A really extended fast: going for 46-days!

[Andy_Hanson]

I’m a geek too Ron! I LOVE your data and loving your posts. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us.

[ron-coleman]

Day 40 and 960 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. Busy weekend! It is 10:30PM and I finally have time for my update. Here are my numbers for today:

I noticed yesterday and today that I was occasionally getting light-headed when I got up from a very low position like a deep bend or being on the floor. I hadn’t noticed that in the past and I am not sure what it is from but I suspect electrolytes as I have not tracked them the last couple of days, and I only had one packet of the Jigsaw Health Electrolyte Supreme today. I am having a cup of broth as I type this update, 12oz, with ¾ tsp of Real Salt to hopefully make up for some of the abuse I did to myself today.

I told my wife how I was feeling and that I will track and use my electrolytes more diligently for the next few days and if I still get the light-headedness that I will break the fast a few days early. I am working from home this week and should have no problems getting back into the correct regimen for what I need and we will see how I feel. Remember, the most important thing about fasting is if you don’t feel great then it is time to end the fast!

All of my numbers are tracking well and I even had to change the Y axis on my weight chart as I’ve lost more weight than I had expected! In looking at past studies of people on extended fasts of 21-days and longer, it seemed the average weight loss was .75lb/day so I figured that in 40 or so days I’d lose about 30 pounds—I guess I am not average and am at 31 pounds lost so far! And I still have almost 7 days to go.

I could continue this fast past Easter but I really want to get back to a normal life where I can share meals with my wife and friends. Yes, I can sit at the table and have coffee or even broth as soup but that is not the same as really eating. Sure, the longer I continue the fast the more benefits I can get as my insulin and glucose levels stay very low and the human growth hormone (HGH) stays high. If I move from this extended fast to doing intermittent fasting on a regular basis and possibly do monthly 3-5 day fasts then I can still retain very good control over my insulin and possibly keep HGH elevated at least for parts of the month.

I will make an appointment through my doctor for a blood test this Friday including a CBC, Insulin, HbA1C, lipid panel, liver panel, and a few other things. Hopefully I can meet with him next week to review everything and see how I did during the fast. I do have the blood test I did on the very first day of the fast so it will be good to compare notes from 6.5 weeks of fasting!

I still notice how much energy I have! It is not like energy that causes me to bounce but it is energy to keep going no matter what I am doing. I used to dread driving long distances especially at night. I wanted to doze off and sometimes had a lot of difficulty with that. Since I started the LCHF WOE I don’t dread driving at night as I am wide awake and alert. We went on a long road trip today, about 3 hours in each direction, and bot back after 10PM and I am still very alert and ready to go. Fortunately, I always sleep well and often fall asleep within minutes of getting into bed.

Yesterday we did a lot of hard yard work trimming bushes, removing older bushes and replanting others. My wife and son were completely beat when we finished and went into the house, I stayed outside for a bit and did some light work for the next hour or so. After all that I went and called bingo for 5 hours—now that is staying power!

With the way I feel on this way of eating I will never go back to eating carbage again!

[Fiorella]

When you go in to the clinic to get your blood drawn and the technicians will likely ask “how many hours did you fast?”, which they do to verify proper fasting protocol followed before sample taken…what will your answer be…“yes, I did fast…For 46 days!” It will blow their mind!

[devhammer]

Ron, I’m jumping back on the fast with you for holy week. Propitious timing, since my weight is creeping back up slightly after breaking my foot (which has eliminated several of my options for regular activity and exercise, and thrown my routine).

Planning on supplementing fat to ensure I’m meeting my daily MBR needs, but other than that, just liquids.

Thanks for the inspiration!

[acrunchyfrog]

“how many hours did you fast?”,

If you tell it to them in hours they’ll have to use a calculator to figure it out.

[ron-coleman]

@Fiorella and @acrunchyfrog: I like the idea of telling them in hours! I should be over 1,000 hours by then so it will be interesting to see their faces!!!

[onlyjeffdavis]

I’m going to finish out Holy Week with a fast as well, Wednesday to Friday.

[ron-coleman]

@devhammer and @onlyjeffdavis: I will keep both of you in my prayers for Holy Week. This long fast has been a bit of suffering although it is mostly of the mental kind as my physical body hasn’t craved any food.

The mental anguish at times can be overwhelming and helps in the training I was looking to help me become a better man. I hope that your fasts this week help you to appreciate that gift of all gifts were given so long ago and we commemorate this week.

[HHRivera]

I started my Easter Fast yesterday at 1500. Very excited to do my first week long fast.

Thank you Mr. Coleman for the motivation.

God Bless.

[ron-coleman]

I just created a new thread <a href=https://www.ketogenicforums.com/t/easter-2017-fast/10287?u=ron-coleman> Easter 2017 Fast so we can include others that would like to fast for Easter.

[ron-coleman]

Day 41 and 983 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:

Yes, as I was afraid of, as I near the end of my fast I am allowing myself to think about all of the wonderful foods I can have in about 6 days and it may drive me crazy! I haven’t been tempted to pick up anything but just playing with ideas causes me to dwell a bit too much on these foods.

I am not a list maker so I have a rough sketch of my eating plan in my head. I may try writing it down to put it in cement so I am not playing with it all of the time. That would also make the shopping a lot easier. Speaking of grocery shopping, I went this evening to pick up a few things for the house and ended up by the sausage and cheese trays as I have a pot-luck dinner next Monday for about 30 people. I will take a couple of the sausage and cheese trays as that is something I can easily have. I am also considering some cheese crisps and a dip like Bleu Cheese or something else that can be easily spread on the crisps.

I really like the Groksi cheese snacks but they are a bit expensive and I have to order them for a good price. I don’t know if I can have them delivered in time. I will attempt to make my own cheese crisps but the last time I did they were only mediocre in quality. I need a more fool-proof recipe if anyone has one!

Mental games on a fast seem to me to be where all of the suffering is. If you are fat adapted there is little to no physical suffering as you don’t get hungry and your body is already in fat burning mode so you just continue on. If you are not fat adapted you are still addicted to carbohydrates so the first thing is to kick that nasty habit and detox from the sugar addiction. This can take up to a week and that would be a lot of suffering.

I have read that the second, third, and fourth days of a fast are usually the hardest and once you get past those it quickly gets easier and easier until you don’t even think about eating any longer. People who eat a lot of processed foods would probably have many issues starting on the first day as their brain craves the dopamine from the sugar rush on a regular basis. This is why I highly recommend that anyone attempting a fast wean themselves off of most carbohydrates, especially sugar, flour, and all processed foods, first and have their bodies adapt to burning fat as the primary source of fuel.

The average overweight person, not even the obese but just overweight, has an estimated 100,000 calories of stored energy in the form of adipose tissue in their body. The only way to get your body to burn that fat is to lower insulin as insulin restricts the burning of fat in favor of clearing the blood of glucose since sugar is toxic to humans! Yes, actually toxic! Why do you think that we humans evolved with a system in our body to remove sugar from the blood as efficiently as possible?

Insulin will store glucose as glycogen in the muscles or in the liver for quick energy but there is a limit of only 2000 calories of storage available. After that, insulin stores any remaining glucose as adipose tissue (you know, that stuff that we want to burn for energy.) So if our glucose is raised and the pancreas is creating insulin then we are in a storage mode and cannot burn fat no matter what we do or how hard we exercise: we need to change what we eat to control our sugar and reduce the levels of insulin.

Believe me, I know, that first week with no processed carbs can be stressful: I did it back in July 2015 and do not want to repeat it again! Man survived for millions of years without processed carbohydrates and did very well eating mostly fat and protein. In fact many archeologists agree the ancient peoples were either hunter-gatherers who ate mostly fat and protein or farmers who ate mostly grains and some protein and fats.

The hunter-gathers were much healthier, grew taller, had more rounded faces, and perfect teeth. The farmers were always shorter, thin faces, had tons of tooth decay, and heart disease! Remember, carbohydrates, especially grains, turn into sugar very quickly beginning in the mouth!

Turn away from carbs, you don’t need them!

[marybeth00]

Ok…I am doing just that! YOU have given me the courage to get off carbs!

[camtosh]

I need a more fool-proof recipe if anyone has one!

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

[stacy]

@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?

Mental games on a fast seem to me to be where all of the suffering is.

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.

[Fiorella]

Ron, recipe on this forum for cheese crisps. Maybe these work for you?

Cheese crisp MIRACLE!

[image][image][image][image] This has got to be the most amazingly simple recipe ever! I put 1 tsp grated cheese in each cup of a silicon muffin tin, and microwaved until the cheese melted and turned golden brown. Took about 3 minutes. I watched continuously through the window to avoid overlooking. Crisps turned out delicious, and well up to the task of supporting dip.

[Chance]

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]

@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]

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]

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]

@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.