7 day waterfast GKI to worry or not?

(Daniel_S) #1

Good to meet you all. I am 2 days into a 7 day water fast, I was doing keto before fasting and my ketones was around 1,7. My glucose around 3,8. Now my ketones are around 5,4 and glucose around 2,8. Any reason to worry? I heard that ketones could be up to 10? How low could the glucose be?

I am also only diking only pure water. Is it stupid not to ad Himalayan salt, baking soda and potassium?

I am feeling reasonable good and do a 5km walk every evening in low tempo. A little slow in my head but noting alarming. Kind of like the feeling. What i manly observed is that my smell improved and that it is not that easy to get stressed in keto.

Also I am not that thirsty. I drink around 2L a day. Is that enough?

Any other recommendations or other things to be observant for?

Wish you all a happy weekend!

(Bob M) #2

I usually add at least salt, sometimes potassium or even magnesium. But if you feel OK, maybe you don’t need that.

Your ketones should go up as your blood sugar goes down. As long as you don’t fee bad (eg, shaky, can’t concentrate), you should be okay. If you feel bad, then it’s time to bail.

(KCKO, KCFO) #3

Your doing well. If you start feeling the need, getting tired or just feeling a little “off” you can make an electrolyte drink, ketoaide, there are recipes on the forums and Dr. Ken Berry has a video on youtube for making it. It contains salt, potassium, and magnesium. There are also companies that make electrolytes drinks/powders now as well that contain some additional stuff as well.

Welcome to the forums. And all the best with the fasting

#4

It’s individual, of course at some point everyone needs to supplement electrolytes. I’ve heard about people who could do 10 day fasts with only water just fine (probably not with much sweating). I suspect that I need to start supplement them after a few days and some people need it even on simple IF.

2 liter water may be enough I guess. And may be way too little, I need more in hot weather or if I exercise even if I don’t sweat much. But I am the very thirsty type. How dry fasters do it, I can’t comprehend, I feel almost dying after 6 hours without water if I am awake, my body is often an entitled princess with behavior problems. But if it just wants water, it can get all it wants. But even it doesn’t want much more than 2 liter normally, I think (I can’t measure it, I drank a lot before I realize I forgot. drinking is almost like breathing to me). If your body works very well, you should drink according to thirst and it should be okay. Not everyone is that lucky but 2 liters isn’t low, it’s just not enough for everyone or under every circumstances.

(Michael) #5

I just posted some data on my recent 7 day fast. My glucose went below 2 while I was sleeping during the final night. I never reached higher than 6 ketones, but I have read that others reached above 8. I think fasting is pretty safe in regards to ketoacidosis. If people died every time they got hungry, we wouldn’t have survived as a species.

I like to supplement a bit because of my diet while feasting, my diabetes, and I prefer to play it safe when refeeding despite my belief that I probably do not have to worry about refeeding syndrome for any fast under 2 weeks. I ate well over 1500 calories on my refeeds without issue (well, except for typical diarrhea after long fasts) this last fast, and I felt confident my electrolytes were fine due to (small) supplementation.

(Daniel_S) #6

Thanks for all kind answers :blush:
Just a quick update
1,5 days in
Glucose 2,8
Ketones 5,7
Weight 79,6kg
2,5 days in
Glucose 2,8
Ketones 6,3
Weight 78,8kg
Feeling even better today

(Daniel_S) #7

Day 3,5
Glucose 2,4
Ketones 7,0
Weight 77,9kg
A little pain in kidneys

(Daniel_S) #8

Day 4,5
Glucose 2,8
Ketones 5,9
Weight 77,6kg
Still a little sore kidneys and some acid reflux

(Michael) #9

Looking good Daniel. Are you measuring in the morning, at night or midday? Are you fat adapted already? My guess is not fat adapted based on your ketones - correct?

(Daniel_S) #10

Thanks Michael,
This is morning values. Should my ketones be lower if I was fat adapted?

(Bob M) #11

Probably. After almost 8 years, I wouldn’t get anywhere near your level of ketones even while fasting multiple days.

Then again, I never got near your low blood sugar level: 50.4 in US units. I got 62 after fasting 4.5 days.

(Daniel_S) #12

Day 5,5
Glucose 3,2
Ketones 5,7
Weight 76,8kg
Kidneys and reflux much better
Feel good

(Michael) #13

I was expecting your ketones to drop a little if not fat adapted, and it looks like they have come back down now. They may stay around your current level (always ± 1 or so). You could have slightly different ketones in the evening, so I was curious. For me, my ketones are higher in the morning by a bit in general (about ±(0.5 to 1) as compared to evenings), although not 100% of the time either.

(Daniel_S) #14

Final day😊
Day 6,5
Glucose 2,8
Ketones 5,7
Weight 76,4
Feel good yesterday.
Cooked some bone broth yesterday!

(Michael) #15

Congratulations on making it the full 7 days. Looks like you made it look easy.

(KCKO, KCFO) #16

Well done.