… These are nice.
Presently just passing 39 hrs., and will break here in a few hours. Only 6am, but this is norm when the Pups want to go out. I really need to buy them a Calendar and explain what weekends are for!
… These are nice.
Presently just passing 39 hrs., and will break here in a few hours. Only 6am, but this is norm when the Pups want to go out. I really need to buy them a Calendar and explain what weekends are for!
Well, in theory today is when I would break the fast. But I just had a glass of electrolyte water (water [spoiler]flavored w/lemon juice[/spoiler], plus 1/2 tsp lite salt) and a mug of black coffee and I am stuffed! Couldn’t eat another bite.
I guess I’ll just see how it goes, since this is sort of an ad hoc fast anyway. I told myself I will wait until my stomach actually audibly growls. Which may not work, because it really doesn’t do that much since I think I became pretty well fat adapted.
Edit: Ended up being about 48 hrs. The odd thing for me was that I could have just kept on going. I never really felt hungry and today had plenty of energy. It was surprisingly easy. I may try a multi-day fast some day.
Might sound funny, but I actually wait for this and desire it. Love the empty feel I get.
Ended up breaking at 44 hrs. and had a meal. All’s well as usual, but I’m already looking forward to throwing in another here shortly. Maybe during the week?
That’s 48 hours down and so far the easiest fast to date.
I was a bit concerned about my BG dropping below 4 to start with, but I feel great and keytones are up. Maybe I need to move to a country where 3.5 is the healthy low point.
To take my mind off dinner last night [spoiler]I cooked up a big batch of fish and chips[/spoiler] for Mrs Grumpy and [spoiler]I cooked up more chips today for her and little Grump’s lunch[/spoiler]. She’s making [spoiler]scalloped potatoes for her dinner tonight[/spoiler].
A couple of observations from my first 48-hour fast, completed yesterday evening. This is mainly just stuff I found surprising / fascinating about it. This may be old hat to the rest of you frequent fasters.
Hours 24-26, coinciding with normal dinner time, were the toughest, where I specifically needed to drink some non-caloric flavored hot beverages (coffee, tea) to get through it. I have observed this same thing on my two previous 36-hour fasts.
The second day was effortless. I woke up well rested. I was never hungry and got a boost of energy and motivation to go do things.
I could have easily continued on when I hit the 48-hour mark, though I did experience some genuine stomach growling then, for the first time during the fast. Perhaps because I had mentally primed myself for that being the duration of the fast.
When I did break my fast, I had a normal-sized keto dinner which I thoroughly enjoyed. When I finished it, I was satisfied and not hungry again before bedtime.
The next morning (today), I was not hungry in the morning and didn’t have anything until around lunchtime.
It achieved the results I was hoping for - a recalibration of eating to actual hunger and not other triggers.
I had been slowly drifting back towards eating for other reasons than just true hunger - time of day, stress, wanting to taste a particular thing. I seem to need a 24 to 36 hour fast about once a month just to remind myself that I can choose to not eat. So this was my February re-sync.
I was really kind of starting to enjoy it, for its own sake. Steady energy, good alertness, no hunger, saving time and money. I think I may try something longer next time.
Yes, though I’ve been fortunate and have never had any issues with this myself, I have heard many others speaking about timing when to do their Fast, just for this reason. - Some find issues with certain times like you, so they will coordinate their start time, so they will be sleeping during that timeframe. … I usually eat around 5 to 6pm in the evening for my latest meal and usually just start my Fasting after that, so yeah, that would indeed put your troubling time of 24-26 hr. back into play at that same time the next day. … So if it’s possible, you may be able to schedule your start time, so you will be sleeping during this particular harder time and wake the next morning already beyond it. … I hope this works for you. I know some others now do this and recall them saying it was indeed helpful.
… Nice! - And as I stated above, the grumbling tummy is what I desire and look forward to. But I don’t see this as a hunger signal myself, but more so that things are moving about and emptying out which is what I want.
And for me a bit after that with the last hour or 2 of the day being easy again.
A cup of coffee also helps me, as does cooking for others when I’d normally be eating.
Eating keto means I’m not hungry after dinner until the following afternoon, which gives me the first 24 hours of an EF for free. Then it’s a short waiting until the free 8 hours while sleeping.
I need to be more like this. I tend to miss food after fasting a while and get to the point where I want to eat all sorts of (still keto) stuff on/after my re-feed. Not from hunger, but just missing the food.
I find a grumbling stomach and the real sensation of hunger rather enjoyable. As opposed to the old feeling bloated and still craving more food sensation.
14h in to what I want to be a 48 to 72h fast…
I wont try to push through the 72h mark anymore. I will pass trough it if my body wants to though. lets see how it goes
I wish I was like this. I’ve been low carb/keto 5+ years and I’m always hungry around lunchtime. Always. It’s an effort to make it past lunch and dinner is also difficult.
I’m trying two 36 fasts this week, Sunday evening-Tuesday “blunch” and Wednesday evening-Thursday “blunch” (where “blunch” = about 10am-11am, after doing body by science and HIIT, about 50 minutes total, about 6-7am).
I guess it’s fairly easy for me. I’ve never been big on breakfast and even eating a high carb diet I often had to tell myself to have lunch. My problem when eating higher carbs was trying to stop once I started eating.
I’m mainly doing the longer fasts for autophagy and my BG drops and ketones go up after about 36hrs, so I think that’s when my benefits really kick in. Otherwise I may as well stick with IF which fits in better and is more enjoyable. , but a lot of people like 24 to 36hr fasts.
Well I decided to end the fast today at 3 days ( well 70hrs). Did a 2hr re-feed without going silly and I should be right until tomorrow.
This time my BG went lower than it has before, but otherwise nothing out of the ordinary apart from my HR going a lot higher than normal after dinner. HR is 59 now and SpO2% is 97.
The 2hr eating windows before and after didn’t spike much, but there were very few carbs eaten in either.
Presently at 17 hrs. and not planning to eat today. So will see how it goes from here… Working in snow duty, but it appears to be mostly rain with some sleet and ice. … Still might be a long shift?
Shane, I think you’re doing great. 3.5 or 63 for the mg/dL people is getting down there, but if anything I think that’s a nice area - I’d love to have it; I was 5/90 after five days of fasting a couple weeks ago.
During fairly long fasts some people get down around 2mmol/L or into the 30s mg/dL. I think at that point it’s an individual deal - does one feel okay or not? Some do, some don’t. Going to 1.5 or into the 20s - this is where I’d really start to be concerned. And at any point, if one is feeling faint, painfully low-energy, etc., then I’d say take some action.
John, that makes sense - our ghrelin (hunger hormone) rises at times we’re used to eating, and periodically throughout the day. By 24 hours we’re certainly well into true ‘fasting mode,’ especially coming from eating ketogenically. So there’s the body, saying, “Hey man - it’s dinner time…”
It’s nice your 2nd day was easy. That’s the toughest time for many people.
I start a min 42hr fast right after lunch. I like sleeping in the 9 to 16 hour window when I start a fast. Next Monday I do my lab work for my annual physical. So I’m somewhat following the Feldman protocol.
Interestingly my wt loss the last 2 weeks with a 42 hr and 48 hr fast plus IF 18/6 several days was 2.3 lbs a week. This is the best I have had. This coincides with giving up coffee but I am not sure if that had an effect or just that I am fasting weekly now and am 4 or 5 weeks in with 42hr + fasting a week.
After my physical, I will add coffee back and see what my weekly wt loss is with the same fasting pattern.
You won’t be able to tell anything from that. There are too many variables.
Personally, I would follow Dave’s instructions to the letter. It’s all a sham: cholesterol is at best a bystander in heart disease and does not cause heart disease. But you want your doctor to have the best results (where “best” = lowest values), and Dave’s instructions might get you there.
I’m also going to follow his instructions for my next physical, but I’m going to have three tests done: One on Saturday, a “normal” test after 12 hours fasting; one on Wednesday after fasting Sunday-Tuesday; one on Saturday after following the high eating pattern. The second Saturday’s will be the “official” test.
I won’t quit coffee, as I’ve had widely variable results while drinking the exact same amount of coffee. But I can also get low values.
It costs too much to get the fancy tests done, so I’ll get one fancy test done also the second Saturday, the rest “normal” tests.
Dave recommends not trying to fool your doctor. But of course that is so he is not liable. I don’t want to spend the money for multiple tests.
I’m still going to see if coffee stalls my weight loss.
The thought of a hypo is a big worry for me. My dad was a diabetic and his BG used to drop all the time and it was a terrible thing to watch when he had one. I always told myself that I would kill myself before going through what he did and last year I had high fasting BG on a checkup and got sent to do a glucose tolerance test (which I passed with flying colours). Fasting BG was 3.9 this morning.
I think the Lowish BG might be here to stay now, which should make intermittent fasting more effective. And I think that endomorphs, like me, are built for IF and EF… as long as we stay away from carbs.
Cholesterol had gone up again and DR wanted to increase my meds for that and I said no. It went up when I put the weight on and should go down as I lose it. I was hesitant to go keto because of the increase in LDL, but figured that the fasting I was already doing was probably doing that anyway. So “in for a penny, in for a pound”. I’d rather have a healthy body than a happy Dr. I’ve had a few run ins with this Dr recently.
Well, I was fasting today until the Wife was telling me on my way home, about all the foods we had that needed to be eaten or cooked tonight. So we all decided to eat, even though the three of us were actually fasting together … But that’s ok, it was only 27 hrs. this time, but I think we basically took care of the food issue tonight and we will just reset for tomorrow to start again. We’ll see how it goes.
Hi Eric, I basically do that rotation as well.
Approx 46hr EF Sunday - Tuesday, OMAD 1 day, and 16/8 or 18/6 the rest of the week.