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Microblog: How to Properly Refeed from Extended Fasting

Microblog: How to Properly Refeed from Extended Fasting

I am a firm believer in fasting. But sometimes if we have suffered with food addiction or an eating disorder, we may never be ready for extended fasting. There have been some successful extended fasts for me and some I didn’t do too well on the refeed.

⚠️We must know ourselves and what’s best for us. Trial and error can help but sometimes if you’ve been healing, it’s not worth the extra leap to take steps back. I had a pretty friendly debate about extended fasting with Dr. Joan Ifland and I recommend watching it to hear some of the disclaimers. She makes great points and I’d be wrong not to share.

💡My hope is to help the community heal and extended fasting can be a tool. But for some it may not be. Learn as much as you can and slowly ease into any extended fasting. There’s honestly no point in extended fasting if it sets you off to binge on refeeds. If knowing your next EF is coming up and this causes you anxiety or bingeing during your eating window, you may not be mentally ready for EFing.

🥩Mindset is critical. Don’t think, “I can’t eat for another 2 days!” Just eat your meat and when you are ready to fast, fast. Overly thinking, overly obsessing can cause self-sabotage.

🗒The most common factor for safe refeeding is by meal planning. Don’t PLAN to undereat or consume only 1200 calories. If you meal prep and plan, do it properly. Most of us should consume at a min., the equivalent of 16oz daily. (1.5 lbs. is even better).

👙As we age, we lose muscle mass and it is a significant factor for longevity. No one dies saying they wished they were always beach-body ready. Just eat the meat.⠀

💡Remember why you are fasting. If you want to heal your insulin resistant body or heal your body that is damaged from a Basal Metabolic Rate-perspective, extended fasting can do wonders. But if you’re doing it to compensate for days of poor eating or bingeing, your body is smarter than you think and knows when it’s having a compensatory, punishment-type fast vs. a healing fast.⠀

🚨If it’s the former, your body WILL retaliate (e.g., binge refeeds). Imagine your body starting a fast. Do you choose your body to be in a parasympathetic or sympathetic state of mind?

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