You are going to have to decide this on your own. I believe that healing takes time and the more metabolically deranged you are the longer it will take to heal.
I’ve had 3 day fasts without permanent weight loss. Yes I lose weight fasting but in the refeed cycle it returns. I’ve had weeks with no fasting and have had weight loss.
I’m thinking of doing a 48hr fast starting after supper tomorrow night.
Hi. This is my first post on this forum. I have been following keto for about 6 weeks and just finished my first ever 72 hour water fast. Amazingly I felt fine and could have gone longer but decided to stop as this is my first fast. My numbers seem odd to me, glucose in the mid 50"s and ketones between 5 and 6. Does that seem odd?
Not at all. I’ve seen my glucose in the 50’s and ketones over 7 by day 3.
As long as you were feeling ok - no worries!
Congrats on your first extended fast!
Congrats on your first 72 hour water fast and welcome to our lovely forum, Rose =).
I looked back and my lowest glucose was 52 and my corresponding ketones was 7.6 back in January. It was Day 3 (last day) of my water/black coffee fast.
Thank you. That really makes me feel better. I feel like I am jumping into the deep end while I still have so much to learn.
I’ve seen my glucose go into the mid 40s (around hour 60 of my fast), with ketones ranging from 4-6.
It seems this is normal. That’s great to hear. I am wondering how long should a person wait after a three day fast before doing another one. I am contemplating waiting until Monday while doing omad and then doing another 3 days. What are your thoughts?
I’d give it at least 3-4 days of eating before fasting again.
That sounds reasonable. Just make sure you don’t under eat in between, and as always, stop the fast if you feel bad.
Are you fasting for weight loss, autophagy, something else?
I’m only doing a few fasts a month. Maybe a 48hr fast and a 72hr, but thats about it. I’m doing mine for autophagy, and I don’t have a whole lot of “reserves” to rely on…so I’m limiting my fasting.
Welcome Rose. Some people new to keto have higher ketone levels early on till their body gets more efficient at using them and producing just enough.
Fasting for 72 hours so soon after starting is usually not done because people can take some time to be fat adapted. Given how well your fast went you seem to be fat adapted. So congratulations on that front.
If you are doing OMAD between fasts then make sure your OMAD is a good feast. Also listen to your body and hunger signals.
I don’t do OMAD so can’t comment on OMAD to Extended Fasting and back frequency. Tell us a little about what your goals are for keto and fasting. Others will likely add their advice on your question.
Hello happy fasters,
Checking in at 38 h. longest fast in mooonths.
my stomach is making annoying noises. other than that i feel well and energized, Locking forward to check my numbers, hope to manage another 24 h. I might add some fat to push forward.
LOL I messed that up! Without really thinking, trying to be efficient yesterday afternoon, I went to the food coop to buy very necessary egg and bacon when I was physically hungry as well.
I know others can do that while fasting but I am not there yet. So ended at 22 hours last night and had a normal keto omad. Lesson learned (hopefully)
I am traveling all next week for work which may make it easier to get some fasting in…I will make a plan, I know I have one business lunch on wednesday I will at least shoot for meal-less Monday!
I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and great weekend.
That’s one study of one fast. What you’re trying to do is combine multiple long-term fasts in a row. How many studies do this? Oh, none.
Some of them do alternate day fasting for a while, but none of them combine long fasts with short recovery periods.
For me, I personally can’t do even two 36 hour fasts in one week, let alone 3 or 3 42 hour fasts a week. I know Fung’s client can do 4 days of fasting in a row every week, but I’ve limited my 4.5 days of fasting to once every quarter, because I simply can’t do them that often. When I was 40+ pounds heavier, I could, but now I can’t.
I think Fung and his site does a disservice when it advocates extreme fasting like this. If you can handle it and you don’t get cold (as I did) or you don’t get brain fog after a while (as I do now, but did not before), or you don’t have any other deleterious effects, then do it. If you try one four day fast then one day of refeeding then another 4 day fast and at day 2 of second 4 day fast you say “what the heck was I thinking?”, then maybe it’s not for you.
I know when I do a 4.5 day fast, it takes me multiple days to recover. I will go to the bathroom 10+ times in one 24 hour period, for instance. I will sometimes even eat 3 meals in a day (very rare for me) because my body is recuperating. I drink water like I’ve not had water in days.
So, try it, but if it’s much more difficult than you anticipated (ie, you fail), don’t be concerned.
No money to be made in not eating so we aren’t going to see many studies other than clinics like Fung and Virta who advocate it for health and weight-loss reasons.
All we can do here is report our own experiences and those are quite varied, depending on how much fat stores we still have and other factors.
I was on IV antibiotics for 10 weeks to cure a staph infection in the bone from a surgery. I did not fast during that time.
As soon as my picc line was out I fasted for 72 hours each week for 4 weeks in a row. So fast 3 days, refeed 4 days, rinse and repeat for 4 weeks.
I felt great at the end of the 4 weeks and had very few issues fasting and refeeding but I still have enough padding on my hips even though I am at a stable weight and consider myself on maintenance.
My fasting schedule is dictated by my travel schedule and whether or not I am obligated to take colleagues out to dinner while traveling. I never fast at home as I want to enjoy meals with my husband. I just got lucky because the 4 weeks I was alone and was able to fast consecutively - I wanted to clear the IV meds from my system and liver as qucikly as possible.
Thank you for your thorough and informative answer. It is much appreciated. My goals are to lose another 25 to 30 pounds which would put me in the middle of normal BMI, overall health, and longevity.
I still have about 25 to 30 lbs. to lose. That is my primary goal but of course health and longevity count too.
Why do you think this is so?
Health and longevity have little correlation with BMI. See, eg:
Ivor Cummins had an interview with someone and one of them remarked that they did CAC scans on soccer players. These are elite athletes. Many of them had very high CAC scores. I’m sure their BMIs are great, but their health is not.
I often struggle with what my weight should be. Should I try to go down one more belt size? And if I did, what effect would that have? Other than to provide another “notch in my belt” of keto NSVs? It may not provide any, or maybe it does. The “science” is out.
Thus, I just do what I’m doing now: eat what I currently think is the best diet for me (which could change based on any evidence whatsoever), fast when I can, exercise without injury, have a good family life, take actions to reduce my stress. It that means I don’t meet (I must still be hungry - I had “meat” here) some freaking metric only related to your height and nothing else (BMI), then that’s what it’ll be.