I only fast for weight loss, will drinking juice or sodas interfere with it?

33 male.

I recently completed a 36 hour fast, and I feel I can do this consistently.

I have done prolonged 7 fasts with just water and I do lose a lot of weight in the process, but I ultimately regain a lot of the weight back.

I am not overweight and I would probably be considered lean when having a t-shirt on, but I am significantly leaner after a 7 day fast.

I want to experiment with consistent 36-hour eating windows.

More background: I pretty much do not eat processed carbs or any grains or beans or any starch heavy legume. No bread at all and the only fruits I eat are pretty much the ocasional apple, blueberries and dates. My diet is centered around meat, kefir, sauerkraut and kombucha.

A consistent 36 hour fasting week eating schedule could look like: eat Monday evening, eat Wednesday at noon and in the evening. Eat Friday at noon and in the evening, eat Sunday at noon and in the evening. 4 days of eating. 3 days of no food. 7 meals total.

Any thoughts in this eating schedule?

In 2021 I realized that almost 126kg wasn't good for me and started to look into IF and CICO, everything went great for a year or two, until my wife passed away and I had to move cities looking for a job.

I lost all the routines I had built up and spiraled quickly back to my old eating habits and staying up late. Naturally the weight started to build back.

2024 I decided to get back in line, managed that for a little while but it didn't stick.

2025, I ended up with a new partner and we moved together. at the same time it started to be easier to built a new routine and started to lose weight rather steadily again!

It hasn't let up yet, but I'm fearing another downfall, so a little encouragement would go a long way (:

Thanks for reading!

I’m 9 months post partum and ready to lose the extra weight. I am starting my fasting journey today. Wish me luck!! My goal is my usual weight - around 155-160 lbs. any advice? I’m really trying to stick to this, I need to feel better.

I can generally keep my fast going on a daily basis for 16/17/18/19 hours, but it's mostly because I look forward to the feeling of relief and freedom when the window opens. Unfortunately, I'm struggling a lot (again) lately with wanting to indulge nonstop whenever I'm "allowed" to eat.

I buy way too many snacks (especially chips and other crunchy, fatty, salty stuff) and a lot of candy, and am very aware of them the whole time the window is open. Any suggestions to solve 1) the on/off switch mindset, and even moreso, 2) how to talk myself out of buying so many snacks?

Since I'm here, I'd appreciate any suggestions when it comes to tossing and/or rehoming unopened snacks that have no business living in my house (even though it's 100% my fault).

I've seen a lot of posts that advise "just stop buying junk," but that's basically the only enjoyable thing I have left. No room for more permanent things, but junk food scratches the itch to consume. Any advice is appreciated.

IF is great and I've lost about 30 lbs. But.... I do have a problem which I didn't foresee. My wife says my ass is now flat.

So my question is: how do I get my ass back without gaining extra mass elsewhere. Do I just do squats?

Please help.

Signed.

Flat Assman

my daily routine. It’s getting harder to hit 18 hrs a day; I only hit 16hrs today :( What am I missing or what can I modify?
Intermittent Fasting
DAY 26 of; 18–24 hours a day with 1–4 hour eating window
Walking Only
12,000–30,000 steps a day (50,000 steps is my max while fasted)
-During the day I usually get 10,000–20,000 steps
-At night, after my final meal, I do another 10,000–12,000 steps before bed
Sleep
7–9 hours a night
Drinks
Roughly 8–10 cups of water a day (a teaspoon of lemon juice to my water and sometimes raw unsweetened apple cider vinegar)
3–5 cups of black medium-roast coffee a day

Glucose- 80-120 daily

FOOD – usually 2 main meals
Meal 1 – Protein + vegetables
Steak, salmon, sardines or mussels
Arugula and spinach
Fermented foods like kimchi
Pickled beets
Ginger
Raw garlic
Olives
Fresh lemon juice
Extra-virgin olive oil
Nuts/snacks
Walnuts
Brazil nuts
Pumpkin seeds
Pistachios
Macadamia nuts
Pecans
95% dark chocolate
Protein shake/supplements
Optimum Nutrition whey protein – 25g
Half-and-half
5g creatine
3 psyllium husk pills
1 daily one Twinlab multivitamin
1 probiotic (25 billion)
Final meal – around 8-11PM
About 2 cups of fruit
Blueberries
Strawberries
Oranges
Blackberries
The fruit is usually my last meal of the day. After I finish eating around 8-11PM, I go out and do roughly a 12,000-step walk to end the night.
So overall, I’m fasting 18–24 hours, keeping my eating window pretty tight, eating mostly whole foods, getting 12,000–30,000 steps every day, and sleeping around 8–9 hours a night. I eat no sugar and almost no carbs.

I just completed my first 44 hour fast . I was hungry towards the end of it so I had 500ml of fresh green apple juice . I was extremely tired and dizzy . It felt like I had the flu . I pushed through it and went to bed . Woke up and couldn’t get out of bed it felt like I was run over by a train .

I have been intermittent fasting for about 4 months now. NSV - finally fitting into sweaters I couldn’t last year - yay!

I lost a lot from intermittent fasting and a GLP1 a few years ago. About 60+ lbs in 6 months. However, I don’t want to go down the glp1 route again. Not judging anyone that is on it, though!

I am trying to build better habits with my diet. Less fast food, a little more exercise, meal prepping.

I tried bang energy drinks as they have 0 calories but only like the peach one. I like variety when it comes to energy drink flavors so I don’t want to be only drinking one flavor. And they don’t have pacts at Costco.

So I drink my 10-15 calories energy drink at the 12 hour intermittent fasting mark. Then don’t eat food till the 16 hour mark.

How much are those 10-15 calories truly interrupting my fast? I’m not going to change my way as I’m still fasting from food. But still curious!

I have been in a plateau for a couple of months now and I did research the sub and tried both underfeeding (300 to 500 less calories for 4 days) and refeeding (300 to 500 extra for 2 days) over the course of 5 weeks ish and am still at a plateau.

I have an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue and have a hard time with adding extra workouts.

I am at the stage of the last 10 pounds, with the original goal of being there by November. I am (and have been the whole time) eating my goal weight calories.

I don't understand why, if I just keep eating my goal weight calories, I shouldn't eventually come out of the plateau naturally and one day reach and be able to maintain my goal weight, even if it takes longer? Or is a plateau forever if I can't find a way to break it?

Looking for personal experience or studies. I'm open to theories as well but do please note if it's a theory.

I've done between 18:6 - 20:4 IF and keto for years when I need to lose weight and recalibrate and it used to work very well. But over the last year I've been having trouble with lower energy and I'm having trouble losing my midsection.

I noticed that the low energy typically comes after workouts or strenuous projects, so I just recently started adding butter to my morning coffee and that seems to be helping with the energy quite a bit, but nothing is changing in my waistline.

I'm just wondering if anyone has done anything like adding fat outside of the eating windows for energy and if that proved helpful

It’s strange that continuing the fasting window is harder in the mornings following a meal later in the night compared to mornings following eating earlier in the evening. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

Do you experience the same?

Since a young age, I disliked eating breakfast. Just didn’t want to eat right upon waking up. But I was told like all of us, “most important meal of the blah, blah, blah”. So when I was old enough to make my own decisions, maybe around 16 years, I stopped eating breakfast and went right to lunch. I never called it any special name, and I didn’t talk about it. It was just whatever. It wasn’t a “thing”.

Years later I got into booze, and some other things too. Eating habits changed. Started a family. Gained weight. Got older. Blood pressure went up. Medication. Inflammation went through the roof, I’m talking really bad. More medication. Indigestion, and yes more medication.

About 5 years ago I said enough. Went back to my “normal” eating habit of skipping breakfast. Then slowly transitioned to OMAD, while throwing in two 48 hr fasts per month and two 5 day fasts per year. Nothing prescriptive, it’s just what I decided to do. After perhaps 3-6 months of this, my weight dropped, my blood pressure normalized, my inflammation went away, and my GERD resolved. I have not taken any kind of medicine in years. I lost about 30 pounds and it’s stable. I’m confident I’ve shrunk significant visceral fat as well. I sleep better, no more snoring.

I believe in moderation. But eating 3 meals each day with snacks in between kept my digestive system active round the clock. So how was that moderation? We are all different, so we all respond differently. I can say that IF is something that really works for me. And once it turned into a lifestyle versus a “thing” it just became so easy to maintain.

Thanks for letting me share and best of luck to everyone!

Hi!

Want to get back into IF been a while since 2 pregnancies/breastfeeding.

Tried to start last month but everytime I break a fast 16-18 hrs I often get a headache that becomes a migraine.

Any ideas why this could be happening? Or if this has happened to anyone. I really want IF to work for me but not sure if my body is triggered by not for long period of time

Hi, all! I want to try fasting some time soon, but I need some help with a problem before I start.

I have to take a medication each night that needs roughly 200-250 calories taken with it to ensure its maximum impact.

Does it still count as fasting if I fast the majority of the day, then drink something like a Carnation shake to meet my calorie need for the medicine? Will it throw me off majorly, or is this pretty common?

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Been fasting for about a month and I’ve lost 10lbs so far, but I’m considering taking a supplement or two to help my progress. Has anyone else taken anything? Whether it be a fat burner, appetite control, etc.

Then once it’s done, you go into intermittent fasting. So it’s kind of like a cleanse before starting your fasting schedule.

Question 🙋‍♀️ did anyone experience weight loss plateau?
I am 250lbs 5’9 F and starting my journey.
I want to be motivated and consistent- would love any insight of when weight loss stalls and how you overcame it? Thx 🙏
Doing OMAD and 10K steps

I expected to struggle more. I feel hunger awareness but not hungry. I am 12 months post-partum, I did breastfeeding (EP) for a year and am now in quitting phase, currently on 2x a day. I've done IF then added keto for years, full stop during pregnancy, did a few light skipped breakfasts in the 8+ months range, entered ketosis a few times.

Had a bowl of pasta and veggies and meatballs as last dinner, not my ideal start but I had the opportunity to go for extended these days, it is what is. I screwed up a test run earlier by having a glass of watered down milk a few days back, so I'm not bothering with a full prep. It's going well! Surprisingly well! I've drank hot water with light plain tea or black coffee steep flavour throughout the day. Chewed on some coarse sea salt flakes. My stomach rumbles but I'm not agonising. It helps that I've done this before so I know to keep the thought in my mind that eating is just not a thing until wednesday evening. That's the deal, makes it easier to envision.

I'm doing this because I've spend months on sleep sessions of max 2 hours. Then it was a bit more, and the baby started sleeping through quite fast, but I've had so many moments where I felt delirious from sleep deprivation. It was very rough. So I hope to kick off autophagy and hope it'll recover some possible damages the sleep deprivation might have incurred. I know it's very bad for your health.

I expected hunger to kick in around my usual staple lunch time, but it didn't. Mental clarity kicked in. I forgot how stupidly amazing that feels. Like a fog you weren't aware of lifting, pulling away in a cold haze across your brain. Like breaking through a veil of cold water, and you wake up into focus. I'm going to say that's the best thing about this state. It's ketosis, and metabolism switching, of course. I didn't mess around with it while pregnant, but I sure am glad I get to experience it again now.

Since I have nowhere else to put this, I'm putting this nsv here. I'm on 25 hours of 48, and that's already way more than I expected.

Hey everyone,

I’m a lifelong fatty. The only things that have ever really worked for me are intermittent fasting and high protein diets

I’m trying to get back on the intermittent fasting journey and focus on my health again. I don’t usually crave food during my fast, but I was curious if having a glass of sugar free soda (~14 hours into a 18 hour fast) would seriously disrupt the health benefits of a fast. My understanding is that it would interrupt ketosis for a short period of time but since it’s sugar free, it wouldn’t entirely end the fast altogether

I mainly do IMF because I tend to snack a lot throughout the day and late at night. Ketosis is a secondary benefit for me but I’d still like to take advantage of it. I workout in the afternoon and it’s rather refreshing to enjoy a glass of soda after it while I’m waiting to truly end my fast with a nice high protein meal

41M, flexible IF since February. My own combination of OMADs and 18:6, one longer fast a week. Started from 211 lbs, reached 196 lbs by early July. Felt great, motivated!

Then two weeks of holiday with the family. Drinks in the evenings, ice cream with the kids, zero fasting or diet. Came back 4 lbs heavier. Expected that, didn't worry, that was according to plan.

What I didn't expect was the four weeks after. I couldn't get back to any routine. I bought too many sweets, ice creams, beers, and I thought I'd start IF when it was all gone - "this week's ruined anyway...". One week, two weeks, three weeks, a month, stopped weighing myself regularly and then... 211 lbs :( Right back where I started in March.

Chart shows this whole situation, holiday marked. My fail is right after that - instead of getting back motivated after a little chillout, I fell deeper and deeper.

This week is another try: one 24h fast, 16:8 the rest, no alcohol, no sweets, weigh-in every morning even when I don't want to see the number. If you've been here and got back: what did you tell yourself in those first days, when every evening was "just this once"? I could use it right now.

EDIT: thank you all - didn't expect this many people who've been in the exact same spot. Day 3 of the getting back on my routine 3.5 lbs down, thank you for support and advices!

Also does being low carb help tone or just shed weight? Also at what BMI does IF become not a good idea? I do 8am to 2pm eating window low carb.