Attempting My First Intentional Fast

#7

Just the fact, it was odd to me too but fat adaptation brought this weird new thing! Now I even LIKE my fat adapted baby hunger, it’s not the bad old one, it’s not an attention seeker, not annoying. It doesn’t get worse when it’s already bad, it goes away after a while and it’s quite nice even when it’s present. I can do anything, it doesn’t yell into my mind unlike my old bad hunger, it doesn’t kill my focus, nothing like that. It doesn’t gnaw on my insides. It’s just a tiny lovely warning bell or maybe not even that. Frankly, I have no idea what its for as it definitely doesn’t make me wanting to eat food more. But it is a hunger, it feels like hunger, just subtle. Even my proper normal hunger doesn’t make me want to drop everything and run to eat. THAT was my old occasional “feed me NOW” hunger, I hated that. I don’t think it’s still around. Good riddance.

I know but it doesn’t mean I could resist.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #8

What a perfect description of what you were trying to convey. I haven’t experienced any of those things yet, but I can imagine them very clearly now. Well done.

(KM) #9

I’ll be interested to see how it goes. For me the second day is hardest and gets easier after that, but sometimes I get a very painful lower back, still haven’t figured that out.

I once did a 72 hour dry fast. I feel like that was my most extreme even tho I’ve gone longer with water and salt. It was the only time it ever occurred to me that people die in not too much time - from dehydration. Contemplating how much life I might potentially have left in hours rather than decades … a little scary. It was an interesting experiment / discipline but I wouldn’t do it again.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #10

24 hours on da nosey and I feel fine. Not much of anything to speak of. I’ve felt a tiny bit peckish a few times, but that’s about it.

That’s what I’ve been assuming will be the case for me. I’m optimistic, but still a wee bit nervous about what’s to come. :slightly_smiling_face:

#11

I tend to find day 1 quite often is hard, day 2 is easier, we’re all different! And it depends on how busy you are too. I get leg & foot cramps very quickly though so I take supplements. I’ve never done a water fast though, I do have a bit of cream in my coffee & almond milk (zero carb) in tea. I don’t think I could face a water fast, I admire those who do!
Good luck :crossed_fingers:

(Bob M) #12

I usually found day 3 was the best, and it usually got easier from there.

I started easing into eating. If I ate a normal or near normal meal, I’d have more trouble than if I ate something small (like an egg), wait a while, eat something larger, wait a while.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #13

By “a while,” do you mean an hour or so?

(Bob M) #14

That could work. That’s about what I did.

This didn’t prevent going to the bathroom a lot (so reentry to food should be done near the morning), but it limited it quite a bit.

Yeah, if you look online, you’ll see some guidance where you won’t be eating a normal meal for … days. That doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you fasted a long time (eg, a month).

I should say that I drank coffee and tea, both “black”, meaning only coffee or tea. That and water.

#15

I am mixed. Not surprisingly, it’s hardest when my body realizes I have skipped a meal. So it’s around 24 hours (as my natural eating window and smallish and I usually can handle some delay), may be in the first 24 hours, may be in the second. If we consider days normally, it’s my first fasting day.

But wait, it depends. If I am very determined and ate right for my last meal, the first fasting day may be easy enough. I had multiple times when the next day was impossible to do, I remember one where we did a serious food shopping at hour 40-45. In my natural eating window. That was the end and it wasn’t pleasant in the last hours. Still, the first fasting day is naturally challenging as that is when I don’t eat like normal as I don’t eat at all. It is a change, I break what I virtually always do. It can be challenging both physically and mentally. And being easy BOTH physically and mentally, well that is unlikely. That’s why I am getting ready mentally too, determination is super helpful. If my body knows I am serious, it rarely pesters me. But if I am my normal “I just do it until it’s easy and natural” self, I am already pretty much doomed. So I am getting ready mentally for days before my EF attempts.

I never would add calories on a fast, it’s not proper fast that way, after all but I probably wouldn’t see the point to avoid plain tea. That’s a bit more than just water so it would help me a tiny bit mentally… And I have nothing against it. Coffee is different as I want to quit and dislike black coffee.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #16

I’m not sure what the deal is with me. I’m 40 hours and about 25 minutes into my first EF and the entire thing has been effortless, so far. I think my stomach growled twice last night, but that’s about it. I only occasionally even think of having something to eat, but it just out of just wanting a taste of something, not from hunger. I don’t really understand this. I’m not complaining, I was just expecting it to already be very difficult for me. Now watch, as soon as I hit “reply,” I’ll get super hungry.

#17

Stomach growling is fine as long as I am satiated… It’s a different story with hunger but even then, it’s about the type of hunger. The growling (stomach or guts) has not much impact on anything, really, in my case.

Oh it happens (usually not to me but I did have some automatic fasting days in my distant past). If you were well-fed previously, the first 40 hours may be surprisingly easy (or not). Your relationship with food is better than mine too and carnivore helps as well, even I feel that on carnivore… I still love eating but I am more of a proper person and less of a gremlin who was fed after midnight :stuck_out_tongue: Though I am much better than in the past.

It’s exciting to see how well it goes for you! I am getting more and more tempted to follow your example - even though temptation, curiosity, stubbornness and some desire for fasting isn’t enough… I try to build some mental fortitude or whatnot that helps me out!

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #18

48 hours on da nosey… and still goin’ strong.
Since it still feels so effortless, it feels almost as though it’s a gift being given to me. I’m going to keep going. Thank you for the feedback and support.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #19

Right before my fast, I had a big piece of fatty pork shoulder, but I also had a bowl of Neopolitan ice cream, three ice cream bars and 4 Hershey’s nuggets. It was kind of my way of saying goodbye to the sweets forever; I was getting rid of the remainder of it.
(See this post for why it was a final goodbye: “Methods for Fighting Cravings”)

Three hours left to go and I finally made it back into full ketosis (“moderate” on the chart is about the highest I’ve ever gotten). I’ve been testing (urine strips) about 4 times a day, just out of curiosity, and have shown “negative” on the chart. But it’s interesting that I tested at 66.5 hours and I was barely showing any trace ketones and then, when I tested two hours later, I was in full ketosis.

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So there is one anecdotal offering that it takes just under three days of water fasting for a 5’9, 190lb, 52 year old bald man to go from zero to full ketosis after a slight binge of sugar. And it seems to have happened all of a sudden in under two hours.

What that means, I have no idea. :nerd_face:

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #20

72 hours on da nosey! I still feel fine, but I’ve decided to stop, since this is my first fast and I don’t really know what I’m doing enough to feel comfortable continuing.

Now I’m goin’ downstairs to make a few poached eggs and a bit of tilapia. :crazy_face:

I still can’t believe how effortless it was. It was so easy that it seems like I must have done something wrong.:thinking:

(KM) #21

Well good for you, congrats on a fast well done. Interesting about the ketosis, I wouldn’t think it would take that long to clear out a little sugar binge if you are ordinarily carnivore.

Did you weigh in? I know, I know, we don’t want to encourage eating disorders, but some weight loss is an admittedly nice perk of fasting. I seem to have reset myself two pounds down after my last one, it was basically how I achieved my weight loss during my losing phase. Stair stepping down a little with each fast. I did lose a bit of hair during that phase but luckily you shouldn’t have that problem. :wink:

(Bob M) #22

When I was fasting, I would “lose” 5 pounds in 24 hours. I think that was just not eating, losing water, etc. I actually gave up weighing myself, at least during the fast, for a while.

(Fiddlestix H. McWhiskers) #23

Yes I did.

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I must say that I’m a bit disappointed with the lack of significant weight loss, but I’m hoping that it was because I didn’t reach ketosis until the last few hours. I’d like to try it again soon while being in full ketosis the entire time.

Refeeding was fine. Two tilapia fillets and 4 eggs. No ill effects or discomfort whatsoever. Everything seemed a bit quieter and a bit more peaceful during the fast; especially after the first day. I was a bit tired and a bit sad for the last few hours and my voice got a bit raspy toward the end too. Overall, I really enjoyed the experience. I’m definitely going to be doing intermittent fasting/OMAD now and different lengths of extended water fasting is going to be a regular addition to my routine.

(Bob M) #24

Refeeding issues might be more related to (1) people (each person is different) and (2) time. For me, 4.5 days (about 108 hours) seemed to have more issues than shorter fasts. Though I can’t totally tell, because once I went from 36 hours to 3 days then to 4.5 days, I mainly did the 4.5 day fasts. I did do a lot of 36 hour fasts, though, and the refeeding there I seem to remember wasn’t too bad.

And maybe carnivore helps too?

Anyway, congrats on the fast!

#25

Congrats, 72 hour fasts are pretty solid in my books, my goal is doing 48-72 hour fasts once in a while when I will be able to do them again…

I can’t imagine why that should matter… But as the human body is very complex, who knows what matters and what not…
I would just be pleased with able to do some extended fast myself :slight_smile: Thanks for your report (or hatever word is best here)!

(mike lisanke) #26

Ghrelin production, which causes the hunger trigger, is significantly reduced after you become Use to a fasting schedule. It’s the indeterminant schedule of eating (fasts of varying length) which trigger our brains to Tell Us we Need to Eat; go find food Or die. Starvation is the reason animals evolved Fat. We can burn fat (and become adapted to burn fat) when we spend some time in low-insulin mode (where fat is released from fat cells and burned). When we have high insulin in the blood, we can’t release fat from fat cells Or burn it. QED