Falling for Fasting

[T2#Me]

Just had to share this ........

As suggested on this forum, I have been reading Jason Fung epub books and watching Jason Fung videos until my eyes crossed and my ears popped ...

So I decided to give his suggestions a try, in my typical not too well organised fashion, to see what would occur...

First, I stopped eating between meals ... I thought that would be difficult, but not so, actually. (Mind you, I did have to hide the bread and fruit in the kitchen under tea towels. Dumb, but it works )

Next, I progressed to skipping breakfast. So I was in effect fasting from evening meal one day until lunch the next day. I thought this would be a noble sacrifice that I could boast about to the kids, but not so, actually... It just seemed a natural easy thing to do, and I did not have any nasty side effects, not even hungry really. In fact, I felt more calm and energetic than in a long while.

I was planning to continue this fasting dinner/lunch for a while, to see where it would lead, however this morning when I awoke, not only did I not want breakfast (taken for granted now) but the idea of lunch did not appeal very much. This was astounding. I can safely say this was a first in my long lifetime. Many's the time and oft I have skipped breakfast in my life, but the thought of not having a good lunch was always anathema to me, always and ever.

Colour me confused ...

So ... I thought I'll wait and see, half expecting to give in to hunger pangs mid afternoon and have some grub, but, to my further surprise, there were in fact no hunger pangs to give in to ... AND my energy levels seemed to increase as time went on, so that my little dog got the surprise of his life when we walked at least twice as far as usual, and without me getting unduly puffed or tired. He looked at me funny ...

And finally, when dinner was served, I ate the same, more or or less, as yesterday i.e. the expected ravenous hunger pains did not materialise ... my wife looked at me funny ...in 47 years of marriage she has never seen me eat so little, at least without complaining bitterly ...

Soooo ... I'm counting this as my first dinner/dinner fast (Jason doesn't need to know it just happened to me, like income tax) and I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

It's an adventure.



Anyone else had this experience? What should I be wary of? It just seems too easy ...

 

[bulkbiker]

Just had to share this ........

As suggested on this forum, I have been reading Jason Fung epub books and watching Jason Fung videos until my eyes crossed and my ears popped ...

So I decided to give his suggestions a try, in my typical not too well organised fashion, to see what would occur...

First, I stopped eating between meals ... I thought that would be difficult, but not so, actually. (Mind you, I did have to hide the bread and fruit in the kitchen under tea towels. Dumb, but it works )

Next, I progressed to skipping breakfast. So I was in effect fasting from evening meal one day until lunch the next day. I thought this would be a noble sacrifice that I could boast about to the kids, but not so, actually... It just seemed a natural easy thing to do, and I did not have any nasty side effects, not even hungry really. In fact, I felt more calm and energetic than in a long while.

I was planning to continue this fasting dinner/lunch for a while, to see where it would lead, however this morning when I awoke, not only did I not want breakfast (taken for granted now) but the idea of lunch did not appeal very much. This was astounding. I can safely say this was a first in my long lifetime. Many's the time and oft I have skipped breakfast in my life, but the thought of not having a good lunch was always anathema to me, always and ever.

Colour me confused ...

So ... I thought I'll wait and see, half expecting to give in to hunger pangs mid afternoon and have some grub, but, to my further surprise, there were in fact no hunger pangs to give in to ... AND my energy levels seemed to increase as time went on, so that my little dog got the surprise of his life when we walked at least twice as far as usual, and without me getting unduly puffed or tired. He looked at me funny ...

And finally, when dinner was served, I ate the same, more or or less, as yesterday i.e. the expected ravenous hunger pains did not materialise ... my wife looked at me funny ...in 47 years of marriage she has never seen me eat so little, at least without complaining bitterly ...

Soooo ... I'm counting this as my first dinner/dinner fast (Jason doesn't need to know it just happened to me, like income tax) and I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.

It's an adventure.



Anyone else had this experience? What should I be wary of? It just seems too easy ...

Welcome to the crazy world of intermittent fasting! You just did your first OMAD (One meal a day) yes we have acronyms aplenty.
I stopped having breakfast on diagnosis and now just eat once (dinner) or twice (lunch and dinner) depending on how I feel.
Sometimes I'll replace lunch with a late afternoon pork scratching snack if peckish. It's far easier than most people imagine. I will admit to coffees with cream in the morning along with tea and lactofree milk but thats about all before 1 pm always.
Watch out the fasting bug can be slightly catching I just did 4 days and just had some poached eggs which will be all I have today.

 

[lindijanice]

Hey T2#Me congrats on the successful fasting!! I love that both your wife and dog are looking at you kinda funny I am currently reading Dr. Fung's book The Complete Guide To Fasting - I love all the science he gives behind what he says to do!! I am hoping in a couple of weeks to start a two or three day fast for the first time and wanted all the info I could get my hands on and Dr. Fung is #1 in my books! Hopefully you will be able to continue on....and further confuse your wife and dog!! Cheers/L

 

[DavidGrahamJones]

I have been reading Jason Fung epub books and watching Jason Fung videos until my eyes crossed and my ears popped

He seems to make a lot of sense and he has helped explain a lot of mysteries that were stored up in my head. I think I personally and maybe not just me, have listened to the "establishment" for too long, things like "you must have breakfasts", "most important meal of the day" sort of thing. I certainly don't have breakfast Monday to Friday and I often skip lunch but the weekend is different. Years of following the low fat, low cholesterol advice meant that eggs and bacon were kept to a minimum, so eggs on Saturday and bacon on Sunday was a treat. How sad is that, not even in the same meal! We still do that and enjoy it.

Glad things have worked well enough for you to share. The thing I notice with my sometimes OMAD, sometimes 2, sometimes 3, is that my dawn phenomena disappears when I just have one meal.

 

[kokhongw]

Anyone else had this experience? What should I be wary of? It just seems too easy ...

Yes...only those who haven't tried thinks it is impossible. Dr Jason Fung had also noted that almost all his patients found it easier than they thought...the magic of ketones.

 

[kokhongw]

Comments from a 1960s 14 day fasting experiment...

 

[first14808]

Oh. Mad!

Acronyms, acronyms everywhere..

But congratulations! I've been doing the OMAD thing for over 5yrs.. Caveat being I was diagnosed with T2D during that time. But that was probably more due to activity levels and carb intake during that one meal. That would have been typically heavy in rice, bread, spuds, pasta. So one puzzle I had was why, if I only ate once a day did I gain weight?

(you can probably guess the answer)

Post-diagnosis, I still do the OMAD thing but just changed my diet to cut the carbs and replace those with veg. Personally I think we've had a Pavlovian conditioning to 'needing' 3 square meals a day. Plus snacks. Downside is most of us have a lower activity level than our ancestors, and healthy breakfasts and meals have been replaced with carb-heavy and far less healthy alternatives. And we have an obesity epidemic, but correlation isn't causation. The junk food lobby are quick to tell us this.

Again personally, I think starting on a 'fasting' route does something very important, namely break that 3-a-day habit. I think this also explains problems with yo-yo dieting, ie the psychological effects as much as physiological. Initially, we feel hungry, especially if people around us are eating and we're not. Gradually, that learned behaviour gets unlearned and I think it's easier to recognise when we're really hungry. Or just common-sense stuff, like if I'm expecting to do a lot more activity, I may eat more. And then of course there's simple safety measures, like keeping an eye on our weight. Or now we can get body composition scales to give an idea about fat/muscle/water ratios for finer tuning.

That's all sound diet 101 stuff. If we're losing weight and want to, gradual weight loss is fine. If we're losing weight and don't want to, eat a bit more.. Just make it a healthier meal. Eat when we're hungry, not when the junk food industry is trying to sell us a 5,000 calorie happy meal..

 

[T2#Me]

Thanks everyone for the support ... much appreciated.

So far today I am on song for another cough cough OMAD ... (LOL) which will be three in a row ... again, today, feeling sooper dooper ... tiny reservation is I'm not clear how long you should do OMAD for, ie is there a best ratio for beginners like 3 or 4 or 5 days a week, or just keep going until you feel like a break? Much trial and error, I'm guessing.

I too am reading Jason Fung's Ultimate Guide To Fasting, which gave me confidence (despite the scary science in parts .. ewww) to give it a try ... bless his little cotton socks, I say!

Added bonus - my dearly beloved, a vegetarian, after these many years supporting Eatwell diet, has now begun to count the carbs instead of calories (after she was put on steroids and gained weight) so maybe I can get her on a lchf diet one day ... happy days!

 

[first14808]

... tiny reservation is I'm not clear how long you should do OMAD for, ie is there a best ratio for beginners like 3 or 4 or 5 days a week, or just keep going until you feel like a break? Much trial and error, I'm guessing.

Yup. But it sounds like you've already got a handle on that. So when you don't feel hungry and you feel that you've got enough energy. Congratulate yourself on a contented metabolic system!

I really do think a lot of it is about breaking the habit. I used to grab a BLT baguette to eat on the commute into work. Breakfast! Then something at lunch on account of it being, well, lunchtime. Then more food when I got home because that was dinner time. So food intake was based more on habit or routine than hunger. OMAD for me's been much the same, and 1 meal a day in the evening works for me. You may prefer a decent breakfast or lunch meal time, just base it on what you're body is telling you.

It can be a bit of a challenge though. So recently I went for my HbA1c (37!) and routine bloods. It was around 3pm, nurse said 'you must be starving!'. And it was a 'nope'. And that was also after walking around 2 miles into town & then walking home again. BG happy at around 5 and I felt fine.

But that may not happen for a few weeks, or months.. Just find a pace that works for you!

Added bonus - my dearly beloved, a vegetarian, after these many years supporting Eatwell diet, has now begun to count the carbs instead of calories (after she was put on steroids and gained weight) so maybe I can get her on a lchf diet one day ... happy days!

Well, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes.. all vegetarian. Just saying..

 

[T2#Me]

Well, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes.. all vegetarian. Just saying..

Yup. Exactly what she says

 

[T2#Me]

So ... weekly weigh in shows loss of another 1lb 2 oz ... kind of expected more due to the 4 OMADs, however that's probably unrealistic ... I am happy that I am slowly melting away

 

[bulkbiker]

So ... weekly weigh in shows loss of another 1lb 2 oz ... kind of expected more due to the 4 OMADs, however that's probably unrealistic ... I am happy that I am slowly melting away

Speed of melting will probably depend to some extent on amount of melting required..!

 

[T2#Me]

So ... I have now completed 7 days on One Meal A Day ... still feeling good and energy improving all the time (my dog is very happy about this) ...
Just now I can't make up my mind whether to just keep on omad for another 7 days or move on to full fasting to try to shake up insulin resistance and improve weight loss ... now I have tried bone broth I'm pretty sure I could manage this, and, if not, it would presumably be easy to just drop back onto omad or even just lchf ... I better consult the Gospel According To Jason Fung and take it from there

 

[bulkbiker]

So ... I have now completed 7 days on One Meal A Day ... still feeling good and energy improving all the time (my dog is very happy about this) ...
Just now I can't make up my mind whether to just keep on omad for another 7 days or move on to full fasting to try to shake up insulin resistance and improve weight loss ... now I have tried bone broth I'm pretty sure I could manage this, and, if not, it would presumably be easy to just drop back onto omad or even just lchf ... I better consult the Gospel According To Jason Fung and take it from there

Great results but I would urge slight caution.. it's a marathon not a sprint so extended fasting I'd advise waiting till the new year and maybe try mixing it up a bit too. So sticking to OMAD can sometimes lead to "normalisation" i.e. your body gets used to it and it ceases to be so effective.

 

[T2#Me]

Great results but I would urge slight caution.. it's a marathon not a sprint so extended fasting I'd advise waiting till the new year and maybe try mixing it up a bit too. .

Thanks for kind assistance. . Yes, I think the best option is to stick with omad and/or lchf until New Year. It is indeed a marathon and impatience will not help ... you know the old saying "Patience is a virtue : catch it if you can : seldom in a woman : never in a man.

 

[LeftPeg]

I'm down to two meals a day, but perhaps still snack a little bit much. Providing I don't have too much coffee on an empty stomach, I have no ill-effects of missing breakfast. Especially as I used to have cereal or white toast every day.

 

[T2#Me]

OK, reached my first target today ... extremely chuffed, to say the least. It's a long time since the figure 12 (stone) popped up on my scales

Weight now down to 12 stone 13 lbs, a reduction of 8 lbs since I started lchf ... best thing is I am actually finding omad easier as I go along, so feeling very lucky.

Next target is 13 st 7 lbs, let's see how long that one takes

 

[T2#Me]

I'm down to two meals a day, but perhaps still snack a little bit much. Providing I don't have too much coffee on an empty stomach, I have no ill-effects of missing breakfast. Especially as I used to have cereal or white toast every day.

Well done you (I found it hard to give up snacking as well )

 

[T2#Me]

Today my weight is 12s 12lb 8 oz. Good.

I have decided to change my daily meal to lunch, in that way my fasting time just from lunch to my morning testing time will be increased by maybe 5 or 6 hours (the total fasting time will remain unchanged) ... useful if doing daily weigh in. Also it is more convrnient for the family, so all good.

 

[first14808]

On testing and weighing, I think it's a combination of what you're measuring, and consistency. So if you test BG first thing on waking, result will be influenced by the liver dump/dawn phenomenon. Pre/post meal would give you an idea of how you're responding to that meal.

For OMAD, I'm not sure whether time of day matters as much. There may be some differences based on exertion profiles and possibly natural circadian rythms, but it'd still be one meal a day. And if lunch is more convenient for your family, it's going to be easier for you to stick with it.

And.. don't sweat the small stuff! I'd suggest keeping a note of your results so you can graph them and look at the trends. I think there can also be a danger of getting obsessed about daily readings and changes and possibly trying to correct for those. If you just carry on LCHF and/or OMAD and the results after a month, 3 months, 6 months are showing you a nice trend, that's all good!