Some background. I’ve been low carb since Jan (including no soft drink), Keto since February, with my ‘fail’ days being no more than 50g of carbs and those have been rare. IF since March, and I’ve done a few OMAD days and a 48 hr fast or two.
Fat adapted? Who can say but I am used of fasting and Keto.
So I started Monday after a large meal with high fat (1500 kcarb) and away I go. I was doing 5 days, maybe 7 or hell, I was gung-ho enough to be thinking maybe even go 14 or 21. I had be watching a bunch of water fasting YouTube vids and was psyched.
My primary goal was Autophagy. I have plantar fasciitis and I was hoping to heal it. My wrist was sprained recently and I wanted to heal that too finally I think I have either rotator cuff issues or arthritis in my right shoulder and I wanted to help that.
Next goal was fat loss.
Day 1, no worries. All good. Did exercise. 30 mins swimming, 20 mins calisthenics. 5+ k’s walking. All good.
Day 2 This day was BAD. I was struggling. It was one of my worst days on this WOE. It was a rest day exercise wise. Raving hungry.
Day 3. Much better. A bit of an energy surge and my exercise day (see above for what I did) went better than normal. Hunger levels went well. Lite salt and magnesium tabs as well as a multivitamin.
Day 4. So so day. I’m contemplating either ending day 5 or going to 7 or hell, maybe extending to 10. It was all bravado. Was not feeling this energy surge and definitely was no mental clarity. If anything I am a little muddle headed. Also I am drinking lite salt (potassium and sodium) and taking magnesium but still having some cramping and am sinking a lot of water. Am getting sick of bloody salt.
Day 5. Exercised (same workout) but had no energy . I lasted 20 mins on the swim, the calisthenics did not go well and I went for a 5k walk and was feeling difficulty in breathing by the time I finished. Fuzzy headed. I end up lying down… it’s 4 hours to go until 120hrs. I take some more damn salt and feel marginally better.
Then I come to my senses after a while. It’s time to end the fast. 117 hrs and my first fast beyond 48 hrs. I weigh myself before I break it. 98kg to 95kg. I can’t tell the difference myself… I still feel pudgy.
I take 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. Wait 20 mins. I then eat half an avocado and wait another 20 mins. I then eat a boiled chicken thigh in 3 cups of chicken broth.
It’s around 700+ kcals.
Then I have a food coma. I sleep for 3 hrs.
Now I’ve been watching fasting YouTube videos, reading fasting blogs and websites. Apparently refeeding syndrome isn’t really a problem for 5 days or under. But I went light earlier and I figured after 3 hrs of sleep my digestive system is ok now.
I double down. I go hard core Keto and I go big. I do this for 2 reasons. 1) After a few weeks of restriction on calories and a 5 day fast I wanted to get my metabolism back to 2000+ kcals so it doesn’t drop my base rate. 2) I was looking for a ‘whoosh’ effect. Apparently after long fasting or a period of restricted calories you can trigger a weight loss with a big meal.
What do I eat? A 4 egg with 100 mls of heavy cream scrambled eggs dish topped with shredded cheese (a big handful), cooked in 15 grams of butter.
I am really struggling to get it down. I feel full after half, but the want the calories and wait a few minutes before getting the rest down. I feel nauseous. I love eggs but am not such a fan of shredded cheese and that overpowered the egg taste. The wait a bit and then chase the meal with 2 tablespoons of coconut oil.
1300+ kcals.
I go to bed and watch tv shows for a while before sleeping. Meanwhile those nauseous feelings continue.
Fast forward to 4am when I rise for work. That feeling is getting worse, but I gotta get to work so off I go. On arrival I am telling my co-worker that I have a meal that isn’t sitting well and a passerby chimes in and tells me to go and throw up whatever is in my stomach and tells me it will fix me.
I go and do so… and throw up a LOT of bile. In fact over the course of the morning this keeps happening. Every time it’s more bile.
What I hadn’t read before today is that prolonged fasting isn’t necessarily good for the gall bladder… in fact it can be bad. Sure, drinking lots of water mitigates that (and lord knows I was drinking 3-4 liters a day… otherwise I was feeling parched and dry) but it’s still a potential issue. I encourage people to look into it, if for no other reason than to just understand it. I am not saying quit EF but just understanding your body is a good thing.
So some take aways.
Cream of tartar can be a stand in for lite salt. Salt is important but I was drinking a lot of salty water.
Apparently salt on or under the tongue is more effective. I tried it a few times… meh. I didn’t enjoy it.
Autophagy never seemed to happen. My feet are MAYBE marginally better but my wrist seems to have healed at the normal rate and that shoulder? It got worse. Maybe it’s the exercises? I got no healing there.
Weight loss was good but I’m not sure it’s gonna stay off - I am staying Keto to give me the best chance of that happening and will continue exercise.
No whoosh effect…
YouTube videos and blogs are not a reflection of what your results may be. Don’t raise your expectations… you get the results you get. Everyone is different.
When refeeding watch your gall bladder function by not overpowering it. Refeeding protocol is a good idea even if some bloggers etc day they went straight from fasting to an all you can eat steak house.
I got NONE of the mental clarity that everyone raves about.
Hunger really wasn’t an issue after day 2 and on day 5. It was always there but it was something I just tuned out.
Exercise while fasting is a good thing but don’t be surprised if your body craps out on you. Also this whole boost in human growth hormone? Buggered if I could see the results in the 5 days or today.
Sleep was trashed. I may have gotten 4 hrs on a good night… this may have been the culprit for the mental fog.
Will I do a 5 day or attempt a longer fast again? Not in the near term. I want to get some distance from this experience. I’m going back to 16-8 IF and I think once a month I’ll do a 2 or 3 day fast. I may well try a longer one in June, July, or August.
Overall it wasn’t pleasant but I did feel good beating myself and getting to 117 hours when the me of 2017 couldn’t have made it past 24 hrs.
. You also seem to think that it prioritizes things that your brain cares about rather than the things your body does. The body wants to remove and recycle things that are broken or dangerous at a cellular level, not fix aching joints and reduce pain. That is normal healing which is often messy and incomplete e.g. scarring. Such scar tissue is the kind of thing that autophagy is more likely to go after. It is not magic healing, it’s more like advanced garbage collection.
) or put yourself at risk. Keto is awesome in its own right and a couple of months is not long for this WoE to deliver the ambitious set of benefits you crave. KCKO and many of those benefits will come in their own time.