Dirty Fasting For Weight Loss

My name is Kayla Cox. I lost 80 pounds with dirty fasting. See that before and after picture of me? The left side is the Facebook photo that started it all. The day I got tagged in that photo, I didn’t recognize myself. That was the day I swore I was going to figure out how to lose weight sustainably and keep it off for good. That led me on a journey to practicing intermittent fasting.

I learned that many of the things I thought I knew about weight loss were not true. Here are some of the myths I believed:

• To lose weight you must stop eating carbs.
• It’s difficult to keep the weight off once you’ve lost it.
• You have to do high intensity exercise to lose weight.
• The process of weight loss is miserable.

Through the process of practicing dirty fasting, I dropped 80 pounds, and I’ve been maintaining my BMI in the normal range since 2018. Throughout this process, I broke all the rules:

• I ate whatever I wanted, including desserts, wine, and chocolate.
• I took a cheat day every Sunday.
• My exercise was a daily 6-mile walk.
• I enjoyed my life as I lost weight.

I wasn’t an overnight success. I had struggled with my weight for my entire life, and for a year I floundered. Then one day I heard about intermittent fasting. It was a long road, but I ended up losing 80 pounds. I ate whatever I wanted at my meals. I did dirty fasting, meaning that I allowed myself coffee with half and half in it during the fasting window. I didn’t limit carbs and I didn’t count calories. I took a day off from intermittent fasting every week.

Eventually I took everything I learned along the way and started a YouTube channel, a podcast, and wrote a book called The Laid Back Guide to Intermittent Fasting. My goal is to help other people like me who have struggled to learn how to lose weight with intermittent fasting and keep it off for good.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting is the practice of not eating for a prolonged period each day. This helps you to eat less food by compressing the time you eat. Intermittent fasters divide their day into an eating window and a fasting window. You write these in a special format: 

• number of hours of fasting : number of hours of eating. 

These numbers add up to 24, since there are 24 hours in a day. Thus, you may hear about these common fasting windows:

• 12:12 (12 hours fasting, 12 hours eating)
• 14:10 (14 hours fasting, 10 hours eating)
• 16:8 (16 hours fasting, 8 hours eating)
• 18:6 (18 hours fasting, 6 hours eating)
• 20:4 (20 hours fasting, 4 hours eating)
• 22:2 (22 hours fasting, 2 hours eating)

Any combination that adds up to 24 works, such as a 17:7. Most people stick with the windows listed above, though. Instead of splitting their day into windows, some people prefer to limit the number of times they eat each day:

• OMAD: One Meal A Day
• 2MAD: 2 Meals A Day

Extended fasting refers to fasting longer than 24 hours. The most common type of extended fasting is alternate day fasting. To do this, you eat every other day. To put it a different way, you’re fasting for 48 hours at a time. Some people modify alternate fasting by eating only 500 calories on their “fasting” days. Some people fast for even longer, such as 72 hours or even 5 days. 

I have done two 5-day fasts in maintenance for benefits other than weight loss. You can read about those here and here. Based on my experience with them, I do not recommend extended fasting for weight loss. Intermittent fasting is much more doable. It fits in most people’s lives, and it’s not too difficult.

The Rules of Intermittent Fasting

The basic 2 rules of intermittent fasting are:

1. Don’t eat in the fasting window.
2. Eat in the eating window. 

However, there is a spectrum of how strict people are with what is allowed in the fasting window, from “clean” to “dirty.”

Clean fasters allow these things in the fasting window:

• Water
• Black coffee
• Plain unsweetened tea

What dirty fasters allow runs the gamut, but here are some examples of what they might allow in the fasting window:

• Coffee with cream and/or sugar
• Gum and mints
• Diet soda
• Flavored sparkling water like La Croix
• A small bite of something if needed, such as a handful of pretzels or a spoonful of peanut butter.

What is the ideal intermittent fasting window?

The ideal intermittent fasting window is the one that you can stick with and enjoy practicing. Weight loss occurs when the amount you consume is less than your body needs. 

Many people find that practicing a 16:8 works best for them, though others need to do a 20:4 or even OMAD (One Meal A Day) before the pounds drop. You find this by practicing intermittent fasting for yourself and noting your individual results. 

How do you get started with intermittent fasting?

The best way to get started with intermittent fasting is to start with a small fasting window and work your way up. Intermittent fasting is a skill, and the only way to learn a skill is to practice. Since you’re learning, you’ll make mistakes. 

Sometimes you’ll break the fast early. From time to time, you’ll forget and take a bite of food. You’ll probably fall off the plan a few times. These are errors, but the far larger error is getting stuck in analysis paralysis. Endlessly researching will not take a single pound off your body, unless it distracts you from eating, and you put yourself into a caloric deficit. 

Intermittent fasting is so simple that it is easy to overthink it. Don’t fall into that trap. Instead, take action every day. Start practicing intermittent fasting right now, even if you already had breakfast and lunch. Skip your afternoon snack and just eat supper. Then set a time for when you’ll eat breakfast tomorrow and stick to that plan. 

Start with a small fasting window by cutting off your eating by a reasonable time each night, and by setting a starting point for when to eat breakfast. Maybe you’ll sleep through your fasting window for the first few weeks. That’s okay. The point when you’re getting started is to get started. Once you’re taking action, you can work on getting your fasting window long enough so that weight loss occurs.

When will you lose weight with intermittent fasting?

Everyone who loses weight does it in the same way: they figure out how to eat less food than their body needs. Intermittent fasting helps grease the skids. The fasting window helps eliminate mindless eating. A compressed eating window makes eating the right amount of calories easier. These two things combined can create a caloric deficit. When you put your body into a caloric deficit, your body burns your stored body fat. This causes you to lose weight. 

You will lose weight when you eat less than your body needs, also known as putting your body into a caloric deficit. If you are practicing a 12:12, and that helps you consume 1500 calories, and your body needs 2000 calories, you’ll lose about a pound a week. 

Most people find they eat the right amount at a 16:8, which is the most common fasting window. For some, a 16:8 doesn’t move the needle. A longer fasting window works better for them. Remember, intermittent fasting works by facilitating correct food intake. If you fast for 18 hours, then overeat for 6, you will gain weight.

Intermittent fasting is not a magic bullet for weight loss. 

Intermittent Fasting Resources 

After practicing intermittent fasting for over 8 years now, I still love it. It has given me benefits far beyond my 80-pound weight loss. Fasting simplifies my life, has improved my relationship with food, and gives me more time to do the things I want to do. 

You don’t need to be perfect to lose weight or maintain it. Weight loss can be enjoyable. Permanent weight loss is about permanent lifestyle change. When you enjoy what you’re doing, you’re likely to stick with it. Becoming an intermittent faster helped me to do just that. If the idea of intermittent fasting appeals to you, try it. Be patient with yourself and don’t worry about trying to be perfect. If I can do it, you can do it, too. 

Here are some more resources to help you on your journey:

• Videos – I’ve created over 400 videos about intermittent fasting and weight loss for my YouTube channel. 
• Podcast – On my podcast I talk about intermittent fasting tips and weight loss mindset.
• The Laid Back Guide to Intermittent Fasting is a book I wrote about how to practice intermittent fasting in a relaxed and sustainable way.
• Overcoming Weight Loss Obstacles is a book I wrote about pushing past the more challenging parts of weight loss and maintenance.
• Courses – I have created courses to help you lose weight, step by step.
• Coaching – I offer private 1:1 coaching for people who want personalized help on the weight loss journey