A lot of people tell me that I have succeeded with Fasting because I have a great amount of willpower. They say it is amazing that a person who can fast for a week or 10 days is simply amazing.
I disagree.
If you have been eating a ketogenic, low carb diet, fasting is actually quite easy. The reason is that on this type of diet your body is already “fat adapted”. Your body is used to burning fat as its source of fuel. So, if you are no longer giving your body a daily supply of fat, your body simply burns your body fat for the fuel that it needs. Your fat stores have been put there for a reason – in case a time comes when food is not available, your body has a source of energy that can be used.
So, if you are obese, you have plenty of food stored away for your body. You don’t get hungry, because there is plenty of food stored away to keep your body happy.
Last week
Last week, I was fasting from Sunday evening until Thursday evening. I originally planned to last until Friday evening, but I changed the schedule because it turned out I was having eye surgery on Friday morning. I wanted to give my body some nutrition in preparation for the surgery, so I ate on Thursday at dinner time.
After the surgery, my plan was to start fasting again on Saturday. Saturday night we were invited to a party. It was a graduation party for a young girl we know who was graduating from college. Feyma and I are very close with her parents, and we definitely wanted to go celebrate her graduation. As I expected, the food at the party was really high carb, so I did not eat. I just told them that I was fasting for medical reasons, and they were very understanding. I was thinking I might have some grilled chicken when we got home.
It turned out that we got home fairly late, and I did not want to eat that late, so I just fasted the rest of the day and the next day too! It really was no big deal.
So, I planned to eat but plans changed and I fasted for 2 days that I did not intend to fast. It was not a big deal. It did not bother me. I just adapted to the situation. If fasting was difficult, I would have been just holding on long enough that I could finally eat at the expected time! But, that did not happen at all.
Really, it is not willpower. It is not amazing. If you want to fast, it will be this easy if you just get your body into ketosis before fasting.
Interesting! Totally makes sense! I am doing IF, and I am not really considered obese. I would benefit from losing 5-10 pounds, and at my age, that is usually not easy. Doing IF, I am losing weight! But, I am hungry a good bit of the time. I don’t like feeling hunger, so for me, it does take quite a bit of will power not to eat. So I agree, using your own stored fat is the best way to go, but when you get down to the bottom of the barrel, the body kinda wants to hang on to that last bit!
Hi LUanne, thanks for stopping by and for commenting.
You have way less stored body fat than I do, so what you say is not surprising to me!
Feyma did her first attempt at IF yesterday. She said she had no hunger at all. She fasted through the day until dinner time. Today she is doing it again!
Good luck!