July 2021 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)

(Bob M) #21

Magnesium may also be a problem, depending.

For fasting, I do salt, no salt (potassium), black coffee, “black” tea, no sweeteners or anything. I don’t think 100 calories is a big deal, but maybe something is causing an issue?

#22

Yeah, Magnesium can do this as well, for sure. But I myself have used Magnesium Citrate, along with Morton’s Lite Salt for Sodium and Potassium when I Fast 3 or more days. (Basically to help reduce the leg cramping I get at times, but not all the time) But I’ve never had it cause me any issue such as what Bob mentioned, nor do I recall anyone else mentioning it. That’s why I had mentioned the Erythritol. It’s the one element I think most folks don’t use during Fasting, so was wondering without the additional food along with it, could it be ‘more’ effective because of it? Similarly to drinking on an empty stomach.

(Central Florida Bob ) #23

Well, it has never caused me any issues at any other time, and it doesn’t fit all the situations, but it’s an easy experiment.

One of my puzzles about whatever it is that’s going on is that in May when I was doing ADFs, I had the same issue but one day out of my three fasts. Wednesday only, so the last hours of a 40 hour fast. With the three day fast that started the questions, it started on the second day. I stopped it with Immodium, then it restarted again on the Third day.

Re: the magnesium - another thing I’ve done a hundred times but tried tweaking to see if it matters. My regular magnesium is Doctor’s Best magnesium glycinate. The ones I take are 100 mg, and glycinate is supposed to be absorbed several times better than the more common Mg oxide. My wife had some Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc pills (plus D3! plus the kitchen sink!) with about the same amount of Mg Oxide. But calcium is supposed to be “binding” so I tried that. No difference.

(Bob M) #24

It is difficult. I’ve had plenty of time when I cannot figure out what’s going on.

I have tried so many magnesium pills…at different times. I use magnesium oil, too, because this does not cause any bathroom type stuff. But you have no idea what you’re getting in terms of amount.

(Central Florida Bob ) #25

Oh, yeah. The big problem with N=1 experimenting in this sort of situation is either too much conflicting information or no information or good studies you can rely on.

#26

Presently at 36 hrs. … Not sure if I will be eating today or just continuing on yet?

Fast%20Info

#27

Nice. I think I go for a fast on Monday. Well I start after my Sunday dinner. Monday is the perfect time for a fast. I don’t force anything but I will eat well on Sunday so my chances shouldn’t be too bad. And if I am good, I will stuck to not eating without a real need all week.

I do some elongated almost-OMAD now - if I don’t mess it up with a night meal due to not being able to eat enough in this heat with low supplies (meat wise). But I basically do it well, I just want a slightly longer fast already. It shouldn’t be hard…

#28

Actually decided to break a little after 42.5 hrs., before heading back home for the day. We still don’t have any hot water, with the Boiler needing a couple new parts, & I don’t want to run it with a possible leak. The company said they are still trying to have them delivered. So the Wife is already planning to make some cold sandwiches for her and my Son, so I figured to just eat something here and be done for the day. Not sure if I will just decide to skip tomorrow, but as I have stated, I really don’t like Fasting on weekends. But with issues with the boiler, it might be my first time? Won’t want to be cooking much of anything until we have it working again. … We’ll see how it goes.

(Susan) #29

I have been keeping to my TMAD 20IF routine and throwing in some Fasting Days of up to 72 hours during the time off --I am back now and I am on a 72 or more hour Fast once again (that I began yesterday at 5pm -Thursday evening). I intend to go until Sunday at 5pm or longer, depending how it goes =). I wish you all the best.

(KCKO, KCFO) #30

Welcome back and happy fasting Susan.

(Susan) #31

Thank you, all is going well so far. I hope that everyone else is doing well too!

(Susan) #32

I stopped at 68 hours and had a Keto coffeebecause I was feeling tired and I need to go grocery shoppingso I don’t want any brain fog when doing that, and dealing with financial matters, so I broke it.

I still intend to wait to actually consume fooduntil 5pm though. I hope that everyone is doing well =).

(Central Florida Bob ) #33

Dave, I have to give you a bunch of thanks because that seemed to fix it. I started on Saturday around 5:15PM and ended my fast at 71 hours, 4:15 because I’ve always heard we should get back to eating slowly. There might have been some smaller differences since I never had a rigid schedule for when I drank some saltwater, or whatever. The main thing is I didn’t have any erythritol since Saturday afternoon. Not a minute of my digestive system issues. Took an hour bike ride Monday morning, my usual path at faster than usual speeds.

I was skeptical of the whole idea so it’s not placebo effect that I expected it would work. I’ve had erythritol daily for a few years now and never found (or noticed) that if I was having it on a totally empty stomach that it would cause problems.

So I had two pieces of hog jowl bacon and then dinner an hour later. No bad feelings at all. I will probably do a 36 hour fast starting tomorrow night until lunch on Friday. My main question is whether I do more three day fasts or my alternate day fasts.

#34

Cool. Glad it appeared to have helped! :+1: I honestly don’t recall ever using any myself on an empty stomach, but since one of the things it’s known to do is cause digestion issues, it just seemed like the most likely culprit. It did bother me slightly here and there when I first tried it in a couple things, but can’t say it did it often? Maybe it was just new to me, or that I wasn’t using much of it to begin with?

But I used it some in the last part of my first year Keto, and into the second year some, but not for very long to be truthful. Honestly, it wasn’t any stomach issues that caused me to stop using it, but it was the way it worked in recipes. Seemed to always have that crystallization to it, especially in baked goods. So I switched to some other things, which have worked pretty good so far. - Right now, mostly using Truvia, since it’s easily accessed at our grocery store we shop, and maybe I’ve just gotten used to it? But when I first tried it, I wasn’t sure I liked it. But I mostly use it in Iced Tea these days, when I do want to have a sweetened Tea, but also drink Tea plain too. But we do use it in a few recipes now too and it works.

I was thinking about Fasting myself. But just told the Wife I still have some lunch meats in my fridge in my office that I picked up, and might just do lunch tomorrow and then start. (With the current temps we have been having, I don’t like carrying it all the way home being it’s an hour drive minimum, and I don’t have a good way to keep it cooled. So if anything, I might start mine tomorrow sometime.)

(Central Florida Bob ) #35

I’m not sure when I started using erythritol, but it has got to be a couple of years. Maybe three?

To me, I prefer crystalline erythritol in hot drinks, and use the Swerve confectioners sugar formulation for cooking. Mostly for making ice cream. I’ve used the Swerve brown sugar, which is also granular, for barbecue rubs. The exception is that I don’t like the ordinary Swerve brand granulated for coffee or tea. I prefer the bulk erythritol that I buy in four pound bags. Besides, it’s cheaper than Swerve brand.

#36

Presently just passed 43 hrs. … Taking off a couple hours early today to meet the Wife at the grocery store to do some shopping. So still not sure if I will break tonight, or just wait till tomorrow?

(Central Florida Bob ) #37

I combined my 72 hour fast with another 40 hour fast from about 8PM Wednesday until noon today. I’ve always thought that doing the ADFs added up to about 120 hours of fasting time, as opposed to just fasting the three days straight at 71-72 hours, and thought more hours = better. Putting together the three day fast with the one day, gets the number of hours closer to each other.

It’s early to tell, but I see evidence that the 3 day fast had some metabolic benefits beyond what I typically got from the ADFs. My fasting blood sugar typically runs in the 100 to 110 range, which always annoyed me despite all the talk of physiologic glucose sparing. Last week on the third morning it was 96, this week it was 92 and today it was 90.

I think I’m going to do another week like this one next week and see. Maybe another few weeks.

Yesterday while grocery shopping, I noticed some “Splenda Allulose” I’ve had some allulose in sugar free products I’ve bought and a solution they sold at the same store without ever noticing any problems. I’ll experiment with that over the next few days and make sure it doesn’t cause any issues.

Allulose is still pretty expensive; that Splenda jar was more than twice the price of erythritol (per pound). Maybe for occasional use it’s OK. On a typical day, I’ll have something like 5 teaspoons of erythritol, so that allulose will last for a while.

#38

Sounds like things are doing well then, I hope they continue. I was always under the impression, the longer the Fast, the stronger it gets. But there may be a limit to this, where it levels, and I know I’ve heard some mention 72 hrs. but don’t recall ever seeing this in print myself. Only that the Fast gets stronger the longer you go. But with my own imposed 5 days, I think those work pretty good in itself. … I just broke at 54 hrs. myself, but as I said, I really don’t like Fasting on weekends. But may start another after Sunday night’s dinner and see how the week goes.

(Central Florida Bob ) #39

Naturally, having a successful and interesting 72 hour fast made me think of just not eating for the week. I also had some concern over having read many people saying the third day was the hardest. Didn’t seem any harder than any other day.

My wife and I have a tradition that goes back to before I retired 5-1/2 years ago of sitting in front of the TV and watching something we’ve recorded during the week virtually always over home made chicken wings. Well, the shows we were recording haven’t been on in years, we cut the cable, dropped the DVR and went to streaming, but the tradition of having wings and watching something remains. Then our Saturday includes a once a week treat of a nice steak and off to church.

Long way of saying if I were to do a 5 day fast (when I do my 5 day fast? :thinking:) I’ll end up eating Friday and Saturday.

I have concern about fasting too much. Like most people, I’ve done many kinds of diets and burned myself out on them. I’m concerned that I’ll learn what the fasts mean and my body will figure out a way to shut down my metabolism and not burn fat. I don’t want to end up having to fast all the time to do maintenance. I was doing one fasting day a week for about a year before I decided to try to lose those “last 10 pounds” for good, mainly because of being in a pants size that just doesn’t quite fit comfortably.

#40

This :point_up: … It’s why I stopped Fasting for a while. Just under a year I think? But would have to check records to see just how long. But found myself wanting to Fast quite often. So I do like to mix it up, and plus, I like creating new recipes and stuff. But weekends are just better for this, since I have more time to do prep, etc. I’m gone 11 hrs a day minimum, so it doesn’t leave much time for when I get home. Plus, I don’t like to eat past 6pm myself. No rhyme or reason really, just don’t like going to bed after eating, so like to finish eating at least 4 or 5 hours before then, which is 6pm to put me at 4 hrs. Plus, 5am comes quite early, so try to be in bed by 10pm. But that’s rarely the case, usually between 10:30 and 11pm. But I do average around 6, and sometimes less hours of sleep each night.

But yeah, I just set the 5 day limit for myself back before I really started Fasting. Just didn’t see that I would need to go further, but can say a lot of the 5 days I did, I could have easily. So I can see how some do much longer when they want. But I’ve never had any issues when I’ve done them, and when I start on a Sunday night, that makes Friday night the break point, which works out well.