6-day fast that won't satisfy the purists

(Barbara Greenwood) #21

So here we in the evening of Day 6… except I have to say that effectively the fast did end after 4 days, because yesterday evening I went into food again - similar to the previous day, but not as much. Then today I had a working lunch that I originally planned to fast through, but I think because I had weakened, decided in the end I would take a keto snack with me - faithful old cheese, olives and almonds.

Despite yesterday evening’s indiscretion, I still lost weight, thus:

I have changed the chart so that the days I was actually fasting are shown in bold and have also corrected the average BG figure for Tuesday, because I discovered I had mistyped it. I still have my suspicions that this sensor is reading low… we’ll see what happens when I go back to eating twice a day, which is my normal pattern. Having said that, as long as they are keto meals, the rises are small to negligible.

I have now lost a total of 7lb since starting the fast, which is brilliant. Remember my earlier comment about having inexplicably gained 2lb in the few days before starting… so even if it’s only 5lb loss, that’s still very good in 5 days.

My plan from here on in: this evening I will stick to the keto smoothies, and perhaps a coffee with cream. Same tomorrow lunchtime, but from the evening I will be back to normal keto eating. I’m planning pan-fried salmon with veggies tomorrow evening, Saturday we are at a party where there is a hog roast (refuse all bread and be selective with sides - otherwise I’ll be fine). Monday I’ll fast all day (except for kefir), Wednesday I’ll do kefir only for lunch and eat a meal in the evening.

So… as I’m phasing out of kefir fast and back into keto eating, my hope is not to regain too much of this weight. Absolute ideal would be that a week from now I am under 222.5lb, since that is that which corresponds to 35 BMI for me. But if I’m not there, I can wait a bit. Also very good would to be under 224lb (which is where I was this morning).

I’ll carry on recording for the next week or so, to see what happens to weight, glucose and ketones as I get back into what I expect to be my regular pattern of feasting and fasting for a little while at least. Hopefully, having kicked the regular snacking habit, I will get back to consistently losing weight, which has not happened since January.

As of this morning, I am down 59.6lb since starting keto just over a year ago. My HbA1C in August last year - after 7 weeks of keto was 62 (7.8%) and 3 months later was down to 40 (5.8%). I’ve been on the same medication, 2x500mg metformin, throughout. I should be going for my annual diabetes review next month, so it will be interesting to see where I’m at now. Even if I don’t lose another pound, I have benefited hugely from keto, which is why I intend to stay keto for life. I do hope to lose more pounds, though - don’t we all?

(Barbara Greenwood) #22

Now all of a sudden it’s day 9. Latest data:

Friday (day 7) was the first day on which I had an actual meal - pan-fried loch trout in lemon butter sauce with veggies, then berries and cream and even a couple of squares of dark chocolate. It was very lovely, and I still dropped half a pound that day, for a cumulative loss over the 7 days of 7.8lb

Yesterday was my first day back on proper eating - a salad for lunch (with appropriate protein and oil, naturally) and then the party in the evening. Hog roast… lots of hog roast, with a bit of salad on the side. And then when “dessert” arrived, which I had assumed I wouldn’t be partaking of, there were raspberries and cream (and other things too) - so I did partake after all. AND I had some cheese!!

Not surprising then that I saw a weight rebound of 0.8lb, and not a problem :slight_smile: The reason I haven’t got a ketone reading from 6pm yesterday was that I was already on the way to the party, and will have the same issue today. But interesting to note the rebound in all-day blood glucose yesterday, after eating a meal in the evening the previous day.

Today is a normal eating day. My intended pattern for the next several weeks will be:

Monday: 2 glasses of kefir
Wednesday: 1 glass kefir + 1 keto meal
Other days: 1 glass kefir + 2 keto meals

I hope that, together with avoiding snacking and overconsumption of cream and nuts, this will put me into a steady losing streak. Another 7lb by late August would be great, that’s my loose goal. I’ll update in a few days, when it should be clear how much the total weight rebound was and (hopefully) that loss has resumed again.

(Barbara Greenwood) #23

Another 3 days on, here’s the update. I am now showing bold the days/dates when I was fasting, and the glucose and ketone numbers are bold as well. But for the weight change columns, bold means the day before was a fasting day.

In summary: peak weight loss at the end of 7 days was 7.8lb, with a regain of 2lb over the following 2 days of eating. I then went into a one-day fast (though only 24hr, i.e. I ate a snack in the evening), one day of normal eating, and today will also be fasting with a kefir meal replacement for lunch and normal meal in the evening.

Not surprisingly - the fast day results in weight loss and the refeed day in weight gain - though only 0.4lb yesterday compared to a loss of 0.9 the previous day. I hope to see at least some loss today, although with a full meal rather than just a snack in the evening it may not be much. The most interesting thing will be what happens over the following 4 days of normal eating. I don’t expect gain on each and every one of those! How long does refeeding last… 2 days, maybe? I am being more strict with my keto than I had been of late, so hopefully over those 4 days I will at least not gain overall.

I was pleased to see that my average BG remained at 5.0 yesterday, which was an eating day, and also somewhat stressful as we launched a new event at one of my churches. Maybe the extended fast has induced a shift in my IR? That would be great!!

My next check-in will probably be next Monday, when we can see what 4 consecutive days of normal eating have done.