May 2018 IF/EF chat - all welcome

#21

I’ve been keto since mid-February. I’ve done a handful of fasts, a two-day, a 3-day, a 5-day, and I just finished what was supposed to be another five day, my first true water fast for autophagy. On all the previous fasts, I had done almost exactly what you described with using the Bulletproof Coffee and broth and coffee with heavy cream to get me through the first couple of days and then tapering off to almost nothing at the end of the fast. It seemed like a natural progression because I didn’t need any of the fat or calories on those later days. For all my fasts, I also supplement with salt, magnesium and potassium.

I really thought that because I had already done a five-day fast with relative ease, that this one would go well as well. I was wrong. The first 72 hours we’re not much different than my previous fasts, even without the help of fat, but on the fourth day, I started to feel wrong - my head ached, I lost the vitality that I’ve been used to having on keto especially during extended fasts, and by evening I decided to go ahead and have a bulletproof coffee to see if I could last that final day. The coffee didn’t work, so I decided to break my fast and ate a moderate meal. The next morning, I still felt off with muscle aches like I get sometimes when I have diarrhea. I felt slow and sluggish, and again just not right. Things got better through the day as I ate my normal Keto fare.

I don’t know if I got my electrolytes screwed up with the supplementation, or if the fact that for some reason I only got 3 hours and 21 minutes of sleep that third night is what caused my issue. My third day of fasting I had so much energy and did so many productive things that I almost felt a little manic. The result was that my mind wouldn’t quiet down and let me sleep.

I lost 7.6 lbs during the 4 days of the fast, bringing my total loss since I went keto to 34 1/2 lbs, on top of the 21 lbs I lost doing Paleo before I started keto.

I will definitely try again because I’ve had more good experiences with fasting than bad. However the electrolyte thing scares me a little bit. You can really mess yourself up if you get that wrong. Has anyone else had an experience like this with either lack of sleep or bad electrolyte balance throwing off their fast? I.could use some advice to prevent things going wonky next time.

(Vanessa) #22

Good morning all!

I’m not new to keto (8 months now) but I’m new to this forum and to longer fasting. I was typically 16:8 or 18:6, but recently started ADF (36 hours on MWF). Following Jason Fung’s protocol. I think I may actually make all 3 days this week! It hasn’t been easy for me to get to this point but I find I’m learning new things every day. And I’m addicted to listening to Carl and Richard’s podcasts on my lunchtime walk every day.

So far I’ve lost about 20 pounds doing keto and IF and still have about 20 to go. Looking forward to interacting with everyone here.

(Dawn) #23

This is probably cliche, but what are you eating between your fasts? Are you eating well with alot of fat, protein, etc. to make sure that you really get that metabolism going in between fasts? Can you break down the fasts to only 3 days instead of 5? If you don’t feel well, you are doing the right thing by breaking the fast. I have had this situation many times where my electrolytes got off whack and I felt HORRIBLE, but this was only durning fasts 7+ days. I no longer do extended fasts longer than 5 days, just too tough for me. My last tip would be shorten the length of your fast but increase the frequency.

#24

I came back from a 6 day Disney trip having gained 6 pounds. I also had a terrible time the first day back with leg cramping. I tried like crazy to stay keto the whole time, avoided all obvious carbs, but as we all know, restaurant food is loaded with hidden carbs. The weight and cramping disappeared after three days. I think it’s almost impossible to avoid hidden carbs while on vacation Just get back to it (and avoid restaurants!) and the extra weight will be gone in a few days.

I hear you on the maintenance thing. I’m 15 pounds from there now and maintenance has always been my downfall.

(Steve) #25

Going to pull the chute this afternoon and start to refeed. Definitely the longest I’ve fasted thus far (4:30pm ET would be 96 hours). So, it’ll be something less in all likelihood. We’ll see if I get distracted and go longer. :slight_smile:

(Victoria Mc Coy) #26

Feeling good this morning at hour 38! Is anyone else amazed at how good it feels to jump back into fasting after a time away from it? :sun_with_face:

(Doug) #27

Well done, Victoria. :slightly_smiling_face: On the ‘returning’ feeling, oh yes! 3 weeks ago was great for me, and two weeks ago. And then there was last week… :neutral_face::roll_eyes: Good to be back.

#28

I’m trying the Fung/Ramos fasting protocol of alternate day fasting… going to eat 6-7pm tonight (I did have coffee with HWC this morning) and then eat 2-3 meals the next day (the thing is, I have trouble getting 3 meals in) stopping at 6pm, then fasting until supper at 6-7pm the next day… so essentially 3 24h fasts a week.
I’ve been stalled at 147 for a while now so I’m ready to amp it up. Anyone have success with this protocol? Should I work hard to drop the HWC and stick to black coffee and water during the 24h fast or just leave it?
Good luck to everyone!! :slight_smile:

(Allie) #29

Just do two meals if three is too much. I couldn’t imagine eating three meals now, even on feast days.

(Victoria Mc Coy) #30

Yes - I’ve been in an IDM coaching group since February and was advised to try alternate day fasting instead of extended fasting (I was doing 2-5 days/week previously) and it does seem to net good results for me so far. I usually get in 40ish hours (from 6PM on Monday to 1PM Wednesday, for example). This week ( post vacation) I will extend that to dinner on my Tuesday/Thursday fasting days, which really makes it closer to a 48 hour fast.

Two meals on eating days seems to be enough to keep BMR up for me, but don’t skimp on those meals! That was the other big lesson- 1500 calories per day is NOT enough to keep the engine running for fat burning, which is my goal.

I may regret the decision to extend this week’s fasts to dinner/OMAD, but I am thinking that keeping insulin low for longer may be a benefit I need after being out of my own kitchen for over a week. We’ll see how the results track with that theory.

(Sheila) #31

What is the 12/12?

(Victoria Mc Coy) #32

It’s SO weird for me after years of experiencing food as one of my primary feel-good tools in life to learn that fasting (!!!) can make me feel even better!

(Allie) #33

12 hour eating window 12 fasting

(Sheila) #34

Duh!!! I didn’t see why I didn’t figure that out quicker.

#35

Yeah exactly, I’m just not hungry enough!

#36

Thanks so much, that’s really helpful. Do you water fast or do you consume small amts of fat during your fasting windows?
I’m trying to consciously eat more fat during my meals, I listened to the Q and A from Meghan Ramos and that hit home- I wish I knew how much was good to shoot for, calorie wise, but I guess it’s about satiety.
The other thing that I took from the Q and A was that consistency in fasting is key, so I’m going to try to keep with this pattern.

(Sheila) #37

LOL Monkey brain

#38

I wonder why they would suggest alternate day fasting instead of extended fasting. I thought they were pretty gung ho about long term fasting.

(Raj Seth) #39

I think they find that compliance is better with ADF and IF. Better to do 3 ADF/weekly (150/year), than to do a few 5-7 days, have issues, difficulties, etc., give up and get only 15-20 days for the year!

Their clearly professed target is a persistently high level of insulin. Whatever it takes to lower the aggregate exposure to high insulin. “Progress, not perfection”.

After getting fully fat adapted, it is probably not that hard, physiologically and MENTALLY to:
have a keto lunch and a dinner, and call it a day (16:8), or
have a big 2000+ kCal fatty keto dinner, feel bloated all next day till dinner (OMAD), or
skip a day of eating here and there when fully fatted up (ADF) :open_mouth:

(Steve) #40

Hmm. Anyone know if terragon can cause issues on a refeed? Put some in my bouillon when I broke at the 96 1/2hour mark. It left me about a half hour later. :slight_smile:

Hoping the salad that I just ate doesn’t follow suit. :crossed_fingers: