[kubami]

I fast a lot, right now I do 36 - 72h every 6 - 8 weeks.

The hardest moment is right when your body is about to switch from using glucose to using ketone bodies for energy. After that the hunger, feeling anxious, etc stops.

The time it takes to get to that point (when feeling "bad" intensifies) and how long the transition takes can be influenced.

Primarily, by what you eat before you fast. In general, avoid eating carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates like sugar, fruits, past, bread, etc. I usually eat more protein and fat before fasting.

Another "trick" during fasting is to cheat your stomach a bit by filling it with liquids - I drink lots of water and tea.

The main thing to remember - it will pass, and you will feel great after your body switches. Your mind will tell you that it will just progressively get worse the deeper you get into the fast - it's not true :)

[yazaddaruvala]

Oh I forgot about the tricks. Thanks.

I also use the tricks mentioned above. They are very useful.

Additional tricks:

- Use fiber supplements in your water sometime in the middle of your fast (simplest time is in the morning in lieu of breakfast). I use psyllium husk.

- Soup (or rather broth) is a fasting bff. Remember miso, herbs, spices, salt, do not have calories. Flavor your water liberally. Change up the consistency with stuff in it (green onions, seaweed). Change up the temperature (hot, cold, whatever). I even add psyllium husk to my soups to change up the texture and consistency just for the variety. Remember you can “eat” a lot of tasty stuff while still technically fasting.

- Actively (rather than passively) deplete your glycogen stores. Do a workout ideally including cardio, then do your best to immediately fall asleep to recover. I can sleep through anything, if you can too you’ll be in keto by the morning and no real feelings of difficulty.

- Remember to take a multi-vitamin daily while fasting. Make sure it doesn’t have sugar like those “vitamin C hangover powders” or “electrolyte water stuff like Gatorade”.

[adamgordonbell]

Great tips. I'm going to try having more soup.

[yamtaddle]

I've dabbled in fasting and found my ability to do it comfortably varies a ton day-to-day. Some days I'm craving food by noon and/or am very tired and practically can't think at all by 3PM (this is pretty bad on work days, obviously, but not really great on any day). Other days I can go from wake-up to lie-down without a single bite of food, and hardly notice a thing. I can't tell in advance which it's going to be, so rather than sticking hard to a fasting schedule, when I'm in the mood to do it I'll pick days to try, and if at some point it becomes clear I'm gonna wreck my whole day if I persist, I bail and eat a meal. Ends up being about 50/50, days that work out and days that don't, if I try a couple days per week.

Sometimes I can approach 48 hours before I start to feel bad, other times I can't even make it one day before I'm a mess and can hardly function. I'm sure the difference has to do with blood sugar timing and/or what I ate the day before or something.