Have I Misplaced My Fasting Mojo?

(Marie Drake) #1

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I seem to do one 42-hour fast per week lately and then I am just dang hungry and don’t do my other two 42-hour fasts that week as I’ve planned. So my new idea is to just eat keto to satiety every day (2 meals a day in a 6-8 hour window) and eventually I’ll get my fasting mojo back. Any ideas for me or is it just a matter of patience (kind of a theme in my life)? I’ll also ask my Intensive Dietary Managemt coach in 2 weeks when we have our next session.

Other things going well: I’m working out doing HIIT with heavy weights 3-4 times a week and seeing good changes in body composition—I’ve been at that hard for 18 months except for a 3-month break for my last (yay!) cancer surgery. I’m 6’1” tall and have a 38” waist so closing in on a good waist to height ratio after a tough past year with a lot is stress and the death of my dad. Also blood tests are really great except for fasting blood sugar being a little high and c-reactive protein too (internist says both are anomalies and temporary and stress-related). Otherwise this former cancer patient has Rockstar Awesome lab work—A1c is 5.2 for example-it was 4.8 so have to get back there. Also I need to lose some body fat and of course get my fasting mojo back.

Apropos of nothing I’m including a photo of part of the big elk herd wandering around my neighborhood here in the beautiful foothills of the Front Range of Colorado this morning. The elk give me a sense of peace in this chaotic world. (Hope it doesn’t make you fasters hungry-:joy:)

(Windmill Tilter) #2

First off, congrats on the recovery and great blood work!

My guess is that you are over training. I think you can focus on muscle building and VO2 max with HIIT or you can lose fat, but trying to do both at the same time is orders of magnitude more difficult. Trying to do fasting on top of weight loss, and over-training is a nearly superhuman feat. There are a couple things happening at the same time that are inhibiting weight loss & killing your fasting mojo:

  1. You’re approaching your healthy weight. Bodyfat is much lower than it used to be. Fasting becomes more difficult the less bodyfat you have. Your fasting mojo is already impaired by this alone.
  2. HIIT workouts are incredibly taxing to the central nervous system. Generally it’s recommended that it be limited to two sessions per week to avoid over-training. When you over train, you short circuit your satiety signals. Doing keto with non-functional satiety signals is like following a broken compass. Welcome to Stall City population you…
  3. Fasting in an over trained state is very, very difficult. You can grit your teeth and force it, but your body will get the last word in that particular argument. If your body is desperately seeking food to repair damage, it doesn’t want to hear about fasting one bit. If you make it, it has 2 million years of experience with metabolic adaptations to save every last gram of fat. It controls hormones, and you don’t. If it wants to crash your metabolism into the cellar to preserve fat, it will.

Try backing off on the HIIT totally for a week to let your body catch up. Then start with 2 HIIT workouts a week, with a 42 fast hour in between. I bet you find you’re fasting mojo was right where you left it.

That’s my 2 cents. Good luck!

(Marie Drake) #3

Thanks for the input! I think I may be about 30-40 lbs away from a normal weight range though. And I will try the 2x per week HIIT workouts for a bit. I did take a week off 2 weeks ago from HIIT but downhill skied 6 out of 7 days. Thanks again. My next week totally off is 4/4-4/11 in Maui and I plan to lie around, swim/snorkel and take some surfing lessons.

(Erin Macfarland ) #4

Ah a fellow Coloradan! Love it! And don’t ever force yourself to fast. Certainly as you lose body fat it becomes more challenging. At 8% body fat i can fast about 24 max and then it’s pretty dang clear i need to eat! So don’t fret, just do what feels right!

(Justin ) #5

Yeah I agree. Dont think of a number but how your body feels.

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #6

Used to have friends up in the Rockies in Montana, and I learned from them that the group term for elk is a “gang.” It gave me great images of them running around with machine guns in their violin cases, and the like.