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Nutrition How to make fasting tolerable?

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Satiety is largely based on the specifics, starchy, high fiber carbs will stick to your ribs for a long time. For me, fats have to be consumed in a decent quantity to provide satiety or I don't even know I've eaten anything. Low fiber carbs (yes, even jelly beans) can be ingested with tepid water to improve their stomach filling sensation.

This conversation really doesn't need to have a large component of lo-fat / lo-carb diet comparison. Fasting is fasting, energy balance is energy balance, and trying to "game" it mentally is not terribly relevant. From a very individual perspective as someone who has swung his weight over 50lbs up and down on relatively low bodyfat (roughly 7-18% ) the main thing needed to eat less (or more!) is mindset. You set out to eat on a plan and that's what you do. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes not.

A lack of food is only difficult to endure if I expected to be fed and then realize at the last minute it isn't going to happen. If I know I'm going to have no food for X number of hours, then that's what is going to happen. Even though I eat a lot of carbs I'm not going to get dizzy or swoon if I don't get fed on a regular - I'm carrying plenty of fat and glycogen that can be released as needed. For me a major shift in perception came when I began to look at stomach rumbling, feelings of hunger similar to discomfort from pushing myself with resistance or HIIT - the sensation of progress, not despair. It passes.

As for up and down swings of insulin, being intricately linked to the digestive process and energy output that is exactly what it is supposed to do (just like cortisol) - it is a response to nutrient energy in form of proteins or carbs. Insulin does not cause or relieve hunger, and only in cases where reserves are really run down will a healthy person get angry due to low blood sugar as opposed to not being fed on a schedule - dehydration often plays a role.
 
Haven't read the whole thread, but I will add my mustard anyway (to paraphrase a German saying :D )

Some things that work for me to make fasting more enjoyable (and hunger less prevalent):
- Drinking: Water with salt, carbonized water, and green tea. Black coffee too.
- Electrolytes (sugar free!) have helped me a lot during my first fast (when I started getting heachaches and was feeling super shaky and weak)
- Breathwork, meditation, deep relaxation
- Walking, relaxed pace
- Reading a good book
- Reading about the benefits of fasting :)

[Outside of fasting I've noticed that I need some carbs to feel pleasantly full, even with 500g of fish or meat.]

What makes things worse:
- Family cooking and declicous smells
- Any kind of stress (work related, hard exercise, very cold weather, etc.)
 
A piece of info that might be helpful.

Per Dr. Ted Naiman: Adipose unpacking rate is approximately 30 cal/day/lbs of body fat.

I hope this will help inform your meal size and timing for better satiety.

FWIW: due in part to this piece of info, I have found that I do well on (2 meals) 1lbs of ground beef/day timed 4-6 hrs apart as lunch/dinner. fat is drained off. I'm 70" tall 225lbs. that's a maintenance diet for me. no appreciable gain/loss. add cheese and sriracha to taste.
 
Thank you for so many answers!
I experimented with my yerba mate/coffee intake and I think that my bad mood can be due to caffeine withdrawal.
At the moment I'm experimenting with intermittent fasting daily, gradually limiting my feeding window, until I reach 16/8.
Becoming caffeine independent, however - it might be a tough cookie (see my profile photo).
 
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