A really extended fast: going for 46-days!

(eat more) #302

fasting will help with the loose skin right? or am i confused? lol

(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!)) #303

@mikki: it should help via autophagy. It all takes time!

(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!

(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.

(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 :joy:
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 :blush:

bravo!

(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:

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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.

(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!!!

(S Hardy) #309

Quite a feat Ron! :clap:

(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:

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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!

#311

Good on ya my friend! Still watching with interest!

(Mary 🌹 ) #312

Yeah…the :moneybag: we would have spent on food is ALOT!

(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?

(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!)) #314

My goal is another 40 pounds, down to about 200 which would be an overall total of 130 lb lost. My 25% BMI weight would be 189 and 30% is 227. If I get somewhere between those I will be happy.

If I then continue the lifestyle, which I have every intention to do, and go below 200 then so be it!

#315

That would be one-derful !! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Well actually one pound from achieving one-derland.

(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!)) #316

I haven’t seen one-derland since 1978!

(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!)) #317

Day 45 and 1,076 hours fasted on water, coffee, bone broth, electrolytes, and occasional heavy cream. Upped my salt today and am feeling better with no issues being cold! Here are my numbers for today:

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The end is in sight and I’ll be cooking a lot of things Saturday and Sunday. I made and canned 2 gallons of chicken broth yesterday and this morning. I was very happy as it is the best tasting broth I’ve ever produced! I used a whole chicken cut up, minus the breasts that I saved on the side, plus 2 lb of chicken wings, and some bones from a rotisserie chicken we had in the freezer. An onion, some carrots, and some celery were the veggies and then I added 2 tbls. ACV and some spices. I simmered it for 8 hours and it was done.

I still have not had a broth gel yet for me even though I had it in the fridge overnight it was very liquid this morning. I guess I will not worry much about it!

I have been following the new thread about feasting and fasting on the KetogenicForums.com. It came about after Meagan Ramos, from IntensiveDietaryManagement.com was on a couple of fasting podcasts with Jimmy Moore, FastingTalk.com, and the 2KetoDudes.com. She was talking about ‘switching it up’ as in don’t keep doing the same thing all the time; your body will figure it out and compensate back to homeostasis on you.

Change your diet regularly and feast on feast days and fast on fast days. That means on your feast days eat mostly fat but get more than enough food to burn for energy and be satiated, don’t cut back on the feast days. Many members have been doing this using random numbers to determine how many feasting and fasting days to have. Using random numbers between 2 and 5 could tell us how many days to have: a list of 3, 4, 2, 3, 5, 4 might tell us to feast for 3 days and then fast for 4 days. Feast again for 2 days and fast for 3 days, etc.

I may try this starting on Easter but I will use a bit of planning as I need to reintroduce eating once again (hopefully won’t be difficult) and I have some social plans for next Saturday. My plan is to feast Monday-Wednesday and then fast Thursday and Friday to see how things go. I will continue my morning readings and list whether I was fasting or feasting that day.

I am excited about this as it will give me the best of both worlds: eating and the benefits of fasting on a regular basis!

(Nathan Hall) #318

Yeah… I weighed about eight pounds in 1978. I don’t think I’m ever getting back to that. :blush:

(MakinBacon) #319

I just wanted to drop in and say I’ve been silently reading this thread and rooting for you the whole time. You’re almost to the end and I’m really impressed. Great job! :sunglasses:

(Barbara Greenwood) #320

Hey! If I ever reach my dream weight, that would be 130lb lost as well - or 155 from my historic highest ever weight.

At the moment I’m 57lb down from when I found keto, and 82 below my highest ever weight. When you say it like that, it’s big! But I’m still nearly 70lb above a healthy level according to BMI

(I am a Dog (Dog's eat until they burst!)) #321

I am honored to walk with you on this journey!