Day 35 and 832 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. Getting back to my normal sleep routine and it feels great! Here are my numbers for today:
I really didnāt sleep well the first night home as I woke about 2:00 to urinate and then felt like I tossed and turned the rest of the night. Last night was amazing as I got almost 10 hour of good sleep and didnāt have to get up at all. I feel fully recharged because of it!
On the 35th day of the fast and it has become such a habit that I donāt even think about eating. I do drink quite a bit of water and coffee along with the additions of salt, Jigsaw Health Electrolyte Supreme, and heavy cream for the micronutrients I need. I donāt see any problem with going back to eating on Easter day but I am thinking that I could continue this fast right through and past Easter with absolutely no regrets!
I am resolving to end on Easter day as there may be some family issues if I donāt; my wife indulges my fast as well as my LCHF lifestyle but is not completely on board and watches me like a hawk for any signs of my getting sick. It is nice that she watches closely as she sees little things that I may miss. She mentioned that I looked emaciated on the trip home from Tennessee. I increased my fluid and electrolyte intake the next day and I donāt have the sunken eyes any longer!
When I go back to eating what kind of foods will I eat? Will I follow the Standard American Diet (SAD, got to love that acronym!) or will I go with the Low Carbohydrate High/Healthy Fat (LCHF) way of eating (WOE)? Well letās compare how each of these diets affect our health by using some of the 89 medical studies that have been done since the 1960s to compare the value of the low fat high carbohydrate (SAD) diet over the LCHF diet: take a guess at how many studies favored the SAD?
Are you ready? Ok, there were zero studies that were statistically significant in support of the SAD over the LCHF but there was 1 of the 89 that leaned toward the SAD but again, it was not significant. Of the remaining studies, 67 were statistically significant in favor of the LCHF WOE! Why have we not been told this?
Part of the reason is that scientists and doctors have been trained in the mentality that fat is bad and grains are good. In fact, in the conclusion of one of the above studies that ended up favoring LCHF the authors wrote āWe donāt understand why this study failed as we know that reducing fats and increasing carbohydrates is healthy.ā Even with the evidence shown through their study they are willing to throw away a couple of years of work to stick with what they were told is truth!
One of the more recent and informative studies was done by Christopher Gardner, PhD, from Stanford University. Gardner is a vegetarian and has been for over 30 years. He undertook this study, partially, to prove, once and for all, that the Atkins (LCHF) diet was wrong. The paper is titled āComparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal Women-The A TO Z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trialā and can be Googled if you want to view it.
I will include 2 graphs, one from the study itself and another that shows the data from Table 3 of the study. The first graph shows the weight loss of the women over the 12-month duration of the trial and definitely favors the Atkins diet.
In a YouTube video, Professor Gardner talks about this study and admits that his bias against the Atkins was damaged by the weight loss in the Atkins diet but was really shattered when he looked at the data from Table 3. This table showed what affect the diets had on blood and lipid values that are critical measures of health. For virtually all of the markers from HDL, triglycerides, glucose, and inflammation markers things were dramatically improved by the Atkins protocol as opposed to any of the other diets compared!
In other words, given this evidence, I will be going back to the LCHF WOE and will avoid most carbohydrates! Keep Calm and Keto On!