Thanks @Adam-Zoe!!
I use free weights almost exclusively. I also do some HIT conditioning: slam balls, rower, fan bike etc.
Yes, I’m going to stick to eating carbs for a while. My gut loves the resistant starch and the wide variety of nutrients and fibers. I will go back to keto prior to my next fast, but I’ll do it with a plethora of whole plants (lowcarb) and only a modicum of animal protein (grass fed, local filet for example with no antibiotics or hormones, and wild-caught salmon).
I think I’ll do 10 days again, but I’ll see how I feel at the time.
Re the difference in fuel, I can’t make a side by side comparison, because I feel so much better now than I did before the fast. Is the difference the food? I think it certainly plays a role, but so does improved gut health and weight loss, both of which were kicked off during the fast. In other words, I can’t really make a side by side comparison now because the fast itself changed so much, but historically here’s what I experienced:
- January 2015: started weight training after a divorce-related weight loss. I was pescatarian. Ate a lot of salad and salmon and a protein shake every morning. Started to notice muscle gains. Trained 3 days/week
- March 2015: added beef and chicken back into my diet. Looked and felt pretty good. Trained 3-4 days/week. Starting with #3 below, I trained 4-6 days/week
- June 2015: felt like I was gaining some weight during my travels. Cut fruit and reduced veggies. Had a very hard time making this transition…soo…
- July 2015: tried a high protein, moderate carb, lowfat diet. It SUCKED. I ate copious amounts of meat but even when my stomach was bursting I never felt satisfied.
- January 2016: started a LCHF. Already small, I still lost 1" on my waist in first 5 days. Felt like I was eating incredibly decadent food, especially since I’d eaten super low fat for the prior 6 months.
- February 2016: I was lean and looking great, but already having digestive problems. Felt ‘full of poo’ constantly, but my bowel peristalsis was ridiculously slow.
- April 2016: Drilled down to very solid nutritional ketosis. Looked amazing, had decent energy, but bowels were still off.
- June 2016: back to LCHF at the advice of a new trainer. Started eating 5 small meals/day with more vegetables and small serves of animal protein. Bowels slightly better, but still required huge amounts of magnesium and herbal stimulants (this is true throughout, until my TrueNorth fast).
9: August 2016: kept above LCHF regiment except on heavy leg volume days, when I dropped to lower levels of fat and added 100g sweet potato + 20g blueberries.
- November 2016-May 2017: this is my fittest, leanest, healthiest period, where the eating and training were super drilled down.
11: June 2017: spent a month in Barcelona. Changed training regiment to super slow protocol, and though I ate as well as I could LCHF, I didn’t weigh/measure food or get good sleep. By month’s end I’d gained 1.5 pounds, lost muscle mass and gained fat (impedance method).
12: August 2017: Wheels started to come off. Belly began to distend, crazy itching of my shoulders woke me up at night, constipation worsening. Weighed and measured every morsel, ate less solid food and drank more shakes and exogenous ketones, ate in a more compressed window.
13: November 2017: everything goes haywire. Thyroid off, sex hormones off, HUGE belly, terrible constipation, muscle loss, itching, anxiety. I had a 3 day feeding frenzy early in the month…something I NEVER EVER do…in response to the anxiety I was feeling over this unexpected weight gain.
14: Between mid-November and mid-January I bounced around between LCHF, ketosis, and a zone type diet, my head was spinning and so was my nutrition, though I still kept a very close eye on exactly what I ate every day. Trained 4-5 days/week.
15: Mid-January 2018 through mid-Feb: Ate mostly LCHF after my mid-January water fast, but started experimenting with a few carbs here and there (potato, chili beans etc). Stomach was leaner after the fast. Training went well and had good energy.
16: Mid-March 2018: broke the 10 day water fast with a HIGH CARB, LOW FAT plant based diet. Constipation improved, energy good, eating tons of complex carbs and enjoying. I find it very interesting that I’m satiated on a low fat diet, when I wasn’t back in 2015. Of course then I was eating tons of meat, and now I’m eating tons of vegetables including starchy veg like yams, along with beans and lentils–this combo really satiates me.
It’s too early for me to tell how my glutes will fare. They were hard to build…took a good 2 years…so I pray they come back. I need to get more protein into my diet and I’m tempted to start drinking smoothies again, but TBH I’m still now sure what screwed up my digestion so badly before and I’m scared to toss in a potential grenade. Or, I could just add some animal protein, but again, I’m loving all the carbs and if I toss in meat I’ll have to cut back on my lentils and beans. I’m sure I’ll figure it out, but any way you shake it, to rebuild muscle i need to up my proteins.