November IF/EF chat, all welcome!

(Ethan) #77

I’m 46 hours through my first fast of November, a 120-hour extended fast. I’m struggling though this time with work and headaches. My wife is out of town this week, so I am taking care of my son and managing the house as well. To make it worse, I injured my back putting on my belt yesterday morning. I guess I had lost too much weight and strained myself trying to pull enough fo the belt through? weird…

(Donna ) #78

Coming off a difficult week (or maybe I’m still in the midst of another difficult week?) because last Wednesday I had my yearly physical and I got the flu shot.

Well, it’s either the flu shot or I picked up a virus at the doctor’s office, because by Thursday afternoon I was feeling a little sick and headachey, and by Friday evening had a sore throat. My husband had bought tickets to a local concert, but I stayed home with my sore throat and he went by himself. On Saturday the body aches and severe headaches started. (My 21 yr. old son also has had the same symptoms, he missed work on Saturday.)

I fasted 20 hours and drank hot green tea. On Sunday, I had to stay home and miss my 17 yr old son playing at a jazz brunch (I never, EVER miss when my son is performing!) so you know I felt bad.

I thought I was on the mend yesterday (Monday) as the body aches have stopped, so I had a NY strip steak and enjoyed it. But, my nose is dripping and burning. :frowning: It’s Tuesday morning, headache and burning sinuses are back so I’ve taken a Sudafed. My 21 yr old son was feeling better last night. I hope he’s better today.

I haven’t been able to go walking. My face looks puffy, my eye bags have bags. I’m kinda bummed, but what else to do but wait it out and KCKO? I thought about trying to do a long fast, but I feel bad and part of me just wants to curl up with some BPC (so I did.) I’ll play it by ear for the rest of the day. There’s no keto food in the house except eggs. If I can do a 36-48 hour fast, I will. But, if not, oh well.

If I felt well enough, I’d make some chicken soup. But, I’m the only one that cooks.

In it for life. Keto on.

(What The Fast?!) #79

I’m going for a 120 hour fast as well - my longest has been 96 hours so far! I’m 61 hours in right now.

(Ethan) #80

I do two 120-hour fasts a month, but this one has been tough with all the stress. I am pushing through it though, thinking about whether to break it with a bison ribeye or bison kansas city steak.

(What The Fast?!) #81

both sound amazing. :smiley: I’ll break most likely with a cobb salad or bacon and eggs, those are my favorite things to break with.

(Doodler for @KetoKailey) #82

Happy Tuesday, Boys and Girls!

Just read EF/IF do not need to be keto (WIKI Acronym)…but my IFs have always been keto.

Yours?

Does cream in my coffee confound a fast?
(What The Fast?!) #83

If I do a long EF, I’ll include some non-keto things (still whole foods) because if I’m jumping right back into a fast, I find I’m deep enough in ketosis that I don’t drop out - or if I DO drop out of ketosis, I easily get back into it because fasting. I usually eat a lot of vegetables and sometimes fruit, because it helps with :poop:!

(migorstmarseille) #84

Hello everyone. Hope you’re all holding up well.

I’m doing my first EF this month. I started at 8:30pm Sunday night, so I’m at about 40 hours now. I did a 120 hour fast last month, and I’m shooting for 120 - 168 hours this time. I’ve felt great so far, except for about an hour window last night where some family drama stoked the emotional hunger and I almost broke. But, after taking a breather from the drama, I took a little pink himalayan salt and kept going. This morning, I got up and did about 20 minutes of DDP Yoga and have felt great ever since. Just running on water, black coffee, iced tea, and ketoaide.

My past fasts of 48, 72, 96 and 120 hours have gotten progressively easier as I go along. I’ve been pretty much following a 16:8 or 20:4 IF schedule for a year and a half, but am considering doing 3 day EF / 4 day IF 20:4 every week between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

(migorstmarseille) #85

Yes. Always. Keto makes IF and EF so much easier.

(Carolus Holman) #86

25 hours into an unintentional fast. Starting to get the belly gnaws, had some salt. Is it normal to experience hunger on a fast when fat adapted?

(Mark Rhodes) #87

Our first EF fasts were 3 months in. My wife struggled and I did not. Looking back on the info we gathered she is far more insulin resistant than I am meaning she had a harder time accessing her fat stores. 3 months farther in her average BHB has dropped which I interpret as she has less available ketones in her blood and is likely using them as we eat far cleaner now than then. She also has less difficulty with fasting. I think based on my readings to date is you can be fat adapted, that is have a preference for fat as a fuel but still not be quite capable of engaging in lipolysis as efficiently as others, yet. We all come to this from different starting points.

To your question: sure. I started fasting last night for either two 36 hr EF back to back with a single meal in between or just a single 96 hour fast. I had hunger thoughts 2 hours ago which I put down to lunch time cravings. I will get more when I get home as the mental cue is “oh boy time for some lunchmeat” and yet again around dinner time. What I have noted is my hunger is far more controlled by cues rather than real hunger. If this is your first fast, put some salt under your tongue, dissolve. If that doesn’t help you through and your fingers are cold or numb, perhaps end it and chalk it up to learning. My first was about 44 hours.

Why do you fast?
(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #88

Yes. The difference is, it should pass. Try hydrating, electrolytes, even sleep (yes, rest!) or distraction. Hour 24 is hardest for most, just push through it. Try eating a pinch of salt.

(Carolus Holman) #89

Yes I am salting, I just want to be doing what’s right. I am in my 5th week of Keto!

(What The Fast?!) #90

Yay!!! Brenda is here!!!
Something I’ve been doing is adding salt LIBERALLY along with NoSalt/LiteSalt to my water all day. Probably 1T of salt and 1/2T of the other in a liter of water. The taste is super salty at first, but you get used to it and it ends up kind of tasting like soup, to be honest. I haven’t tried warming it up, but I will try that today. :slight_smile: I prefer it to salt under the tongue and It definitely helps with hunger.

(Ethan) #91

I have found salt on the tongue more tolerable than under. I tried the salt in water, but I found the taste of the water unsatisfying. It was easier to just eat a ton of salt and then drink water.

(8 year Ketogenic Veteran) #92

Sup Andrea? How are things?

#93

Wow! You are motivated, I hope it will knock out that plateau for you.
I have been fasting since Sunday night and hope just to make it through until tomorrow night for a total of 68-70 hours. Fasting has never broken a plateau for me yet. So, I don’t really expect anything from fasting in that area, but I am happy knowing that bit by bit my Insulin Resistance may be reduced.
Obliterate away!

#94

Have these fasts helped you to “break through” a weight plateau or decrease your IR?

From what I understand you would likely see the weight begin to drop once there is a marked reduction in insulin production.

(KCKO, KCFO) #95

Well, looks like I have fallen into once a day eating. This is day three and it just turned out this way. I am feeling great, scale has moved the way I wanted it to, so I’m just gonna be carrying on…

#96

I know that I do, I have to remember to keep drinking plenty of water or tea, ketoaide etc. and salt, salt, salt.