July 2021 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)


#1

Just realized we were still utilizing the June thread for IF/EF chat, so here’s one for this month.

Happy Fasting Folks. :+1:


JUNE 2021 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)
(Bob M) #2

When people fast say 3.5 days, how do you break the fast? Often, I just eat a normal meal, but this tends to make me visit the bathroom a lot.

Do you “ease” into eating with small meals/liquids like bone broth/stock?


#3

For me personally, I’ve actually never tried bone broth/stock before, so can’t speak on it. Generally just try to eat something smallish, couple bites of meat or similar. Then just eat a normal meal maybe 30-60 minutes later & this generally works well for me. (I’ve even eaten some Pumpkin seeds an hour before any meal, and that worked well too. … But I don’t usually even use this for anything under 48 hrs.

For some reason, any bathroom issues I might incur with breaking a Fast, are usually with those over that 48 hr. timeframe. (Not sure why?) But lately, even those longer ones haven’t been an issue? Maybe Fasting for a longer period of time now has now reduced this, I can’t say? But I can/will on the very rare occasion still have ‘slight’ issues even with a small Fast, 30 or even 36 hrs? So it is confusing to me at times. But if it does happen it’s usually not that bad for me, so I do consider myself lucky in that regard.

But since I started Fasting nearly 3 years ago, there are some particular foods I learned to not break with and those are; Eggs, Nuts (Any types), or anything real fatty or saucy. In the past these have had triggering effects of having bathroom issues, so I avoided them afterwards since it seemed each time I tried any of them, it would cause an effect to some degree. … But even now, I have successfully used Eggs to break with no issues. So that’s a good thing since I do eat Eggs quite often. - But I’m not that keen to do some self experimenting to see what else of those I might be able to use now. :smile:


(Bob M) #4

Thank you. I’ll try to start small, then. My wife is really pushing for the next 15 hours or so (until tomorrow morning). So, we’ll make it.

I may have an unusual system. If I fast, I do not go to the bathroom at all, at least for 3-4 days. Then, once I eat something, I have to go to the bathroom many times, and it’s all water. I’ll see what happens this time.


(KCKO, KCFO) #5

I follow Megan Ramos’ idea of a small salad, greens and healthy fat, and then have a normal for you meal. You eat the salad and about 30 mins. later your regular meal. It is easy and comfortable. If I don’t do a salad I will use a few macadamia nuts. Idea is to wake up the digestive system more gradually.

I have never had issues with nuts or eggs after fasting but many people report they do. I think the salad would work for just about anyone.


(M M) #6

I’m new, just 1 month in and at end of 74 hour fast, just had my 1st sip of bone broth which during the first cooking, freaked me out badly with smell…

Second sip… it’s ok :slight_smile:

I had the ‘second boil’ going as I fasted and I think hunger made the smell appealing.

I have a tray of raw oysters for in a few hours time, will try to eat just some, not all.


(UsedToBeT2D) #7

What kind of broth are you drinking? I make my own from chicken or beef bones…it smells delicious.


(M M) #8

I made some from cow bones, what it was for me I think - was being the first time to ever smell it, it is pretty intense. I was expecting to to smell like a nice soup, lol.

Tho I really enjoyed the small cupful last night at end of my fast.


(UsedToBeT2D) #9

I use chicken bones, roast the bones and all leftover skin and cartilage in oven for 45 minutes, then put them in slow cooker, add a lot of water, carrots, celery, and Italian seasoning, cook for 10 hours, strain all the solids, jar it, refrigerate. When I need a boost, I heat some, add salt…best broth ever!


(Bob M) #10

Check in: Ate Friday early (9am). Had two chicken wings. I think they’re called “heroin wings”. Waited as long as I could. Had “normal” meal of meat (+ some veggies). 10 am. The salad idea is a good one, though I’ve just restarted eating those. I was convinced they gave me irritable bowel syndrome for a while. I’m still testing them.

Not too bad. Better than in the past.

This week, I’m trying for one 36 hour fast.


#11

Just told the Wife, it might be a good time to throw in a Fast… I had to leave work early today, when our oil supplier was able to get someone to come right out to check my boiler. - I was making dinner, since the Wife spent quite a while at Urgent Care for most of the morning, having some major issues with her right foot. And it turned out to be what she expected, another Bone Spur, which is quite painful to walk.

So I noticed the water wasn’t getting hot, so went down and hit the reset button. But nothing? So did it again, and this time listened and it wasn’t sounding right. So called and had them deliver some Oil, but knew we shouldn’t be out. Sure enough, it wasn’t, but they topped it off. I wanted to eliminate that first but knew deep down it was something else. Mainly, because the boiler was turning on, but not actually igniting, which has a distinct sound or roar to it. … So the guy ‘Jeff’ turned it on and it did the same. So he pulled the igniter out (not the actual term for the piece) but it was gunked up, so he cleaned it real good and put it back in, and it lit. But unfortunately, the unit was running way too hot, and he couldn’t get the excess fuel to burn off and couldn’t understand why. Smoked up the basement something bad, but in the end, he believes the tip that delivers the fuel is also leaking or spitting out around the edges appearing to feed the flames constantly. So he is ordering two parts to hopefully repair this issue and hopes there aren’t any other issues beside these. … So he said he doesn’t know how long it will take, but hopefully a couple days to get the parts ordered and delivered. Once so, they will call & I will have to take off to allow them to work on it. (Wife is dealing with way too much, not to mention, has the two beast to look after, so I would rather her stay upstairs while the work is being done, with me present.

So yep, I think a nice Fast could be helpful indeed. Not only to minimize cooking itself, but just getting away from food (especially hot foods) and not help our present heat we are dealing with! - And yeah, Ice Cold showers are not all that bad, but I’m honestly not in the mood for a few days of it. And would rather dial down the temp myself and not because I don’t have a choice. :smile: Just about two hours in now.


(Central Florida Bob ) #12

Took a while to find this - I only found the link in the June IF/EF chat.

Today I was finishing my first 72 hour fast, which would have been 5PM. Instead, I ended up breaking it just before hour 67, about 11:45AM, because since yesterday I’ve been having almost continuous bowel emptying. I don’t want to use the “D-word” because it’s not particularly painful or explosive, just continuous and never ending. Eventually, it turns to pure water or electrolyte water. In addition, I had tremendous amounts of rumbling stomach sounds all of last evening and then around the same time as the overactive bowels this morning.

I’ve done alternate day fasts for two six month intervals many months apart. I had a similar problem long ago, and to shorten the story, I found that it might be from the fact I don’t have a gall bladder anymore and have some problems with the bile moving through my gut. I started using fiber (psyllium husks not chia seeds), and that helped me tremendously in the past.

This year, I started doing ADFs again in May. I’d fast Sunday and break at lunch on Monday, Tuesday - break Wednesday, and Thursday break Friday. I go to that detail to point out that when I had the problem it was almost always Wednesday, over 36 hours into the second ADF. I couldn’t figure out how to stop the overactive bowels, except for not doing the ADFs, and I could never figure out the timing.

My inclination is to do another 72 hour fast next week and probably the same days, but I really don’t want to deal with the intestinal thing again. I’m hear to ask for recommended tricks to prevent that.

I’ve experimented with electrolytes, and it doesn’t really help that. It does help leg cramps which I get regularly. I’ve done the psyllium husks twice a day with 1/4 tsp Real Salt, 1/4 tsp potassium chloride, and a Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc supplement.

Any ideas are appreciated.


#13

I feel quite lucky now. I simply never have any bathroom issues ever, no matter what. And I tried things :slight_smile:

And reading about your longer fasts I wish I could do one myself, again :slight_smile: But since carnivore (it doesn’t matter I do it on/off) I just can’t seem to skip a day. It was so natural on high-carb though, rarely but it regularly happened. And I could do it on my normal keto too. But I should be glad I can have OMAD days on carnivore now, many tiny meals were annoying.

My IF isn’t in danger nowadays, I don’t get hungry early and I can eat well enough to avoid night eating. The vast majority of my energy intake happen in a few hours, typically late afternoon.
As my hunger and appetite is usually non-existent nowadays, maybe I would just need a tiny something to do a slightly longer fast, I don’t know… Fasting helps with carnivore too. If I eat nothing until 5pm, I don’t eat plant carbs until 5pm :smiley: Not eating when well-fasted is usually pretty easy for me, of course only until I get annoyingly hungry or feel a real need for food (slight weakness, dizziness). I think i got better at not eating without need again. I practice skipping lunch when I totally don’t need it (it may be easy for others but it’s normal for me to eat when my SO eats and I just finished cooking and it’s 3pm anyway, my old first mealtime, I usually can eat then and sometimes I am even hungry a tiny bit). It’s not the first time, I just improve my already existing skills at it. It helps that my mind isn’t on food so very much as in the past. Especially now that we got hot weather again (normally we have 2 super hot weeks per summer, this summer seems to be full of them) so I feel not well, definitely have no appetite and I drink insane amounts of cold water as it feels good. I simply can’t overhydrate myself as my body doesn’t let me but I drink as much as possible for me. And eat super low salt, carnivore plummeted the already modest amount (I will need to figure out how much exactly but it is surely little, I barely use any salt on my staples at this point)… It works this far but the more frequent output isn’t that convenient. But I am at home so it’s fine.
Of course I still eat a bit too much, it’s me, I don’t need appetite or feeling okay for that. But making my eating window tiny and convenient and comfortable, that will help eventually.

I really can’t say much about breaking longer fasts but I had a handful of experiences. I think we should do what our body wants as long as it’s reliable. I do that. Broth is useless to me unless I need to eat but can’t (negative appetite, feeling disconnected from the physical word, at least eating wise… the longer I fast, the more abstract the idea of eating becomes and hunger doesn’t change it much) as broth triggers a bigger meal in my case. I don’t wait ever, I either have a tiny meal and eat normal the next day - or simply eat a normal meal immediately, very fatty and protein rich as my body always need that. But if not, it will tell me. But I expect smaller meals after longer fasts, it seems to be the pattern.

I really wish to try a longer fast again, I just don’t know how. My body has so much reserves, it should be okay but it’s very used to getting its food each and every day. Not eating backfired often enough that even my mind wants to keep me from skipping a day, to be safe.
So it’s hard, even my mind is against me and my mind is me, basically. I need to find some convenient switch in my mind and turn it.


#14

Wish I could help ya, Bob. But I’m not quite sure what you could try? Could it simply be what you’re breaking the Fast with that causing these issues? - I know for me, there were certain foods I would stray away from, since they had caused me some slight issues. But even when so, it wasn’t too bad. Maybe 2 or 3 trips to the bathroom, then done. But that was in the first couple years of Fasting, and now some of those same items no longer seem to bother me like it did? … But there is the rare time breaking will cause a movement, but I think this may be when I just break without easing into one as normally would, and just eating normally. Anytime I Fast longer than 48 hrs. I find it helps to try and ease into a break by eating something small 30-60 minutes before having a meal and this seems to help with getting the stomach geared back up for digesting food. (At least in my experience)

Lastly I also find that when I do have the rare occasion of this happening now, if I drink a lot of liquids during the breaking process, this seems to add to the release, which also creates what you mention about it turning into pure water. I have found drinking moderately seems to keep things from going in that direction, but it could be coincidental? But it’s really all I can think of to hopefully help? :+1:


#15

Just an FYI, I also ended up eating something later last night, so broke shortly after just an OMAD. Wasn’t actually hungry, but had a meeting and was just tired as hell. (Hadn’t gotten too much good restful sleep in the past week or so, and between that and the heat, I think it just hit me) So the Wife made me a sandwich and I ate some Pumpkin seeds and it at least helped wake me up some. Then she decided to make some Bacon and Eggs, so I ended up having some with her.

So I just started back up after the meal last night, so I’m just 12.5 hrs. in presently.


(Central Florida Bob ) #16

I appreciate trying to help, but I guess I wasn’t clear that my problem wasn’t from breaking the fast. The problem started more than 24 hours before I broke the fast.

I started fasting Saturday night, and the intestinal stuff started up on Monday morning so about 40 hours in to the fast. I eventually took a bunch of Immodium, which stopped it. It re-started Tuesday morning, and I broke the fast to try to stop the runs to the bathroom. I also took three Immodium Tuesday after it started because we were going to see a movie and I didn’t want to miss it.

I felt relatively normal the rest of the day.


#17

Oh, ok. No sorry, I misunderstood. … Um, yeah, having those issues during the Fast is something new to me. At least as far as I can recall? Actually it might be the first time I’ve heard anyone mention having an issue like this. Only thing I can think of is maybe watching what is being eaten before the Fast starts, or if there are other issues at play here, that are being activated with the Fast itself?


(Bob M) #18

Interesting. Were you taking anything during the fast? If not, maybe this was a die-off of sorts (bacteria)?

I have the opposite problem: I do not go at all while fasting. But once I stop, I go – a lot. I have found that easing into eating helps. Was better last time.


(Central Florida Bob ) #19

Taking anything? I’m on three prescriptions that I take, none are anti-microbial of any sort.

I didn’t give up my morning coffee with a tsp of HWC and erythritol, and during the day, I’d drink some water, some herbal tea, a diet soda a day, and some water with Real Salt, Potassium salt (KCl) and a Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc supplement. I’d swag about 100 calories/day.


#20

Yeah, for me I like to stick with water only when I Fast. But from reading what you mentioned above, the one thing that stands out to me is the Erythritol. I wonder if keeping that in play without any other food is causing this issue? I do know that Erythritol can at times cause some stomach and digestive problems, as well as diarrhea. But maybe it does so even more, when it doesn’t have additional foods with it?

Just a thought…

Erythritol