Any Lemmings that have been regular fasters for at least a couple years? What's your first hand experience and opinion on fasting for health benefits?

clearing out toxins

you either have a healthy liver or you don’t, stop with the ‘detox’ bs

I do intermittent fasting 18h, 5 days a week. It started as an attempt to curb my ulcerative colitis, which worked so I have just continued that.

I do 72 hour fasts every two or three month between. Total about 5 times now. I drink water and coffee and a bit of salt. I break the fast with some nuts and avocado and then some mild soup usually.

The first day I find most difficult, the hunger is most prevalent, then it subsides. I think about food often but not in a bad way. More as inspiration what I should eat when the fast is over. The second and third day my body is a bit weaker so no intense physical activity. But my mind is clear, almost a bit electric in a way. I enjoy that clarity. After the fast I feel fantastic, energetic and rejuvenated.

I do it mainly for the reported health benefits like autography. Probably will continue doing it till I die

Edit: I saw in the comments that you were looking for true fasting for minimum of two days, I have only tried for two days twice and my body went into lockdown. I couldn’t move and it felt like I was depressed. I do not think my body can handle it. And I do not want to waste two days of my life again just laying down being not able to do anything. But I will keep my comment here if ppl are interested in my other experiment with some of the same benefits when it comes to how I felt and my well-being.

I did an experiment where I didn’t eat normal food for dinner I only mixed veggies, oatmeal and water and drank it and ate an apple as a side dish.

My lunch and breakfast was not changed much. The only change to my lunch was that I started eating sweet potatoes instead of pasta.

I have problems with low blood sugar and hunger so I wanted to test if I could lessen it with potatoes (and meat) for lunch and oatmeal and veggies for dinner, especially oatmeal, it has a lot of good health benefits like keeping the blood sugar more balanced, lessen inflammations and making you feel fuller for a longer period. The first month was great, I didn’t feel hunger in the same way anymore for the whole day, I had more energy, my blood sugar didn’t drop like a bomb around meal time and I was happy. But then I started experimenting with tastes, I used milk instead of water and then also stoped adding celery (did not go well with milk). Tried using berries and other types of veggies or even less veggies and more fruits. After maybe 2,5 months did I feel really hungry again like extremely hungry, it hurt in my stomach in a way I have never felt before and I got migraines and felt like shit. So I stoped the experiment. I think the whole experiment was around 3 months. Now do I eat like normal, the only thing I still do is eating an apple almost every day after dinner. And I crave crispbread that has an extremely healthy taste to it in the evening… It is very weird.

I would like to try the experiment again to see how long it takes until I feel like shit and also write down what I mix together with notes on how I feel, to get a better understanding of what happens and when.

I do this all the time because of my ADHD hyper-focus. It’s how I stay so slim (unhealthy as fuck on the inside, I’m sure)!

I used to do 36 hours a week, as an experiment. Not for weight loss. Maintained my weight.

Results: lower LDL cholesterol. Sharply lower. Blood pressure lower only while fasting.

Side effects: migraines. I tried to arrange it so there was not so much time fasting before sleeping but would usually wake up with a migraine.

Never fasted more than 2 days voluntarily.

I only eat from 5-8 PM. I started it for weight loss a few years ago, which worked alright. I lost 30 pounds, but have since gained a lot of it back. It turns out you can eat a lot in three hours once your stomach gets used to it.

However, before starting the diet I had chronic heartburn, acid reflux, and trouble swallowing sometimes. All three went away after a week on the diet, which is enough for me to keep going.

There are other minor benefits, like saving money/time from not eating so often. At this point I don’t feel hungry at all until 4:00, so I never shop hungry.

I only eat once a day for years now. Not really for weight loss, but rather because it saves a lot of time and allows me to spend more time on preparing one really satisfying and healthy meal instead of just snacks and fast food. I still eat sweets and stuff if I feel like, but it’s easier to control and keep track of nutrients etc.

I intermittent fast the majority of days and have done so for nearly the last decade. I have a chronic illness that affects my GI tract, among other things, and it helps a lot.

Not getting hangry is a huge perk. Once my flight got stuck for hours in a small town airport with no food nearby. I was watching people get so weird about not eating for a few hours, but I was able to just be okay.

It’s been a long time, now. My takeaway: I turned into a monster on fasting days, so much so that my friends would whisper when they saw me approaching. It worked, in that I lost weight. It would have been easier for me to lose weight by just eating better food.

As with all things diet and nutrition, I also learned that what works for me definitely might not work for someone else, and that something that doesn’t work for me, might. Everybody’s metabolism is weird and wonderful and you need to figure out what works for you.

Right now, I figured out that not eating after 18:00 (6p) improves my sleep a ton. If I had to restart, I would just “fast” by imposing an evening cutoff for food/calories.

At times I won’t eat until midday, if not until dinner. If I do eat before then, I lose energy, I think it boosts metabolism and energy. I am just not hungry in the morning sometimes I’m not trying to fast per se.

https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD015610.pub2/full

Meta-analysis on ca. 2000 people - intermittent fasting no better than weight loss diets.

Lost 60lbs from it. My eating window was 930am-530pm. You still want to try to eat healthy while doing IF.

Started 5years ago at 334lbs. Am ~225lbs today. I stopped actively doing IF ~3 years ago though.

Is there a sublemmy for intermittent fasting by any chance ?

Of it helps you to go on a calories deficit, go for it.

There is no benefit in fasting rather than any other kind of first that less your calories intake. The rest is physiological, good if it works for you.

The end goal is to get into a balanced diet, for this fasting is bad because doesn’t teach you to eat better, just less

I’ve used it extensively to lose weight. The main advantage to it is how incredibly simple to execute it is compared to trying to “properly” restrict calories. Big things to watch out for are making sure you get all your micros, and that balance your dietary needs (Fiber, macro ratios) in your eating window.