehand and don’t have to eat in front of you or on my own when we’re out and also to make sure we have enough plans to fill the day without going to a restaurant.
Is “I’m not hungry” not an option for some reason?
I’m not sure how/why this is even an issue to the extent that you feel the need to justify yourself to them.
Maybe I’m just too comfortable being an asshole, but I could care less about the opinion of others.