May 2023 IF/EX Chat Thread (All welcome)


(KCKO, KCFO) #1

I couldn’t find a thread for this month, so it is late, but it is now here.

Hope everyone is doing well. Spring has brought the pelicans around our neighborhood. Lots of bird activity in general. So plenty of distractions from food around here right now.
I’m still following timed eating window protocol and planning on doing a more extended fast later this month, hoping to do 4 days without any issues.


April 2023 IF/EF Chat Thread (All Welcome)
(Bob M) #2

I finally got back to a 36 hour fast, with a body weight training session of about 1 hour and 20-something minutes this morning. Broke sometime after 10 am today.

It was tougher than normal, even getting home at 8pm. Especially when my wife started to eat dinner. That didn’t help. But I made it.

I went into the yard last weekend an got scratched by a plant. Used multiple phone-based plant ID systems on it. It’s some type of rose bush. Very hard to kill (you have to pull the roots). I was cutting a few stalks down so that I could get to some fencing so I could cut up the fencing, which the plant surrounds, and put it into a dumpster we had rented. (The fencing is falling down.) I’ve tangled with this – what I think is a – weed before, and got scratched. That was bad.

This time, it’s worse. Got scratched this time on my upper chest, and had to go to the walk-in clinic. Got steroidal cream, which I’m not sure how well it’s helping. We’ll see. May have to go the steroid pill route.

But what this meant was that I didn’t sleep great, as I keep itching and scratching.


#3

Currently at ~120 hours (doing a lot of EF these days) with no particular target, just taking back control. Feeling great and absent of hunger for the whole week. I’m planning to break tomorrow morning as my kid is up for a barbecue again in the afternoon. We’re planning on lamb skewers, salmon, some pork, mushrooms, and a few other veggies..


#4

Good luck and congrats, folks, I just can’t do it now. Maybe today that I have some properly tempting food. I am in a very unfortunate too many small meals a day phase, apparently. It’s chill and carnivore-ish, I am not hungry or unsatisfied between meals but I get hungry SUPER early, already at noon, it’s crazy. And then of course I get satiated with a tiny food.
I think I need to focus on things a bit more BUT if I eat at noon, there is no way to eat much… And I eat as soon as I get hungry as it’s not the type of hunger where I can wait.

So I am worse at it than ever but better times will come I am sure. Until then, bye.


#5

Broke at 145 hours to get ready for some weekend meals planned with my daughter. This has become a really solid and manageable routine for me now, starting the week (either Sunday or Monday) with a good breakfast, then fasting through to the weekend, and stopping then to enjoy some meals I make with my kid. Fluids, electrolytes and rest all seem to be in balance, and it’s doing wonders for my health.


(Robin) #6

Nicely done… working the plan.


(Bob M) #7

Sounds great!


(Bob M) #8

Well, looks like I’ll be out this week and next. I got “attacked” by a rose plant, which has lead to a quite severe allergic skin reaction. They gave me steroid cream, but it’s worse in some parts. So, I’ve been switched over to steroid pills.

That means I have to eat, though. 9 days, starting yesterday. That means theoretically through next Thursday, and Thursdays right now are my best time to fast. Ugh. Will have to see how quickly I can recover.

If not, I hope to revisit in a few weeks, though I’ll check in if anyone else reports back.


(KM) #9

Started a 3-7 day fast about 3 hours ago. I’d like to do a week but the last one was strangely difficult so … We’ll see. No dry fasting this time, that was just miserable.


(Bob M) #10

I have heard that dry fasting is really tough. I’ve never tried it, though.

Good luck on the longer fast!


#11

After some serious overeating during the second half of last week (I haven’t tracked except one day but I am sure I ate a lot), I got more serious about OMAD again… So I will push it a bit this week.

Today was easy as I was very very well-fed. I got hungry just before 5pm and had a cute sized meal. I mean, below 130g protein and fat, unusually small OMAD meal but should work just now :wink: I made sure I stuffed myself in the end as I was aware I probably haven’t eaten enough until then.

I try to keep focused and have several proper OMAD days! OMAD has so, so many advantages for me… And I only need a little push now I believe.


(Chuck) #12

I am getting the hang of OMAD and I am enjoying it. Hunger is just mental now days


#13

I need to avoid hunger entirely. Mental hunger sounds super bad to me.
But I don’t have problems with hunger lately, it’s the weak-dizzy-bad focus state I get and can’t stand. I decided to push it a wee bit as I had enough of waiting and failing but I don’t have much room for patience there. I can’t just stay in a miserable state when my brain stopped working. But maybe if I push once (with some inner conversation to avoid the worst, making my body and mind aware I WON’T budge… determination helped me out before), I will be able to avoid this stupid thing? I obviously don’t need food every day so I should feel okay on OMAD all the time… I even eat proper meals, I make sure of that. So this temper tantrum is illogical… It doesn’t make it any easier to handle. If I get unwell and food helps, I obviously eat.


(KM) #14

60 hours in. So far so good, but my lower back was miserable last night. Not sure if it’s just a coincidence, I get this sometimes but it’s been fine for a while. I’ll have to take note whether it’s a recurring theme.

I’m not sure if the dry fasting was just psychologically more difficult. I was very anxious about the idea of not drinking anything for 3 days, I’ve always heard that’s about the limit of human endurance and knowing me, I’d have pushed on and died of thirst. It was incredibly effective for weight loss though.


#15

Hi everyone. Down about 10 lbs. in 3 weeks on what is essentially a fat fast. Very effective but of course a little slower than a real fast. A couple of months ago I did a 7-day fast and lost 13 lbs. in one week!


#16

I couldn’t expect more than 4-5 lbs in a week but it is impossible for me anyway (without very very strong outer forces)…
But I seem to be able to do OMAD now, yay! Hopefully I won’t jinx it, it’s only 8pm :smiley: And I had a smallish lunch. I planned to have a TMAD day with a 2-3 hour eating window but I napped and when I woke, I felt wonderfully full and being basically unable to eat (sleep is always like that to me unless I go to sleep hungry but I never do that. once was more than enough, it ruined my sleep)… So I drank coffee. I need some fun intake, okay?

I try to keep up with this. OMAD usually falls apart in a few days but maybe it won’t happen now.


(KM) #17

Broke fast 86 hours in with a big cup of creamy coffee. I was hoping for more, this was to be my big “autophagy booster” for the season, or maybe even the year. It wasn’t a great fast, I felt too weak to get up and do stuff and my back was a misery every time I lay down or even sat wrong so I wasn’t sleeping. I’m reading that the back thing isn’t that uncommon and goes away with food. Certainly hope so!

The positive is that oh, yum and joy, Everything tastes so wonderful after a fast! And I lost over five pounds in three and a half days. I’ll probably put back four, but that’s fine.


(Doug) #18

KM, what is the proposed cause or mechanism behind this?


(KM) #19

I’m not sure it’s known. Some people say dehydration or “imbalanced minerals”, some say release of toxins, some say increased acid production. I know that my ketone production was through the roof (ala the unreliable keto stix, but purple as grape juice is a reading close to 16 mmol/L, where I’m usually a pastel pinky-beige between .5 and maybe 2).

I’m also a big fan of tub soaks (which I especially love when fasting because I get cold so easily), which are very dehydrating, and I tried to mitigate that with loads of water with electrolytes but maybe I didn’t compensate adequately. I just got too miserable to keep experimenting!

I also went cold turkey on Everything. No caffeine, no melatonin, and no OTC pain meds even when it hurt. Literally nothing but water and salts. That may also have accounted for my crappy sleep, interrupted every 20 minutes or so by having to stand up. Gah.

I just finished my giant coffee with probably half a cup of cream in it and I feel wonderful. Maybe I should just get back on a (slightly less punitive) horse …


(Doug) #20

Well dang, I guess that fast wasn’t exactly ‘smooth sailing’… :smile: