What Is the Zapp the Fat Diet?

What Does the Zapp the Fat Diet Consist Of?

In my experience, the Zapp The Fat Diet is similar to the carnivore diet, so it consists almost entirely of animal-based foods. I eliminate plant foods and focus on meat, fish, eggs, and animal fats. Where you can, I recommend choosing the highest-quality sources:

Common Foods

• Beef, pork, lamb, and poultry — verified grass-fed
• Fish and seafood — verified mercury-free and ocean-caught
• Eggs — local, from hens raised on natural food sources (no soy or corn)
• Animal fats, such as butter, tallow, and lard
• Salt and simple seasonings (though I don't personally use seasoning)
• Some versions include cheese and other low-carbohydrate dairy products

Although dairy may be included, in my experience it's best to limit or avoid it during at least the first 90 days of your diet journey. In my experience, dairy can be calorie-dense, easy to overeat, and may affect appetite, digestion, or weight-loss progress for some people. That said, dairy is not automatically fattening — overall food intake and individual tolerance also matter. Foods Usually Excluded:

• Vegetables — none
• Fruits — almost none (I do have very limited amounts, such as lime in my water or a few frozen mangoes)
• Grains — none
• Beans and lentils — none
• Nuts and seeds — none
• Sugar — none (and if I do have any, it comes only from foods that are naturally low in sugar with no added sugars)
• Sweetened beverages — none
• Processed and ultra-processed foods — none

I personally follow a strict version of the Zapp The Fat Diet, consisting mostly of meat, salt, and water — I never include dairy, seafood, or seasonings. You'll need to decide how strict you want to be. If you follow a less restrictive version, keep in mind you may not get the same results I have. I also sprinkle in intermittent fasting as part of my overall lifestyle, because in my experience it helps give my digestive system a regular break.

This is my personal way of eating, not medical advice — please check with your doctor before making significant changes to your diet

Chapter Three

“By deliberately measuring your life activities, you can determine the future outcome of your life.”

~Bobby Zapp~

How to Get Started on the Zapp the Fat Diet

Before I talk about how to get started on the Zapp the Fat Diet, I want you to know that I am doing everything I can to help set you up to actually lose weight. I truly want you to win your weight-loss challenge. Part of winning is keeping your first weight-loss challenge relatively small—5, 10, or 15 pounds. This is intentionally built into the PayToCommit.com weight-loss app.

When you're starting, the goal isn't to choose the biggest weight-loss challenge possible. The goal is to choose an achievable target that you can successfully complete. By starting with a realistic goal, you can begin developing the new habits, self-discipline, consistency, and confidence you need to continue working toward your larger weight-loss goal over time. The idea is simple: start with an achievable goal, prove to yourself that you can do it, and build from there. This approach is designed to help you develop sustainable habits that make it easier to maintain your progress and keep the weight off long-term. That's why developing better habits is critical to your success.

That's also why PayToCommit.com is built around motivating you to stay the course and follow through on the commitment you made to yourself. You put real skin in the game—your own money—behind your weight-loss challenge. That's why PayToCommit requires a meaningful financial commitment rather than making the stakes insignificant. The purpose isn't simply to put more money at risk. The purpose is to make your commitment meaningful enough that you don't want to give up, helping you stay focused on winning your challenge. When something valuable to you is on the line, you have another powerful reason to follow through, stay disciplined, and complete what you started.

Start With Your Kitchen

My overall philosophy with the Zapp the Fat Diet is to keep things simple. And one of the simplest places to begin is your own kitchen. Before worrying about complicated meal plans, recipes, supplements, or calorie-counting systems, take an honest look at the foods you already have around you.

Start by cleaning out your kitchen. Depending on the version of the Zapp the Fat Diet you're following, as you clean out your kitchen and transition toward the most important goal—zero carbs—start removing foods such as: Ultra-processed foods — packaged snack foods, chips, cookies, pastries, frozen junk foods, fast food, and other heavily processed products. Foods with added sugar — candy, desserts, sweetened cereals, flavored yogurts, syrups, sauces with added sugar, and other foods where sugar has been added. Sugary drinks — regular soda, sweet tea, energy drinks, sweetened coffee drinks, fruit drinks, and other sugar-sweetened beverages.

Bread and baked goods — bread, rolls, bagels, muffins, cakes, doughnuts, pastries, and similar flour-based foods. Refined carbohydrates — crackers, cereals, pasta, rice, and other refined carbohydrate foods. (This goal is critical.) Starchy foods — potatoes, French fries, chips, corn, and other high-carbohydrate starchy foods.

Candy and sweets — chocolate bars, gummies, hard candy, ice cream, cookies, and other foods you primarily eat for their sugar or sweetness. Fruit and fruit products — fruit, dried fruit, fruit juice, smoothies, and other sources of carbohydrates from fruit. Vegetables and other plant foods containing carbohydrates — as you transition to the full zero-carb version of the Zapp the Fat Diet, these are removed as well. Sweeteners — table sugar, honey, syrups, and other added sweeteners you routinely use in foods or drinks.

Foods that repeatedly trigger overeating for you — if there is a particular food you know is extremely difficult for you to eat in moderation, don't make yourself fight that temptation every time you walk into your kitchen. (Wean yourself off it a little at a time.) The basic principle is to make your environment work for you instead of against you by simplifying things. If the foods you're trying to stop eating are sitting in your refrigerator, freezer, pantry, and cabinets every day, you're constantly forcing yourself to make another decision. Cleaning out your kitchen removes some of those decisions before they ever happen.

Then replace those foods with the whole, minimally processed, zero-carbohydrate foods that are part of the Zapp the Fat Diet, so when you're hungry, the easiest choice available is also one that fits your plan. Again, the Zapp the Fat Diet is ultimately a zero-carbohydrate diet focused on proteins and saturated fats, with the goal of getting you into a state of ketosis, so eliminating carbohydrate-containing foods from your diet is the most important step.

If going from the way you're currently eating to zero carbs all at once feels like too drastic a change, you can gradually remove carbohydrates as you transition into the diet. But I want to be clear about the goal: follow the Zapp the Fat Diet as designed because it will give you the best opportunity to get the results you're hoping for—to lose weight. So decide what you want and take it seriously for at least 90 days.

Call It a 90-Day Challenge

Commit to giving the Zapp the Fat Diet 90 days, and if you add PayToCommit to your diet for extra motivation, you'll have a better chance of success. So, take your goal seriously, stay consistent, and give yourself enough time to see what happens when you truly commit to changing the way you eat.

Get Your Family on Your Side

Your environment isn't just what's in your kitchen. The people around you can make a big difference, too. Before you begin the Zapp the Fat Diet, let your family and the people you live with know that you're trying a new way of eating and that their support would be greatly appreciated. You don't need them to follow the diet with you. You don't need them to change what they eat. You're simply asking them to respect the commitment you're making to yourself. Tell them what you're trying to accomplish and why it's important to you. You might simply say: "I'm trying a new diet because I'm serious about reaching my weight-loss goal. I'm not asking you to do it with me, but your support would mean a lot to me.

Please help me stay on track and respect what I'm trying to accomplish." You can also ask your family not to pressure you into eating foods that aren't part of your plan, repeatedly offer you foods you've decided to avoid, or make it unnecessarily difficult for you to stick with your commitment. And remember: your weight-loss challenge is ultimately your responsibility.

Your family can support and encourage you, but you're the one who has to make the decisions every day. That's part of what PayToCommit is about—making a commitment to yourself and following through. PayToCommit provides an additional source of motivation by giving your commitment real stakes. Hence the PayToCommit motto: “Where you put money on the line to lose weight by a deadline.”

You choose your weight-loss goal, put your own money behind your commitment, and give yourself a deadline to achieve it. The idea is simple: when you have something meaningful on the line, you have another powerful reason to stay committed, follow through, and finish what you started.

Chapter Four

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise

will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”

~Edward Stanley~

Rethink Your Relationship to Eating

I recommend that you rethink your relationship with food and the way you eat. The Zapp the Fat Diet is similar to the carnivore diet and consists almost entirely of animal-based whole foods.

This way of eating is radically different from what much of conventional nutrition science recommends. However, advocates of the carnivore diet argue that eating primarily animal foods is more consistent with how humans ate during parts of our evolutionary history.

I wanted to test this way of eating for myself, so I intentionally gained 31 pounds over 11 months and then followed the carnivore diet to see what would happen. The results from my personal experiment were clear: I lost all 31 pounds in four months and two days.

That experience became the foundation for how I developed the Zapp the Fat Diet and the way I eat today. The goal of the Zapp the Fat Diet is to eliminate carbohydrates and plant foods and focus primarily on meat, fish, eggs, and animal fats. Where you can, I recommend choosing the highest-quality sources:

Common Foods

• Beef, pork, lamb, and poultry — verified grass-fed
• Fish and seafood — verified mercury-free and ocean-caught
• Eggs — local, from hens raised on natural food sources (no soy or corn)
• Animal fats — such as butter, tallow, and lard
• Salt and simple seasonings — though I don't personally use seasoning
• Some versions include cheese and other low-carbohydrate dairy products

Although dairy may be included, in my experience, it's best to limit or avoid it during at least the first 90 days of your diet journey. In my experience, dairy can be calorie-dense, easy to overeat, and may affect appetite, digestion, or weight-loss progress for some people. That said, dairy is not automatically fattening—overall food intake and individual tolerance also matter.

Foods Usually Excluded

• Vegetables — none
• Fruits — almost none. I do have very limited amounts, such as lime in my water or a few pieces of frozen mango.
• Grains — none once you reach the zero-carb version of the diet. I recommend slowly removing carbs from your diet if going directly to zero carbs feels like too drastic a change. If you're taking medication or have a medical condition, get advice from your doctor before making a major dietary change.
• Beans and lentils — none
• Nuts and seeds — none
• Sugar — none. If I do have any sugar, it comes only from foods that are naturally low in sugar with no added sugars.
• Sweetened beverages — none
• Processed and ultra-processed foods — none

The ultimate goal of the Zapp the Fat Diet is zero carbs, zero vegetables, and zero fruits, with the very limited exceptions I mentioned above. If you need time to get there, you can gradually remove carbohydrates as your body adjusts, but zero carbs is the goal.

I personally follow a strict version of the Zapp the Fat Diet, consisting mostly of meat, salt, and water. I don't include dairy, seafood, or seasonings in my personal version. You'll need to decide how strict you want to be. If you follow a less restrictive version, keep in mind that you may not get the same results I have. I also sprinkle in intermittent fasting as part of my overall lifestyle because, in my experience, it helps give my digestive system a regular break.

The bigger idea here is to rethink your relationship with eating. Instead of constantly thinking about snacks, treats, complicated recipes, or eating simply because food is available, start looking at food as a way to give your body what it needs. Keep it simple. Try eating this way during your weight-loss challenge and pay attention to how your body responds. I have always lost weight doing the Zapp the Fat Diet. And as I like to say: You have nothing to lose except weight. LOL.

This is my personal way of eating and reflects my personal experience, not medical advice. Please check with your doctor before making significant changes to your diet, particularly if you take medication or have a medical condition.

Keep a Food Journal for one month

Another powerful tool in your weight-loss arsenal is keeping a food journal. In fact, before your diet or PayToCommit weight-loss challenge, I recommend spending at least a month writing down everything you eat and drink. Don't overcomplicate it. You don't need a fancy app or complicated tracking system. You can use a simple notebook, the notes app on your phone, or anything else that makes it easy for you to keep track. The important thing is to write it down and be honest with yourself.

Write down your meals, snacks, drinks, desserts, and anything else you consume throughout the day. If you want to go a little deeper, you can also write down when you ate, how hungry you were and why you ate. Were you actually hungry? Were you bored? Stressed? Tired? Were you eating simply because the food was there? What cravings did you have? The purpose isn't to judge yourself. The purpose is to become aware of your current eating habits.

After doing this for a month, go back and look at what you've written. You may begin noticing patterns you weren't paying attention to before. You might discover how often you're eating sugar, carbohydrates, ultra-processed foods, snacks, or other foods that you'll eventually need to eliminate as you transition toward the zero-carb Zapp the Fat Diet. This will help you realize what you need to eliminate from your diet and which habits you need to change. And remember, you don't necessarily have to change everything overnight. As I mentioned earlier, don't immediately eliminate all carbohydrates because it may feel like it's too drastic a change; that's why I recommend that you gradually remove them as you transition toward the ultimate goal of zero carbs. As I've said throughout this guide, I want your weight-loss journey to be simple.

Simple = Success.

The more complicated you make something, the harder it can become to stick with it. Keeping a food journal is simply a way of seeing what you're actually doing before deciding what needs to change Throughout all the years I've studied health and fitness, one of the most powerful lessons I've learned is this: Only serious, committed individuals get results.

At some point, you have to decide that you truly want results. Nobody else can make that decision for you. PayToCommit can give you additional motivation. Your family can support you. This guide can give you a plan. Your food journal can show you where you need to improve. But ultimately, you have to decide that you're ready to make the commitment and follow through.

Being Judgmental Is Counterproductive

Another thing I've learned over the years is that people can become hypercritical of themselves when they cheat a little on their diet. They eat something that wasn't part of their plan and immediately think they failed. Then they become disappointed in themselves, feel guilty, or start believing they've ruined all the progress they've made. This kind of thinking is counterproductive. One imperfect decision doesn't mean you've failed your diet. What matters most is what you do next. If you get off track, don't turn one small mistake into an excuse to give up completely. Acknowledge it, learn from it, and get right back to what you were doing.

Be gentle with yourself while you're losing weight. You're trying to develop a new way of eating and, more importantly, new habits that you can maintain over time. Changing habits isn't always going to be perfect. So, stay light and keep moving forward. It's okay if you occasionally deviate a little from the diet, as long as you get yourself back on track. When I say "cheat," however, I'm not talking about turning one small deviation into an entire cheat day filled with sugar, bread, pasta, desserts, and ultra-processed foods.

For example, if you're having an intense sugar craving, I would rather you have a very small amount of fruit to help satisfy that craving than allow one craving to become the reason you completely abandon your diet. The important thing is to keep your larger goal in mind and return to the plan.

Your Goal Is to Get Into Ketosis

One of the primary goals of the Zapp the Fat Diet is to get into and stay in a state of ketosis. But what exactly does that mean? Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your body is producing elevated levels of ketones and using more fat-derived fuel because carbohydrate availability is low. Normally, carbohydrates provide much of the glucose your body uses for energy. When carbohydrate intake is greatly restricted, insulin levels generally decrease and your liver begins converting fatty acids into ketones, which can be used as an alternative source of energy.

A ketogenic diet is a way of eating specifically designed to restrict carbohydrates enough to promote nutritional ketosis. That's where the word "keto" comes from. Because carbohydrates can affect blood glucose and insulin to different degrees, eating enough carbohydrates can reduce ketone production and potentially take you out of ketosis. Exactly how many carbohydrates an individual can eat while remaining in ketosis varies from person to person.

With the Zapp the Fat Diet, however, I keep the goal simple: Work toward zero carbs, get into ketosis, and stay consistent. If you have a small deviation, don't become judgmental toward yourself. Get back on track and keep going. Remember, the goal isn't to prove that you can eat perfectly every second of every day. The goal is to develop the discipline and habits necessary to keep moving toward your weight-loss goal without giving up every time you make a mistake. Progress doesn't require perfection. It requires you to keep going.

If you take glucose-lowering medication or have a medical condition affected by major carbohydrate restriction, discuss a ketogenic or zero-carbohydrate diet with your healthcare professional before making that change.

Chapter Five

“My future health is worth the choices I make today.”

~Bobby Zapp~

Why PayToCommit Is a Premium Weight-Loss Platform

PayToCommit was built to be a premium weight-loss platform. That's why you have to qualify to participate in a weight-loss challenge on our platform. We don't want to serve clients who aren't serious about losing weight. We want to work with people who are truly committed to achieving their weight-loss goals. Why?

Because your success is our success. We don't measure success simply by how many people sign up for PayToCommit. We want to see people actually complete their challenges, lose the weight they committed to losing, and develop the discipline and habits that can help them maintain their results. So, how do we attract serious clients who really want to lose weight?

One of the ways we do that is through meaningful weight-loss challenge money commitments. That's why PayToCommit has such high minimum money commitments for its weight-loss challenges. The amount you put on the line isn't meant to be insignificant. It's supposed to mean something to you. Again, we are a premium weight-loss app and platform, and we want you to get real results. For that to happen, we believe you need to have real skin in the weight-loss game.

When you put a meaningful amount of your own money on the line and give yourself a deadline to lose the weight, suddenly your goal isn't just something you hope to accomplish. You've made a real commitment to yourself. That's the entire idea behind PayToCommit:

“Where you put money on the line to lose weight by a deadline.”

The financial commitment gives you another powerful reason to stay focused when motivation starts to fade, when you're tempted to go back to old habits, or when you simply don't feel like following through. We would rather have fewer clients and more successful weight-loss challenges than more clients and fewer successful weight-loss challenges. That's an important distinction. We're not trying to make PayToCommit the platform for everyone. We're trying to make it the platform for people who are serious about losing weight and are willing to put something meaningful on the line to prove that commitment to themselves.

That's why you have to qualify. That's why the money commitments are meaningful. And that's why PayToCommit is intentionally designed differently from an ordinary weight-loss app. At some point, you have to make a decision that you really want to lose weight. Not that you'd like to lose weight. Not that you hope to lose weight someday. You have to decide that reaching your goal is important enough that you're ready to make a real commitment to yourself and follow through. And keep something important in mind: you probably didn't gain all of the weight overnight. You gained it slowly, one pound at a time, and you should expect losing it to take time, too.

Weight loss can also be a game of plateaus. There may be times when you're making progress and the weight is coming off, followed by periods when the scale doesn't seem to move as much as you'd like. Don't let that discourage you. That's why incremental action is key. Instead of focusing only on the total amount of weight you ultimately want to lose, break your larger goal into smaller, achievable weight-loss challenges. Lose a little, succeed, learn from the experience, and then build on that success.

That's another reason PayToCommit intentionally starts you with a relatively low first weight-loss challenge of 5, 10, or 15 pounds. Starting with a smaller, achievable challenge isn't just about making it easier to win your first challenge. It's about teaching you the good habits, self-discipline, consistency, and patience you'll need to continue losing weight and, most importantly, help keep the weight off. Don't become discouraged because you haven't reached your ultimate goal immediately.

Focus on losing the weight one pound at a time and one successful challenge at a time. Small wins build better habits. Better habits lead to bigger wins. And those habits are ultimately what can help you keep the weight off long-term.

Be patient with yourself, but stay committed. You didn't gain the weight all at once, so don't expect to lose it all at once. PayToCommit gives you another powerful reason to honor that decision by putting something meaningful on the line. We want you to win. Your success is our success.

Track Your Progress Every Day

If you're patient, nonjudgmental with yourself, stick to your diet, and practice your new habits consistently, you may begin seeing the weight come off over time. For many people trying to lose weight, a commonly recommended gradual pace is around 1 to 2 pounds per week, although your individual results can vary.

And don't panic when the scale moves in the wrong direction occasionally. Your weight will fluctuate. Your body weight can move up or down by several pounds because of water retention, sodium, food and fluids in your digestive system, and other normal changes. That's why a temporary 3-to-5-pound fluctuation doesn't necessarily mean you've gained or lost that amount of body fat.

I recommend weighing yourself every morning with a digital scale under similar conditions—ideally after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking—and documenting your weight. Write the number down every morning. Keeping track of your numbers can be extremely motivating because instead of relying on how you feel about your progress, you can look back and see what has actually been happening over time. Don't become obsessed with one day's number.

Look at the overall trend. Your weight might be up today, down tomorrow, and unchanged the next day. That's normal. What matters is the direction you're moving over time. Think of the scale as another accountability tool that can help motivate you to stay the course.

Tracking Ketosis

If you're following the Zapp the Fat Diet and working toward ketosis, you can also choose to measure your ketones to see whether your body is producing elevated levels of ketones. One way to do this is with a blood ketone meter, which measures beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) in your blood. As a general reference, blood ketone readings of approximately 0.5 to 3.0 mmol/L are commonly associated with nutritional ketosis. A reading between 1.0 and 3.0 mmol/L is therefore within that nutritional-ketosis range.

If you see those numbers, it can give you another measurable indication that your body is producing ketones and that you've reached nutritional ketosis.

However, don't treat a ketone number as a direct measurement of how much body fat you're losing. Ketone levels and body-fat loss are not the same thing. That's why I like tracking both your weight and your progress toward ketosis. You're giving yourself real numbers that you can document and follow instead of simply guessing about your progress. Measure it. Document it. Watch the trend. Stay patient, stay consistent, and stay the course.

If you have diabetes, take glucose-lowering medication, or have another medical condition that can affect ketone production or blood sugar, talk with your healthcare professional before intentionally pursuing ketosis. High ketones can have a different medical significance in those circumstances.

Don't Wait for a Health Crisis to Change

Don't let illness be the motivation that finally forces you to change your diet and lifestyle. Be proactive. Too many of us wait until something happens before we finally decide to make a change. We wait until we don't feel good, our quality of life starts suffering, or a health problem gives us no choice but to take our diet and lifestyle seriously. Why wait for a crisis to become your motivation?

If you already know that you need to lose weight and improve your habits, make the decision before you're forced to make it. Create a new lifestyle now. Get serious about your weight-loss goal. Make a commitment to yourself. Start changing the foods you eat. Develop better habits. Become more active. Pay attention to your body. And start taking small, incremental actions that you can continue building upon.

Sometimes, unfortunately, a health scare or crisis is the only thing powerful enough to make some of us finally change our diet and lifestyle. It becomes the wake-up call that makes us realize we can't continue doing what we've been doing. But you don't have to wait for that wake-up call. Let prevention be your motivation instead of waiting for a crisis to become your motivation.

Think about the person you want to be five, ten, or twenty years from now. The habits you're developing today can influence the lifestyle you're able to enjoy tomorrow. That's another reason I believe so strongly in making a real commitment to yourself.

Don't wait until you have no choice. Make the choice now. Decide that losing weight and developing better habits matter enough to take action today. Get serious. Make the commitment. Create a new lifestyle—and stay the course.

Find Ways to Keep Moving

Exercise doesn't always have to mean running, jumping, or doing strenuous dynamic movements. If your joints hurt or certain movements are uncomfortable, don't use that as a reason to give up on being active altogether. Look for forms of movement that are more comfortable for you and appropriate for your abilities.

For example, you can ask a qualified healthcare or exercise professional whether isometric exercises are appropriate for you. Isometrics involve contracting your muscles while holding a relatively stationary position, rather than repeatedly moving a joint through a large range of motion.

You can also incorporate other wellness and recovery practices into your lifestyle if they're appropriate for you. For example, you might enjoy adding a sauna to your routine.

Some people also enjoy cold-water immersion or cold plunges. If you're considering using a bathtub for cold-water immersion, start conservatively rather than trying to make the water extremely cold, and never treat discomfort as something you need to "push through." Remember, these practices aren't substitutes for your diet, physical activity, sleep, or the other habits you're developing—and temporary weight changes after a sauna can simply reflect water loss.

The bigger lesson is simple: Work with your body instead of using limitations as a reason to stop. If one form of exercise doesn't work for you, look for another appropriate option. The goal is to keep moving, keep developing better habits, and keep building a lifestyle you can actually maintain.

If you have persistent joint pain, cardiovascular problems, problems with blood pressure, or another medical condition, get appropriate medical guidance before beginning a new exercise, sauna, or cold-immersion routine.

Chapter Six

“One mistake will never become my reason to quit.”

~Bobby Zapp~

Learn to Listen to Your Hunger

One of the things you may notice as you become adapted to the Zapp the Fat Diet and nutritional ketosis is that you simply may not feel as hungry as often. In my experience, when I eat this way, I become satiated faster and stay satisfied longer.

Research on ketogenic diets also suggests that people in ketosis may experience less hunger, greater fullness, and a reduced desire to eat compared with before they were in ketosis.

That's why I believe it's important to start listening to your body instead of eating simply because the clock says it's time to eat. If you're not hungry, don't force yourself to eat just because you think you're supposed to. You don't necessarily need breakfast simply because it's morning, lunch because it's noon, or a snack because you normally eat one at a certain time. Learn the difference between real hunger and eating out of habit.

Ask yourself: Am I actually hungry, or am I eating because I'm bored, stressed, tired, craving something sweet, or simply because food is available? I Personally Start My Day Fasting

My Intermittent Fasting Routine

Intermittent fasting is another important part of how I personally follow the Zapp the Fat Diet. My fasting schedule isn't exactly the same every day. I usually fast anywhere from 12 to 16 or even 18 hours, depending on how I'm feeling and when I actually become hungry.

That's really how I approach it: I usually wait until I'm genuinely hungry before I eat. I don't believe you always need to eat simply because the clock says it's breakfast, lunch, or dinner time. If I'm not hungry, I often continue fasting.

Most mornings, I start my day with water, salt, and minerals and continue fasting until I'm hungry. Sometimes that means a normal 12-to-18-hour fast. Other times, I may choose to fast longer. I often do a 24-hour fast, and occasionally I may fast for 48 hours. At other times, depending on how I'm feeling and what I'm trying to accomplish, I may do a longer fast lasting several days.

Longer fasts are very different from simply delaying breakfast, however, once you're talking about fasting for multiple days, hydration, electrolyte balance, medications, medical conditions, and your overall nutritional status become much more important. Prolonged fasting can substantially increase ketone production, but it can also produce side effects and losses of both fat and lean tissue.

I Also Like OMAD — One Meal a Day

Another fasting approach I personally like is OMAD, which stands for One Meal a Day. OMAD is exactly what it sounds like: You eat your day's food in one meal and spend most of the remaining day fasting. When I do OMAD, I generally eat during a relatively short eating window and then fast until my meal the following day.

My eating window may be around one to two hours, although the actual meal itself may only take me 30 to 60 minutes. During the fasting period, I keep things simple: Water + salt + minerals. I also like eating at roughly the same time when I'm doing OMAD because it gives me a simple routine that I can follow.

Why I Like OMAD

One of the biggest reasons I like OMAD is simplicity. Instead of thinking about breakfast, snacks, lunch, more snacks, and dinner all day long, I have one meal to think about.

That means: Less meal planning. Less cooking. Less cleanup. Less snacking. And less time thinking about food. It also fits naturally with my goal of getting into and staying in ketosis. As fasting continues, the body increasingly relies on stored fuels, including fatty acids and ketones. Research on time-restricted eating and fasting supports this general metabolic shift, although fasting by itself does not guarantee greater long-term weight loss than other approaches if overall calorie intake is similar.

Weight Loss

OMAD can also make it easier for some people to consume less food overall because you're fitting your food into one meal rather than eating throughout the entire day. If that creates a calorie deficit over time, weight loss can follow. Small, controlled studies of one-meal-a-day eating have found changes in body weight and fat oxidation, but OMAD hasn't been studied nearly as extensively as more moderate time-restricted eating patterns. That's why I don't look at OMAD as some kind of magic trick. I look at it as another tool in my weight-loss arsenal.

I Like the Feeling of Staying in Ketosis

One of my personal goals with fasting is to stay in ketosis longer. When you're not continually eating carbohydrates, insulin generally stays lower and your body has more opportunity to rely on stored fuel. That's what I'm looking for. I want my body using stored energy instead of constantly waiting for another meal.

Again, that doesn't mean being in ketosis automatically guarantees body-fat loss. Your overall food intake still matters. But ketosis and fasting can change the fuels your body is using during the fasting period.

Listen to Your Hunger

The most important part of my fasting routine is that I pay attention to my hunger. Some days I'm ready to eat sooner. Other days I'm simply not hungry.

When I'm not hungry, I don't force myself to eat just because I've reached a certain hour. And when I'm genuinely hungry, I eat. That's why my fasting window isn't rigid. It changes depending on how I'm feeling. For me, fasting isn't about punishing myself or seeing how long I can suffer without eating. It's about learning not to eat automatically.

Make Your Meal Count

If you're eating only once a day, that meal becomes much more important. You have to make sure you're eating enough food and getting adequate protein, energy, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

Trying to cram your entire nutritional intake into one meal can be difficult for some people, which is one reason OMAD isn't necessarily the best approach for everyone.

Salt, Water, and Minerals Matter

I also pay attention to hydration, salt, and minerals while fasting. As I've mentioned throughout this guide, I personally drink water with a little salt and minerals during my fasting periods.

Fasting can be associated with symptoms such as hunger, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, dehydration, and changes in electrolyte balance, especially with longer fasts. That's another reason I believe you need to listen to your body instead of blindly following a timer.

Fasting Isn't for Everybody

You also have to understand that fasting isn't appropriate for everybody, especially prolonged fasting. People who are pregnant or breastfeeding, have a history of an eating disorder, are very lean or nutritionally depleted, or have certain medical conditions should not simply jump into extended fasting.

If you have diabetes or use insulin or certain glucose-lowering medications, fasting can increase the risk of hypoglycemia and may require medication adjustment and medical supervision. The longer the fast, the more seriously you should take those considerations.

Keep It Flexible

My own routine is flexible. Sometimes I fast 12 hours. Sometimes it's 16 or 18 hours. Sometimes I do OMAD. Sometimes I do a 24-hour fast.

Occasionally I may go longer. But the principle stays the same: I listen to my body, I eat when I'm genuinely hungry, and I use fasting as another tool to help me stay consistent with the lifestyle I've chosen. You don't have to begin by doing exactly what I do. Start gradually. Learn how your body responds. And remember: The goal isn't to become better at starving yourself.

The goal is to become better at controlling when and why you eat.

Chapter Seven

“I am stronger than a temporary craving.”

~Bobby Zapp~