Well, back to talk of fasting.
. I have been intending to do a short water fast for a while now, being utterly convinced as I am that fasting in all its forms can be very good as a treatment technique for T2D. (I just find it very hard.)
Last night I got a bit down when I reading up on low-carb diets, in the lit finding out that not only the wonderful Ella Fitzgerald but the wonderful Johnny Cash died of diabetes complications. (I can't say Dr Bernstein is cruel - as he was 'supposed' to have died in 1976, and it was him saying it, very much alive as he is still.) But poor Ella was legless when she died. And Cash. was only in his early 70s. (At my age - that seems WAY too young! I want to play with my grandchildren one day. That as yet do not exist.) I include this, as this worked, along with my morning FB of 6.3 - even on only 30 g of carbs yesterday - to inspire me to fast
today. Until Saturday late afternoon or early evening, is the plan. Just a 2 1/2-3 day one. With an 'out clause' tomorrow, if I am having dreadful complications of fasting.
I did get that during my second fast since diagnosis - the ghastly constipation that can plague the faster if one doesn't have enough fluids (apparently). I am working very hard to not have this happen this time!. The last fast I did, foreshortened, as well as by the 'stoppage' thing, was because I got freaked out by very low blood sugars. Which I now realise I didn't have to be (I'm just utterly unused since testing to seeing anything with a '3' in front! But my non-diabetic partner with absurdly healthy blood sugars has 3. -something regularly when he hasn't eaten for a while. I just didn't know that then.) I got such low readings I believe, as I had been on a Low Calorie Diet for almost two months at the time.
I've been 'proper low carbing', in the 25-50 g total carb groove since the second week of August (a bit less than two months then). For two or three weeks I had some good FBGs - ones that I am pretty happy with, in the low to mid 5s. And even an out of the blue post-lobster-and- champagne night FBG of 4.8, but since then - 19 days in the 6.0-6.5 range and only three 5.-somethings. Even on a low-carb way-of-eating. To say I feel frustrated with this is an understatement! So perfect time to deliberately not eat. (It only feels like 'starving'
.) Then see what happens to my FBGs again.
Hopefully they will go down, reflecting better functionality with improved insulin sensitivity and improved liver function (ie for glycogen depletion generally, and less gluconeogenesis/dawn pheonomenon in my case), maybe even a bit body fat lowering - especially in the liver and pancreas target areas, and to top it off - giving my pancreas and digestive system a bit of a rest. Gee, that seems a lot for only three days! But theoretically, this is what fasting does when one has T2D. In whatever form you fast.
Weight loss per se is no longer a goal for me - just in as much as it affects my T2D. (So I should not have posted this thread in the weight loss category originally, but it seemed the right idea at the time.) Now I am working on building muscle instead, as I find that way more enjoyable, and I am much better at that by nature than by going hungry often. And using from-time-to-time water fasting as an extra 'treatment method'. See how that goes.
And calling it a 'water fast' reminds me to keep drinking it! I am also drinking green tea and herb teas. Keeps me on the no-eating path more happily.