Fasting? (Or, what went right this week?)

[Glink]

Are there others here who are unable to get normal metre readings while eating anything? I had sort of given up on getting normal readings, and was just trying to stay in the "pre" range through carb restriction, but just went 3 days without eating much of anything (for logistical reasons--travel + allergies + schedule messup--not illness) and at the end of that had my first normal fasting glucose in over a year. I've never been so keen on the idea of fasting, preferring small amounts of food regularly to keep things stable as possible, but now I'm wondering. I know there's a fasting forum and am beginning to explore it, but am unclear whether that's a good path for me to pursue or not, since I'm not trying to lose weight and I bike commute to/from work so have been concerned about being too low-energy. Anyone here have advice or experience with fasting helping when nothing else does?

 

[Lamont D]

Hi there,
You will probably come across those who use fasting as part of their treatment and have had success with it.
My condition needs to be approached by dietary needs. If I eat, there is a risk of producing too much insulin.
So I need a way to swerve this from happening.
So from my experience from fasting tests and the success of a very low carb diet.
I now please myself when I eat! I fast, I try to eat as little as possible through the day if I want to or not!
Intermittent fasting is good for me as it keeps me in permanent ketosis, which is where my body is healthiest and I get great energy levels.
Not everyone can fast, but it helps, just like sleep does, it gives you a rest from the hormones that create the imbalance in your blood.
You can only try and test and experiment!

Best wishes.

 

[bulkbiker]

I bike commute to/from work so have been concerned about being too low-energy.

I intermittent fast every day and have done extended fasts up to 7 days (a while ago I will admit)
There are quite a few people who eat a ketogenic (less than 20g of carb a day) diet and fast regularly who also do gym and bike exercise. One of the 2ketodudes (well worth checking out) often cycles after being fasted for 3 or 4 days without any problems. Once you are fat fuelled (which you would be if eating ketogenically) then you have access to your fat stores which you don't so much when using carbs for fuel.
I recently joined a gym after a couple of decades off because I had so much energy I didn't know what to do.. I now do 2 weights workouts and swim 3-4 times a week nearly always fasted.

 

[Fleegle]

Would you mind explaining what fasting in this context means. I understood fasting is nothing for a period of time - so I wonder how long each day you fast for? And whether that fasting includes anything at all.

Thank you.

 

[Bluetit1802]

I've never been so keen on the idea of fasting, preferring small amounts of food regularly to keep things stable as possible,

That may just be your problem. If you "graze" ie eating little but often throughout the day you are keeping your pancreas busy all day producing insulin, and by the time of your next food your levels haven't had chance to drop. I believe it is much better to have set mealtimes with nothing in between, whether you have 1, 2 or 3 meals.

 

[bulkbiker]

Would you mind explaining what fasting in this context means. I understood fasting is nothing for a period of time - so I wonder how long each day you fast for? And whether that fasting includes anything at all.

Thank you.

Not sure if you mean me.. but
I don't eat breakfast so start the day with a couple of mugs of tea(with full fat lactofree milk) .
At about 12 I'll have a coffee with double cream then maybe lunch or maybe not ( if yes then usually eggs and bacon)
If not then I'll just have dinner probably wth another coffee and more tea in the afternoon.
I have tried just water fasting but I'm afraid my caffeine addiction kicks in but I hate black coffee (hence the double cream).
I also tried a non dairy fast but that only lasted about 36 hours again coffee and cream being my downfall.
For longer fasts I just don't eat anything but have my usual drinks and maybe some broth with butter in. if I get hungry a mouthful of double cream usually assuages the pangs.
So for me fasting is not eating solids. Liquids only. Lots of people are more hardcore and fast for the benefits of autophagy which usually means water only with maybe black tea and black coffee. One day maybe I'll succeed in that one but not so far.

 

[Glink]

I need to read more, because now that I'm starting to read, a lot of what people are calling fasting (e.g. Eating low carb solids only within an 8h window) doesn't seem that much different from my usual. If I just have coffee before I go to work (sometimes do; other times have protein like eggs or meat with the coffee), I have nuts for snack at 10:30, a salad at 12:30, sometimes another snack before biking home, and dinner at 6:30. If I'm ravenous, which I occasionally am, I do have a snack like celery and almond butter before bed, but that's eliminable.

What seemed to work this week was 4 days with just 3 meals, black coffee only (at home I often use almond milk/creamer), still snacking on nuts (actually with some dried fruit mixed in, which I don't do at home), and a glass of wine each eve. I went 2days with just coffee, tea, water, and a limited amount of nut/seed/dry fruit mix at mealtimes (I only had so much with me so was rationing it out), and an evening glass of red wine. I'm not sure yet what was important about that, though. It could be the limited amount of food (it wasn't in a restricted # of hours, though, especially when I was travelling across time zones) or I suppose it could also have been the wine, which I don't usually drink but always helps my morning #´s when I do. Hmmm...

 

[Glink]

Come to think if it, I also didn't get much exercise or sleep, both of which make my sugars go up in the short term. So I guess that could have played a role, although neither is something I want to restrict indefinitely!

Seems like a "simple" diabetes question always turns into something much more complex! Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

 

[Glink]

I ate normally for me (sausage breakfast, nut snack, salad lunch, fish & veg dinner) the day after coming home and was immediatelt back to my usual (6-ish) fbg with puffy hands and feet again the next morning. So whatever went right while I was away didn't seem to carry over to when I had a regular day.

FWIW I only take metformin medication-wise; never have to worry about hypos.

 

[bulkbiker]

I ate normally for me (sausage breakfast, nut snack, salad lunch, fish & veg dinner) the day after coming home and was immediatelt back to my usual (6-ish) fbg with puffy hands and feet again the next morning. So whatever went right while I was away didn't seem to carry over to when I had a regular day.

FWIW I only take metformin medication-wise; never have to worry about hypos.

If you felt better when not eating then why not try skipping breakfast every day. I think it played a major role in getting my sugars down consistently.. so much so that I have given up morning food completely I now don't eat before 1 pm at the earliest. It extends your overnight fast so allows your body to not have to process food for those extra hours. Intermittent fasting as it is known quite often helps get bloods lower. Your body seems ok with not eating so why not try that for a week and monitor what happens.

 

[Glink]

Do you get dawn phenom? How does that interact w no breakfast? My nutritionist suggested eating right before bed to help w it, but I don't think it helps so I don'tusually do it. But I have been under the impression that eating some breakfast helped interrupt my morning rise, esp on biking days (since the ride can rise me more).

 

[bulkbiker]

Do you get dawn phenom? How does that interact w no breakfast? My nutritionist suggested eating right before bed to help w it, but I don't think it helps so I don'tusually do it. But I have been under the impression that eating some breakfast helped interrupt my morning rise, esp on biking days (since the ride can rise me more).

After about 6-7 months I stopped getting DP does your blood just keep going up if you don't eat? Maybe try a coffee with double cream to start the day ?

 

[Glink]

DP is my major nemesis. I can control most else pretty well w diet but not the mornings--they are better on LC but have just gradually gotten worse & worse over time, despite normal cortisol tests. It doesn't rise indefinitely in the mornings--by noon it's turning itself around, but that rise over the morning if I don't eat is unpleasant. That said, coffee is enough to interrupt it (allergic to dairy so I use almond milk as cream). Maybe I'll see if a week without solid breakfast or after dinner anything makes a difference. Probably can't hurt to try, anyway.

 

[bulkbiker]

I also take a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar.. the organic stuff with "the mother" before bed which also seems to have helped me a bit.. no idea if it's really that but my FBG's have been lower since I started it.. that may be worth a try too.. this is the one I use
http://www.aspall.co.uk/shop/vinegar/raw-organic-unfiltered-cyder-vinegar

 

[Goonergal]

Hi @Glink

I'm a fasting newbie - also with great advice from @bulkbiker - and while it's too early to have noticed any real differences in blood glucose levels (although they are slightly down overall), it has speeded up weight loss.

I am skipping breakfast every day and also have dawn phenomenon, but check my sugar levels at the same times as if I was eating breakfast so I can compare my fasting levels to those when eating. So far the patterns are similar - I rise between waking and "pre-breakfast" and am on my way back down a couple of hours later. Over time the pre-breakfast rise has got smaller.

And even though I'm only a week or so in, not eating breakfast has got much easier and I get less hungry.

 

[Glink]

Oof, ate nothing but coffee until lunch today and remembered why I don't skip breakfast anymore (I didn't used to be a breakfast-eater in my youth): Terrible nausea! Especially after my bike ride. Any tips? I managed not to hurl but definitely was not on my a-game. 1/3 c nuts brought it under control around noon, but until then it was rough.

 

[Glink]

(FWIW, nausea is fairly common for me when my sugars run high, especially if I haven't eaten.)

 

[kokhongw]

I find skipping dinner more effective than skipping breakfast.

 

[Indy51]

I find skipping dinner more effective than skipping breakfast.

Ditto - glad to learn that I'm not the only one

 

[Indy51]

What's more, @kokhongw - there's a study to back us up

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4079942/