I see all the benefits of intermittent fasting being claimed as a panacea, but my experience has been counterproductive and I am wondering if it is even worth it to continue.
For the past 9 months on my keto journey I have taken the same approach every day without deviation. I drink a 25g protein shake with 1 gram of carbs. I do not eat again until dinner and I eat all remaining calories at that time. The morning shake is 150 calories and my dinner is 950 calories, for a total daily intake of 1,100 calories. My daily total carb intake is between 10-15grams. I am not sure if this is considered OMAD everyday, but I guess that’s irrelevant.
As long as I follow this same protocol everyday my numbers stay about the same, fasting glucose 12hrs after protein shake is 80-90, blood ketones 2.0 and in the morning after waking urin strips show 5.0 ketones. Weight loss is pretty steady and follows projected math pretty closely.
Here is the problem. I weigh, caliper and take pictures of myself every Saturday, this is my day of accountability. If I did not lose much that week I do a single 24 hour fast on that day to hold myself accountable. I simply withhold the usual 150cal morning shake and proceed to only eat my 950 calorie dinner with no changes. But every time I do this it backfires and does the opposite of its intended purpose.
First thing that happens is that I feel light headed all day, but this makes no sense because the fasting makes my blood sugar shoot up way past normal. When I take my 23hr fasting blood sugar it is around 110. Then it knocks me out of ketosis from my normal 2.0 to about 0.5. I can’t sleep at all that night, feels like I am on methamphetamines, which gives me the hypothesis that fasting jacks my cortisone high and that is causing a domino effect of problems. I finally wake up in the morning day after and am only showing trace ketones on the strip upon waking.
So basically I do pretty good and have consistent numbers UNTIL I fast, which screws up everything, knocks me out of ketosis and makes me look prediabetic.
I wonder to some degree if my extremely strict calorie restriction is part of the problem? I am disabled and do not do even light daily activity, I sit around all day. So my TDEE is estimated to only be about 1,800cal a day. I know my daily intake of 1,100 calories is low enough to make most people shudder, especially maintained over 7 months straight. But my activity level is so darn low, I think this is a deviation from the norm. But I wonder sometimes, because I seem to get these huge cortisol spikes on my Saturday fasting day. Is it possible on that day I am reaching into the level of borderline starvation? And possibly creating a adrenal response that is shifting me into a catabolic hyperglycemic state through aggressive liver gluconeogenisis?
I have lost 65lbs so far on keto, and am now at 16%bf. My goal is to be 8%bf by Oct 15th. I see the finish line and am committed, but it seems the more I fast, the worse my numbers are and my sleep quality is really bad that night.
After I hit my goal, I am obviously going to be adding back in qbout 600calories a day. I thought maybe I should just continue as normal and scrap the Saturday 23hr fast until then. Then maybe once I am in maintenance phase after hitting goal, possibly adding the Sat23hr fast back in…?
Any thoughts everyone? Should I just avoid the fast until after I reach maintenance phase?
Thanks