Extended Fasts

For me, intermittent fasting works pretty well, and this isn't an anti-IF post. For most days IF or OMAD is what I do. Some days I feel like I have to go longer though. When that happens I do my normal 20 hour fast and then keep going until I can't go any more. Admittedly the longest I've went doing this was 42 hours. I typically set my goals much higher and then fall short. Today for example, I've set my goal for 110 hours. It's currently Sunday morning, and my fasting goal ends on Wednesday. 

Going for more than two days without eating just seems ridiculous to me. On a 36 hour fast, you literally just skip one full day of eating and wait a bit on the third day before you eat. For instance, if you start your fast on Friday evening at 8pm. You don't eat Saturday. You can eat next at 8am on Sunday. This is the exact scenario for my 42 hour fast. I had started my fast on Friday evening and didn't eat until Sunday afternoon.

I feel like doing a longer fast once a week is good for escalating my fat loss and dealing with slow metabolism. I have locked myself into a routine where I don't fast a couple days per week, do one extended fast, and the rest of the time I'm doing 20/4. Perhaps I would have better results with 20/4 all the time, but it seems like my metabolism grinds to a halt when I'm doing that.

The takeaway from all of this is that I have reduced my calorie intake on a weekly basis and though I see an uptick in weight regularly, I'm still on a steady decrease of fat and I'm keeping my lean mass level.