Last Updated on April 12, 2024 by Fasting Planet
To enter ketosis, you typically have to refrain from eating, especially foods that have a lot of carbohydrates. What if we told you it’s possible to consume more than 1,000 calories a day and still burn fat through ketosis? You can through fat fasting. What is fat fasting?
With fat fasting, you restrict your calories to no more than 1,200 daily, with up to 90 percent of these calories derived from fat sources. This fast, which can last up to five days, triggers ketosis so your body burns fat instead of glucose for energy.
If this is the first you’ve heard of fat fasting, then you’re not going to want to miss this informative article. In it, we’ll explain fat fasting in depth, including how it works. We’ll also discuss fat fasting benefits, the results you can expect, and how to start your own fat fast. Keep reading!
What Is Fat Fasting?
A fat fast isn’t a true fast, but it’s probably named such because it makes your body behave as if it were fasting.
Fat fasts last anywhere from two to five days. The least amount of recommended daily calories you should consume is 1,000 and the most is 1,200 calories. Most people on fat fasts don’t ingest their daily caloric load all at once, but rather, break it up into about five meals. Each meal comprises about 200 to 250 calories.
What you eat when fat fasting is incredibly paramount, as the diet requires that 80 to 90 percent of the foods you consume are sources of fat. When you eat like this, you can make your body enter a state of ketosis.
If you’re new to this blog, ketosis is an internal process that leads to fat burning. Without carbohydrates being provided to your system through your everyday diet, your body makes ketones.
Ketones, also known as ketone bodies, come from the liver. These molecules are your new energy source when your body doesn’t get enough glucose from food. As you may recall, glucose, a type of sugar, is your main energy source. Carbs provide a lot of glucose, more than other foods.
Glucose gets converted into glycogen and stored in the liver, where you use it throughout the day. Your liver can hold onto excess glycogen, but when even that runs out, the body begins using fat for energy instead, burning fat in the process. Ketosis can also trigger fat burning, making it desirable for fasters and others seeking weight loss. Entering a state of ketosis can be a lengthy process, taking upwards of six days, hence the length of a fat fast. Also, your net carbs must be between 20 and 50 grams a day, which is very much possible through a fat fast.
If you regularly follow the keto diet, then you should find that fat fasting can decrease the amount of time it takes for you to enter ketosis. Your ketone levels can also go up even more through a fat fast, delivering more efficient results.
That’s why most fat fasters are those who want to see quick weight loss. Others, such as those losing weight but who feel like they have hit a wall, as well as those who have recently consumed a lot of carbs and want to hop back onto the keto diet, also find that fat fasting suits them well.
What Are the Benefits of Fat Fasting?
If you fit into one of the above groups, then you might consider trying a fat fast. Here are the benefits you could reap should you commit to fat fasting for a time or two.
Weight Loss
Anytime your body burns through fat stores instead of glycogen, you can expect to drop some weight. We’ll discuss exactly how many pounds you might lose later in this article, but do know that fat fasting is a reliable method for weight loss.
It’s also easier to lose weight through a fat fast because you get to consume more than 1,000 calories a day, so you hardly feel like you’re starving. On true fasts, like intermittent fasts, your calories tend to be restricted if you can consume calories at all. That can make these fasts a little tough to get through.
Faster and Deeper Ketosis
As we mentioned in the last section, those who are already keto diet followers are the ones who benefit most from fat fasts. Adding more fat to your diet can lessen the time it takes you to get into ketosis as well as push you into a deeper state of ketosis.
What is deep ketosis, anyway? It’s an accelerated form of ketosis, so your body makes more ketones and burns even more fat. Deep ketosis can be beneficial for some, but it may also turn dangerous if you’re not careful.
It’s possible to develop ketoacidosis through deep ketosis. This is a condition that’s often associated with diabetics. Don’t be fooled though, non-diabetics can get ketoacidosis too.
Ketoacidosis occurs when your ketones increase to such a high degree that your blood sugar spikes as well. When these two events happen simultaneously, your blood acidity goes up, affecting your kidneys and liver for the worse. In some instances, ketoacidosis can be fatal, so it’s important to tread a fine line between deep ketosis and ketoacidosis.
Fewer Cravings
Do you often have strong food cravings? You try your best to substitute healthier meals that will reduce or even erase your cravings, but nothing works until you can eat the real deal.
When you consume more fat such as through a fat fast, the satiety you get from all that fat should make your cravings disappear. This will allow you to have more discipline when it comes to your diet, keeping you on track.
Reduced Appetite
In a 2015 report published in Obesity Reviews, the authors note that keto diets and low-energy diets can both reduce appetite, although they also conceded that more research must be done in this area.
Fat Loss
As your body uses fat for an energy source through fat fasting, this reduces the quantities of fat in your body. You may find that besides losing weight, your body fat percentage decreases so you look trimmer.
Acts a Bridge to Other Types of Fasts
If you’re new to the world of fasting, fat fasting is a good place to start, even if it’s not a true fast.
Fat fasting can act as a stepping stone or bridge to intermittent and longer-term fasts. If you want to stick to an intermittent fast that lets you continue eating like you can on a fat fast, you might try the 16:8 method. This grants you eight eating hours every day, with the other 16 hours dedicated to fasting. The one meal a day or OMAD diet is another intermittent fast that fat fasters should excel at.
Once you start intermittent fasting, you might even advance to water fasting, which some fat fasters have successfully done.
What Can You Eat When Fat Fasting?
We said before that what you eat matters when fat fasting. In that regard, a fat fast is a lot like a true fast. Take the OMAD diet as an example. If you consume nothing but pizzas, cheeseburgers, and ice cream for your single meal of the day, do you think you’ll lose a lot of weight? Of course not. You’ll also impede fat burning as you bog down your system with carbs, which become glucose.
Fat fasting is the same. Those 1,200 calories can take you pretty far, giving you lots of dietary options. To accelerate your weight loss and fat burning results, consume healthier fats whenever possible. Here are some to incorporate into your diet.
Beverages
You must take into account the calories from both what you drink (unless it’s water) as well as what you eat. Some beverages have carbs, especially fruit juices like grape juice (about 37 grams of carbs per cup), cranberry juice (31 grams), and orange juice (25 grams). Soft drinks also tend to be carb-heavy, with an average can of cola containing 39 grams of carbs.
Thus, you should sip sparkling water, coffee, tea, and water when fat fasting.
Nondairy
Two great nondairy, high-fat food products you might enjoy on your fat fast are coconut cream and full-fat coconut milk. You can consume coconut cream straight, mix it with some berries, or make keto coconut cream pie cups. Coconut milk is versatile as well. It can act as the base for keto ice cream, coconut curry chicken, or chocolate coconut milk pudding.
Dairy
The fat content of most dairy makes it a natural fit for your fat fasting diet. Try increasing your intake of heavy cream, cream cheese, butter, as well as brie and other high-fat cheeses.
Nuts
Nuts are a smart dietary choice for satiety, but since you’re watching your carbs on a fat fast, you want to limit which nuts you eat. Macadamia nuts won’t steer you wrong. You can eat them as is or make them into a nut butter that’s great on sandwiches or eaten straight from the jar.
Vegetables
Non-starchy veggies such as zucchini, spinach, kale, olives, and avocado are all smart picks on a fat fast diet. To increase the fat content of these vegetables even more, cook them in fat.
Oils and Spreads
Avocado oil, olive oil, mayonnaise, and coconut oil are the oils and spreads with the most fats. If you’re not sure how to use coconut oil, you can substitute it for vegetable oil in a brownie recipe, make coconut cookies with the oil, or add it to keto coffee. Avocado oil makes a fantastic vinaigrette in salads.
Eggs
Prep your eggs so you’re consuming the yolk or the entire egg itself. You might eat eggs for breakfast or with lunch or dinner.
Fish and Meat
Sink your teeth into salmon, sardines, and bacon especially. Yes, this is one diet where bacon is allowed, so take advantage of it!
Here’s are some sample dishes that incorporate the above fat fasting ingredients:
- Egg salad stuffed avocados
- Cheesy creamed spinach
- Spiced bacon deviled eggs
- Herbed omelet
- Butter spinach with salmon
- Shirataki noodles with cheese sauce and bacon
- Salmon and avocado salad
- Strawberry and rhubarb parfait
- Brussel sprouts and bacon hash
- Cheese-stuffed portobello mushrooms
- Smoked salmon and cream cheese rolls
- Strawberry cheesecake fat bombs
As expansive and generous as the fat fast diet can be, make sure you refrain from consuming these foods and beverages:
- Sweetened coffee, energy drinks, non-diet sodas, juices
- Pastries, cakes, biscuits, and cookies
- Cod, lamb, beef, and other low-fat meat and fish
- Low-fat yogurt, low-fat cheese, and skim milk
- Butter beans, black beans, and lentils
- Rice, oats, cereal, crackers, pasta, and bread
How Much Weight Loss Can You Expect Through Fat Fasting?
We mentioned we’d get back to weight loss expectations on a fat fast, so let’s do that now. If you follow all the guidelines of a fat fast and enter a state of ketosis for fat burning, what kind of numbers might you see on the scale?
It’s like we always say, every person is different. If you’re a regular keto diet follower, then your weight loss results might be greater than a first-time fat faster’s. Your current weight, what you eat on a fat fast, and your metabolism also will impact weight loss.
That said, on a three-day fat fast, the average faster will lose between five and eight pounds. It’s important to mention that this isn’t exclusively body weight, but rather, water weight as well. This retained water tends to come off fairly easily with some types of fasts.
Your results aren’t necessarily going to stick unless you follow the above fat fasting diet or some other keto diet regularly. Once you begin incorporating fewer fats and more carbs into your diet, you might put on about two to three pounds of what you lost. That leaves your long-term weight loss at five to six pounds max.
How to Fat Fast: Tips and Strategies
Are you ready to start your first fat fast? Before you do, make sure you read this section, as it’s full of useful information that will help you fast for success!
Less Is More
You might think that to lose even more than the above expectation of five to eight pounds, you should go on a fat fast that’s longer than five days. This will let your ketosis last for even longer, thus adding more to your weight loss and fat burning, right?
Not necessarily. Once you get past the five-day mark, your body might not only burn fat. On longer fasts, your system augments fat burning with burning muscle proteins as well. If this goes on for long enough, you could chip away at your muscle mass without meaning to.
Keep your fat fasts to no more than five days at a time. You can always take a break for a few days and then resume a fat fast again if you’re eager to get back at it.
You May Still Feel Hungry
You might think that because you’re eating throughout the day that hunger is impossible on a fat fast, but you’d be surprised. Even though fats can satiate you, your body will still have to take some time to adjust to this change in diet.
For the first day or two, you could feel hunger pangs between meals. You might decrease how long you go from one meal to another to combat these pangs.
Don’t Skip the Multivitamin
Since you’re restricting your micronutrients when fat fasting, the last thing you should consume before starting this fast is a multivitamin. Now you can follow your fast without worrying about potential nutrient deficiencies.
Log Your Diet
You won’t know if your fat fast diet works if you’re not sure what you’re eating. Don’t just rely on your memory. Use a phone app or even a notebook and a pencil to write down what you eat, how many calories, and how much fat each meal contains.
If you’re not quite happy with your results after the first fat fast, you can look back at your diet to see which changes you can make for next time. Once you find a fat fasting diet you like, you’ll also have a record of it so you can repeat it.
Keep Your Exercise Low-Intensity
The 1,200 calories you consume likely isn’t enough to get you through a heavy-duty sweat session where you’re lifting weights and running furiously. Lighten up your exercise just like you would on a true fast. Do some yoga, walk instead of jog, and drop some pounds on your weights if you must lift.
Conclusion
Fat fasting, while not a true fast, can still allow you to lose weight and burn fat. You do this by restricting your calories to about 1,200 a day, eating mostly fats, and omitting carbs as well.
Now you’re ready to begin fat fasting for weight loss and diet reform. Best of luck!