What is prolonged fasting?: Intermittent fasting which is very popular (for a good reason) is eating every day within a specified time frame, usually a 4-8 hour window. Prolonged fasting is fasting for a longer duration, more than 24 hours, but for the purpose of this I'm going to limit it to 24-72 hours (you can safely fast for longer duration)

What about my gains?: Growth hormone spikes massively during a period of fasting, which is helpful in many ways - not the least of which is your gains. There is stored glycogen in your liver and muscles and a lot of fat available for energy needs. Men will usually run through their glycogen stores in 24-48 hours. At this point, you are primarily using fats for energy and glucose is created by breaking down proteins into glucose (gluconeogenesis). Proteins aren't just muscles, though, and with massive spikes in HGH you will be in a muscle-sparing state for the most part. It's not nearly as bad as you think on this end and while I won't over-promote a prolonged fast as a way to pack on muscle, there certainly could be some serious benefits for days after the fast with elevated hormones (like HGH).

https://www.dietdoctor.com/fasting-and-growth-hormone

Why should anyone ever do a prolonged fast?: You will burn fat*. Auto****y is ramped up, which is your body burning old cells and replacing them with new ones. It can boost your immune system. There is stem cell production. I think of it as spring cleaning for my body. There are studies suggesting strong anti-aging benefits from fasting and caloric restriction diets. The spike in HGH, which is beneficial for lifting and sparing muscle but also anti-aging (rather, as we get older, we produce a lot less; this helps). You can reset bad eating habits and there are benefits with insulin and leptin resistance.

There are also unmistakable mental benefits. Hard to describe, but there is a clarity and focus to your thought while you fast which has to be experienced to understand.

(* IMO, I think for purely fat loss, prolonged fasting is fine for some but if you're approaching being lean, you can still do a prolonged fast but at that point the focus on why you do it should be health reasons. If you're 15% or less, at that point if you are still trying to get leaner, take it slowly, drop your kcals 500 a day and very delicately and slowly drop weight. Just my opinion)

How often should I do prolonged fasting?: Up to you. You can do it every week, but for most doing it once every couple months would garner most of the health benefits, particularly if your eating habits are healthy and you are doing some other kind of IF-style fasting in conjunction with occasional prolonged fasts.

How should I prepare for a prolonged fast?: There isn't much you need to do, although I personally like to go lower carb a few days before. Entering ketosis for some, myself included, can be an uncomfortable experience, it's easier for me to get through it while eating. I'll discuss this in more depth later. I used to also like to pre-enter ketosis to limit the period of time where my body was creating glucose by breaking down proteins (which lasts a day or so), before your liver starts to pump out ketone bodies for your brain to use as energy. After that, the Lion's share of energy needs are met with fats and ketones (90% or more, iirc), with gluconeogensis (breaking down proteins for glucose) only accounting for a small percentage. I don't really think it matters, though.

Can or should I exercise while fasting?: Yes, with caution. With a longer fast you'll have energy but it tends to come in waves. You will probably tire a lot quicker and want to reign in the amount of volume to your workouts. Also, with no calories, there is not going to be any protein synthesis or muscle growth. You're likely best off just lightly stimulating the muscles. You can or you can take time off, your call.

What should I drink or eat while fasting?: No or almost no calories. Coffee has like 5 kcal a cup or something, I drink quite a bit whether I'm fasting or not. Tea and water, of course. You may also want to supplement with electrolytes: sodium, potassium, magnesium, zinc, etc... sodium and potassium can be sourced easily enough, something like No Salt or Light Salt, whatever it is, and often if you're feeling like chit, it's because you're low. You tend to flush a lot of water when you fast, water stored with glycogen in your liver and muscles. It's not real weight, so if you're fasting for weight loss don't get too excited, it all comes back within 24 hours of breaking the fast. It also flushes out minerals, which can make you feel like absolute dog chit. If this happens, get some salt or Lo Salt and see if you feel better.

How should I end the prolonged fast?: The longer the fast, the easier you break it. With even a 72-hour fast, that's really not that long. I don't recommend eating an entire pizza (or eating chitty foods at all) but if you do, you'll probably just get a stomach ache. If you can, break it with something like bone broth, then a light meal. Don't go a week without eating and breaking it with burgers, though.

In fact, don't go a week without eating without first fasting a lot for shorter periods first and doing a fukload more research than this thread, either.

longest I've gone was 48 hours and it was easier then expected, hardest part was getting through the first day and night without breaking down and eating something, the 2nd day was easy af

Strong timing op. I'm on my second day of fasting.

I drink a cup of coffee and that kills my appetite.

I've been doing OMAD for a while now and I've been having great results. It makes dieting easier for me

It's not fasting if you're there drinking come all day

This

First day was hardest for me. Second day I was super alert and attentive at work

Great post. Some questions:

1) You said that it burns fat, but then later on you said people don't lose weight. Are you saying people who want to see a drop on the scale, won't?
2) What level of fat loss can you expect?
3) What if you're already doing keto and want to incorporate a prolonged fast once a month. Do you think that would be even more effective to get the last few lbs of of fat off your body?

OMAD crew and/or IF with a <4 hour eating window.

auto****y (induced by not eating for extended periods) is legit. a dude won the nobel prize in physiology. brb recycling old cells and making gains

You lose weight, mostly fat, however there is a big weight drop the first few days - pounds vanish, and this is water weight. As far as actual fat loss, probably less than 1/2 a pound of fat for most people, that will fluctuate but sometimes people fasting or doing a keto diet might get the wrong expectations if they hit the scale every day and see this initial rapid weight loss.A lot of variables. I would expect someone lean to maybe get less out of this than someone with excess fat stores, but give-or-take 1/2lb a day under ideal circumstances -- although, let me be up front about this, I've never fasted for fat loss primarily. My interest in it was always more focused on the health aspects. Later, after having done a few, I've thought more about the mental clarity benefits, I can't describe the feeling but it's something everyone should seek at least once in their lives.

Back to weight loss, I also think that your body kind of has an internal set weight it gravitates towards. You can, over time, affect it (usually in the bad way) but short term you tend to gravitate towards a certain weight. If it's too high for you, or you're trying to lose weight, ultimately that's going to come down to diet, of which I subscribe more to the hormonal theory of weight gain/loss than calories. So, in my book, you want to be lean, eventually you need to cut the crap out of your diet. Fasting can help reset bad eating habits and you can jump start with some weight loss, but if you break that fast with donuts and pizza, you can quickly undo anything beneficial.

Long term weight loss means cutting out sugar, reducing grains and processed foods, coupled with periods of non-eating to give your body time to access the fat stores it's accumulated that you want to get rid of. So, at least as I see it, fasting is just a part of the overall weight loss game plan and without the other elements, it's not going to work. Keep in mind there is serious debate about calories vs. hormones and my personal thoughts are highly contested by some, it's up to you to experiment and make up your own mind.Yes. I think being in a ketogenic state makes fasting much easier, not effortless, but you bypass the dreaded "entering ketosis" phase and if you're super keto adapted, you can fast all the easier.

I've gone 10 days at my peak, just once, for no real reason other than seeing how far I could go. Days 3-10 were really pretty easy compared to the first two and I only stopped because I started hiccuping in a fit and was concerned (plus missed the gym).

In your shoes, if you're practicing Ramadan, I've never done a Dry Fast (meaning no water and no food), I'd be extra careful about doing anything new and probably just stick to the daily IF with Keto and maybe next month starting out with some prolonged fasts.

Thank you. I'm not planning to do it in Ramadan. I'm running keto in Ramadan, but would love to give this a try after Ramadan ends, just to see what happens. Reps on recharge!

1) You'll drop water weight from expending all your glycogen stores and also will drop fat mass weight, although it's theorized that water can fill up emptied fat cells and hang out for a bit so that might not be immediately seen on a scale

2) Whatever your TDEE is more or less, since you aren't eating anything your body is getting all it's energy from fat stores. 1 pound of fat is around 3500 cals.

3) fasting just increases your energy deficit so by definition it'll help you shed poundage. Can see how powerful a tool it is by goin on excel and putting 14 cells (2 weeks) in an average formula and then entering calorie amounts and then start changing some to 0 and watch the average drop.

Cliffs: Long, an hour+ but a lot of interesting stuff is covered here, touching some topics like protein burned and fat loss during fasting. Full disclosure, I am a big personal fan of Dr. Fung but some of his ideas will be highly contested by some.

mirin timing op. wife and i decided to try prolonged fasting. havent eaten since 1800 yesterday. trying to go to about that time or longer.

question: when working out during a fast, would taking a pre-workout like C4 kill the fast and hinder the workout?

I'm doing IF now and my eating window is from 1200-1800 with a workout early in the morning (0500-0700, only time i can), so it's in the middle of my fast. I take C4 and still go HAM in the gym.

I don't know what C4 is. Caffeine, no problems, BCAAs will break one, though.

I do IF every day... but I remember reading after 3 days of fasting you start to lose muscle

if that's the case ... no thanks jeff... may try a 24 or 48 hour fast though

Bump, some red (probably a troll) made a thread which got deleted as I wrote my reply. Putting it here... maybe someone else might get something out of it. The original thread was about losing as much weight as possible in 70 days from a 240lb obese 5'7" (I assume) male.Probably, and almost certainly better than a crash diet of 1,000 calories a day or endless treadmill stuff.

https://forum.obnoxiousbrutes.com/showt...post1579673111

That guide is for shorter fasts, like 2-3 days but you can safely fast for for longer. Should the OP fast for 71 days straight having never fasted before? Probably not, I'd strongly urge him to ease into it. It took him probably decades of lazy and glutenous behavior to get to 5'7" and 240lbs, no sane reason why he needs to sprint to getting as lean as possible -- better to take things slow and smart than rushed and doomed to rebound.

IMO:

- Take a week. Cut out all the worst foods you've been eating: No more sugar. Eliminate or drastically reduce all heavily processed foods and grains. Limit alcohol. Cut out all snacks and just focus on sitting down 2-3 times a day and having good meals.
- Take another week, now really focus on intermittent fasting or OMAD (one meal a day). Try to get all your eating within a 4-6 hour window.
- Take another week, introduce two or three full days of complete fasting, then eating the next day in your regular window (so you'll be fasting for over 36 hours at a time, likely).
- Next week, try to do longer 3+ day fasts once then eating regularly the other days
- Keep it up, keep fasting, keep eating good foods
- When you eat, only eat when hungry, stop eating when full

So that for 2-3 months and you'll be sub-200 no question. Maybe in the 180s or low 190s

Is OMAD sustainable long term?

I've been doing it for Ramadan and usually have coffee and a tablespoon of PB in the morning. Does that invalidate OMAD?

OMAD? Why not. I would be careful of overeating with that one big meal and also where it falls before you hit the sack. IMO, a big giant meal right before bed probably isn't the best idea, might exasperate digestive issues or reflux. With Ramadan, you technically can get up early and eat before the sun rises, too, if that one meal is just too much or it's too hard to not overeat.

Personally, on training days, I train AM, I graze throughout the day. I'll do an OMAD on an off day where I'm not shooting for 180-200g/protein, if I just don't outright fast entirely.

Strong bump

Anyone else find fasting strangely addictive?

I used to do 16/8 and struggled most days. Switched to 5/2 which was torture the first few times. Now i almost have to force myself not to fast on normal days

Biggest benefit is the mental aspect. Has completely shattered my cravings for junk food. Worth it for that alone.

Calories in calories out is still king though

I realize I'm responding to a post that's over a year old but I can answer this question now so if someone ends up searching for info they'll have the answer. I've been doing OMAD coming up on 2 years now and don't ever plan on stopping. I'm not super strict with it so a couple times a month when someone brings doughnuts to the office I'll eat a couple but I never plan a lunch or breakfast. I eat only at dinner and rarely even get hungry during the day anymore. I've stayed between 185 and 195 for around a year now. Starting in Feb or March I'm gonna cut down to 180 to see how shredded I can get

I did OMAD from April 2019 until July of this year and I really loved it. On the weekends I would be a little less strict and have brunch or lunch occasionally with friends but for the most part it was OMAD. Lost a bunch of fat and really leaned out, didn't get the typical post lunch crash that everyone else at the office would get, ton of energy throughout the day in general and my blood pressure actually returned to normal for the first time since my early teens (have had prehypertension thanks to the fam). The only reason I stopped in July was because it was impossible for me to gain muscle on this type of eating schedule. Even though I lifted the entire time while doing OMAD I have noticed much better results in the past 3 months than I did in the 15 months prior.

With that said, I highly recommend occasional fasts for everyone and even OMAD if muscle gain isn't your main concern.

Since this post, I did a 13-day fast (water only) followed by two 6 day fasts. It was easy to stick to OMAD after those fasts.Jusa was lagging by a whole year. *rolls eyes*

If you're doing OMAD, how can you cut further? Change the foods or do a prolonged fast?

Cutting calories. I'm doing OMAD but once I reached my initial goal, visible abs, I really slacked off on what I was eating that one meal. I eat a ton of crap now like an embarrassing amount of cookie dough and ice cream but doing OMAD has allowed me to maintain current physique. When it gets closer to the end of winter I'm gonna cut the crap out of my diet to see what kind of gains I can make. If cutting the junk food doesn't have any results in a month then I'm going to try 2 days fasts which I've done a couple times since I just didn't feel like eating that night for whatever reason so I know I can

if you are not bored and have things to do fasting is easy as locking down whole country because of fake virus