Yes Guerney. Everything you said there is the truth.
Congratulations for having the determination and self control to manage to do what you said there. It ain't easy to go hungry for more than an hour or so in this world of massive food availability and large amounts of food designed to draw us in. We evolved as hunter gatherers, catching usually small animals, insects and fish and eating plants and roots we had to dig up. Our body systems prepared us for long gaps in our food finding, by storing energy as fat when our food gathering went well and we ate a lot, and using it up when we could not find what we needed. Yesterday I went to Sainsburies..... Packed with killer food and very available.
Most of us don't do what you are doing - control ourselves and going hungry for a couple of days a week. That is why the UK population is mostly well over weight.
How many calories are you consuming on your fasting days? What kind of food do you eat on those days?
If you're diabetic/pre-diabetic, have heart problems or blood pressure issues, intermittent fasting can lead to a heart attack or stroke, if you eat one massive meal a day. It isn't safe to eat a huge meal after 24 hours of eating nothing at all, so that's what I did lol, despite being told by my doc my blood pressure was very high and I should take statins. I was also pre-diabetic, but less so now. It took about 6 months after losing two stones for blood pressure to reduce. I refused stains and said "I'll lose weight". He was amazed that I did, because hardly anyone does.
It's safer to eat a short series of smaller meals over two or so hours, to reduce the potentially deadly blood sugar spike. The blood pressure spike could kill you.
Hunger only lasts an hour or two, sometimes several. The key is patience and being kind to oneself, maintaining a quiet determination. You don't psyche up, you psyche down and relax into it - it's just hunger, nothing to be afraid of, can't kill you for weeks. I did 5 days on, and took weekends off to eat anything I liked whenever. To start with, consuming a glass of orange juice every few hours, or cups of sugary tea, made time between meals more bearable. Now I don't need it. After about 14 hours of not eating, your body consumes itself.
A year before I started doing this intermittent fasting stuff, my very elderly neighbour reduced his weight through calorie reduction. He said the key to success is "Boredom".
I have a very varied diet, and my one meal a day is the most delicious possible. In another life, for a short time I was a chef in a restaurant... I know how to make delicious happen. There's nothing worse than looking forward to your one massive meal (it's huge), and it being a bland unenjoyable experience. I go all out flavourwise.
I always lapse over Christmas and put on weight - haven't been in a great hurry or stuck to my fasting regime too rigidly, because losing weight too quickly is also hazardous to one's health... and let's face it, this is an unpleasant process.
Once I'm at my target weight, I'll regain muscle mass - I was built like brick sh
it house in my 20s and 30s, and will be again. For me it's easy, I know how that process works, and even now, my body remembers what I expect from it. Larger muscles burn more calories, and big strong muscles are always useful.
