May 2018 IF/EF chat - all welcome

(Allie) #1

New month, new challenges, new victories, new goals… here we go! :grinning:

April 2018 IF/EF chat - all welcome
2nd Crack At 120hrs
(Allie) #2

I’m experimenting this month, well I have been for the last week.

I can’t remember which keto trainer it was, but one of the many sites I’ve read mentioned a 12 / 12 as being optimal for muscle growth so I’m trying it. I feel better than I did on 16 / 8, not as tired, but beyond that, it’s too soon to tell. If it doesn’t work, I’ll change it.

Next week, as long as the UK weather is warm enough to stop me wanting to hibernate, I plan another EF of at least 72 hours. Still got that five day idea in my head but not managed to get there yet…

(Steve) #3

About 63 hours in at the moment. Wanted to get at least a 72 in…but, I’ll likely push it a bit further.
Doing an experiment in parallel. (food) Put a small blade roast into my sous vide at 8am the next day…we’ll see just how tender or ridiculously mushy it is when I finish this and pull it out. :slight_smile: Think the longest I’ve done a roast was 72 hours before. :slight_smile:

(Liz ) #4

Doing OMAD (dinner) interspersed with 2 meals a day & trying to vary my caloric intake to keep my body guessing. Also trying to take in more calories overall daily to push up my BMR. Using fats in my morning coffees still.

(*Rusty* Instagram: @Rustyk61) #5

I’m here! Headed to 72 hours at 6pm. If I can make it till 96, I will

(Newimprovedme ) #6

Just finished a 60 hour water fast…rolling into a fat fast for the first time. Hope to fat fast until thursday.

(Mary Beth) #7

I’m at hour 35 of a 72 hour fast and I’m feeling good today! I made some green tea with lemongrass and ginger to sip on and I have some bone broth as well (and of course coffee…). I was surprised this morning to wake up feeling no hunger pangs, and I’ve dropped about 2.5 pounds of water weight. This will be my first 3 day fast and I’m open to extending it to 4 days if my body and monkey brain are still up for it. I’m feeling very optimistic!!

(Justin Jordan) #8

Still doing 36* hour fasts a couple times a week.

It’s interesting - I’m a type II diabetic and massively insulin resistant, which is why I am doing these. And I found that an as close to zero carb diet and fasting gets me to completely normal blood sugar.

IF I am taking Glipizide and Metformin.

I’m still taking Metformin, but the last week I’ve been off the Glipizide - partly because I want as little insulin happening as possible, and partly because it’s hard to find a sweet spot where my BS doesn’t go too low.

And basically, my blood sugar remains rock steady regardless of whether I’ve fasted or not. It’s not terrible - 184** in the morning because of Dawn Phenomenon, and around 140 the rest of the time.

Clearly, my body is capable of producing enough insulin to get me to normal levels, or else the Glipizide (which stimulates insulin release) wouldn’t work. But evidently, gluconeogenesis is enough to keep me elevated without it.

And that’s with a fairly low level of protein.

Like I said, it’s more interesting than anything else. I’m going to keep with the fasting and see if things improve before I start monkeying with other variables.

Beyond that, I still find doing alternate day fasts to be more difficult than doing weekly longer fasts, from a psychological standpoint.

*In practice they’re usually 42 or so.

** Specifically 184. It’s weird.

#9

Hi everyone! I’ve been on keto for a month and a half and until yesterday, I had not experienced any of the “loss of appetite” people talk about. Really, I thought that was a complete myth. Normally I force myself to wait until 10-10:30 in the morning to eat my first meal. Well, yesterday I had a meeting from 10 to 12:30 so I couldn’t eat breakfast, and I found that it wasn’t even hard! Normally I’d be dying during the meeting. Today, it’s almost 11:00 and I’m feeling the same way. I don’t really consider it a “loss of appetite” because I certainly COULD eat now, and it would taste great, but I don’t HAVE to. I might finally be achieving this benefit of keto!! Yay!

(Dawn) #10

I am still doing 5:2 in other words five days fasting and 2 days gloriously refeeding on keto. I have dropped 20 pounds over the last 3-4 weeks (mostly water but some fat too) I am 8 pounds away from getting back to where I was when the 48-day sugar and carb binge started. My fast consists of the following: Decaf coffee with about 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream, every other day a few cups of bone broth with hot sauce. And a diet coke if I am really struggling (I know, not a healthy crutch, but it’s effective and keeps me on track). I am fasting for insulin not autophagy. Aiming to get back below 200 pounds and then the fasting regiment will ease up a little. This fast will break Saturday.

#11

I’m on day 3 and shooting for 7 days this time. Really struggling to get through this day as I’m tired and low energy. I’ve been drinking water and taking enough Na, K, Mg salts.

(Liz ) #12

Just want to say you are kicking A** and I am so impressed because I know how hard you have worked to get to where you are right now.

(Robin) #13

You sound about where I am at the moment. I find I don’t see any improvement in fasting insulin/weight unless I do longer fasts. I am just starting to get into longer fasts, and the psychological part of wanting to eat during hunger pains is hard for me. Any tips? Does it get easier and easier?

(Dawn) #14

Thank you. It’s still a challenge every day. But it was because of your words of encouragement that I have kept focused and motivated. I owe you :wink:

(Dawn) #15

Yep, I do have some tips. First, a disclaimer, if you are fasting for autophagy, then skip my advice. You will just need to gut it out with water and maybe some tea if autophagy is your goal.

However, I am just fasting to get my insulin down. Just a little background as to how I got here…I had a major breakdown in Feb that lasted through early April. Sugar, sugar, sugar and more sugar. Plus a 28 pound weight gain. To get myself back on track, I immediately went back into keto hard core until I was in ketosis, then I immediately started fasting again. Now that I am fasting 5 days a week consecutively, I use every crutch imaginable. LOL!

Day 1) At the start of the fast, coffee (with caffeine if you can stand it because it helps with appetite) and as much heavy cream as I want. Then bone broth with hot sauce and sea salt for lunch and lastly a constant supply of keto aid (2 bottles a day).
Day 2) Coffee with heavy cream, keto aid constantly all day. Bone broth with hot sauce and a little butter
Day 3) Your stomach should be more settled now and used to not eating, so this is when you kick the crutches. I still do coffee, but with very moderate cream (only 2 tablspoons). I skip broth, and I stop Keto aid (it has artificial sweetener which can slow down my weight loss and raise insulin a bit)
Day 4) Skip coffee altogether. Just a little water and unsweetened tea for lunch
Day 5) Dry fast
Day 6&7) Break fast and eat fat, fat, fat and more fat as I prepare to start fasting again on day 8. No counting calories. The more healthy fat you can store, the easier it is to get through the fasting period

Does that make sense? You see my pattern of fasting is a step down approach. I continue to fill myself with heavy cream and broth even after fasting has begun. In my opinion, it’s the healthy fat that you have left over in your belly that sustains you during those first few days of a longer fast. Once you get over the hump of day 3, your body has typically adjusted and you can stop using the crutches and depend on your body fat to get you through the rest of the way.

It does get easier as you practice more fasting. I would tell anyone who is doing EF to remember two things. 1) Don’t do back to back EF for really long periods of time. I think I am on my 4th week. But after this, I should not need to do anything over 3 days anymore. And 2) If doing EF for more than 3 days is too hard for you, but you really want the gains of a back to back fast, switch to alternate day. eat one day, don’t eat the next, eat the next day, don’t eat the next. And do that for a while. You will probably see very similar results to EF in terms of weight.

this is just what works for me. But you may need to experiment to find your sweet spot. Just remember, EF for too long or too frequently can backfire. That is what happened to me. I ended up in a bingeing episode that did alot of damage. Let’s do this together. Good Luck

(Teresa Coffman) #16

I’m 42 hours into my weekly 48 hour fast and I think this has been the easiest one EVER! I feel so great I want to shout it out to everyone. I normally do OMAD or occasionally 2-MAD. I’m so excited because this morning I was 0.6 lbs away from my goal weight of 148 (I started at 208 so that would be an even 60 lbs. lost since August). I’m about to go into maintenance mode so we’ll see how I do with that. Loving Keto, loving fasting, loving life!

(KCKO, KCFO) #17

You are getting more fat adapted. When your body needs nutrients, it is pulling from your past meals that are now accessable.

(KCKO, KCFO) #18

Well done you. There are some maintenance threads you might want to start following, lots of tips and support on those for maintainers.
https://www.ketogenicforums.com/c/progress/maintenance

(Teresa Coffman) #19

Yes, thank you. I know I’m going to really have to work on maintenance. I’m afraid that with me nothing is ever easy. However, that said, NOTHING has worked for me like Keto/IF for weight loss. I’m amazed I’m at this weight.

(Victoria Mc Coy) #20

Just back from vacation yesterday, and weirdly feeling kind of swollen and achey. I’ve been keto+IF/EF since February, and I stayed keto through the whole trip with a fat fast on Thursday, but I’m sure my macros were off (not enough fat), and I’m not sure how clean the food on the cruise ship was. It was definitely not organic. Exercised a lot more than usual and followed an 18:6 pattern on eating days.

Disappointed to be three pounds up on the scale this morning, which I’m hoping is water weight from the flight yesterday. Anyway, decided to get going with alternate day fasting starting today. Shooting for at least 40 hours; at 24 now.

I cannot afford to fall back. Fasting and keto this far (20 lbs down, lowered A1C and BP to normal again) have shown me that there IS hope to bring back my health, and I’m determined to see my goal weight and good health again. But I can always see failure out of the corner of my eye after so many years of losing and gaining the same 40-50 lbs over and over again. I want to believe. Will there be a point when I really know I can do this and the fear finally departs?