My very random, first extended fast

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(Crippie) #1

Hi there!

First post in the forum. Been Keto for almost 2 months now and started accidentally intermittent fasting a few weeks back, been weaving that in and out the past couple weeks, and even had a couple 24hour fasts. Discovered the 2ketodudes podcasts a couple weeks in and listen to a couple episodes a day on my long commute. I am still not current but enjoying following the episodes.

Well I have been speaking with my friend, who is also keto, about planning a monthly 72 fast much like I heard Richard doing on the 2ketodudes podcasts. My friend just got back on keto after a 2 week break for his wedding and honeymoon. So we held off for this month and planned the end of September so he was well fat adapted again.

Well in the shower this morning I don’t know what it was but I just thought to myself " Screw it! I am going to fast a few days myself." I have a planned family camping trip this weekend, so I figured I would fast up to that point I thought about fasting for the camping trip to reduce having to bring keto food for my wife and I, but my wife didn’t like the idea.(She is still having trouble with keto). Her family that is coming is also very weird about the whole diet and think its horrible for me to not eat, so I decided to do it before, but who knows if I feel good enough I may continue it into the trip anyway, I don;t really care what they think about it, just tried to move the 3 days to before to avoid the conflict, but maybe 3 days will become 5 days who knows!

I am on hour 21 right now and it is going well, hardest part so far is missing my BP coffee this morning, I am not much of a black coffee drinker, but I have been making it work. I have had some hunger the past couple hours, but like they say hour 18-24 is the hardest, so I am pushing through!

I feel great and can’t wait to see how the next few days go. Any tips from the experts out there?

(Tim W) #2

One rule of fasting, it should fit into your life. I don’t suggest you pound smores and campfire popcorn the entire trip BUT, if your fasting removes some of the fun of camping (we love to make home-made stew and hot dogs on a stick, the whole family around the fire etc) then wait and do the longer fast later.

In addition, most find that it’s less disruptive to fast 24 hours, wait for a time, fast 48, wait a couple of weeks, fast 72 hours and so on, to “ladder up” the process. Not to say some don’t jump in and go 40 days or so.

Tips:

  • Get your sodium and supplements!
  • Be prepared for some days to be easy, some days to suck like no other, it can be random
  • May not want to tell those outside of your family, it’s just easier to keep it in house and not have to explain
  • Don’t sweat your weight. My spouse is on day 9 and she gained 4 pounds (water weight, that time of the month)
  • Know that hunger will come and it will pass, on the same note, feeling like dog turds will come and it will pass, if you are really worried that you can’t go any longer, try waiting another 30 minutes while distracting yourself with something, know yourself and when you are really “done” but don’t rush the decision either, however, even if you do, live to fast another day.
  • Don’t trust a fart! Seriously, you may have a BM on ANY day of a fast, don’t be surprised if 3/4 into day 3 and you are passing stool, and be careful when you think you may just have to pass gas, bad things can happen!
  • Fasting is a good time to get off of fake sugars, desert after every meal, monsters/diet sodas etc. I find it best to try and cut out 99% of that stuff unless you just REALLY need something to keep you going. I’ve had a monster or two when doing a fast, it kept me sane, keeping your sanity is job one.
  • Lacroix is a life-saver, taking supplements with it is helpful, that and drinking keto-aid daily (search the forums for it)
  • Know why you are fasting before you go in, know that there will be times when all you can think about is the fact that you are fasting and there will be times when you question everything in life, remember the rule above about keeping your sanity!

Best of luck to you!

(Kathy L) #3

LOLOLOL!!! (But true!)

(Mark Rhodes) #4

We planned a camping trip around the eclipse for over a year. As the time approached we thought successfully that fasting the 3 days prior to leaving would give us more time to pack and tidy up with a plan to break our 72 hour plus fast along the way with Mongolian BBQ, which also worked very well.

Not having to prep a meal and clean gave us each 4-5 hours more everyday.
We did water and black coffee only. My wife supplemented BPC her third day because her hunger really kicked in.
We ate some olives and a probiotic we brought with about an hour before eating BBQ, just to be sure to kick start the digestive juices.
Along that note we supplemented with magnesium & potassium as stated above.

Following that meal we ate heartily during our trip. Our carb counts both got around 40g daily and we both felt we were close to being out of ketosis. Staying in feast mode until our return we both went right back into a fast just to settle everything down again. It was a little tougher most likely due to the higher carb count over the previous ten days and less fat than normal. This curative fast did what it needed to. Still, at 44 hrs my fingertips got really cold and I told the wife I was going to eat as it was the last sign telling me too. I had already experienced food visions upon awakening and a somewhat obsessive compulsion about food, which I had not experienced on a fast before.

Hope this helps and good luck!!

#5
(Tim W) #6

I deal with this constantly. As you lose fat AND fast, your body temp will drop, you are not producing any “excess” heat from the digestion process.

I can eat a cup of ice and my fingertips turn white, blood is being kept in the core for temperature regulation. I have a cup of warm tea and things go back to normal.

In addition, I’ve found that adding a daily iodine supplement helped. I found that most of our sodium in the house had little/no iodine and the way I understand it, iodine helps regulate body temps and other metabolic activities.

(Crippie) #7

This helped me a ton! Thank you!

I didn’t get to update before I left camping, but I ended up breaking my fast around hour 50. I just started to feel very unpleasant, and it made it hard to get ready packing. So I broke it off, lost about 4 pounds total, after the weekend camping I was only 2lbs above my fasted weight before leaving, so I considered the weekend a success!

(Crippie) #8

Hi there!

Thank you!

This helped me a lot. A little update, I only made it to 50 hours of the planned 72 hours. I looked back to your post about laddering up and about keeping my sanity. It got to the point where I felt very unpleasant, and could only think about trying to stay fasted. Made it very hard to pack up for camping. SO I decided to break it. It still worked out very well. The unpleasant feeling went away very quickly and I was able to get back on with camping prep.

The good news, I went from 292 to 288 during the fast, I have heard to sort of expect to gain half of what you lose in a fast back in the days following just due to water weight and such. So I thought I was around 290ish starting my camping trip. I maintained keto the entire time, but definitely indulged more than I normally would So I expected a bump on the scale, but this morning was only 290.4 so I consider that a win.

Next month I plan to use what I learned with this one and expect I will make it to 72 hours this time :slight_smile:

Thanks again!

(Tim W) #9

Very welcome! Take care.