I Ate Just Fat For Two Weeks and Lost Five Kilos - This Is How

Contrary to popular belief, fat is NOT bad for you. The right kind of fat is great for your health.

In March 2013, I lost more than 5 kilos of weight in 2-3 weeks by eating ONLY fat. I didn’t step inside a gym for a single day, but I SHREDDED fat.

How? I went on a fat fast.

During a fat fast, you eat ONLY FAT. Almost no protein or carbohydrates. JUST FAT. The logic behind it is that since fat is so satiating, it’s hard to overeat it.

I started my fast on 3 March 2013, and broke it on 19 March. I started my fast weighing around 87 kilograms. Two weeks later, I was down by 5-6 kilograms.

I looked up fat fasting and did my research from multiple online resources.

Disclaimer: Speak to your doctor before you do this. A fat fast is an extreme step, and should, under no circumstances, be done suddenly or without planning.

Listen to the podcast for the whole story!

How I Did The Fat Fast

Before my fast, I stocked up. I bought:

• Two cans of whipped cream – the unsweetened kind
• Coconut oil
• Unsalted butter – from a farm, not the pasteurised, brand-name one
• Dark chocolate (72% cocoa) – This isn’t on a typical fast, but I was having little bits of it
• Eggs
• Bacon
• Black Coffee

So for the first week, I would wake up, drink black coffee, and study a little bit, since I was in college back then. If I felt hungry, I’d eat some whipped cream straight from the can.

I ate fat through the day. I stuck to clean, natural sources of fat like coconut oil, ghee, butter, cream, and animal fat. And if you’re eating healthy, you should already incorporate these healthy saturated fats into your diet, and avoid polyunsaturated fats and trans fats like vegetable oils and other processed or refined fats.

What Happens to Your Body During a Fat Fast?

Here’s what happens in your body on a fat fast:

You eat fat >> You feel satiated >> Your body releases the hormones that indicate fullness >> your body thinks you’re well-fed enough to stay in a calorie-burning state >> You haven’t had any sugar either, which means you’ll keep burning fat >> you stay in ketosis >> you burn fat.

Fat makes you feel full and satisfied. So, when you do a fat fast, you’re technically tricking your brain into feeling full when you aren’t. Because your brain thinks you’re full while you’ve actually eaten very little, you end up burning fat and staying in a calorie deficit.

On most days, I never even went beyond 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day.

Exercise During a Fat Fast

I wasn’t working out much during this period. I couldn’t afford to expend any more energy than I needed to, because I was already eating a much lower calorie intake. I’d do maybe twenty push-ups a day, once in 2-3 days.

I was hoping for two things with the push-ups. One, that I’d try to stimulate my muscles a bit, and two, to ensure I didn’t lose too much muscle during my fast.

I found it VERY tough to overeat fat. I’d been eating healthy regularly before doing this, so I’d end up feeling too full, way before I could overeat fat. The black coffee also helped me stick with my fast by suppressing my appetite.

I’d experience pangs of hunger sometimes, but drinking ice-cold water, and eating either some dark chocolate (remember dark chocolate is NOT supposed to be on a traditional fat fast, this was just me) OR whipped cream, or even two eggs at most, and I’d be good to go for a few hours more.

So, by cycling my food in the same pattern, I continued this eating practice for around 10 days.

Breaking the Fat Fast

I continued eating this way over the next few days. I felt hungry, but I never FELT overwhelming hunger, till perhaps 18 March, a day before one of my last exams.

By this point, people were starting to ask me, with quite some concern, whether I was unwell, because I’d LOST SO MUCH WEIGHT in such a short span of time.

I remember my friend asking me if I had a serious disease. The C word came up a couple of times.

On 19 March, I broke my fast. And I’ll be honest, I indulged a lot. And I loved every second that I was eating.

But also….my stomach hurt. It hurt a bit initially, because I’d suddenly eaten a lot of oil, grains, potatoes, sugar, and other conventionally unhealthy food.

My weight was hovering between 80 and 81 kilos at the end of the fast.

Lessons from a Fat Fast

I’d hit a plateau with my weight loss and was struggling to lose more. A fat fast was a great way to DEMOLISH that plateau.

A fat fast is ABSOLUTELY not a state I would suggest for prolonged periods of time. Why? Because, while losing fat, I also lost a little muscle. And that’s NOT the kind of weight loss you want.

A fat fast really helped me understand my hunger better. It’s only after you fast for extended periods of time that you truly understand the nature of your hunger. Also it will help you develop a much better love and understanding for food.

Fat is REALLY SATISFYING! I never understood the importance of fat so fully, until I realized I’d just survived a near two-week period eating almost exclusively just fat.

Water is LIFE! My water intake, and yours if you ever decided to do this, would go up. I drank a lot of water, but never forced myself to drink water to feel full.

Precautions For Fat Fasting

This fat fast worked for me for a period of two weeks. Just for weight loss, it worked really well.

However, this isn’t advisable for longer than a certain point, because your body down-regulates the amount of calories it needs for weight loss if you eat a diet that’s low enough on the calories for a long period of time.

And finally, a fat fast would work best if you have been eating a diet that’s devoid of sugars and rich in healthy fat and protein for long enough BEFORE you decide to try this. You can’t just wake up one day and say, “I’m just going to eat fat now for the next week,” and expect it to work.

Be sensible, not stupid.