You Want Me to Eat What?

Everyone has heard of fasting in some form or another. Intermittent Fasting, Water Fast, Juice Fast/Cleanse, Fat Fast.

Wait, what? FAT?!

Yes, you heard me correctly: a fat fast. The skinny? You “fast” from nearly everything except fat for about 5 days. There are lengthier versions that include an extra day, followed by a “re-feed day,” and then another fasting period (I will link that info at the bottom of this post). How long all depends really on your goals.

• Fat fasting will get you into ketosis quickly. If you are already fat adapted, meaning your body is used to burning fat for fuel instead of carbs (FYI, most people are NOT fat adapted if not following a keto diet), you can get into ketosis in a day or two without the effects some refer to as “keto flu.”
• Fat fasting is perfect to break that weight-loss plateau if you’ve been stalled for two or more weeks.
• Fat fasting helps prepare the body for a water fast. If you have wanted to try water fasting, but for whatever reason are having trouble beginning and sticking to one, fat fasting is perfect. Your body will need less and less to feel full because fat is so filling. You can also go longer between meals once you have adjusted to eating this way.
• If you have a lot of weight to lose, an extended fat fast with re-feeding days will really jump-start your weight loss!

After going keto last year, I dropped weight very quickly – about 15 pounds in two weeks! I was not starving myself, but was actually eating non-stop! Healthy, vegan, fat full meals. After about a week, I was not hungry in the mornings and began intermittent fasting. I also was not craving anything in the evenings, which allowed me to naturally extend my intermittent fasting periods. But a few weeks later, maybe 5 weeks after going keto, I stalled in weight loss. Let me say, I was in no way displeased with my progress, but I was still not where I wanted to be.

And then I heard about this crazy thing called “fat fasting.” I did a vegan form of it for five days and lost 8 pounds. Of those 8, I put back on between 1 and 2 after I went back to normal keto.

If you research it online, you will find some pretty gross ways to do it (ground beef smothered in butter 3x a day!!), and maybe some that seem much too restrictive.

Let me be clear: it IS restrictive. It’s a fast, y’all! But there are ways to switch it up that allows you to eat more than eggs scrambled in mayo or beef drowning in a stick of butter. And even if you are not interested in a purely vegan way of doing it, I want to offer you these options, too.

Now let’s start with the rules:

1. Eat no more than 1,200 calories in a day. This is the only time you’ll ever count calories on a keto diet!
2. Aim for between 80-90% of your daily calories to be from fat. You will need an app to do this. Just a little too much protein or carbs can set off that number quickly. I pre-planned my days and played around with different foods until I got my numbers right.
3. Depending on your goals, your fast will be between 3-5 days or a few weeks (this requires re-feeding – VERY IMPORTANT!).

So what did I eat?

• Bulletproof coffees and teas using 1 TBSP coconut oil or MCT oil
• Fat bombs and more fat bombs. My favorite is Phat Fudge.
• Avocadoes
• Olives, green or black
• Macadamia nuts
• Coconut butter (yep, by the spoonful)
• Cacao butter
• Avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, coconut oil, flaxseed oil
• Spinach sauteed in several TBSP’s of avocado oil
• Hummus (always check before you buy. Ingredients always matter and some are way higher in carbs and crap than others)
• Seeds and pistachios (limited quantity)

If you are only doing a 3-5 day fast, supplementing is not entirely necessary. However, if you are NOT fat adapted and used to eating copious amounts of fat, I suggest an enzyme after each “meal” – 3x a day, if necessary. Additionally, I mixed one scoop of raw greens (dehydrated for gut detoxing and alkalizing ) and drank that every morning. For more info, click on either picture:

Here are some awesome sources to help you with your fast:

Bulletproof way – Rapid Fat Loss with Re-Feeding

What is Fat Fasting – why and how

Happy fasting!