April 2018 IF/EF chat - all welcome

(Liz ) #41

Ugh fasting messes with my sleep too. Hang in there!

(Jeannie Oliver) #42

Me too.

(Nicole Sawchuk) #43

Doing my first EF since November. I do 22 hours Monday - Friday every day. I am hoping to get to 48 hours and perhaps push to a 3 day fast this week. I gained too much over Easter. I had my first piece of chocolate in over a year and immediately gained 5 pounds! Okay, it wasn’t just the chocolate, but its amazing that after a year of being strict how one weekend of not stressing about eating in a time restricted window (didn’t touch the potatoes, breads) and everything still goes out the window! I almost threw up when I saw the scale this morning! Since November, I have not been able to go past 24 hours no matter how hard I try! So here’s to lots of salt, water and if I am desperate - bone broth this week! Will need support!

(Liz ) #44

That 5 pounds is most certainly all water, don’t panic!! Your fasting plan sounds good.

(KCKO, KCFO) #45

I think your friends who told you get fat adapted before fasting so much. A bit of IFing, 14/10 or 16/8 would probably be fine at the beginning.
A few questions so we can understand your situation a bit better:

  1. How much weight are you trying to lose?
  2. What is your height and current weight?
  3. Are you pre or post menopausal?
  4. Why do you suspect you are severely IR?
  5. Were you on a CICO type diet before you started keto?
  6. When you are eating, what % is fat, carb, protein?
  7. Are you tracking your meals or just carbs, if only carbs is it net or full grams of carb?

This helps us understand where your challenges might be. Please remember some people have a lot of healing to do before they can progress well with this way of eating.

I use Vora too for fasting tracking.

So you understand where I am coming from, I had been using MFP and tracking EVERYTHING for a couple of years, had yoyoed and was then back to mid 150s and at 5’3" was overweight still. Stalled out over the winter months, started learning about IF and EFasting and by May of 2017, I had reached my goal weight. I have since lowered my original goal and reached that and have been maintaining it with IFing 3-4 days per week, along with the monthly extended Zornfast here. I walk, do some yoga, some strength training. I am 67 and that works for me.

Good luck on getting yourself sorted out.

#46

I’m running a little experiment at the moment.

I’ve been an OMAD’r for about six months and love the benefits - be it the brain power or the drastically lower kitchen cleaning requirements, I love it all :slight_smile: For the last two years I have been eating exactly the same macros with no adjustments beyond different fasting regimes, but for the last six days I have doubled my macros across two meals a day to see what kind of impact it has on my mood, chronic pain, fasting blood sugar and blood ketones and of course, weight.

  • I’ll have the verdict on weight tomorrow as I only like to measure that on Wednesdays
  • Fasting sugars have remained the same
  • Blood ketones are down from my typical 1.5-4mmol/L range to 0.3-0.8 range
  • Mood has been quite severely impacted, to the point that I question whether that issue is related to the diet change at all
  • Pain has been exactly the same. Pain was the main reason I wanted to try this change out, to see if more regular, high calorie meals would help with getting medication into the bloodstream.

Most of the results above were as expected, but I haven’t decided exactly what I will do if I have put weight on, suffice to say that one week is not enough data points to draw any conclusions. I am kicking myself for forgetting to take body measurements last week as I know that is often something that changes for the better even if weight remains the same or increases slightly. The n of one journey continues :grinning:

(Tina Emmons) #47

Thanks so much for your reply!
What was your first sentence meant to say? My “friends” are peeps here in the forum.

  1. 50-60 pounds
  2. 5’7 217
  3. I have NO idea. I’m 50, no signs of menopause. Due to see my ob and will test to see but yeah, right in the range to have weird things going on.
  4. I was born in '67 which was prime time for babies to be born IR and my mom was on board the “health food” kick. LOTS of grains! Ate low fat most of my life, have developed belly fat, visceral, in the last few years and not losing, even with my current measures.
  5. I don’t believe I’ve ever counted calories but definitely restricted myself, mostly low carb bsince the 90’s but it had been awhile and the HF part had slipped by me. I’ve always known I wasn’t overweight for over eating or under exercising.
    6/7. I’ve done everything from dinner only to lunch only to breakfast and lunch only to aforementioned fasts. I only track carbs and add fats. With as few meals as I eat I am positive I’m not going over protein. My carbs are only incidental in dairy and typically one large serving of green veggies per day. It is possible I don’t get enough calories regularly so I’m really trying to up my feeding days and try some EF. I also have the added challenge of literally never being hungry, or…alternatively, am really good at ignoring it so this trusting my signals thing is tough.
(Tina Emmons) #48

I just thought of another perk of fasting-NO DISHES THIS WEEK!! Yay! 4:00pm day one of five. So far, so good!

(Raj Seth) #49

Kosher for passover, you have to have an entire new set of dishes. If you fast for passover, you could skip that entire step! :rofl:

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #50

Another successful 72 hour fast. Gonna get a little something on my stomach!

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(Stephanie Sablich) #51

You did it! Nice work :slight_smile: Those look like awesome numbers.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #52

They are just numbers. I am lucky to not have T2D. Not everyone on here is that fortunate. I just wish there was a way that I could personally help others. So, I’ll just try to set a good example.

(Stephanie Sablich) #53

You are helping others! And yes, they’re just numbers… but they’re impressive numbers, regardless of whether or not you have T2D.

Just let me compliment you, will ya? :slight_smile:

(Tammy) #54

Totally sold on fasting!

I’ve been strict Keto for just over 90 days. I’ve lost 35 pounds and feel great. I think the reason everything is working so well this time is the fasting and I keep mixing it up (IF, alternate day, 36-84 hr fasts). I’ve done LC and Keto in the past and it has worked fairly well, then I would fall hard down the carb rabbit hole and all I can think about is food. And of course as I get older it didn’t work quite as well. I am very sure I am insulin resistant, given that I carry much more fat around my middle than I have ever before in my life. I definitely need to improve my metabolic health.

Last week, I did a water only fast for 84 hours, my longest fast yet.:tada: I felt pretty good, just a bit tired in the evenings. But I was hungry every single day of the fast! I am just starting another fast as of an hour ago. Hoping to do the same length, but I going to have BP coffee and see how that compares with just the water only fast. I would like to do water only so I could be sure of autophagy, but right now I need to focus on improving my insulin sensitivity, so if BP coffee makes it easier to stick to, then thats the way I’ll go.

(John Royals) #55

Keep calm and fast on!!!

(Beth Utz) #56

Good luck!:+1:t2:

(Ruth Spencer) #57

Just coming up to 48hours on my first proper EF. Previously gone about 40h tops, but usually do 36h once or twice a week.
I’m finding the day time fine, but getting hungry in the evening and dreaming of food. Any tips for pushing through?

#58

Hi fellow fasters.
Just checking in to let you know I’m going great so far this week. 3 successful days of 16:8 IF having tea or coffee with cream first thing. Felt especially great this morning but that could have been down to having 2 extra strong coffees before work. I’m definitely noticing great mood benefits and wasn’t even bothered by a flat car tyre discovered this morning when in the past (pre-keto) it would have ruined my day. Having a a DEXA scan tomorrow as I’m interested in monitoring my lean muscle mass (I lift heavy for fun and fitness so I can’t wait to see how losing body fat effects this). Oh, and another major NSV today - all my belts are on their last holes so looks like I might have to go shopping!

(Liz ) #59

I have the same time issue, thoughts of food from 6-10 pm while fasted. I drink herbal tea, sparkling water, take salt crystals and honestly I stay out of the kitchen. A hot bath usually helps.

If it’s just regular food thoughts & not my body signaling its time to end a fast, I remind myself I can eat any old time but a fast is something I’ve worked for & it’s finite & I want to achieve my goals.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #60

The Morning after: So after my (72 hr) fast I weighed myself this morning and I remain 2lbs down from my all time low. Last night after it was over, I introduced food somewhat slow with some macadamia nuts, then an avocado. Waited a while and went full berserk mode. End up eating 1480 calories between my chuck steak, green beans, butter, bacon juice…

I am pleasantly surprised I’m still down from my all time low. It’s back to regular feeding today!