Alternate Day Fasting turned ZC...back to fasting

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(KCKO, KCFO) #181

Andrea, I have been on vacation so just catching up with your Journey.

Good luck with those meetings and happy hours with clients.

I think you are correct that using olive and avocado oils might help. Also ghee is a good thing, makes things taste so great.

ZC is not for everyone. Just like 80-100% carbs is not for everyone. We have to keep trying to see what works, bravo for you in tracking and reporting on your n=1 experiment. I am sure you will find the key. For me it was first switching to keto, then LCHF, then fasting. I stalled out here and there but did reach my goal, even exceeded it by a few lbs. If I can do it at my age, your 35 yr. old bod can do it too. Hang tough, you got this.

(What The Fast?!) #182

Hey lady! Thanks for the encouragement! I fasted yesterday (traveling all day) and broke it today with bacon cheeseburger with avocado while out at a client lunch! NOMNOMNOM!

I stopped by whole foods and bought some pecans for a snack, but am so full from lunch that I don’t want to eat them. I think I’m much happier keto than ZC!

(Michele TP) #183

how is it going for you?

(What The Fast?!) #184

Is what way?

(Michele TP) #185

Sorry! I posted on the wrong comment!

(What The Fast?!) #186

Hey y’all! Quick update for those of you following.

Started this “Snake Diet” thing (description below) and here are my results:

Overview: Fast as long as you can, eat a small single meal for refeed and then go back to fasting. Repeat until you hit your goal - your body will tell you when you need to increase cals/fat. He recommends 4:1 veggies to meat/fat. During fasts, drink “snake juice” (which is just water with salt and potassium). No coffee, no tea.

My take: fast as long as I can, eat a keto meal refeed, go back to fasting. Repeat. I’ve cut out coffee for now, but may add back.

Progress:
Days 1-4: fasted for 95 hours, had a refeed meal (big salad with olive oil, goat cheese, ribeye)
Days 5-6: currently fasting, will break at 48 hours

Down 6 lbs as of this morning (morning of day 6)

Things I’m experiencing:
hunger. I’m very jealous of people who aren’t hungry when they fast!
Low blood sugar - was down in the 50’s a couple times.
High ketones - got up to 6.8 on day 4!!

What I’m learning: I think shorter fasts are better for me (48 hrs) but I’ll keep testing different fast times.

What I’m excited for: my partner/BF said to me: you’ve got the strongest will power of anyone I’ve ever known (considering he’s friends with a bunch of Navy Seals, I’ll take it)! That’s when it hit me…I do have strong willpower, if nothing else is working, why don’t I just FAST!!! If I can do all these other things, I can surely do that. I tried fasting in the past but got distracted by different versions of keto and zero carb, but if there’s one thing that HAS to work…it’s simply not eating, right?? I’m very excited to finally maleness progress!

Stats:
3/26/17 SW keto at 149 (32% BF)
10/15/17 SW for this fasting protocol: 153.7 (34% BF)
10//21/17 CW 147.7 (31.5% BF)
Goal weight: TBD, but 127 puts me at 20.5% BF

PS I’ll post progress pics once I see some real progress!

(KCKO, KCFO) #187

The name cracked me up. Snake diet :rofl:

(James storie) #188

@KetoLikeaLady
I hope this works for you long term, I’m paying close attention. I’m in a similar situation where my body seems to be fighting back!

(What The Fast?!) #189

Side note…
I cut out coffee all week and last night after dinner had an espresso. Big mistake! I didn’t sleep well at all and woke up SUPER early today even though I went to bed VERY late.

I had one of those DNA tests done and it said I was a slow metabolizer of caffeine; I didn’t put much weight into that result but maybe it was more relevant than I thought!!

(Doug) #190

Andrea, that is so cool that you can find out such things. So, is it as simple as it stays in your system longer, then?

(What The Fast?!) #191

Here’s a link that explains it better than I can. :slight_smile:

(Paula Green) #192

Thanks for the link Andrea. I’m also a slow metaboliser of coffee (according to 23&me test). It’s funny, I didn’t drink coffee at all until a few years ago when I was 48 because I didn’t like it. And then one day I wanted a cup. Fortunately I went straight to plain black coffee, I still hate the taste of milky coffee and coffee flavoured things. Then blow me I find out I’m a slow metaboliser. At heart I’m a tea drinker and I just have coffee when I’m out with friends - for some reason it makes me feel grown up lol! (I’m 51).

Anyhoo - still following your journey closely and very excited that this fasting protocol seems to be working for you.

(Ken) #193

Andrea,

You are a prime example of someone who should try periodic glycogen recompensation. IMO, your body is running now so efficiently on fat that is is able to conserve whatever fat you have remaining. It is the epitome of adaptation.

It’s the same type thing that happens to bodybuilders/weight lifters when their muscle growth plateaus. Adjustment of stimulus is necessary, in order to break adaptation in order to restart results.

(What The Fast?!) #194

Interesting - so basically just have a higher carb day once in awhile?

(What The Fast?!) #195

Struggling again today with very low energy, low focus, and just feeling like…meh, I don’t want to do anything.
BG: 68
Ketones: 5.0
GKI: 0.75

Last meal was Saturday night, ending at 9pm (fatty ribeye and other delicious keto foods)
I did a bike ride yesterday but not a super long one (just about an hour and twenty min)

My weight before the refeed was 147.7, the morning after the meal was 149.7, today it was 148.4.

The protocol I’m following is to fast until I’m at least 1 pound less than my last fasted weight, to ensure continued weight loss, so I don’t want to break the fast unless I’m at least 146.7 tomorrow.

(Ken) #196

Initially, for you, it’s the same protocol I suggested for Saphire. A two day period where you eat low fat, and with a Carb based 1000 caloric excess for each day. This will recompensate glycogen, but in no way be possible for you to flip into lipogenesis and gain any fat. In your case, since you’re so active, more recompensation could very well be needed during the week, meals or even a whole day. One bodybuilder method is to consume dextrose (glucose-D) around workouts, usually around 20 g before and 40 g right after, simply to get some into the muscles. It really won’t interrupt lipolysis in any meaningfull way. Dextrose is easiest to get in the candy Smarties, nine and one half g per roll.

(What The Fast?!) #197

Arrrgh. I felt like trash yesterday so I ended up breaking the fast. Back up to 150.8 today. I know it’s probably water, but it’s annoying. Had a Cobb salad with avocado, blue cheese, and bacon, plus some wings last night.

I also slept like garbage last night (which NEVER happens) - maybe cuz I had a piece of dark chocolate and the caffeine in it?

(Ken) #198

Or, it could be your metabolism is damaged by being in starvation mode so much. It’s like what happens when doctors treat patients who have been starved, they have to reintroduce foods and calories slowly. I’m not suggesting you’re anything that drastic, just an example.

The goal is to get to a balanced insulin-glucagon secretion state, so as to avoid detrimental effects of extremes in either direction. That means when following a lipolytic pattern, eating some carbs for metabolic purposes.

It the fitness world, for those following keto, the Starvation Response is well know. I’ve had it myself on several occasions.

When in balance, you shouldn’t be having these wild energy swings and other effects.

#199

I bet if I took that DNA test I’d find the same thing. I’ve always been sensitive to the effects of caffeine. It takes less to make me jittery, and it takes many hours for the effects to wear off.

#200

FWIW, I have been very careful about chocolate near bedtime but found out recently (on this forum) that chocolate doesn’t actually have caffeine in it (?!). It does have other -much milder - stimulants, so I guess it’s the same issue in the end.
When I first started fooling around with fasting (2x 40 hours/each with occasional longer fasts), the overall effect on my sleep was fantastic: felt like it re-set my circadian rhythms and it was a long-term great change. But day to day (or rather night-to-night) it wasn’t always good, so that sometimes a fasting day = great sleep, sometimes lousy.