u/Ok-Complaint-37

Just want to share my development from ADF every day to doing 46ish fasts twice a week with OMAD in between.

Surprisingly or not I gained weight during last two weeks. Not much. It is 1 pound a week gain. But if I continue this, soon it will get worse.

I still maintain calorie deficit (or so I think) by the end of the week, which is confusing 🫤.

I guess, I either need to go back to strict ADF without consecutive days of eating or I have to change my menu to strict keto which I absolutely dread as someone who lived on keto for three years and hated every minute of it.

Or I can continue going as I am going by reducing calories during my eating breaks.

Considering my options, I probably will opt for calorie restriction at this point.

Does anyone have this issue of not doing ADF every day without a break?

I had been successfully doing rolling fasting since end of March. I went from 139 to 129. My goal was 120 but I might reconsider it. 125lbs will be enough. I am 5’5”.

Anyways, I want to say it is going well but I walked into one mistake I would like to protocol here. I am also interested if anyone else had similar observations.

Initially I started ADF without calorie counting just going after foods I really wanted to eat. Last five years I was trying to lose/maintain weight which came with tons of restriction/sacrifice. Now, eating what I want in exchange for 36-hour fast was very attractive and surprisingly not that difficult! Weight was going down. I ate things I love. I sleep better.

But I started counting calories (just for information), and while initially I accepted that on my feast days I might eat 2000 calories (and I was), as I counted and days passed I started “improving” things. Also, I read somewhere that with time I will not need to eat this much. So part of me wanted to experience this. So instead of going for my hearty meal, I was minimizing it by negotiating with myself from the point of restriction as opposed to abundance. “May be if I do not eat spring roll (200 calories), and not going for this especially attractive pizza slice, but instead put more of spicy beef with broccoli, I will do even better?” This strategy helped me to reduce my feast calories from roughly 2000 to 1200-1500. I was still full after the meal. But going 36 hours became a painful experience!!!

If before, initially I had no problem going up to 60 hours before lightheaded thing hit, now I was lightheaded at 22 hours. So I decided to eat OMAD and called it “fasting fatigue”.

I did so for about 5 days in a row. I lost no weight. I didn’t gain either. But I was miserable every day trying to restrict my meals as I am eating them now every day. I was losing faith in me as all of a sudden I couldn’t do 36-46 hours which were a piece of cake in the beginning!

I stopped this madness yesterday.

I went for my meal and had ADF meal of 1900 calories. I did not restrict. Did not sacrifice. I ate what I wanted and I finally was able to afford rhubarb raspberry scone (480 calories). It is AMAZING 😻

Now I am in my 36-46 fast and I am excited and happy. I am confident in my fast.

So eating less calories is tricky and it does define for how long I can fast.

Last week on ADF I struggled. It was hard to say if this was more psychological or physical. I am usually a rebellious type, so I tend to want to change things up. It was probably partly this, some emotional stress, getting closer to my goal, maybe fasting fatigue. And also, my enjoyment of eating! Finally I eat what I want instead of following diets. 3 out of last 4 years I spent on keto with leafy greens and one year on plant based.

So now I am enjoying forbidden foods. Like hot buffet with oils and meats. Pizza. Spring rolls. Berry tarts. Coffee. And of course pretty vegetables! Or morning spinach and egg hand pie. Mostly OMAD.

This food calls me every day if I let it. So I have to make an effort to be disciplined on my ADF. 😃

Today I was thinking - maybe I should switch to OMAD? But then I would need to revise my meals to reduce calories and probably lower carbs. Eating at deficit salmon and leafy greens or something similar? The very thought made me shudder! I’d rather wait it out till tomorrow and eat what I want.

lol

I see why ADF is powerful! Today I really imagined my options: eating every day at deficit without freedom of food choice, or take two week break and eat just low carbs… one thought about it fueled my ADF passion!

I almost want to eat this way all the time.

People who did ADF for longer periods- do you feel hungrier more often as the time goes by?

My first two weeks were generally a breeze. My normal was 36-46ish fast with OMAD and then the next fast. Once a week I ate two consecutive days. Once a week I did 60-70 hour fasting.

My third week started with 46hour fast - easy peasy. And then my ate. And the next day I got hungry, so I ate again. Yesterday I supposed to fast but around hour 30 of fasting I got woozy feeling which I used to get around 50 hour and I decided to eat. This basically lands me in OMAD territory, not ADF. Now I am under 20hours and already feeling more challenged than I was during my first two weeks.

Is this common or it is just me?

I am getting close to my ideal weight (125lbs). I am around 133lbs. 5’5”

I am debating whether I should stick it out and endure sudden phase (I can), or it is better to switch to OMAD (with some calories reduction). Not sure. What do you think?