Long Fasts and Why the are not Good for Me

 There are people out there that swear by the longer fasting windows.  I just read the book Fast like a Girl that encourages longer fasts for more fat burning and cell rejuvenating benefits! (link for book....it was a good one!)  I understand the concepts and benefits.   I even think I could do it easily if I set my mind to it.  However, I have learned recently that it's just not for me.

So a month or so ago, I decided to try a longer fast.   It was a bit of a failure in that I didn't make the pie in the sky goal of 36 hours of fasting.  However, it was a victory in that I did make it 24 hours without fasting.  I was super proud of myself for the 24 hours and was so excited to see what would happen on the scales.  You an imagine my surprise when I stepped on the scales and found that I had GAINED weight!  Yes, you read that right.  24 hours without food and I showed a gain.  (You can read about the experience here.)  I was disillusioned by the experience, but vowed to try again.

Again, happened the other week when I had my Endoscopy (which I wrote about in my last post here.)  I was not allowed to eat after midnight, so when I was finished eating dinner the night before my procedure I was done until after my procedure the next day.  By the time I got done with the procedure it was late afternoon.  I knew that unless I was utterly miserably hungry that I would just wait until dinner. And lets be honest, I knew that I would be fine.   Thirsty, now that was a different story!  But thirst is not part of this post, so back to fasting and food.   I knew that I would be fine to wait for dinner at the normal hour. I had a super healthy dinner planned for us and I had made a cake that morning to go with dinner (since it was a Friday and I splurge on Fridays.  Plans were made and it was going to go great.   Except I was so tired and lazy feeling and I was getting hungry.  I wanted pizza!  I wanted wings!  I wanted it all!    And that is what we did.  We ordered wings and pizza.   And yes, I ate a half of pizza and half the order of wings!    No holds barred!  I hadn't eaten in 24 hours, I deserved that food!  At least that is what my brain was saying.  My stomach was hungry and was egging the brains thoughts along.  It was a bad combination.

I didn't think much about this until just this week, almost two weeks after the endoscopy when I realized what had really happened.  I had allowed myself to get so hungry (I didn't have a whole lot of say in the matter, although I could have had a light snack when I left the doctors office.  my in-laws were ready and willing to take me someplace to grab a bite to eat.  Food quickly became this huge thing in my mind and nothing would satisfy until I gorged myself.

So, with that said, I love fasting and I do think there are benefits of longer fasts.  But for me, I will stick with the 16:8 fast.  It allows me to eliminate a meal.  It allows my body to reset a bit.   But it keeps me from getting ravenously hungry.  Or maybe I should say what my brain tells me is ravenously hungry   For me, as a food addict, long fasts are not a good thing because it sets that addiction into full play!

Lesson learned!