question about fasting

[anne from california]

Quick question about fasting: If I drink chamomile tea, am I still fasting? I like a cup in the evening after dinner.

[Orangeblossom]

I have herbal tea while fasting, it wouldn't have any calories so shouldn't affect it, I would think.

[TheresaB]

Quick question about fasting: If I drink chamomile tea, am I still fasting? I like a cup in the evening after dinner.

Do it. I tell people there’s no fasting police.

In the book, The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore, they cite, “In general we encourage consuming plenty of noncaloric liquids (water, tea, coffee) and homemade bone broth, which is full of nutrients.” Later they say, “All types of tea are excellent choices,…” They talk about some teas, specifically green, cinnamon and ginger, being better for suppressing the appetite, but basically all are fine. It's a good book, I recommend it.

Fasting is a spectrum. On one end there are folks who don’t even have water when they fast (NOT recommended, usually for religious reasons). Then there are folks who fast for specific therapeutic reasons, and their regimen can be as strict as distilled water only for multiple days.

Then there are people like me who drink black coffee first thing in the morning (which some say breaks the fast because of what it tells the circadian rhythm of the body, but I like my morning ritual), I also drink tea, and take my supplements (which includes calories from fish oil) when I fast. But I do my fasts for “good housekeeping” not therapeutic reasons, so I figure I’m allowed wiggle room. On my multiday fasts I have home made bone broth to keep my electrolytes up, and (shhh, don’t tell anybody) yes I confess, when I was having a particularly hard time on day 5 of my multiday fast, I ate a few high fat (low insulin response) macadamia nuts to get me over the hump.

[hill dweller]

The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore is a very good book. Do read.

[GritMom]

Regarding fasting ....I feel like such a wimp, but I can even seem to do a 12 to 15 hour fast. I have tried having my evening meal at 7 pm - then bed at 10 pm without a snack before turning in. But, I can't sleep because of hunger. For many years I have always had a small bite to eat before bed. The recent books I've read (Dr. Bredesen, Dr. Gundry and lots of others) instruct clearly on how unwise this is. I don't eat large meals - they upset my stomach. My BMI is 19 .... I'm 5'5" and weigh around 115-118. I am very active and I am not pre-diabetic but I really want to reap the benefits of autophagy. But an empty stomach makes me very wakeful and then I am miserable the next day, which leads to lousy food choices. Oy. Any and all advice cheerfully accepted....

[Stavia]

Gritmom welcome.
Deciding how to incorporate strategies into one's life is very individual and it's certainly not one size fits all. In addition there is no way you will be able to successfully implement all possible strategies together at the start.
My advice is to prioritise your sleep first. It is a critical strategy and you won't be able to manage the others if you are tired. Try to have your pre-bed snack a lower carb snack - some nuts for instance, a piece of beef jerky, a boiled egg, maybe a flaxseed cracker with avocado. If you do decide to move into ketosis, you should be able to drop this snack later. It doesn't all have to happen right now.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[SusanJ]

Hi GritMom, as a similarly sized woman, I hear you. Stavia has good advice about prioritizing sleep. Think baby steps because a longer fasting period is a big change for your body.

Any and all advice cheerfully accepted....

So, we're about the same size, and I can't eat very big meals either. I can only keep weight on by eating 3 times per day, starting around 10 AM and within about a 8-9 hour window. Others here can eat only 1-2 times per day, but I just can't get there.

I had trouble waking up hungry early in the morning, which I eventually attributed to not having enough calories. Try tracking your food in Cron-o-meter (https://cronometer.com/) or similar food tracker. Without your snack, you might not be getting the same amount of calories. Another fix might be that nuts, avocado and a little extra EVOO at dinner - any extra fat you can sneak in - along with a little extra fiber will help slow how fast you digest your evening meal.

If you already track, what are your macros? Can you adjust those some towards a little more fat and fiber at night?

I usually put a few extra % carbs mid-day (or I lose weight) and more % fat at dinner (to keep me sated). I sleep a good 7 hours before waking and I rarely have trouble being hungry.

[Magda]

Welcome to the site GritMom.
I agree with Stavia, getting a proper rest is very important, and if going to bed hungry disturbs your sleep, it would be important to eat something to avoid that. I think like with a lot of new things, baby/small steps strategy is a great idea, and maybe at some point you will be able to extend the fasting period.

Moreover, have you had a chance to browse around our PRIMER?
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1418
It has been written by Dr. Stavia, and it's a wealth of comprehensive information on science, and prevention strategies.
I invite you, if you already have not to read it, and if any questions come up please do not hesite to ask.

Again, welcome to our community.

Magda

[anne from california]

I also am small--5'6", 122 pounds, with tiny little muscles and bones. I was about five pounds heavier a few weeks back, but the gradual shift over to this way of eating has shaved off some of the menopause belly that had begun to accumulate. (Yay!) I haven't found the fasting difficult, once I broke the habit of after-dinner snacking, but I am finding the sleep tough. Not because I'm hungry, though. A lot of it is my household--I sleep with one eye open till the teenagers are in for the night, and they have some late nights! I'm now doing .25 mg of melatonin, and that makes me woozy and sleepy, and tonight I'm going to take it for the first time while having to GET UP in the morning at a certain time. (The past two times I've taken it, I've way overslept.)

[GritMom]

Thank you for the warm welcome, all, and for the encouraging advice here. I am working my way through the primer (a truly monumental resource!) and am making dietary changes gradually. I think I will get there with my overnight fast, but I need to be more meticulous about my food choices during the day. My life style changes (and sleep patterns) are also hampered by having 2 teen boys (14,18) at home and two young adults who have "launched" but who often visit with their significant others. They all stay up much later than my husband and I -- yes, painful. Having 3 of my 4 kids after turning 40 may bode well for staving off genetic signals to slow down but on the other hand, it forces me way out of my comfort zone. "To sleep....perchance to dream...." ~ my timeless mission on this good earth :c)