JAN 2026 IF/EX Fasting

(Jane) #21

I took them around midday both times.

(Bob M) #22

@Janie That’s a good idea. Not morning or evening, should give a good “medium” value.

Here are my values over the 4.5 days The red blood sugar is only because meter’s light turns red under 70.

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My “normal” blood sugar is 105-110 in the morning, and my ketones are about 0.3-0.4. These reverse at night, and blood sugar usually is in the 80s and ketones are maybe 0.7.

I’m taking Jardiance, which supposedly decreases blood sugar and increases ketones. I haven’t necessarily seen that, but since I mainly only take these in the morning, it’s hard to tell. I’d need a CGM and CKM.

When I did 4.5 day fasts a few years ago, though, it was different. This is what I made previously:

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So, I believe Jardiance is affecting these levels, though it could be something else (I’m older?).

One thing that has happened to me is that for these last two 4.5 day fasts, I don’t get the “I feel great!” that i used to get around days 3-4. I felt better on day 4, but I used to get a feeling that I was flying. My wife talked to a colleague who was also on a 5-5.5 day fast (he may break tonight or tomorrow). He said he does this because he feels great after a while. I get that less now.

Anyway, I’ll be back in probably 2 months.

Edit: One thing I noticed is that I got more “weepy” during this fast. That is, things affect me much stronger than normal. Is that an effect of higher ketones?

This also happens sometimes with alcohol. Sometimes when I have a drink, I’ll get hit really hard. Other times, I can’t tell I’ve had a drink, and its the same drink. I theorize this is based on higher ketones (the former) and lower ketones (the latter), but I’ve never taken my ketones during these times.

(Bob M) #23

Another note: I might have some ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity “disorder”), and this ramps it up. My mind is all over the place. Finding it hard to concentrate on one thing.

I say “disorder” because there can be and are benefits to ADHD, depending on what you’re doing. Some people don’t like going from one thing to another. Say someone comes into my office and starts discussing something completely unrelated to what I’m currently doing. Some people can’t transition like that. I have zero problem with that and would welcome it.

(Central Florida Bob ) #24

I’m still on my ADF (Alternate Day Fast) from Thursday, but weighed in and having my “breakfast” mug of coffee. I’m using a Renpho body composition scale that works across your feet - that is, no bar that you hold to get better measurements of your “above the waist” composition. I may start looking for one of those.

So here’s my spreadsheet so far. (and this looks WAY better on the right panel than the one I’m typing in!)

Date Weight lb.s BMI Body Fat % Lean Body Mass lb.s Subcute Fat % Visceral Fat % Body Water % Skeletal Muscle % Muscle Mass lb.s Bone Mass lb.s Protein %
01/03/26 222.4 30.1 30.2 155.2 26.3 13.0 50.4 45.1 147.4 7.8 15.9
01/05/26 218.4 29.6 29.4 154.2 25.7 12.0 51.0 45.6 146.4 7.8 16.1
01/07/26 216.0 29.3 29.0 153.4 25.3 12.0 51.3 45.9 145.8 7.6 16.2
01/09/26 216.2 29.3 29.0 153.6 25.3 12.0 51.3 45.9 146.0 7.6 16.1

My weight had been higher than desired but stable for at least the first half of the year, at pretty much 212 plus or minus 2, where it has been for 2 or 3 years. After that, the series of medical “adventures” and the resulting changes to life got me to that starting point in the first row. I wouldn’t expect to get back to that 212 area within days, and I was rather shocked to see 6 pounds lower on the scale on the second day.

I was a bit surprised at my adaptation to not eating on three days. On Sunday - the first day - at around evening dinnertime, my stomach made a lot of noise, but that was pretty much gone on the second day. I have a cup of hot tea in place of dinner.

I was unusually cold yesterday, and it wasn’t the weather. Part of that was probably sitting in the dentist’s office for three hours while my wife was getting worked on, in a cold room and no body movement. I’ll keep an eye on that, too, but don’t really know what to do. Hop on an exercise bike?

(Jane) #25

Breaking today at lunch for a 72-hr fast. Technically, I broke it this morning with a splash of cream in my coffee but not worried about that.

Glucose: 86
Ketones: 3.6
GKI: 1.3

(Bob M) #26

@CFLBob That is some cool data. For the coldness, that’s a tough one. If it’s a normal coldness, I usually dress warmer, though a walk or a bike would help. I spent multiple days in a basement that’s about 60F, but I wear long underwear, clothes, AND a thick vest. At night, I’ve been wearing long (thinner) underwear on top, a Tshirt, long pants, and socks, and even kept the socks on to sleep in for a few nights.

When I was fasting a ton, I think I didn’t “feast” enough, and I got to the point where even short fasts had me freezing. I think that’s your body telling you that it’s lowering your metabolic rate. I doubt that’s happening to you.

Weight is weird. I went under 200 pounds for the first time in a long time, then suddenly gained over 10 pounds. Granted, my daughter tried to kill herself and went into multiple mental institutions and hospitals, but from my perspective, I wasn’t eating much different to lose the weight as to gain the weight. Stress? I also started Jardiance, and the data I see from studies indicate people tend to lose weight on that drug, which makes you pee out some carbs. But those are high carb folks, and I’m wondering if for low carb/keto folks, it causes weight gain? If your body is producing a certain amount of carbs that it thinks you need, and you suddenly don’t have access to that, could you eat more to make up for that loss? No idea, though that makes plausible sense to me.

Hope you have a good rest of your fast, and you can get to whatever weight you want to be.

@Janie I did the same this morning, had my 1 cup coffee 1 cup tea with cream. Not sure whether that actually breaks a fast or not, but it tastes better.

#27

Accidental OMAD today. I try to keep at it and entertain my old idea for Mondays again. I eat well on Sunday and try not to on Monday… But if I must, fat fast and if that just out of question or doesn’t work, strict carnivore. And I try to skip lunch. I don’t focus and lunch just comes back, it happened in the last weeks. It’s not necessarily a problem as I have smaller meals now. I think. I start tracking as I have a very very vague idea without that.
Less coffee, cleaner fasts nowadays. Not like I care about a tiny extra here and there if that helps me not eating a full blown meal soon.

I have to write about our snow somewhere. Hungary already had the biggest snow since 2012(?) and we got a little more. We can’t use any of our vehicles now, good thing we have legs and my SO is good enough to walk 5km in deep snow starting at 5am… But it’s not nice, it’s slower and more tiresome. I just neglected my walks but I realized I can follow his footsteps (literally) and lots of places got cleaning in the last days anyway, even in the wildlife park forest. Not all. Our “street” (maybe we will get a street name at one point, the villages does that now but we are farther) still has virgin snow (my SO uses the lower one and the end of the garden. it’s not like we have fence at either end). So no people have walked here since a week. Wow. It’s quite beautiful by the way and we have frost all the time but we still would need shopping at some point… Actually we already kinda do, the village supermarket and greengrocer is okay for a few vital items but it’s highly lacking. Fasting is actually helpful there :wink: I am quite fine with certain restrictions for a while, I even may find that fun. And I easily give up my not important items if my SO needs them and it just makes things easier for me, I eat simpler and better. Thankfully, many of my very basic carni items can be bought locally (well, 5km from here, that’s pretty local). But I actually want to push fasting so I try to avoid buying more than what is absolutely necessary. So I try to avoid eating more than what is comfortably necessary. I need that after my December. It wasn’t super wild but well, I had my food and food making fun, that’s sure. I don’t need food on my mind now. It works well at the moment.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #28

Sorry you had to lose our Dad. He had a good run and it sounds like a peaceful passing.

I had put on 9 lbs. over the fall, but have used more fasting in Nov/Dec. and am starting out the New Year back at my goal weight range. Glad you are dropping your extra lbs. as well. Keep rockin’ it.

(B Creighton) #29


Time for my mid month report. Yesterday my BF dropped to 22.7 from 23.9 at the beginning of the month. My subQ dropped to 19.8% from 20.7. My lean mass increased to 128 from 127.3 and my overall weight increased to 175.9 from 174.8. I am so stoked that I appear to have found a protocol on which to gain muscle mass while losing fat! - even while gaining overall body weight! Again, this is a first for me, and wow, I am just so happy with my results this year! My visceral fat index also dropped a point, and with the loss of fat, my “metabolic age” fell again to 53 - just shy of a decade younger than my chronological age.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #30

Way to go.

(Central Florida Bob ) #31

Here we are at Mid-January, which has become Mid-Month of Alternate Day Fasting. The improvements dropped off dramatically, but are still in the right direction. It was unusually warm for the start of the week and it’s unusually cool now. On top of (or because of) that, I’m unusually cold.

Here’s my spreadsheet, edited to remove the first three ADF entries from last time. I left the very first line as my starting point

Date Weight lb.s BMI Body Fat % Lean Body Mass lb.s Subcute Fat % Visceral Fat % Body Water % Skeletal Muscle % Muscle Mass lb.s
01/03/26 222.4 30.1 30.2 155.2 26.3 13.0 50.4 45.1 147.4
01/12/26 215.2 29.1 28.7 153.4 25.1 12.0 51.5 46.1 145.8
01/14/26 214.6 29.1 28.7 153.0 25.1 12.0 51.5 46.1 145.2
01/16/26 213.8 28.9 28.4 153.0 24.8 12.0 51.7 46.2 145.2

I’d like that weight column to have dropped more - it was 6 lbs in the first few days and dropped quite a bit this week - only 1.4 lbs lost this week. Of course, that’s only one number. Body fat% went down, Subcutaneous fat % went down and skeletal muscle % went up.

I had planned to keep going until the end of the month because it’s a convenient number. Something I never really understood from Jason Fung was the “feast/fast” and how to really apply that. On fasting days, I don’t go zero input, but it’s about a tablespoon of heavy whipping cream spread over the course of the day. I’ve probably cut my input on eating days, primarily just by trying to get down closer to zero carbs, which had drifted into the above 30grams/day range.

(Bob M) #32

I’d love to see him discuss the feasting part more. When I do a 4.5 day fast, oddly, I’m not that hungry. It probably takes me days to make the calories up, if I do.

When I was using 36 hour fasts twice a week, it was tough to “feast”. I never knew what to do.

(Central Florida Bob ) #33

I thought it was just me.

My alternate day fasts run around that from last meal to first meal - say 7PM Monday to noon today. I usually think 36 hours but that would be 7AM on eating day, and it’s usually first food is more like 10 to 11AM before I have anything beyond a cup of coffee.

I’m lucky in that I don’t really get hungry. Do I look at cooked bacon and say, “mmmm… bacon”? Oh, yeah. But it’s longing for the pleasure of the bacon … the experience. I should stop talking on a fasting group.

#34

I simply eat as much as I desire. Feasts aren’t for me, they are way too calorie rich, even with EF. At least that’s my definition of a feast. Not a measly 2000 kcal meal, that was always normal to me (not as a tiny kid, sure but I don’t remember that time) - even if I hardly have such a one nowadays, thankfully and it was kinda rare but VERY easy in the past. And like Bob, I just can’t eat a bigger meal after some days without eating. I often have it on OMAD too. It makes sense to me. So I just follow my desires/instincts (it’s not like it’s possible for me to undereat… and I have all these fat reserves). Just like on 2MAD days (my most common days since years). Sometimes I need a big meal. Sometimes a small fills me up. I apparently have phases.

Even if I eat more carbs, my appetite acts like on lower-carb and I can’t eat bigger meals without planning (it was different in the past but I have changed). I think. It’s not like I track nowadays but I have some memories from the past and I ate way more and was hungrier.

By the way, my lunch skipping is total fail right now. And I am sick (nothing serious but super long. I used to catch some cold, got bored on day 3 and healed. maybe my immune system is compromised, I wouldn’t be surprised. it still heals me but apparently not quickly. or it’s just this specific bug, who knows?), not like it’s an excuse though there is a connection, or was in the beginning when I constantly desired warm drinks for my throat and too much liquid always make me want to eat something dry. And I am in a mental/physical state where I can’t fight my whims and desires.
I keep trying though. I am not super much into food now, I just welcome it at 3pm… But I don’t remember being really hungry at my first meal and that’s a problem. I should skip lunch somehow. I think the thought doesn’t even cross my mind… I understand today, I had freshly made great food but it won’t be the case tomorrow! I will try.

(Bob M) #35

Maybe I should’ve characterized my fasts as 38-40 hours? Say quit eating at 8pm on Sunday (yes, I always eat late), then 8pm Monday is 24 hours. 8am Tuesday is 36 hours. I would work out at about 6am, so that’s at about 34 hours. I had calculated that as 32 hours. Not sure why?

I don’t think I ate at 8am; I thought it was more like 10am. But this was a long time ago.

Like @Shinita, I have a hard time eating something large for a while after fasting. So, the “feasting” part becomes tough.

I think what happened to me is that I put way too many fasts too close together, without any space for the “feasting” part. There’s a guy who was advocating 3 day fasts every week to reduce fat around the organs (forget what this is called), but he also advocated feasting between. He never discussed how to do that, though.

I might do another 4.5 day fast next month. I might do these once a month for a while. I’m not sure.

(Jane) #36

48 hours into another 72-hr fast. I am fasting every other week so as not to stress my body too much and it seems happy with that. My last fast I dropped 4 lbs, gained back 2 and kept the 2 lbs lost from the fast off, so… progress.

I am not very for from my goal weight so I know it will be slow and I am perfectly fine with that. I am in this for the long haul. I need another 8 lbs and then I will be happy and if it takes a couple of months, then I don’t care as long as I can keep it off.

Was supposed to travel to N. Carolina on Sunday and be there all next week but the trip got postponed due to the winter storm moving in tomorrow. We are expecting 4-8" of snow and temps in the single digits down to 0F.

Glucose: 91
Ketones: 2.0
GKI: 2.5

(Bob M) #37

That storm is supposed to be brutal. I’m hoping you don’t get ice, because that’s what causes terrible travel conditions and power outages. Wishing you well.

We’re supposed to get a foot or more of light, fluffy snow due to how cold it will be (near 0F and below that with wind).

(Central Florida Bob ) #38

Hi, Janie,

May I ask if you could explain how you do your fast, and what that 72 hours looks like? I’m thinking about what to do next and looking at options. When I decided to alternate day fasts, I figured I’d do it for the month of January, making next week the end of this ADF experiment. I went with ADFs simply because I used to do them regularly and it’s familiar. Eating MWF and fasting Sun, T, Th is just because I always did it that way.

Someone somewhere got me in the habit of counting from my last bite of my last meal until the first bite of the next, and it tends to be close to 40 hours, and by that count, I’m at about 25 hours now, and this fast will end tomorrow morning closer to noon than to getting out of bed. If I add another day of fasting, that makes the first meal closer to like 64 hours.

Not to ramble too much, but if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to see what you do.