starting the diet with ramadan less than a week away

[aminaxo]

hi everyone! i wanna start this diet ASAP, but ramadan is coming up for me. in ramadan you're fasting from sunrise to sunset, and i'm reading the book right now and it already said you need "three balanced meals a day." i can eat a meal before the sun rises, one when the sun sets, but i don't see where i can make room for a 3rd meal. it'll be easy to fit in snacks, but i'd be eating them at night rather than mid-morning or mid-afternoon. so my question is, would fasting mess up the diet for me? because in a sense i figured it might help me more since i don't eat as much in ramadan, but would it work along with the diet also?

[bethy]

I'm not an expert, just another dieter, but I think it might be hard to do phase 1 while fasting unless you were also resting all day. The regular snacks and meals seem kind of necessary to keep your blood sugar and your energy up, in the abscense of all the grains and fruits you're doing without in phase 1. I'm not positive about that, everyone reacts to the diet differently. Some people feel fine and energetic in P1 and others, like me, have to have food every few hours to keep from becoming weak and headachy. I think if I were about to start SB, I'd just focus on eliminating some of the bad carbs until Ramadan is over and then do P1. Best of luck to you and Happy Ramadan.

[Kimboroni]

I agree with Bethy-- p1 can be very tough, and eating regularly is such an important part of it. Just try to eat the best you can during Ramadan. If you have healthy food ready to eat when your fast ends, that should help keep you from diving into the first unhealthy thing you see.

[aminaxo]

sorry bethy and kimboroni i forgot all about this thread lol, but i ended up going through with it, and the only physical effects i've had is getting dizzy when ever i get up from laying down. i'm a week into phase 1 now. i decided to go through with it beforehand because it still gave me a week of losing weight before ramadan, and i'm trying to lose weight as soon as i can for an event coming up in september. i don't wanna change now because i don't want to interrupt the great results i've been getting so far, but thank you for the advice! if i do start getting tired i'll probably start adding more foods and see what that does to me

[Kimboroni]

Dizziness can be from not having enough of the p1 carbs-- LOTS of veggies, including a couple of servings of beans/legumes (which are more carb dense than most p1 veggies), and then also your 2 daily cups of milk/yogurt.

Your other post mentioned a lack of appetite, which I originally attributed to the fasting, but that can also be caused by not getting enough carbs. This can all be from something called ketosis, which low carb dieters love, but on SB we try to avoid. It can also cause bad breath, dehydration, and/or a weird or metallic taste in the mouth.