July 2021 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)

(Jane) #41

I agree Allulose is expensive. The biggest advantage to Allulose is it behaves closer to sugar than any other zero calorie sweetener I’ve tried. Not important if sweetening coffee but critical if cooking fresh cranberries and expecting it to thicken like it does with sugar.

Erithrytol is the only sweetener (besides Allulose) that doesn’t taste bitter to my husband so he ditched the agave when we started keto and uses erithritol in his morning coffee.

When we fast we don’t use artificial sweeteners in our coffees - probably a good thing after your recent experience!

(Jane) #42

Sorry - edited my post and blurred references to food. I didn’t bother with the sweetener discussion as I don’t think that is much of a trigger when fasting.

Doesn’t bother me anyway - love to surf the keto food porn thread when fasting. Only the smell of food sometimes bothers me - not always - depends on what it is.

#43

Yeah, seeing, smelling or even cooking food doesn’t bother me either whilst Fasting. Whether looking at it on here, or cooking a meal for the Wife and Son. … But can see where the smell of food would be the one that might trigger one faster over the others. Guess because you can’t stop it like you can with the others, simply turning away from images, or staying away from foods in general.

As for sweeteners, I’m still unsure of their effects to be honest? - Whether doing IF or EF, so it’s why I started doing just water only for Fasting. Being unsure on sweeteners in general for spiking insulin, just figured to take it out of the equation. I’ve read so much over the years on that, with some saying one thing, while others say the opposite. … They say anything with a sweetness to it can spike your insulin, even when using a sweetener such as Stevia, that is also said to not spike insulin? There’s even been questions about sweet tasting vaping products, and whether they themselves can do this as well?

But I can agree to a degree about how sweeteners themselves can keep ones sweet tooth around. Or trigger one to think or desire foods more. At least it’s how it appears. … For me, I usually use it mainly for when I want to sweeten some Iced Tea. Though I also do unsweetened tea too. (prefer it sweetened most times tbh, but tend to drink it too often at times too. So I just stop drinking it at all at times to make sure that I don’t.) And since Tea, as well as Coffee, does have some calories, (albeit, a very minuscule amount) it’s why I stopped drinking either during Fasting, trying to maximize the benefits of the Fast.

And not sure why, but I actually pretty much stopped drinking Coffee altogether when I first went Keto? Can’t say why, but it’s also strange since I used to drink more Coffee than anyone I knew. - Pretty much all day, every day, and year around. But with the switchover, I just stopped making it? :confused:

#44

Smells don’t bother me and well, when my SO fries some eggs with sausages - dry, tasty, with lots of paprika -, that smell is impossible to avoid in the house :smiley:
If I am hungry, I immediately stop fasting and if I am not, well okay, sometimes I get tempted but not when I am a determined faster. It took many years but now I really can wait a little… :wink:

But I am still sensitive to my SO coming home to have lunch. I often eat even if I wouldn’t alone. It doesn’t help that I cook before and I almost always can eat around that time… I need complete satiation to be completely safe and that’s tricky at 3pm.

But I go back to my strictest woe again and I will focus on my timing too! I start tomorrow.

Sweeteners… I don’t reallty care about their price as I use so very little. Perk of carnivore(-ish), no sweeteners are allowed :smiley: I relax my ways, being me, when I lack meat so must eat pancakes or just wanna eat them without a good reason… But I rapidly lose interest even then. Especially erythritol feels worse than before now and I never liked the taste (it’s like sugar, it doesn’t have any taste to me. just neutral sweetness). But now it feels off somehow, not bad taste but like oversalting something, some negative burning feeling?
So I use xylitol, often mixed with erythritol. Xylitol is tasty, only coconut sugar and honey is better. And fruits but that’s different…

It seems I can handle sweeteners just fine - but they aren’t normal food and they mess up something mentally, just like carbs. They make me want sweets and it hardly stops without a huge amount. I just want more. And more. And more. It doesn’t sound healthy. I almost always eat substantial, nutritious, very fatty sweets (the kind I prefer anyway), it limits the amount but it’s better to keep such days very rare.
I don’t put sweeteners into my drinks, be it tea, coffee or cocoa. I don’t really care about chocolate anymore but I don’t need sweetener in that either. And I got bored of cakes on my original keto. It’s mostly for my sweet pancakes, whipped cream and the like…

I never have sweeteners when fasting, it’s bad enough I use a tiny cream… I should do something with my coffee addiction. It’s way better nowadays but still too much. It’s the only “bad” addiction carnivore couldn’t stop immediately. Or ever.

So, coming tomorrow, I do it right! It’s the plan, at least. I want a very small eating window as it feels ideal for me and I want proper fast. Maybe tea but no coffee.

(KCKO, KCFO) #45

OT: FYI
The new podcast with Carrie, Carl, and Richard is available now.

They are also guesting on UK Low Carb via Facebook if you still go on that site. Broadcast will start later today.

(Jane) #46

Started a 72-hr fast last night. I haven’t done a 72-hr fast since 2019 so very happy to try one working from home. I always did them when I was in Ft Worth for the week since I wasn’t eating with my husband.

All last year and this one I’ve only done 36-hr fasts because hubby can’t fast longer than that. He is fasting with me today and then will break tomorrow while I will keep going. He is not going to cook anything that has an enticing smell or will go out to eat to support me.

(Susan) #47

Good luck, Janie and how supportive and sweet of your hubby to join in for some and breaking with non enticing foods (smell wise at least). He is such a thoughtful and wonderful hubby, you two are lovely.

(Jane) #48

Coming up on 24 hours soon. A couple of mild hunger waves but nothing I couldn’t ignore. Turned the A/C thermostat up a few degrees as I was getting cold. Typical when fasting. Hubby not cold and I still am so put in an extra layer.

We will be putting the chickens up into their inner coop soon and it is 93F / 34C outside so that will warm me up quickly!

(Jane) #49

I only have 2 glucose strips left for my Keto Mojo (18 of more expensive ketone strips) and discovered my model has been discontinued and Amazon doesn’t carry the strips anymore. I ordered the glucose ones directly from Keto Mojo and their inventory is low.

I only check once per day while fasting so I guess I will wait until tomorrow and check Wed and Thu night. I don’t do anything with the data - just a curiosity.

Keto Mojo was offering a “free” upgraded unit if you buy $75 worth of their new strips. You have to return your old one to them so I didn’t take them up on it since I want to use up the ketone strips I have first. I will end up with way more glucose strips so may do some testing on different foods and sweeteners just to use them up or just eat the cost down the line sometime.

I had to go online a few months ago to figure out how to reset the date and time on my Keto Mojo so it would accept expired ketone strips. :roll_eyes:

(Jane) #50

You might be fasting when you download 17 new keto recipes to your computer to try when you break your fast! :laughing:

Found some nice ones on Diet Doctor. Been in kind of a food rut and looking for some new recipes to try. I enjoy the low carb wrap pizzas so much that I found a recipe for quesadillas using the wraps that I will try soon.

Wed morning (since the software won’t let me post again until someone else does…)

Just passed 37 hours and I have always loved that empty, calm feeling in my digestive tract on day 2 and no hunger.

(Central Florida Bob ) #51

Just an update that I did another 3 day fast this week, ending yesterday, and by skipping the erythritol in my morning coffee I had no problems. It’s interesting (in a way) that the timing is so consistent between having some of that and when the bathroom calls get loud and urgent.

I’ll start another fast after dinner tonight that will go until Friday around lunch time, and I need to think about whether I do the same next week or try going back to ADFs.

(Jane) #52

Good news!

I don’t miss food when I am fasting but I really miss my Stevia drops in my coffee and my husband misses his erythritol. We gave it up during fasting to increase our chances of autophagy as it should not have much effect if we were fasting to lose weight.

I am fasting for both - autophagy and to drop a couple of pounds I put on during the lockdowns.

Congrats on your 3-day fast with no bathroom issues - well done!

(Jane) #53

I love to play games with my mind while I am fasting… hehe.

When I start a 3-day fast my brain says… 3 DAYS until I get to eat again??? That is soooooo long.

When I wake up on day 2 my brain says… You get to eat tomorrow night! And it seems like such a short time.

#54

Yesterday was a disaster… Oh well, I think I have an idea what to do differently other times. First of all, no eating before around 3pm, no matter what. Or else I will get hungry at night.

Today I am okay this far, we will see what will happen. Theoretically I could skip today but I am very much aware it’s completely impossible for me (especially that I make pork roast). So I go for a dinner OMAD! Fully carnivore, of course.

That’s nice indeed! Too bad my body isn’t cooperative since ages and I do get hungry.
But now I wait. And my tiny hunger may go away. I need to build these muscles, I am not used to doing this but I need it now.
And then maybe I will be able to do a tad longer fasts again, eventually…
I am very stubborn, one day it will happen. Or I die trying, in the very very far future I assume…

(Central Florida Bob ) #55

I’ve had no reactions to any other sweetener that I’m able to determine, so this is a new one. I find that I can use a packet of Equal and while it doesn’t taste as good as Erythritol, it’s OK. I lived on that stuff for decades.

Likewise, I’m fasting for both autophagy and to drop a few more pounds. The fact that my morning fasting blood sugar has gotten better is a nice bonus, IMO. I didn’t put anything on due to the lockdowns, it’s just that I let myself get too high a couple of years ago. When I decided my weight was good enough, I had been doing ADFs for six months and I figured I’d put some more on, and was up nearly 10 pounds in a month. That would have been a good time to do things to keep it from creeping up, but it crept up slowly for another five months before I started doing a weekly fast. That kept my weight in a narrow range for the next year.

Now I’m almost back down where I was after the first month.

It seems like that while doing maintenance, it’s probably good to work a longer fast into your plans, like maybe once a month.

#56

Around 4 hour eating window for today (with a small, 1400 kcal dinner and a second and third dinner). Its a pretty big win in these super hungry times (even though I planned an OMAD day)… I had a workout, I may have needed the energy, no matter how much I ate yesterday…

I fasted until 5:25pm! :smiley: Almost. I actually had cream in my many coffees, just for today. I had tiny hunger signs but they went away except in the end so I ate. I will keep this, waiting a bit when I feel a bit hungry.

I just focus on carnivore and a late, smallish eating window and try to ensure I eat a decent amount or else my IF will be in danger. I can’t have everything at once now, I need to choose what to focus on. Now I eat more than normally on carnivore, it happens, especially in the first days.

(Jane) #57

Ketones at 3.8 this afternoon so percolating along on my fast. I only have one glucose strip left so will save it for tomorrow before I break my fast.

One of our watering timers crapped out and my spare I have been saving only worked a day (it’s several years old and cheap China crap, which is all you can get) so I may not make it to dinner which will be 72 hours and break at lunch since we do our shopping at lunch time, not dinner because of the dog. She is used to being put up in her crate around noon but if we go out to dinner we have to put her up early and then leave her down after we get home.

Anyhoo - need another timer or will be watering manually and trying not to forget to shut it off. Heat wave coming over the next 3 days with the highs at 99F / 37C so we will have to water. The nice thing about the timers is they water automatically between 3 and 4 am while the sun is down. I have 4 separate systems to cover all of our gardens.

#58

It sounds like almost the WHOLE summer here this year. It’s way worse than usual.
We even water some trees… I don’t care about the grass, our vegetable patch is extremely tiny and the fruits are fine no matter what so watering is very little work. I remember Mom spending 2 hours every day… That area was very dry in summer, no rain for 2 months was normal. At least we regularly have rain here. Not enough but 2 weeks are the longest without some proper one, I think.

Nice forum. Even if I have nothing to talk about food as I don’t eat so often and I don’t even have new thoughts (my tiny fasts are nothing to talk about, I don’t eat and time passes, that’s it), I can talk about weather and garden here and animals in the carnivore thread… I saw 13 swans today, together! Probably mostly youngsters, we usually have only 1-2 pairs on the nearby pond.

(Jane) #59

63 hours in and doing fine. Plan to break at lunch instead of dinner so will be a bit shy of my 72-hr goal but no biggie. Just happy to be doing a long fast after such a long hiatus. It wasn’t any harder than before so glad my “fasting muscle” didn’t get weaker.

BG: 105
BK: 5.8
GKI: 1.0 :grinning:
Boz: 18

All the bloat from my carby weekend is gone and I plan on being strict for the next few days to keep it that way.

(Jane) #60

I guess it is a testament to being a long-term ketoer (3 1/2 years) that I can enjoy a weekend without counting carbs - not binging - just eating the same things my company ate - and not be ravenously hungry on Monday. I was strict on my carbs on Monday going into my fast starting Monday evening and no issues. And then doing a 65-hr fast without a blip. Transitioned right back into fat-burning with ease.