Hi Keto Friends,
Lately I’ve been learning about fasting. After my latest effort I chose poorly and got into too much tahini and cream cheese and reading low on my meter for three days.
I was trying to fast to get back in, but carbs seem to be calling to me and I’m not succeeding. I just ate two avocados and that’s not going to help. My appetite is fierce right now. I just need to get back into ketosis.
Any tips?
Thank you!
The liver and muscles can store enough glycogen for about 2.5 straight hours of aerobic activity. So not so much a casual walk, but more of a power hike.
I’d recommend hydrating with water and electrolytes the night before, waking up early and going for a long walk. Let your body show you how long it wants to go and set aside the mental voices that rationalize why you should stop. Call it your ketosis walk.
You may not get to 150-minutes, but just go and try and surprise yourself. Ask yourself, can I go another 5 minutes? And if the answer is yes, do it.
Then, afterwards, make some bulletproof coffee. The aerobic activity will sensitize you to nutritional intake. Your body will be asking. If you answer its “Ask” with fat, it will respond by saying “oh, so I get energy from this?”
After drinking your bulletproof drink (tea, coffee, a shot of olive oil or whatever fat is palatable), set a timer for 30 minutes. You might be hangry or have pangs, but let that 30 minutes pass. Then when the alarm goes off, ask yourself, am I full enough to wait a while to eat? Hopefully the answer is yes. If no eat a zero carb meal such as eggs and bacon cooked in lots of fat and then putting slices of butter on top of the eggs afterwards.
Then set an alarm for 30 minutes and at the end of it ask yourself if you are full.
Then plan a dinner that sounds appealing to you with 20g or less of net carbs. Maybe an affordable slice of meat and a salad with high fat dressing.
Track everything for the day, despite it perhaps being a pain in the butt. It will be reassuring to see macros of 5% carb, 15-20% protein, 75-80% fat. Keep your deficits/surplus ± 500 calories so as not to stress your system.
Hope some or all of this helps.
Avocados and cream cheese are perfect for keto. 100g of tahini has 21g carb. It’s not that bad…
That you read low on ketons doesn’t necessarily mean that much. That you’re hungry is normal because you’ve eaten some fats, breaking the fast, but you haven’t given yourself proteins.
I would suggest to go very gradual with fasting. First do a 16:8 window for a while, then a 18:6 window, then fast 24h, then 36h, then 42h, then 3 days, then 5 days, then 7 days, then 14 days. Don’t jump to fasting 3 days if you’re not used to it. For some it’s simple and for some it’s not. Also do you have enough body-fat to fast?
Nathan, awesome ideas, thank you! I didn’t know that about the hike. And I will definitely try the timer idea. I keep thinking I need to fast to do this quickly but that was not working. I love bacon, eggs, butter, etc. hiking is something I can do with my kids along, added bonus!
Hi Margot, thank you for the reply! I know, avocado and cream cheese should be good, maybe I just ate too much of it? I should have plenty of body fat for fasting but I was having great luck at first so I may have done too much too fast. It was just so liberating! I will start by going back to IF like you recommended.
No if you have already done other fasts it isn’t necessary to go back to 0. How long have those fasts been? and how long ago did you do them?
But then I don’t think you over did it. I think it’s all fine it’s just this particular time you broke the fast. No biggie. I think you’re still in ketosis too, and for the hunger you just need to eat proteins.
Today I am fasting too, I do ADF and do 42h every time, but today it seems to be a little more difficult than the other times. It happens. When I did 10 days fast it was the easiest thing in the world, go figure.
When you say you’re reading low what are your ketone numbers or are you testing peetones?
I have a Keto mojo blood meter, it just said Lo. Precious reading was 0.1 so I guess it’s too low to find any ketones?
Yeah I guess too much too fast no biggie, all part of the learning curve and getting adapted. The ADF is something I’d like to try out too. Proteins yum! You guys have me feeling better about things already!
Well I’ve been pretty strict keto for about four months. I’m mostly adapted but I guess I just meant that I’m still adapting to being able to roll with going in and out of ketosis and all the interesting metabolic subsates that I’m discovering along with fasting and stuff. I’m really amazed by all this still.