tl;dr: I am just over 88.5 hours into my first extended fast. My goal was 72. I’m planning to break the fast within the next couple of hours. I’m feeling pretty good and can feel the changes in my body.
I started keto about 27 November of this year. This is after many years of being wheat free and relatively low carb. The past few years have been very stressful and I had put on more than 20 pounds in the last 3 years. 8 of those pounds since October of this year.
Keto flu actually hit me quite hard. Salt and other electrolytes helped some but not enough. I started thinking that I wasn’t eating enough, so upped my minimum calories to what is supposed to be my TDEE, and sometimes 200-300 calories above that. It did not cause me to gain weight and I felt better. Notably my problem tends to be undereating, but then bingeing because my body is like you haven’t eaten enough. I don’t really get strong hunger cues. So I’ve always naturally skipped meals. Once I upped my calories purposely, my appetite increased, which is good.
I’ve always thought I was insulin resistant and that’s why the trouble losing weight. I don’t know if anyone experiences this, but I can feel it in exercise as a heaviness in my thighs and upper arms as I continue to exercise, even just walking. After starting keto, I was able to start doing about 50 minute walks again. After a few days, I realized that when walking fasted, I wasn’t feeling that heaviness.
Then I started researching insulin resistance and came across extended fasting and it’s effects on insulin. I also noticed that, right after my fasted walks, my blood ketones would be a bit higher, along with my bg, but bg would drop down not much later.
I know this is long, but it was my path to trying my hand at extended fasting. As of today, I think my body is getting the idea. I’m planning on doing some 24-36 hour fasts during the week, along with 18/6. And then doing my moderate extended fast once or twice a month. I’m looking forward to seeing how things change.
Thanks to everyone for sharing their experiences and all of the wonderful info here. It’s what has really helped me to get to this point.