3-4 day fast and anemia

#1

Light headed after 42 hours of my fast. I have 30-40 hours left to go!

Feel pretty gross with a bad sinus headache and a tad less oxygen than I should have. Not sure if it’s due to anemia or this is normal. I’ve done intermittent fasting for 4 months and the only fast I’ve ever done was a 24 hour fast.

Should I wait it out and will the cloudiness go away? Or am I better off doing 2 (36 hour fasts) a week and breaking it up into two? Does anyone have anemia or have similar struggles with completing longer fasts?

(Carl Keller) #2

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water and getting some salt. Light headedness hits me when I am not getting enough sodium. If doing both of those things doesn’t help you out, I would probably end the fast.

#3

How much sodium is generally a good idea? Pink sea salt or regular salt?

#4

Oops didn’t tag you

(Carl Keller) #5

As long as it’s not processed, I think any salt will do. Personally, I love my pink salt.

I find that 2+ teaspoons of salt over the course of my day keeps everything running smoothly for me. Some recommendations for ketogenic people run even higher since we don’t retain sodium very well when we restrict carbs and our insulin is less active. Interestingly, Jason Fung doesn’t speak much about supplementing sodium when fasting, but the fasts that he recommends are not longer than two days.

#6

What are your thoughts on that? Do you believe 2 days is sufficient or 3 is too much? I feel like once I pass day 1.5-2 I don’t feel as well.

(Carl Keller) #7

I don’t have enough personal experience doing extended fasts to say what I think works best for me. I’ve done about a half dozen 2 day fasts and a few 3 three day fasts just to get the Tshirt to say I’ve done it. I would say I was more comfortable doing the 2 day fasts because it justs feels strange for me to go days without eating. That’s not really a good justification to say it’s better.

The sodium might help but I believe that when you start to feel unwell, you should discontinue the fast. We need to develop healthy communication with our bodies and that means listening to them when they are trying to say something is not right.