r/AlternateDayFasting

How much weight have you guys lost doing ADF? In a month, two months, 10 - whatever. I’d love to hear to get an idea of how it’s worked for other people

38F 5'2" SW 86.5 kg CW 80kg.

I started ADF at the end of Feb (fasting on T, Thursday, and Saturday) and have lost about 6.5 kgs (14.3 lbs). For a week now I also started working out and even have a coach.

But I am noticing that I am now feeling weak through both fasting and feeding days, despite taking electrolytes. This is also affecting my ability to work (very cerebral work).

This wasn't the case when I was just walking an hour everyday and casually jogging twice or thrice a week.

My friends and coach are recommending that I stop or reduce fasting and focus on matching my food with my workout demands.

I got my routine blood tested and the everything is ok but the minerals and hemoglobin are in the lower end of the normal range.

Would appreciate any advice on what could help me.

PS: Thanks to everyone who very kindly shared their responses here - I am going to focus on nourishing myself as best as possible during the feed days, up my electrolytes, and also incorporate modified ADF for strong workout days. As one of us pointed out here that the coach expects a fully fueled body on the ground, I hope that modified ADF would help me.

Thanks a tonne everyone! I was getting concerned about my health, and missing this opportunity to get coached for an athletics event later in the year. I also don't want to stop losing the extra weight that I put on over the few years of mental health struggle. (I have been doing good for a few years now.) Your responses have been very informative and assuring. Thank you! Also I am still open to hearing more about serious training and fasting from more experienced folks here.

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?

If you're about to go crazy and you've hit a wall on your fasting day.... and now you're here on reddit, looking for inspiration and solutions....

before you lose your mind and eat a whole cheesecake, ask yourself this question:

Do I really just need a big drink with some electrolytes?

You need sodium, you need potassium, you need water. It helps even more with a variety of electrolytes. Get some zero calorie keto salts in you buddy! If you don't have them, go put some table salt on your tongue and wash it down with a big glass of water!

take it easy, you're winning the war, you'll be a skinny legend in no time.

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.

6 feet, M, 27 years. Trying modified adf. So i eat 500-600 cals on eating days. Makes it wayyyyyy easy.

And on the eating days trying to eat 500 cals above maintenance. But my issue is not being able to find the proper maintenance for me. I don't workout but 5 days a week i work a night shift at a fast food place. As we all know, night shift is usually not that busy but i have like other cleaning to do and all. But i am allowed to sit, so i sit and do nothing at all some days.

So should i calculate my tdee as sedentary or lightly active?

Hi I like to go a bit extreme with my ADF as on my feasting days I eat 1 meal and it is pretty low calories i try not to go above 750 calories but end up eating about 800-900 calories I know people have been "feasting" on eating days but this didn't work for me I want to have a cheat day where I eat a lot but I dont know when is the good time

It is 9:46pm PST. I am in San Diego and tomorrow will be my first day fasting. I am going to leave this as a thread I update. I am 5ft 5 in, 166lbs, Female, 29, Mexican-American. I am going to fast tomorrow.

I went through a break-up and I gained about 15 pounds while I was in the Relationship. I was giving myself grace until my stretchy pants and shorts were starting to become a little tight.

The first day went really smooth! I actually feel like I could keep going but I will eat today.

I ended up going to a skating rink last night (open to close) and really wore myself out before going to bed. When I weighed myself this morning I was down to 258 (starting weight 265) and I expect it to fluctuate throughout the week.

Ever since starting ADF and needing something other than water, I turned to black coffee, very apprehensive because I cannot stand the bitterness, but to my surprise it suddenly tastes kind of sweet?? sort of like dark chocolate, bitter, but kind of sweet. I can’t believe I can say that I like my coffee black now.

I’ve recently tried both and i’ve realized that both are sustainable for me but i’m looking for the quickest results (both physical and on the scale)

I’ll report back in a week, wish me luck!

Hi

Female in her 20s

I did ADF in 2024 for 2 months and a half. The best thing about it is that it teached me to have all the foods I want without the ”all or nothing” mindset on feed days. I didn’t lose much weight (3kg) but I ate whatever I wanted and didn’t gain weight. the only down side was sleeping it was horrible.

Now after 2 years of being able to stick to a calorie deficit, I started binging alot lately and in one month I gained 6 kg. The moderation I learnt is feeling harder to stick to and I am terrified of gaining anymore weight.

Therefore, starting ADF again to lose those 6kg and fix my relationship with food. I feel it’s gonna be hard but I will do it and posting here to get some encouragement and motivation to keep going.

Any tips or ideas would be appreciated. Especially for supplements cause I am scared of losing hair…

I’ve tried ADF/36 hour fasts a few times over a month. I really relied on iced black coffee or cold brew to get me through the hunger pains. I found the times I fasted to be relatively straightforward with only a few passing moments of hunger pains.

I haven’t fasted at all in the last few weeks and I’m wanting to restart. My question is if anyone fasts without help from coffee/tea? Sounds silly, I know, but I’ve realised I’m drinking way too much coffee in general, mainly for the caffeine hit, and it’s giving me massive acid reflux. Same with tea, actually. I gave up all soda (which for me had just been Diet Coke/Coke Zero) in the new year.

My reliance on coffee/caffeine comes from the fact that I’m unmedicated adhd (diagnosed 20 yrs ago and stopped meds about 10. Living in a country where it’s near impossible to get through the system to access medication). I use the caffeine as a slight boost to help me focus.

Just wondering, I guess, if anyone has any other suggestions for that focus hit? Maybe I’ll actually feel better without all the caffeine, I don’t know. I think maybe I’m just nervous at how much more difficult the hunger feeling will be without the coffee to dull it

Hopping back on the train. Will be doing ADF starting today (April 30th) all the way through May till comes the new month (June 1st).

• Clean fasts—only sparkling water and water allowed on fasting days.
• Only allowed to eat AT HOME during the month of May. If I want to eat anything, I need to bring it home, then eat it.
• Allowed time window to eat on eating days: 12pm-6pm
• Come back and update progress on Reddit every week. Will be back to share progress on May 5th, 11th, 16th, 23rd, and May 30th.

+Make a daily morning routine to follow. On fasting days, learn chess or practice guitar during the "cooking & eating" time.

+Will also be adding handstand progress.

(A rule that I've already been following very well, which is that I'm not allowed to buy any sweets using my money; the only sugar I have in the house is an actual bag of sugar I use to bake.)

Ps. In the case of which I get accepted into smth, I allow myself to eat when not at home on eating days of Tues and Thurs only at the given location. Only after checking whether food is healthy.

Fasting today, April 30th, May 2nd, and May 4th.

I’m trying to stay the course and do ADF while on vacation in Puerto Vallarta. I thought about just doing OMAD for the week but I figured ADF might be better because I could enjoy some drinks by the pool on my up days. If I’m doing OMAD I have to try to cram everything into about 1 hour. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

How do you guys go about alcohol consumption while doing ADF? I've done it before by basically skipping a fasting day & having a high protein meal early in the day before drinking. The day after, I fast or do OMAD & return to normal. I'm curious what other people do

Thanks

I'm struggling pretty hard doing ADF. I think it's because I am used to running ever day somewhere around 4 miles lately so I am in a pretty large deficit. Does anyone have success only eating 500 cal on "fasting" days? Are there any tricks to not losing your mind on fasting days?