I like this recipe – the flax gives it body, the cheese and spices make it taste great.
http://www.food.com/recipe/garlic-parmesan-flax-seed-crackers-low-carb-267501
A really extended fast: going for 46-days!
camtosh
(Cheryl Meyers)
#294
stacy
(Keto in Katy)
#295
@ron-coleman Being down 30 pounds I am wondering if you are still able to wear the same clothes and belts now, or have you had to make some adjustments there?
The mind is the source of all suffering, imo. Resistance, attachment, judgment — the constant discursive thought patterns, often times negative in nature, are what create painful emotions I think. Having a practice to quiet the mind and accept things as they are, even as we work to improve them, helps enormously in my experience.
Chance
(David)
#297
Ron, I think you are amazing. I just binge read your updates like a Netflix box set, only to find there are a few episodes still to come out. All the best for the final few days of the fast.
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#298
@stacy: As I have been losing weight for 20 months I was fortunate that when I had started my job I was quite a bit lighter than when I started LCHF. That means that I had smaller sized clothes: I had my really large suits taken in along the way and was able to get into my smaller suits about 6 months ago during my plateau.
They are now, because of the 30lb loss, getting too big and I am trying to decide where to go shopping for dress clothes as I am still losing weight and expect to continue to lose some weight. I have a large frame and will never have a waist size smaller than 36" and my loose pants are 42" right now so not too much further to go.
My 42" belts are in the last hole or 2 so I will have to shop in my closet to see if I have any 40s or 38s left. As I mentioned, I will probably look for a sport coat and get some cheaper slacks for the interim.
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#299
Day 42 and 1,002 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. I’ve been looking at too many ideas for ketogenic meals and they all look so good, the fast is becoming stressful due to mental anxiety! Here are my numbers for today:
Wow, 1,002 hours! Now, I am a geek and a bit of a numbers guy so I know that the hourly count is just a number line thing but when it measures how many hours it has been since I’ve eaten solid food that mark is exciting! As I was getting going on the fast I sort of calculated in my head if and when I would make it to one thousand (just had to spell it out!) hours so I’ve known for weeks that I would be posting that value. It is almost like the stock market reaching a new high, most people celebrate for 15 minutes and then get back to their daily business.
But I made it! I found the mental fortitude to fast for 41.667 days!
On another positive note, I often get replies to my posts as I post on 2 places on Facebook as well as on the KetogenicForums.com and after my rant about getting off carbohydrates yesterday I received this note from another forum member: “Ok…I am doing just that! YOU have given me the courage to get off carbs!” Thank you Mary, I am pleased that I was able to help you into a healthier lifestyle!
I also started a thread on the forums called “Easter 2017 Fast” as there are a lot of people who are fasting for all or part of Holy Week. What an inspiration to see a dozen members so far joining into a fast for the holiday. I hope there are others inspired to join in as well.
Personally, I am still going strong with lots of energy and no hunger (as long as I stay away from the recipe and “What did you eat today?” thread where hundreds of people post pictures of their meals along with a lot of great recipes! What a resource and I know if I am ever out of ideas for a meal that thread will be my go to place!
And I did change the Glucose/Ketone Index chart to show if the index is above or below 1. The target range is below!
Egg
(Kevin Ruther)
#300
Congrats on the progress thus far! I know muscle loss isn’t a big concern per Dr. Fung and I believe the research, but I was wondering if you would mind sharing what you have observed anecdotally so far in regards to your own muscle gain/loss?
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#301
@Egg: I don’t have a regular exercise so I have lost a lot of muscle tone in the last 5 years. I can’t say it has accelerated in the last 6 weeks as I am still able to do every day things like climb stairs, bend over, sit and get up, lift fairly heavy objects, and do yard work.
If anything I have less muscle fatigue and faster recovery from any muscle stress I encounter.
I do need to get a workout routine in place as after losing 90 pounds I do have some loose skin gathering and I would like to fill it in with muscle.
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#303
@mikki: it should help via autophagy. It all takes time!
Sascha_Heid
(Sascha Heid)
#304
I just noticed that it took you comparably long to get your ketones up and blood sugar down in the beginning of your fast. That is comforting to me because i again wondered if there is something wrong with me. All the other graphs i have seen show a quick raise in ketones within 3 days at most while it took you 5-6 days. This is exactly my experience, i always struggle at day 5. Wow, thank you.
And i really hope you enjoy your feast, you are doing great!
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#305
@Sascha_Heid: My glucose was 104 mg/dl and ketones at 0.7 mmol/l when I started which to me means I was closer to borderline ketosis than in full ketosis. I think my glucose was too high as I was doing a lot of snacking on peanuts, macadamia nuts, and some things with erythritol which may have slowed my progress in lowering glucose enough.
It also shows us again that we are all individuals and respond to things differently. I had tracked my numbers during some of my practice fasts and it took me 1-4 days to get my ketones to the 1.5 mmol/l level.
mikki
(eat more)
#306
@ron-coleman thank you so much for sharing your journey and experience! so valuable!
your fast has flown by…for me…just like other ppl’s pregnancies 
like “oh wow…done already…that was quick” LOL
i can’t believe you are already on day 43!! I’m glad you will continue chronicling 
bravo!
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#307
Day 43 and 1,026 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. Amazing, there is still no physical hunger after 6 weeks of fasting! Here are my numbers for today:
I am guessing that the fat from the heavy cream may have held me over better than just a water only fast. I am not sure of any drawbacks adding up to 500 calories of fat would have during my fast. That kind of fat does not stimulate an insulin response. A few people mentioned autophagy, the natural regeneration of cells, but it is more carbohydrates that would turn that off. If the cream did help this extended fast to be easier, I am glad I used it!
I am planning to do fasts on a regular basis of maybe 1 or 2 monthly fasts of 3 to 5-days depending on how I feel and my schedule. These would be water, black coffee, and salt only fasts. Once a quarter I want to do a 7 to 9-day fast for better cleansing, and may allow heavy cream. And, of course, I am considering whether I want to repeat this 46-days of fasting for Lent next year.
I feel like I missed out on a lot of social things, both on business trips and in my personal life, as there were many events, parties, conferences, and retreats that all happened in the last 6 weeks. I was busy every weekend! I didn’t miss out on any of the events but I did miss out on some of the social aspects as I wasn’t eating and the conversation at the table always turned to my fast. I ended up explaining the how’s and why’s of fasting and the LCHF diet overall and that made it difficult to concentrate on the occasion.
Also, some of the food looked and smelled so good that it was very tantalizing although I was able to forego it this year. Do I want to go through that again?
That is the personal side. If I look at the spiritual side there is the historical fasting that all major religions have done for thousands of years. It is done as a sense of purging and cleansing to better oneself and prepare for an upcoming special event. This would be my reasoning for doing an extended fast again.
For me it was Lent. As a Catholic, I’ve always followed Lent by giving something up or doing more and hadn’t really dug into the meaning of the Lenten season as much as I was able to this year. There was sacrifice every day in denying myself of sustenance on good days as well as bad when temptation was the greatest. There were times that I could have used a snack to break the boredom or just have a small bite to try something that looked interesting. Being on a fast meant I couldn’t do any of these things and so I avoided all of them.
As I said way back at the beginning of the fast; fasting is more mental for me than physical. Once you get past the days of withdrawal from sugar and carbohydrates, and your body begins to burn fat, your fat that you have been storing for years, you don’t have physical cravings for food so all that is left are your habits. I have been working to correct my bad habits especially my tendency to snack in the afternoon. Even though I may pick Keto-friendly foods, too much of a good thing is not necessarily good. Too much protein, I love eggs, jerky, and sausage, is not good and the excess protein can turn into sugar and raise your insulin. Those snacks are not needed and by eating them I am going back to, as my father said, “Eating like a dog until I bust!”
So I am hoping to come out of this fast on Sunday with a new resolve to eat when I am hungry and only eat to satiety. I previously could not tell when I was satisfied as that is a hormonal thing and the primary hormone, insulin, was so dominant in my body that the leptin and ghrelin signals didn’t make it to the brain properly. It could also be that my voracious appetite allowed me to mindlessly stuff my face without end. I am praying that the control I have learned during this fast will give me the patience to eat more responsibly and be a much happier and healthier person.
KetoFied
(Jaidann)
#308
I admire you so much! Thank you for sharing this with us all. I can’t even imagine doing this and your journey through this has been fascinating to read! You got this!!!
ron-coleman
(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!))
#310
Day 44 and 1,048 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. Starting to feel a bit warmer these days. I’ve also done a couple of small N=1 experiments! Here are my numbers for today:
My numbers are consistent with an average weight loss per day of 0.74 lb (0.33 kg) over the entire fast which is the same average over extended fasts of 21+ days that I saw in a few studies. Over the last 7 days my blood sugar has averaged 73.7 mg/dl (4.1 mmol/l) and my blood ketones have averaged 5.1 mmol/l. All of this make me happy and keeps me going with a smile on my face.
As I’ve said many times, it would be very easy for me to just continue on this fast as for 95% of the day, when I keep busy, I don’t think about food. Today I am making chicken stock and taking my first attempt at rendering tallow from some beef fat. I was not able to get the leaf fat, the stuff from around the liver and kidneys, but a bunch of other fat from the trimmings. The taste will be slightly different and the shelf life may only be a few months but the fat was free and so I am giving it a try!
I was careful to trim away anything with meat or discoloration so my tallow will be usable. I am planning to use it next week when I will be eating again and although I will probably not deep fry anything I will use it to pan fry a good variety of things. I had seen from the 30-day Steak Challenge where they used the tallow for frying a steak, got to try that. I want to fry up some asparagus as well! Lots of ideas going through my head.
Even though I spent a couple of hours cutting up chicken, vegetables and fat I was not tempted to snack of anything or even think about eating any of it. Of course, I will try the broth as it finishes simmering this evening!
There are a group of people joining the fast for Holy Week and now that today begins the Easter Triduum we are all getting very close. Tomorrow, Good Friday, is a traditional day of fasting for all but church rules these days allow for less food, about ½ the amount a person would eat, to be called a fast. Some of the group are new to fasting and may be having issues as they start into it. I explained in the KetogenicForums.com that starting out with fasting there is fear of the unknown. We have been told for decades that we have to eat or we will starve, that is just not true.
What happens to a lot of people new to fasting is they get stressed out as they don’t know what is going to happen and this makes it very hard to begin fasting. I did about 6 months of research before I went for 24 hours without eating! When I first heard about fasting I couldn’t imagine doing it myself—and look at me now, 15 months later and fasting for 46 days!
I taught myself to fast gradually; I started out by skipping breakfast for a few days. If I ate dinner about 8 PM the night before then by 8 AM I’d already been fasting for 12 hours, waiting until noon to eat again made it a 16-hour fast and it was easy so I did it every day for a week! The only downfall for me is I love bacon and eggs for breakfast and when eating away from home it is not always easy to get breakfast at lunch. Fortunately it is getting easier as a few restaurants advertise breakfast all day.
In the next few months, I tried going for a whole day without eating: dinner on the first day and breakfast on the third day. I had few physical urges to eat and, like now, it was more of a mental game. “Isn’t it time to eat?” my body would ask. Eventually, I stretched it out to 2 or 3 day fasts and got better at it each time.
What I am saying is that anyone, without serious medical problems, could teach themselves to fast and reap the benefits of it very easily. What are some of the benefits? Mental clarity, you get rid of brain fog. Lots of energy, you may not be bouncing off the wall like a 3-year old but you will have stamina to keep going whether you work at a desk or are working out in the gym. No more tired feelings or the need for an afternoon nap; don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good nap and I used to require them most afternoons. Since I started LCHF and fasting I don’t need naps anymore and I don’t dread driving after dark when I used to feel like I could dose off any time I am now fully alert.
Some other benefits of fasting: lower blood sugar (be careful if you are on medication for blood sugar as you will have to work with your doctor to adjust your dosage.) lower resting heart rate, lower blood pressure, and lower food bill! Other than coffee and the stuff to make my broth, maybe $60 for the entire fast, I haven’t spent anything on food for 6 ½ weeks!
we would have spent on food is ALOT!
Barbara_Greenwood
(Barbara Greenwood)
#313
I appreciate this fast is as much for spiritual reasons as anything else for you, but clearly health and weight are factors too. What is good for the soul is also good for the body - at least in the case of fasting!
You say you could carry on… how much weight do you think you could stand to lose?