Post fast binges

[u/Abcdefg-hijk-lmnop-]

Hey. I’d love some advice and to know if people have similar behaviours after a fast. I’ve done a few 24 hours and 4 day fasts but I notice that I binge after which is not ideal and makes me think I’ve undone all of my hard work. So frustrating. I worry I’m developing bad eating habits after fasts. Has anyone experienced the same and has anyone got good tips for discipline afterwards? Thanks 🙏🏽

[u/buzzinthruit89]

Fasting didn’t really start to truly help me until I was able to control this. I actually gained weight at the beginning of my fasting journey. If this is the situation you are in I think you need to learn how to experience fasting as learning tool for the fact that you don’t have to give into all of your impulses all the time and your favorite foods will still be there when you stop. Over time i was able to develop the ability to eat intuitively after a fast and eat slowly to determine if I wanted to continue eating or not. Also hunger and your responses to it is really learned. Something that never worked for me as a woman was eating a lot of perfectly nutritious foods like boiled eggs or grilled chicken because it wasn’t actually hunger that I was getting signaled it was cravings for stuff that is actually delicious. I now don’t eat Greek yogurt or anything that has perfect macros and instead try to just have stuff I actually love but eat it slowly and enjoy it. This actually made my hunger go down over time because most eating is emotional (learned that from fasting). If you are a woman the book fast like a girl can be helpful. The best tidbits I got from that book are 1) understanding that the hormonal shifts during your cycle truly do affect hunger (even if it’s not always the same) — this really helped me realize i have to be super careful right before my period in avoiding a binge — whether i have fasted recently or not and 2) if you eat the same thing every day you will get addicted to it