September 2022 IF/EF Chat (All Welcome)

(Michael) #19

Trying not to lose weight here ( for IR), sounds good though. 6 months is a long time, but I am thinking 3 to start and then decide.

(Central Florida Bob ) #20

That’s probably even better than six months.

Someone around here (Bob - @ctviggen ?) said once you start doing regular fasting, you’ll never know what you weigh. There’s lots of wisdom in that.

(Bob M) #21

@CFLBob I did have trouble finding a weight when fasting. I’d lose 5 pounds the first day of the fast, for instance. I assume this is the fact I’m not eating (at least a few pounds right there), I tend not to drink much when I’m fasting (probably a pound there). But the problem is that if you’re losing 5 pounds in one day, it makes it hard to determine what your real weight is. And when you eat, you’re gaining almost all of that back.

I did two 36 hours twice a week for a while. I think it’s possible to overdo this, and I think I did. If you start getting cold a lot, including when you’re not fasting, then that’s an issue.

Now, I do one 36 hour fast a week at most. I aim for one per week, and usually get a few per month. I did fast 36 hours this week, but not last week, but I think the week before that, I did one.

@Naghite, I recommend following Bob’s advice and mixing things up. Say, one week or two weeks of fasting 3x/week, then 1-2 weeks of “normal” eating, maybe a 3 day fast, then 1-2 weeks of normal eating, etc.

@Shinita, OMAD or 2MAD within a short window should be similar. Even when I’m eating OMAD, it’s really like 2MAD within a very short window, as often I eat something, then have to do something, then eat a bit more.

Edit: I would like to do a 4.5 day fast at some point. Not sure when that will be, though.

(Central Florida Bob ) #22

What I noticed during my weeks of 3 Alternate Day Fasts was that my weight tended to roller coaster up and down. My days of not eating were Sunday, Tues and Thurs, so those fasts ran from the night before till the morning after. Reading that isn’t even clear to me, so what I mean is that for, say, Sunday, my last food was Saturday night, No Later Than about 8PM, and my next meal was Monday around 11 to noon. Those are roughly 40 hour fasts.

While I expected to record my lowest weight of the week on Friday, it was on Wednesday some weeks, too. My highest was always at the start - Sunday morning - after two days of eating and drinking more normally. I’d have to go dig out my spread sheets, but I don’t recall ever losing five pounds in day - unless I had abnormal bowel problems.

Nowadays, trying for maintenance, I tend to do one 40 hour fast a week, and that’s typically on Thursday. Mostly because my wife prefers that. I have made an effort to both drink more water and get more electrolytes. For two reasons: first is that in the 28th to 36th hours (overnight) I’d have to get up too much to dump water. I HAT*E that. Second off, I’d get more muscle cramps. Strangely, almost always, my right leg, calf down to toes. So now I have one bullion cube in two cups of water in place of dinner (tip to Dr. Phinney) and then later in the evening, I make up a glass of lemonade with 1/4 tsp Redmond’s Real Salt and 1/4 tsp potassium chloride salt. I make it as lemonade just for the taste being better.

(Bob M) #23

Interesting about the weight during fasting.

I have to do the same thing: increase electrolytes while fasting. I take salt under my tongue, and use electrolyte drops. Otherwise, I can get a cramp.

In fact, this time when doing my body weight exercise after fasting 32 hours, I had to cut back on certain exercises due to cramps.

#24

Interesting that cramp never was an issue… Maybe because I never did longer fasts except once almost 5 days but I did high-carb back then and never had cramps, they came on keto with too little meat…
48 hour is so short I don’t supplement anything.
But I WISH I could do 48 hour fasts again. Maybe I will soon, my food obsession definitely got weaker, that is an important part, now my body needs to forget its obsession with eating every day… :slight_smile: Well I will be here, ready so whenever it will be cooperative, I do a short but long for me fast, 40-48 hours or something!

Today I had an about 3 hour eating window and TMAD. I am quite fine with this right now.

(Central Florida Bob ) #25

Since I’m always keeping an eye out for improvements, are those home made or store bought drops? Assuming they’re from a store, do you have a brand name?

(Bob M) #26

I’ve tried fasting drops from somewhere, but no longer have that bottle to remember where.

These are what I have now, which have a lot of magnesium but no real salt:

So, I still have to take salt. I’ve had this bottle for a really long time.

These add a distinctive flavor to water, and consequently, I only drink a few glasses like this. Also, during fasting, I tend to drink a lot less water, so maybe 2 glasses of this and maybe one other glass of water. I’ll have to see if I can remember to write down the number of glasses of water.

What tends to happen is that I drink very little during fasting, but after I eat, I sometimes will drink and drink and drink… I think that’s why, when I was using the scale, my weight changed so much. If I’m not eating and drinking very little, that likely means I’m “losing” a lot the first day. Then, I eat and drink a ton, meaning I’m “gaining” a lot the next day.

#27

Interesting… Do you have any idea why? How much do you drink normally?
I am a very thirsty type and anyway, I like drinking, if I don’t eat, it’s nice to have some weak tea at least but I enjoy my morning warm water too :wink:
I barely ever can follow my water intake as I drink before I remember to measure it. And why to measure, it’s a lot anyway… Once I “forcefully” drank 4 liters, that wasn’t good, I was super thirsty all day because of anti-logic of my body… I probably drink 2-3 liters a day but mostly in the later hours. I had days with only coffee until like 4pm but that was far from typical and I drank a huge amount of very weak coffee then…
I can’t imagine drinking little.

If I manage to fast for some days in my future, I will be curious about my weight changes but I don’t expect much. Some, obviously but not much. Similarly, if I eat a ton, I barely can measure anything on the scale the next day. Fasting is a tad different but not nearly as serious as I usually read from others…

I have more and more days when I am satiated until dinnertime and have no appetite then, possibly not even hunger (but I feel I will need fuel soon. I could function without it but my body starts to encourage me to eat…)… Sometimes I even wonder if I can pull off a fasting day but due to the thing in the parentheses, I never find it a good idea to push it. But I pretty much lost my mental need to eat so I am ready for the day when my body will be cooperative again. And I may push it a bit sometimes…

(Jane) #28

My hubby and I started a 45-hr fast after lunch yesterday and will break tomorrow mid-day.

KCFO fellow fasters!

(Robin) #29

Very cool you are doing this together. I wonder how many couples do that.

(Central Florida Bob ) #30

Interesting solution (in both senses of the word). Essentially magnesium chloride.

My electrolyte solution that I drink is
1/4 tsp Redmond Real Salt, which is 531mg of Sodium, 841mg Chloride - which works out to be 98% of the minerals. The other 2% is pretty much the whole periodic table.
1/4 tsp Potassium Chloride salt, about 800 mg Potassium (they don’t mention how much chloride).

I drink that in about 8 or 10 ounces of water once on regular days and lately three times on fasting days. I try to force myself to drink water on fasting days but don’t like the way it tends to pour right through. That’s why I take 1600 mg of sodium - to try to retain water. Even so, the water weight seems to dominate the scale. I have one of those Renpho body composition scales - the kind with just pads you stand on, not a handle you grab - and it has told me my percent water has been higher on days I weigh less. Bear in mind that I’m trying to track around 4 ounces per measurement when the scale has an accuracy of about 8x that.

For a Mg supplement, I take “Doctor’s Best” Magnesium Lycinate Glycinate once a day, 100 mg. I should probably at least double that - the bottle says to take two twice a day.


I do eat green leafy things, and mostly carnivore, so I may be overestimating how much I get from food.

Yesterday wasn’t a fasting day and I had a relatively normal diet with ground chuck and cheese meatloaf for dinner. I had a calf cramp that woke me up for good this morning. More magnesium?

(Jane) #31

I hope your numbers get better as your fast more.

Back in 2019 before I started working from home full time I used to do 60-hr fasts when I worked in Ft Worth for the week. My GKI would usually drop below 1 after 50 hours or so. I can’t get strips for my outdated KetoMojo so I quit testing ketones.

(Jane) #32

28 hours in and cruising along. A few mild waves of hunger that a bit of pink salt crystals under the tongue took care of. I haven’t been able to fast for a couple of months now but it didn’t matter.

Just need to make it a few more hours until bedtime then I will sleep during the rest of my fast.

(Bob M) #33

Well, today is my day to fast 36 hours, as I can take our puppy to class at 7:30pm-8:15pm. That means I can go home, get the puppy, go to class, come home, be ready for bed.

However, I think I have the same cold that’s gone through my two kids and my wife. I’m going to fast until dinnertime, but then make a decision as to whether I can make it.

#34

I regularly do NoFUN “fasting”. It’s more about taking a daily break from the physiology of eating than fasting. No food until noon. Then aim to get my evening meal done with the sunset. There is variability due to work and life. It turns into 2MAD most days, as I do not like to snack. I do aim to drink some beef bone broth in the mix.

(Michael) #35

Started ADF on the 12th, so here are my Sept numbers for the month, including the previous 3 day fast numbers. I stopped taking readings for a week or so.

date time glucose ketone GKI Weight (in pounds) BP Hours into Fast
1-Sep-22 3:15 PM 4.9 0.4 12.25 137.4 97/57/61 15
2-Sep-22 3:15 PM 5.7 0.6 9.50 136.6 101/65/57 38
3-Sep-22 7:35 AM 5.1 0.8 6.38 135 96/54/51 55
3-Sep-22 10:35 PM 4.5 1.3 3.46 134.6 94/56/49 70
4-Sep-22 7:35 AM 3.8 2.7 1.41 134.2 92/52/53 79
4-Sep-22 1:45 PM 4.5 1.5 3.00 137.8 86
5-Sep-22 8:45 AM 5.6 1.3 4.31 134.4 100/61/50 12
5-Sep-22 3:35 PM 4.9 1.9 2.58 19
7-Sep-22 6:05 PM 5.5 0.8 6.88 21
9-Sep-22 6:45 PM 5.1 0.3 17.00 21
13-Sep-22 8:45 AM 5.7 1.2 4.75 131 96/64/56 32
14-Sep-22 10:45 PM 4.9 0.5 9.80 133.4 24
15-Sep-22 8:45 AM 5.6 1.9 2.95 131 105/64/48 36
16-Sep-22 8:45 AM 5.7 1.9 3.00 132.6 12
16-Sep-22 11:05 PM 4.5 0.3 15.00 134 26
17-Sep-22 8:15 AM 4.2 1.5 2.80 131 99/63/47 35
18-Sep-22 8:55 AM 6.1 1.7 3.59 133.4 11
19-Sep-22 8:45 AM 7.7 1.9 4.05 133.8 11
19-Sep-22 3:15 PM 6.3 0.6 10.50 17
19-Sep-22 11:15 PM 4.4 0.6 7.33 26
20-Sep-22 8:30 AM 5.2 0.6 8.67 131.8 36
21-Sep-22 10:15 PM 3.9 0.4 9.75 132.8 24
22-Sep-22 8:00 AM 4.8 0.7 6.86 131 35
23-Sep-22 8:00 AM 5.9 1 5.90 132.6 9
23-Sep-22 10:25 PM 4.8 0.6 8.00 25
24-Sep-22 7:25 AM 4.5 1.3 3.46 130.8 34
24-Sep-22 2:05 PM 5.9 0.4 14.75 40
25-Sep-22 9:25 AM 5.5 2.3 2.39 132.2 11
26-Sep-22 11:25 PM 4.3 0.7 6.14 132.4 97/63/46 25
27-Sep-22 8:05 AM 4.5 1 4.50 130.4 35
28-Sep-22 9:25 AM 5.2 1.2 4.33 131 10
28-Sep-22 11:05 PM 4.2 1.2 3.50 25
29-Sep-22 8:25 AM 4.6 1.9 2.42 129 34
29-Sep-22 11:15 PM 4.8 132.4 1
30-Sep-22 8:25 AM 6.5 131 11
30-Sep-22 9:15 PM 4.3 23

ran out of ketone strips, more on way in mail.

#36

Love the data.

(KCKO, KCFO) #37

Continue chatting over here:

(Robin) closed #38