13 Day Fast, Beginning at 12% Body Fat

(Akilah Aije Carvajal) #22

NOT a vegan; this inference is absurd.

HAVE fasted before.

Consider probability and complex systems theory before using the word ‘normal’; as the ‘normal’ in todays standards is obese, not quite my standard to achieve physical excellence. See: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3405064/
Or:

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7% body fat is within the normal range of hunter-gatheres; a despairing 32.9% body fat is within the range of ‘normal’ body fat within modernity. Your perception of ‘normal’ is one that I abhor.

When I was obese (30% BF or more) the advice I was given was to ‘just accept who you are’, ‘you look fine’, and the most prevalent “you will hurt yourself”; never mind these same people ate candy without exercise on a regular basis and 25%+ BF.

I attribute all my success to rejecting advice and pursuing my own path (even financial), not others, see the ancient Seneca’s work, des beneficis; where he highlights the asymmetry of advice-givers, essentially an introduction to risk-theory, without the mathematics.

On the last day, I will include photos of me when: 1) I was 30% BF, 2) I was 7% BF 3) When I was (now) 12% BF and 4) after the fast.

My success will be a testament to the failure of advice-giving.

(Ethan) #23

Akilah,

I understand where you come from. You want to be the best you can be, and you see a way to achieve that. People are a bit worried and expressing that. Only you can make your own decisions, and I am certain you will. I am looking forward to reading about your progress. Just make sure you take all precautions and do what feels right. If there is something going wrong, you can stop for a bit and go back to it.

(Akilah Aije Carvajal) #24

Forgive me; percentage was supposed to be 90%. Given that (where I live, California) a DEXA scan is $50, a DSM-BIA device scan is $5.

(Vladaar Malane) #25

I saw your post earlier where you said suffering is a given for fasting? Are you still on your fast and still feel that way? I enjoy fasting. I have slight hunger cravings but go away fast and never hungry while fasting. I think it helps because I’m keto adapted I don’t have the crash of craving carbs. Were you keto adapted or doing the ketogenic diet prior to fast?

(TJ Borden) #26

Good for you…but you are kinda here asking for advice…

(Doug) #27

Well, we all are indeed different. I think you are going into it with a good attitude, given what you want. Hey - enjoy the pain and everything. :slightly_smiling_face: It’s good to push ourselves (to a point, anyway), and I think we are capable of benefitting from some suffering. We’re made to struggle, and too many of us have it too easy these days (especially me).

(Akilah Aije Carvajal) #28

I omit:

Absolved: It was a mistake (I paid the consequences), I had forgotten the dangers of advice-giving and risk, thus came this topic.

(Akilah Aije Carvajal) #29

48 hour mark - complete.
Pain score, 5 (scale, 1-10).

I ran 5 miles today in 40 minutes, which is ‘normal’. No gym today because it is not scheduled, tomorrow I have sprints and another 5 mile run to complete.

Currently not experiencing pain, however, in relation to yesterday the overall pain is relatively the same (pain score from yesterday was 4 so, +1). Unfortunately, I still have yet to experience any excruciating pain that other fasters have noted.

ONENOTE PERSONAL NOTES (TAKEN THROUGH-OUT THE DAY):
Now, I will omit the hunger scale for a very precise reason; it is a result from knowledge and experience attained via this fast. Consider that hunger is merely the interpretation of pain, and pain being some sort of physical indicator (currently, we correlate it with ghrelin); to state conversely, hunger is not pain. However, pain can result in hunger, predicated on how I, the one experiencing the pain chooses to interpret or, perceive the pain.

pain (ghrelin) -> interpretation -> hunger or, it could be, if I so choose to take control:
pain (ghrelin) -> interpretation -> joy, success, happiness, energy, indication of achieving goals… (whatever I so choose).

Pain itself is not a bad thing, it is merely an indicator of an experience I.E, nociceptors alerting me that acids are accumulating within my muscles during this exercise; it then becomes interpreted as I so choose (the body builder would establish this pain as a successful and joyful training session, while the ‘newbie’ would consider this pain as terrible). Pain is only terrible and unpleasant if I so choose to it interpret it this way.

To further distill this concept and apply it to fasting; I must first realize that the pain I experience from not eating for a few days is interpreted as being successful and achieving my goal (NOT as hunger, weakness, or tiredness). Pain itself is a meaningless form, awaiting to be interpreted and molded for use; see Epictetus, ‘Discourses’ or, ‘Enchiridion’ for more detail.

Bold indicates I added the note in after the day.

Again, today was an over-all good day: began with a cold/hot shower, read Seneca, school, 5 mile jog, technical reading in quantitative finance, more reading, and (soon) sleep.

Contrary to the advice-givers, I should have taken supplements; I have taken zero, and this will continue.

Pain is success.

(TJ Borden) #30

Actually pain is your body’s way of saying something isn’t right. I’d recommend you stop and/or talk to your doctor about your plans.

Of course I know your opinion on advice, although I’m still trying to figure out what it is you’re looking for from the forum.

(Rob) #31

He’s teaching us wimps a lesson in übermensch-ery. I personally wouldn’t feed him… he is hardcore fasting!! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Don’t worry, he consumes archaic greek philosophy to satiety. :thinking:

(Richard Morris) #32

A significant amount of the 800 kCal/day is energy to run your brain. The energy your brain needs is roughly linear with the volume of your brain which is a lot less variable among humans than say height, width or surface area.

Yes I think that is exactly what that implies.

I should underline that this is an hypothesis of mine; that given no artificial shortage of calories our bodies would prioritize the amount of body fat to be adequate to not need to use lean tissue if you went a day without food.

The generally held view is there is a body weight set point and no one knows the mechanism other than below a certain weight we eat more, and if we show some self restraint our metabolic rate drops.

(Jay Patten) #33

This has certainly turned into an interesting thread!

I would probably benefit from a 13 day fast myself, but I doubt that I could do it, lol.

(TJ Borden) #34

In that case, I’m going to stop exaggerating the 5’9” in my drivers license and just accept the 5’7” reality. :smile:

(Akilah Aije Carvajal) #35

72 hours - complete.

Beginning to ‘feel’ results as I can visibly acknowledge my face again, what a relief, abdomen beginning to clear up again, including my chest and arms; they are becoming striated as they once were. adipose tissue is the disease of modernity.

Just returned from my 5 mile jog and sprints, ‘feel’ fine, like normal. In a rush for bed; and no notes.

(Richard Morris) #36

That’s like saying batteries are the problem with mobile phones. You don’t fix the problem by removing the battery. You engineer the battery so it is able to release it’s stored energy more efficiently. You don’t let it develop memory problems, where it stops delivering stored energy when it still contains a charge.

A human without adipose (or with adipose unable to deliver energy on demand) is one that must eat continually.

(Mike W.) #37

Which apparently is his goal at 6% bf…

(Richard Morris) #38

I love being about to wake up, and without having any breakfast, ride for 3-4 hours. That kind of feat is only possible if you have a good battery.

6% BF could be like having a mobile phone that ran on a single “AA” battery - you are going to need to be feeding it all the time.

(What The Fast?!) #39

Wait…so are you saying that if I get to 6% body fat, I could eat ALL DAY LONG??? I’m in!!! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: As enticing as that sounds, I’d be stoked with 25% and not having to fast all the time. :slight_smile:

(Richard Morris) #40

Yeah but just a thimble full at a time - you don’t want to encourage adipose to store any after all :wink:

(Jack Brien) #41

Be interesting to see if he gets refeeding syndrome