April 2026 Intermitten/Extended Fasting All Welcome

#21

I never saw a different one here… If I remember correctly (but I think I do). I never liked sardines. Edible but not particularly good, boring too. And all of them has sunflower/rapeseed oil anyway. But I will go and look next time, it’s not such a bad idea for a tiny meal… Sometimes I am just hungry and don’t care for joy. Rare but happens.

I couldn’t do this sardine fast as the protein intake is impossible for me. I need to stay below 20-30g protein if I don’t want to be around 130 or more (rarely 100g is possible too). Protein makes me hungry and it won’t stop until I get that. Well theoretically I could just eat a ton of sardines but I would hate it way earlier, I need tastier food and variety.
I prefer fat fasts but I said that a few times :slight_smile: Enjoyable, flexible (I did it on vegetarian keto and on carnivore and I have lots of options), super cheap (around $1 per day? depends on my choices), big calorie deficit, no cooking, simplicity… :slight_smile: AND a way for me to eat as fatty as I want (in percentages, the fat amount is smallish but it’s enough).

Lately I do 1-2MAD but when I track, even 2MAD shows I eat very little (for me)! So I must have a deficit and indeed, I have started to lose weight. Great but I keep trying to skip lunch, it’s still surprisingly difficult. I really need to stop drinking coffee too, I blame that for most of my problems regarding lunch skipping.
And I plan to do fun experiments again. Like a lean day. I feel ready for some really low-fat days (for me, even now that I am quite able to eat a meal below 65% fat). Especially in grams.
I came a long way. I remember my early low-carb times when I just couldn’t stay below 200g fat longer term (I missed fat very much for years). And now I can go below 100g! That’s enough, I do need some energy from my food. But I still want fasting days this year, I am stubborn about that, just won’t force it.

I will take it more seriously in May! May is the last month when I have a chance to stay close to carnivore too. I am not so much into that but it could be a useful challenge. A big one considering my last months but I am sure I can go stricter for a few weeks.

#22

When I’m keto or carnivore it was two meals per day (from our chats in the carnivore thread). With the sardines eating, I am OMAD at about 3pm. The 3pm comes from Dr. Boz hacking the night hours for nutritional ketosis in the morning despite the waking cortisol effect. I think Dr. Boz advises for her female clients especially to eat when and how much you want on the sardine diet. I reckon she is right, it can be a real challenge to eat 2000 or 3000 calories of sardines. Maybe it’s do-able with the oil. But satiety is a good guide. Dr. D’Agostino’s apple cider vinegar augmentation made it very accessible for me.

I’m eating one can of sardines and one can of mackerel in olive oil. I add 2 to 3 tblsp of Apple Cider Vinegar, and that helps digest the sardines for me. I also add 1 tblsp of MCT oil. It’s quite satiating. I might add another can or two of the fish as I am 6 foot 5 and built like a brick outhouse. In the morning I have two cups of coffee about 3 hours apart (habit and addiction).

My morning blood ketones are about 0.7/0.8 mmol/L and blood glucose between 5.0 to 5.4mmol/L. So, that’s a GKI of 7, which is some autophagy. But serial blood tests (finger prick) show a rise in ketones and before the sardine meal my blood ketones are 1.4/1.6 mmol/L and blood glucose heading down to 4.5. So that lands me in the GKI range of 1 to 4, which is the same degree of autophagy as a water fast.

It is a workable alternate for me to get to some of the same body physiology effects. To the point that I have forgotten how long I have been eating like this. I think I passed the 72 hours I set out to do. But I am feeling good, so I might run it on a bit.

#23

Dr. D’Agostino points out that high ketones will stimulate paradoxical insulin release. This was from his work on ketone esthers as supplements. So he aims his sardine eating to land him in the 1.0 to 2.0 mmol/L. (Dr. Georgia Edes recently commented that ketosis of between 1.0 to 3.0 is very adequate therapeutically for some mental health disorders.) That paradoxical insulin could drive hunger and cravings?

#24

Thanks Doug. This is great stuff to read and learn from.

(Bob M) #25

Those are good. I forgot they had skin. Do they have bones too?