another new guy question/fasting

[Scott F.]

I'm eating one meal a day most of the month. On nights, I eat about 7:30 after the shift starts each night and when I'm off it is about 6PM, but once per day.

When I'm on days I eat a small breakfast, maybe a couple hard boiled eggs and that gets me thru the day and then eat at 6PM.

I've watched some videos and read some literature on people with the same auto-immune condition I have and several of them spoke highly on the benefit of fasting.

A few mentioned their actual diet being carnivore.

The weight loss is great, the not taking pain/inflammation medicine is even better but I am reading about people no longer needing their infusions with MS as well as NMOSD. Some strictly carnivore and others with a combination of a no-carb/low carb diets with fasting from as much as 24 hours to five day water fasts. 

Since I'm not actually getting hungry at 24-hour intervals I have been thinking about stretching it out to 48 to see where I land.

 

Thoughts? Experiences?

Scott

[Geezy]

It’s really just an individual thing in my opinion.
I’m in the category that I only eat when I’m hungry and then I eat until I’m comfortably full. That generally results in OMAD. It works well for me so far.
Some people do advocate for long fasts and there is some science behind it but others like Dr. Chaffee don’t feel there’s any benefit to it unless you are trying to cure something in particular.


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[Scott F.]

Thanks for the reply.

Just thought I would throw it out there. I like adding any personal insights of others. Mostly because at the end of your post you didn't say, "Supply is limited, act now. But....if you order within the next fifteen minutes we will throw in another absolutely free". I always wonder how supply is limited but we have enough to give it away. 

But since science just figured out how to match the number of hotdogs in one package and enough rolls in another I should not stretch the community with more to ponder.

 

Scott

[Geezy]

Lol! Your perspectives always bring a smile to my face.


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[Bob]

On 6/24/2024 at 11:08 PM, Scott F. said:

Thoughts? Experiences?

Some swear by it. I've done a few 24 hour fasts and one 40 hour fast. I'm sorta interested in doing it again, but at the same time, I like food, lol.

I believe I recall reading that fasting over 72 or 96 hours doesn't benefit you any more.

People will do this to speed up autophagy. But, autophagy actually is happening all the time. You can just give it a significant boost by fasting or lowering your caloric intake.

[computerwiz]

On 6/24/2024 at 10:08 PM, Scott F. said:

Thoughts? Experiences?

I've gone 8 days without eating, on purpose.  It was an amazing experience....I had so much more free time, I could smell things like never before, I lost 11 pounds in those 8 days.  I totally want to do it again....it's just really really hard to do if you have a very physically or mentally taxing job.  I was able to do it during a buyout at a previous company I worked for.  I had nothing to do....so no need to think super clearly.  

Be careful about your blood pressure when fasting that long....standing up too fast could be very bad for you.  Forget exercise.  Watch your electrolytes.  And be mindful of re-feeding syndrome.  It could be deadly.  When breaking a prolonged fast, you better know how to do it the right way.

I really want to do it again and I'm sure you'll want to know how it goes when I finally get to do it.  And I could use the encouragement to actually go through with it...

 

On 6/26/2024 at 2:33 PM, Bob said:

I believe I recall reading that fasting over 72 or 96 hours doesn't benefit you any more.

There are no new benefits.  But you continue to have the "max" benefits from that point in time.

Edited June 27 by computerwiz

[Bob]

Nice inforgraphic. Thanks for sharing. I'll be stealing, er, saving that one for later

[Scott F.]

I like the graphic as well.

I'm less than 2 months in on the carnivore diet. I just did my first 48 hour fast. It was much easier than I thought. At 48 hours I had yet to be hungry. That is really weird. I ate maybe a pound of pulled pork last night and had some left but simply felt full. I ate some colby jack cheese as well. 

I am a 12 hour rotating shift worker. There are not many positives to this work schedule but I think I have found it may be easier to fast during my stretch of nightshifts. Even before carnivore I see stretches of dayshifts where I don't take or make the time to eat. Night shift not quite as bad, but close. 

I think I am going to start fasting on night shift. I can do a 36-48 hour fast a couple three time per month. I'm not sure if that puts a little more intermittent in intermittent fasting. I don't know how regular the fasting needs to be as I would fast about two weeks apart and wonder would I need to do it again on the following two weeks when I am on days and off? 

Scott

[Bob]

4 hours ago, Scott F. said:

I'm not sure if that puts a little more intermittent in intermittent fasting.

For definitions, I always thought of intermittent fasting as something done within a 24 hour day, with a small eating window of 8 hours or less and a larger fasting window of at least 16 hours or more. Anything beyond 24 hours is an "extended fast", at least in my head.

 

[Scott F.]

All brand new to me so I guess "my definitions" morph at times. 

So far so good with making the carnivore diet fit my lifestyle vs. me making a bunch of changes, especially since being a rotating shift worker is like living on another planet anyway. After 30+ years (36 including military time) of shift type work I no longer have normal days like Monday or Thursday, weekends or week days, nor do I have holidays such as July 4th, Christmas Day or New Year's Eve. After all these years all I see on a calendar is dayshift, nightshift and off. Just those three days over and over.

I could be intermittent on nightshift really easy because a big chunk of the day is sleeping and to and from work. 48 hours over nightshift was way easier than I thought. I really think another 12-24 would have been a snap. 

I think the one meal a day (OMAD) approach is the intermittent part and then stretched out past 24 is fasting. This week, those are "my definitions". LOL

They may change next week. 

S

[Scott F.]

Tonight, while at work at 8PM I will have completed my first 72 hour fast. It is has been much easier than I thought it would be as it is 3PM and I'm still not hungry. It is like I could eat, but not actually hungry, if that make sense.

For me, it is really weird because I prior to carnivore I could eat a huge ribeye steak, a large loaded baked potato, several glasses of sweet tea/soft drinks and even finish off my wife's steak at times. No problem with the amounts at all.

On Friday night I ate two hamburger patties with cheese which was as much as I wanted. I ate four boiled eggs about an hour later at 8PM. I was more than stuffed. Since then I have yet to be hungry which seems crazy to me. Energy levels are still good. 

Based on how I feel I feel like I could go much longer which is the same way I felt on my first 48 hour fast. I'm going to cut it at 72 so I can get a better feel for what it is like to come out of the fast. I have read there can be some issues coming out. Going slow I guess.

This carnivore stuff is weird. LOL

Scott

 

[Meathead]

1 hour ago, Scott F. said:

I'm going to cut it at 72 so I can get a better feel for what it is like to come out of the fast. I have read there can be some issues coming out. Going slow I guess.

It's different for everyone as our body chemistry is different as well as our intakes. 

For me doing a 60 hr water fast was easy and coming off it I jumped back in head first with no ill effects. 

[Scott F.]

Amazing what four hours will do.

I posted four hours ago that I had not been hungry, and the energy levels were still up around 67-68 hours. I really felt good and considered stretching out further.

I made my normal forty-minute drive to work tonight and maybe half-way I felt hungry. First time on this fast and maybe the third time since May. Sort of a weird feeling.

The kicker was that just after the hunger feeling I felt a bit tired. When i got out of the truck at the plant it was like I hit a wall. I felt like I was carrying a load of bricks across the parking lot. It has been forever since I felt that tired coming to work, especially after a light night and sleeping really well during the day. 

I read 72 hours is the max benefit and from that point it sort of maintaining max benefit past 72 hours. Sort of a diminishing returns thought process. 

Tagging the fast to the weight stall I only dropped a couple pounds but did have to cinch my work belt up one notch tonight. 

Now I can chalk this one up to personal experience. 

Scott

[Meathead]

Keep up the great work @Scott F.. Every step forward is a positive regardless how big or small.

[Geezy]

Tagging the fast to the weight stall I only dropped a couple pounds but did have to cinch my work belt up one notch tonight. 

Yes, inches don’t always coincide with weight loss. Every stall I encountered I still lost inches.

I’ve only done one fast and it was only because I just didn’t feel like eating. I’ve got to admit it felt great.


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[Scott F.]

I'm sort of using the posts a 'make-shift journal' for each phase or experience.

The fast was weird in several ways. First, it was way easier than I ever expected. I was never hungry nor felt drained from the beginning to just about the very end. 71 hours went by like a breeze. The last hour was a tough. (sort of like anyone can run 26 miles in a marathon. It is the last .2 that is difficult)

I have not been that drained getting to work in forever. Maybe if I did 6 or 7 or 8 12 hours shifts that ended up being 13-14. But I was dragging across the parking lot.

I ate two burger patties with cheese and 2 boiled eggs. I had more eggs but I was full so I quit. Within a couple of hours of eating I felt much better. And from there the energy level was amazing. It was not like a caffeine induced, drug use with the heart racing 100mph. My heart rate was normal but I was border line hyper with energy. The night flew by as I was in constant motion all night. 

It is weird how far I swung in the last four hours of the fast to a not so good spot and then ~four hour later running around with crazy energy. 

Weird.

Scott