On April 13, I was the heaviest I’ve been in years, although I’ve been doing IF for over a year. On April 18, I did my first 20 hour fast since last fall. Since that day, I’ve averaged 20 hours of fasting each day and I’ve lost 14 lbs. Today I just ran 3.5 miles about 17 hours into my daily fast. I felt damn good, too.
As you can see from this week’s data, I did a 16 hour fast last Thursday — which is incredibly easy now — but it didn’t affect my average too much. I don’t worry about it if I don’t hit 20 hours every day. I’ll try to go longer, when it works out, to balance it out. Since I’m certainly in ketosis, based on my test strips, I’m not very hungry until maybe hour 18, if at all. Today, after my run, I’m not hungry at all.
I think what worked for me was slowly lengthening my fast. A year ago, when I got serious about fasting, my 30 day average fast was 15.14 hours. I would also have a fatty coffee (with cream or coconut oil) but now all I have is black coffee with stevia, cinnamon and a little bit of cocoa powder, about 20 calories (plus lots of water). The Zero app has been indispensable, and also tracking my macros in MyFitnessPal (I also used LoseIt) keeps me honest.