Fat Fast

What Is A Fat Fast?

The fat fast is a technique brought by Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution – used by people who are metabolically resistant and have trouble with their induction. Let me first say that fat fasting should be used in 2 situations and 2 situations only:

  • Breaking through a 2 week or longer plateau.
  • Inducing yourself into ketosis quicker, whether you are just starting keto or you had a cheat day.

If you’re the type of person that loses weight easily and you are NOT hitting a plateau, then fat fasting should NOT be used. It can be potentially dangerous for someone that is not metabolically resistant, or for someone that is not on a plateau.

You should not fat fast consistently. Like I said, it is only for people starting a ketogenic diet and want to be inducted into ketosis faster, or for people that are on a long (2 weeks or more) plateau.

Understanding the Fat Fast

The lack of carbohydrates and protein will allow your body to depreciate your glycogen stores quicker, also allowing your body to go after the fat stores, like we want it to, to use as fuel.

Fat fasting will force the body to undergo lipolysis, so that it burns up fat that is stored in the body.

Lipolysis is a process involved in the breakdown of fats, converting triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids. The longer you fast, the more of these free fatty acids will be released. Why is this important? Well, fatty acids are used by the liver to create small amounts of ketone bodies and used as fuel.

Lipolysis cannot happen if there is a significant amount of glucose coming in, but since 80% – 90% of what you will be eating are fats, you don’t need to worry about excess protein or carbs converting into glucose.

What is Fat Fasting?

So, what exactly is a fat fast? It’s eating between 1000 and 1200 calories a day, where between 80% and 90% of your calories come from fat, and fat alone. You break these 1000-1200 calories into 4 or 5 meals a day, eating in blocks of 200-250 calories per meal.

It is normally done for 2-4 days but is never recommended to go for more than 5 days. Going longer than this will start to put your body in a real “starvation mode” and your muscle mass will begin to be metabolized as energy at a faster rate – the exact opposite of what you want.

Hungry? You most likely will be at first, but once your body starts adapting to the way you are eating, you will notice a drop in your hunger. This is because you will be eating your meals in frequent intervals with high amounts of fat, which increases satiety levels.

If you’re doing a fat fast, I recommend doing a 3 day fast. This normally drops about 5-8 pounds of body fat and water weight. When you enter back into a normal diet, expect to put back 2-3 pounds of that weight.

 

What Are You Supposed To Eat During A Fat Fast?

 

Let's get to it! What do you actually eat on a 3 day fat fast? There’s not all that much choice you have, as you have to keep the calories relatively low and the fat very high. Try to aim for foods that are almost pure fat: avocado, macadamia nuts, cream cheese, and fat bombs.

Feel free to mix meat in there, but be careful about the amount of meat you actually eat. As most of it will have a good amount of protein, you want to be sparing.  Chicken, tuna, turkey, bacon, and prosciutto will be a nice addition to get a bit of protein in your system and add some extra flavor to your dishes for sure!

Here are a couple examples for single meals:

  • 1 serving of Spiced Bacon Deviled Eggs
  • 1-2 servings of your favorite Fat Bomb
  • 1 serving of Cheesy Creamed Spinach
  • 1 serving of Egg Salad Stuffed Avocado
  • ½ medium avocado mashed with 1 tbsp. of mayonnaise (home-made if possible)
  • 2 oz of mackerel, salmon or sardines (cooked or tinned) mashed with 2 tbsp. mayo (serve on 1-2 small lettuce leaves to make keto-friendly fish tacos)
  • ½ serving of Keto Mocha Mousse
  • 1 cup of Bearable BulletProof Coffee
  • ½ cup of Iced Bulletproof Green Tea
  • 1 oz. Macadamia Nuts
  • Macadamia nut butter with 2 oz. cream cheese
  • 1 oz. chicken with 2 tbsp. mayonnaise
  • 2 egg yolks with 1 tbsp. mayonnaise
  • 1 cup Coffee with ¼ cup heavy cream
  • 4 slices bacon (be careful with this, as it dwindles under 80% calories from fat)
  • ¼ cup heavy cream whipped with Da Vinci Flavored Syrup
  • 2 oz. sour cream with ½ cup cucumber
  • ½ serving of sugar-free Jell-O with ½ cup whipped cream

Here's A Simple 3 Day Meal Plan

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

How to Implement The 3 Day Fat Fasting Meal Plan

By making the recipes in this meal plan, you’ll have plenty of extra servings that you can use to kick-start your regular ketogenic diet or extend your fat fast for another day or two. Feel free to substitute any fat bomb recipes for the fat bombs recommended in this meal plan (you can find some more fat bomb ideas here).

If you would rather keep your fat fast as easy as possible, then simply pick a couple suggestions from the list of suggestions above and eat between 1000 and 1200 calories of them during your fat fast. Just make sure you are getting 80- 90% of your calories coming from fat. You’ll find the perfect example of how to keep your fat fast as simple as possible below — no need for fat fasting meal plans or food prep.