Fasting February

[jdsomsky]

I’m planning to kick start my ketosis into high gear with “Fasting February”. Anyone can feel free to join in. This is an initiative to improve my health. It is NOT a “fast at all costs” program. If at any point I think my body isn’t up to fasting, I will stop and eat. So with that caveat, this is what it is. My plan is to fast for 20 of the 28 days in February. Most likely it will be on a 5 fasting days followed by two eating days type of schedule.

For some reason I’ve found fasting harder than usual in January, and I’d really like to change that. In order to prepare, I’m going to have a few days of “fat fasting” to close out January. I will also have several short (24 – 42) hour fasts in the last days of January to get my body used to fasting again.

I plan on getting a dexa scan before and after so I can see how the fasting impacts my body composition. I’ll get the before scan a day or two before February starts. I may wait until mid-March for the after scan. The reason for this is I have seen other peoples’ after scans take a while to stabilize as they get back to normal after a very extended fast. And I may be too cheap to take one immediately after and two weeks after.

Any advice or thoughts? Anyone want to join in?

You can also read more about it on my blog: http://blog.ketogrinder.com/2018/01/fasting-febrary.html

[marklifestyle]

My wife and I tried the 5 day fast 2 day feast 5 day fast. We like many others in our fasting FB group found it just didn’t work well. Currently trying 5 day fast, 2 day feed 2 day fast, 5 day feed 5 day fast. We just don’t like fasting on weekends.

[jdsomsky]

Tomorrow Fasting February begins. I will attempt to fast for 20 days (not consecutively) in February. I welcome anyone with a desire to join in similar to Zornfasts.

In preparation I’ve gotten a Dexa Scan for baseline numbers.

Date	Weight (lbs)	% Body Fat	Fat Tissue (lbs)	Lean Tissue (lbs)	BMC	Visceral Fat (lbs)
20-Nov-2017	268.2	40.3	108.1	152.5	7.6	6.97
31-Jan-2018	260.2	37.7	98.1	154.5	7.6	6.97

You can see using I’ve lost 10 pounds of fat and gained 2 pounds of muscle between my first and second scans. I’ll be interested to compare the results of this fast. I started at 7:30 PM Central Time.

[jdsomsky]

Today is my second day of “Fasting February”. My home scale had me at 262 pounds in the beginning, I’m already down to 258. This is a bit of a milestone for me as it is my lowest weight of the century. When I tried Atkins in 2000-2001 my lowest weight was 260. Of course there’s lots of fluctuation, but by the end of February I will hopefully be below 260 permanently.

[1dcbc209dd834a59f836]

I’m fasting with u but I’ll do it 5 days only let me knw wht ur feelin and if ur having coffee …

[Swickimik]

I’m 62 hours fasted. I gained since yesterday but I think it’s due to lack of salt during my super busy day at clinical.
FASTING FEBRUARY!!

[jdsomsky]

Here’s how I fast.

1. I sip water throughout the day to stay hydrated.
2. Several times a day I put a few grains of course sea salt under my tongue to maintain my electrolytes.
3. For longer fasts I will bath with Epsom salts to maintain magnesium.
4. In the morning I will have a coffee with a little cinnamon, sea salt (helps cut the bitterness), and Truvia (erythritol and stevia blend). I would be better off without the Truvia as it does cause an insulin response, but I have it anyway.

That’s it. I personally don’t do any bone broth or cream in my coffee because I find that stokes my hunger.

[jdsomsky]

I’m fasting with u but I’ll do it 5 days only let me knw wht ur feelin and if ur having coffee …

I’m 62 hours fasted. I gained since yesterday but I think it’s due to lack of salt during my super busy day at clinical.

FASTING FEBRUARY!!

Glad to have you fasting with me!

We got this!

[hedleylo]

Might be very little depending on how much you use, but cinnamon has carbs. Might want to exclude in the coffee just to guarantee you’re getting all/most of the benefits of your fast.

[jdsomsky]

Might be very little depending on how much you use, but cinnamon has carbs. Might want to exclude in the coffee just to guarantee you’re getting all/most of the benefits of your fast.

I don’t use much cinnamon, and started mainly because it is supposed to help lower your blood glucose. However I don’t have to have it while I’m fasting, so I’ll start cutting it out. (Although I accidentally added some last night out of habit.)

[jdsomsky]

I’m feeling great this morning. Woke up at 254 pounds, about 8 pounds down from the start. I’m at about 62 hours in. I’ll break my fast at lunch, feast over the weekend and then go back to fasting Monday morning. I got 3.0 on the ketone meter last night, so the fast seems to be working!

[jdsomsky]

Earlier in the week I took my wife to the ER due to a severe flu. It now appears I may be getting it. I am taking Tamaflu which should help be bypass the worst of it. As of now I still plan on fasting tomorrow, but I will re-evaluate with how I feel.

[Rian]

We like many others in our fasting FB group found it just didn’t work well.

Can you expand on this some? My goal for the month has been 4 day fasts followed by 3 day refeeds. Is that a bad idea? What didn’t work well with the 5:2?

[marklifestyle]

Your results may vary. LOL.

I, my wife and a couple of others found that 5:2 didn’t work well because the desire to continue to refeed/feast was extremely strong, especially after 36 hours. It is not that we didn’t feel well physically but emotionally it just did not seem conducive to the lifestyle.

[jdsomsky]

Fasting February Update

Saturday February 3, I woke up at 254 pounds. Later in that day I felt like I could be catching my wife’s flu, so I went to Urgent Care to pick up some tamiflu, which helps to reduce the severity of the flu. I spent the rest of the weekend feasting. By the end of the Super Bowl, it was clear I was starting to get sick and my energy levels were low.

Monday morning I had re-fed back to 262 pounds. This may because I’ve been extra diligent to stay hydrated with the flu. Other than very low energy and a little nausea I haven’t had much for symptoms. No fever or vomiting, so the tamiflu is definitely helping. Given that I wasn’t hungry anyway I decided not to eat and start my fast.

Tuesday morning I was back down to 258 and feeling a little bit better. Still didn’t go into work, but did work from home for some of the day. This morning (Wednesday) I’m down to 254 and about 59 hours into a fast. I’m feeling better today than yesterday. I’ll probably work from home for much of the day.

This isn’t exactly how I envisioned Fasting February starting, but it could definitely be worse!

Keep Calm and Keto On!

[jdsomsky]

I ended up breaking my fast at lunchtime. I’ll feast today, then start fasting again tomorrow. My flu symptoms weren’t very bad today. I worked from home all day today, and am considering heading into the office tomorrow.

Here’s my fasting progress so far.

Fast Begins	Fast Ends	Fast Length (Hours)	Total Fast Length (Hours)	Total Fast Length (Days)
1/31/18 7:31 PM	2/3/18 11:38 AM	64:07	64:07	2.67
2/4/18 9:20 PM	2/7/18 12:36 PM	63:16	127:23	5.31

[Helewisa]

Wow, the flu and still pressing on…be careful. But of course, you can heal well when you don’t have all that digestion going on and your body can concentrate on what needs to be done to help you be well. So, fasting is likely a very good idea, as long as the electrolytes are considered carefully.

Also, just chiming in, as I have been off the board a lot lately, too much wackiness in my life for 2018 already.

I started a fast yesterday at 10 am and will keep on until I’m ready to stop…not sure when that will be. What I do know is that I have been eating far too much, even in a 20:4 eating window. STRESS, extreme stress and food. Unfortunately, the two go together for me and I really needed to put a stop or at least a temporary cease and desist!

I’ll be coming up on 36 hours pretty soon, and will likely be heading for some sleep asap.

Happy Fasting February, I am so glad you are all here. Fasting is a strange but powerful miracle…it really is.

[jdsomsky]

I just finished eating for the day and have started my next fast. I’m currently planning on feasting Saturday then fasting again starting Sunday. And I have been very diligent about fluids and electrolytes, so I don’t think that has been an issue.

[Helewisa]

Hi John, your title “self-experimenter” is apt! Aren’t we all to some extent?

You are really doing an amazing job, diligent, focused and going for the win, whatever that will be for you…I hope you have great success. Do you think you will still be able to have 20 days of fasting this month?

The Dexa scan is such an amazing tool, your results were encouraging too. I am so jealous of all those who have been able to find and afford this scan. I think there is a place about 3.5 hours from me, but I’m not sure just how I could arrange to have one without a Dr’s order. But…I know some doctors, maybe I can get one of them to sign me up?! It certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask.

50 hours fasted and heading for 72 at the least…or that’s what I’d like to do. See how I feel. Salt, sole (salt water solution/saturation) coffee and yes, I’ve had some coconut oil, cream, and butter too, but not a lot. Right now, I have to cave-in to those desires or I probably wouldn’t fast at all. It is still so cold here, and not sure of my BF% but estimate it’s at about 31% now that I used the online calculator w/ various measurements. I believe that means I can get about 1,000 calories from my own BF. But from what I have read, I need to supplement with perhaps 4-600 fat calories to keep my metabolism from decreasing. So, if my understanding is correct, my body will be using about 1000 calories worth of BF for each full day of fasting which is why it would take me many days of fasting to see some fat-weight lost. I weigh about 148 lbs. so it’s slow going.

That was more info than anyone probably cared for, hm?! Anyway, that’s my February fasting plans, status, progress and blah-blah-blah. @jdsomsky your fasting results sound much more exciting! Carry on KCKO/FO

[jdsomsky]

Thanks for the reply and your thoughtful update. I do think I’ll still be able to hit 20 days. I’m feeling pretty good right now and plan on fasting today and tomorrow, then feasting Saturday. If all goes well then I may make that an 8 to 10 day fast. But that really depends upon how it is going.

I haven’t had to worry about adding fat into my fasts because I still have almost 100 pounds of body fat to draw on. This means I should have plenty of energy to fuel my body from my fat reserves. But none of that should really matter. It comes down to the question of what are you trying to get out of fasting. Then adjust your fasting schedule/regimen to meat your goals and accommodate your body.

Congrats on your fasting success.

KCKO/KCFO