May 2023 IF/EX Chat Thread (All welcome)

(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:

(KM) #21

Just wanted to report, after I broke my fast with a big cup of creamy coffee, I was still walking on eggshells all day but my back felt better, and the pain never did return. Wild, I’d love to know what actually causes this. I’d say it was limited to L3 / L4, noticeably uncomfortable when leaning forward to tie my shoes etc , and painful to unbearable when lying down no matter what the position. And now it’s gone, poof.

(Mark) #22

Ok so this is probably my 1st post but I’ve been reading these forums since late 2019 when I started Keto. It was early November 2019 and I was approaching 400lbs. I am a 6ft, now 50yo, male. I always had good blood numbers, etc. But I hurt all over, hard to tie my shoes without needing oxygen and just knew that I was a ticking time bomb of possible problems with health down the road. So keto it was, based on the things I learned here and a couple large stacks of various books recommended by people here. It worked great and I lost a ton of weight. In 2021 I even messed with some fasting and carnivore for 3 months to see if I noticed any differences. Even did a couple of weeks of raw only ground beef with butter and salt. I really didn’t notice any differences in how I felt so now I am back to standard keto. Like many others I strive to keep carbs low, counting net carbs and eating protein and fat to satiety. I do tend to be a bit higher in protein than typical Keto. I lift weights a couple of times a week and do a couple days a week of cardio but I don’t go crazy with it. In 2021 I worked my way up to a 7 day water only fast. I really only stopped because I hadn’t researched it as much as I felt I needed to, to be comfortable with doing it. I got scared.
Fast forward to April 16th of 2023. I ate dinner and did not eat again for 26 days. Water only with the occasional electrolyte bump every few days. I did the last 3 of the water only fast in Las Vegas. Not easy. I dropped 33.5 pounds during that time. I am now about a week into the refeed and all seems to be going well… I weigh again tomorrow. I am sue I gained some of that back(water and waste). But the intense body flushing and cleaning and healing that occurs during that long of a fast is truly remarkable. Ii really felt incredible. I am down to around 240 lbs probably since I’ve gained a little back. My ultimate goal is 190 but I really am pretty happy with 240 after being up around 400. Thank you to all the different people that have posted over the last 3 and a half years. You have all been a great deal of help and an inspiration. KCKO!!

#23

Why? Your body is trying to tell you something. Trying to fight biology or evolution is very hard and virtually impossible to do over the long term. If your hunger hormones are out of whack, which, from your many posts, one can reasonably conclude they are, instead focus on giving yourself some structure. Humans thrive on structure and routine. You continue to move from Keto to Omad to Carnivore on what seems like an hourly basis, and yet you keep hoping and expecting to get different results.

(Chuck) #24

I haven’t tried anything beyond intermittent fasting. I started our at 14 hours, and slowly increased my fasting time to where I can now do 23 hours without any issues. I love how I feel while fasting, my energy levels are really great. I never get hungry and I can now even be around people eating and not want to eat or even having any desire to eat. I do basic low carb, I no longer count calories, carbs, protein or fat. My only real no-no is wheat. I balance my intake by just knowledge of what is my best food choices. I ensure I get a very wide variety of foods over the course of the week. I definitely could never eat the same thing over and over. Even when I have my smoothies I vary them greatly as eating the same thing over and over would make me crazy. I believe in adventure seek the unknown as a new adventure.

#25

That’s a great story. Glad that fasting has been working well for you alongside your WOE. It does feel good in so many ways, doesn’t it? Amazing that you kept the last few days of your fast going through Las Vegas as well!

(Doug) #26

Mark, well done, and thank you for posting - it’s very good to hear accounts like yours.

(Mark) #27

My goal was 21 days but then I had booked that Vegas trip. So I knew to do a proper refeed I would need to wait until my return so I extended the fast out to 26 days. I appreciate the kind words.

#28

They are definitely not at all :slight_smile: I have no problems with hunger. (Have those times, sure but not lately.)

But you must be misunderstand me. I WANT hunger, it’s super annoying not getting it for too long. I wrote it about fasting. I can’t be hungry while I fast. I get hungry, I eat.

Nope? I don’t do carnivore ever. I don’t do keto all the time and don’t even want to.
And I definitely can’t do OMAD longer term (like for 5 days) so it’s not my goal.
My aim is always the same (well with tiny changes and that’s normal) and it’s flexible. I don’t have a rigid goal, it wouldn’t work anyway.

I expect different results when I do the thing that matter differently. There is no hope there as I KNOW it will happen. I mean fat loss when I eat little enough. It’s proven, my problem is overeating so I keep fighting. I NEED to minimize my fat intake and it takes a very long time in my case, sure. And? I am me, the best thing I can do it keep trying, analyzing, thinking, tweaking to reach my goal. And I do just that.

You don’t seem to have any idea about me but it’s fine, humans are complicated and I may not be clear enough despite my many words.

#29

Today I had a bigger eating window but a good day. :slight_smile: I need to focus on the leanest protein possible and avoiding fatty stuff as much as possible but it’s not fasting, it’s eating and my personal problem :slight_smile:

I wish to get my OMAD days back. TMAD with a tiny eating window just doesn’t happen, I stay satiated for too long and I don’t even have the mood at all to eat when satiated (odd but a good sign). Though it worked today, no problem with such days. Still, OMAD feels better. But it’s not like I can force it, it’s up to my body (and my planning to a little extent, of course).

Things went well enough this week (only one seriously but not extremely overeating day and both my protein and fat intake stayed below 200 gram every day!), I just aim to do it even better :wink:

I feel fine and it’s chill. No hunger, satiation or other problems.
Simplicity and quitting coffee is where I am not there yet but they aren’t my main goals right now.

#30

You are definitely complicated.

Do you realize this is a Keto forum where we prioritize fat?

How is that going so far? What is your goal(s)?
Maybe other forum members will be able to help you. I have received great information here, and it has helped. Please keep in mind that although I have been doing keto for over 12 years and I know lots of health and sports stuff, I do not claim to know everything about keto, diets, or even health; it’s only based on my experience and the research I do, and it does help to have a wife who is a medical doctor and a good friend who is a sports scientist. I only wish you success in the future,

#31

Another weekly fast down, slightly shorter at 120 hours. I was only mildly hungry the first day this fast, then had zero interest in food whatsoever the rest of the week. This protocol is working incredibly well for me: full of energy, great weight loss, and saving so much time. I broke this morning for breakfast with the kid, and we’re going to make some fun meals today, then I’ll finish with breakfast tomorrow morning and go again another week.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #32

Dehydration is the main thing those sticks measure and it sounds like you were dehydrated.Without a drip, it can take a couple of days to reach good hydration levels, been there done that, won’t go there again.

Sounds like a good idea.

(Bob M) #33

@kib1 That is interesting about the pain going away. It’s hard to tell why.

@FNG From 400 to 240? Holy crapoly, that’s impressive!

#34

Back to OMAD/tiny eating window if possible! :smiley: I had a big meal today and it’s not a common thing on my OMAD. But I was hungry, I partially blame the chicken :wink: But it’s OMAD-ish day #1, pretty normal to eat much.

Somehow I managed to had enough of evening eating last week, it just messes with me so I decided not to eat after 6pm without some very good reason and I will do my best to ensure that won’t happen often or ever. I won’t eat long before 3pm either but I go for about 4-5pm as an ideal case. But I will need to have a bigger one eventually, my OMAD meals tend to decrease with time if they are fine to begin with. In that case, I will eat when still satiated (or whatever I will feel, doesn’t really matter), a bit after my first meal. It sounds good but we will see. It should go well, it’s based on my long term experiences, I just feel better about it now for some reason.

Actually, we need to keep our carbs low enough. Fasting is being in ketosis too.

But yep, I am among the ones who need lots of fat. I still need to minimize it, i.e. eating as little fat as I comfortably can.
It is 130-140g on a good day and over 200g on a “bad” one (it’s not necessarily bad, maybe I need it. it’s not like 200g fat is sooo much). My last meal had 140g, good enough. I am pretty sure I eat way, way more on high-carb and I can’t unlearn wanting and eating it galore unless I try to keep myself back, even after more than a decade of doing so.
I need to minimize my protein intake too. I don’t care much about the carbs as that stays low without any particular effort.

I don’t need outside help, others can’t help with my individual things anyway. It’s help enough to read and write here.

#35

Things go very well now :slight_smile: I don’t know if it will be long term or it’s my small eating window or being close to carnivore (though some days are pretty carby, just like my old keto was but the carbs come from a tiny amount of plant matter and lots of animal food)… I do focus on good food choices, just a tad as it comes pretty naturally at this point…
Whatever is the reason (probably a combination), I am glad. And the smallness of my eating window is surely one of the keys. It doesn’t seem to matter how many meals I have, yeah I was sure about it before as well… It’s just about the size of my eating window. Of course there is a correlation but not a very very strong one in my case. I can eat 2 or 4 times in 5 hours though that is a quite big eating window for me now.

So I keep this about 3 hour eating window. It’s so pleasant, no need to skip lunch, I can have it together with my SO after I cook and often some time after my workout. I will try to skip lunch here and there (I planned to do it today as I don’t get really hungry that early anymore but I wasn’t in the mood in the end and I welcomed some food anyway. if I ever will be very well satiated at 3pm I will skip lunch as I did in the past. but it’s rare).

Yay for IF with a tiny eating window! I always saw and appreciated its benefits but on some days I couldn’t do it and another times I got tempted. And a few weeks ago I just couldn’t bring myself to eat 2 hours after my biggish lunch… It works better now.

It seems that a small eating window has a different effect as OMAD, I get satiated quicker after a few days and my mealsize diminish. But as I have more than one meal, it doesn’t cause a problem. Yay.

But maybe it’s because of my food choices. Probably both. I will see what happens if I change my ways later. I keep my small eating window as a constant as it’s good for me and the more carbs I eat, the more useful it gets. Not like I plan to raise it but it will happens here and there.

So I have a cute deficit nowadays. With the occasional higher-cal day, I am curious if they will disappear or it’s just something my body (or mind) does sometimes. But I probably do it, it must be very odd to eat at a deficit every day even though I feel I eat plenty now…

I have no idea when I will be able to do EF. But things go into the right direction, I don’t get random eating desires without a proper need. So I suppose it will happen at some point if I am open to it…

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #36

Here is the June thread. Hope everyone is doing well.