Some thoughts on post fasting adjustments

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
Having finished my first serious fast I have now been contemplating the process of returning to (mainly) normal.

Biggest change: I was suffering a bit of low energy and brain fog during the fast. This cleared up quickly once I ate a meal.

Starting eating again: I found it very hard to eat initially. I wasn't hungry and small amounts of food made me feel mildly nauseous and very uncomfortable around my stomach. As if I had eaten a huge meal. This gradually wore off after a couple of days and now I am getting "normal" hunger pangs. Perhaps a little more than when I started fasting. However it does suggest that this may be how people get sucked into eating disorders. Worry that you are overweight, stop eating for a few days, then find it impossible to resume normal eating because you feel sick when you try to eat.

Bowel movements: these gradually tapered off through the fast and by the end I wasn't producing anything. The process reversed over the first couple of post fast days. Logical as you have to eat and then wait a bit before something gets passed all the way through.

Weight: I lost nearly six pounds over the fasting days (including the morning after I started eating again) but over the next two days I have put two pounds back on. This isn't too bad if I can stabilise here - 168 pounds or 12 stone - but it does show that if you are fasting to get down to a target weight you should plan to overshoot by a few pounds to allow for the rebound.

BG readings - consistently low (4s and 5s) by the second day of the fast, but returned to normal (6s and 7s) very quickly after I started eating again.

Next fast:
That was great! Let's do it again very soon!!!
Perhaps not.
Before I started I was on a settled OMAD with coffee/butter/cream (Bullet Resistant Coffee) in the morning and no hunger pangs until mid afternoon. Dropping the mid afternoon meal was pretty easy because it was soon evening and time for bed. After the first day I was fasting adjusted.
At the moment I am feeling hungry by noon and still readjusting to eating meals so it feels a much bigger leap.
I think I might be ready in another week.

Summary: a positive experience and I did lose weight and I feel better for it. Certainly something to do again if I need to lose weight or more importantly stop creeping weight gain. There are reasons to be cautious, though. Fasting is not something to become addicted to.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Goonergal

lovinglife

Moderator
Staff Member
Messages
4,539
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Interesting and informative post @LittleGreyCat

I follow all the fasting posts with great interest and enjoy reading how you all do. I avoid fasting and missing meals as you rightly point out it can become addictive- something I did in my youth - not eating for a few meals then binge eating or chewing food and spitting out without swallowing it - I now have a much healthier relationship with food and would be too scared to fast incase I triggered those behaviours again. I think you're right to add the caveat :)
 

Chook

Expert
Messages
5,095
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
People who think they know everything.
Very interesting post. I had a different digestive experience after i finished my last (first) fast, everything I ate gave me hiccups for the 24 hours following the end of my fast. I know hiccups are never nice but these were higher up than usual and quite painful.

I'm on another five day fast at the moment (on day 2 right now) and my hunger does follow a pattern - it comes in waves and on both fasts I've been very hungry at dinner time on day 1 and breakfast time on day 2 then it fades.

As for BMs, nothing different from normal although this time I've temporarily stopped metformin as last time (for the first time ever) i got the metformin cramps and other problems.

Weight loss would be nice (as would a reduction in BGs) but I'm fasting mainly to trigger Autophagy in the hope that it will help with my arthritis and I have noticed a slight improvement. I did feel that my last fast (four days long) was 'unfinished business' as the improvement only happened on the last day but I couldn't continue with it for family reasons which is why I'm doing another one after only a week's break.

Luckily I've never had any issues around food but I could see how it could become addictive if not firmly controlled. if I carry on getting improvements in movement and reductions in pain from the inflammation in my joints, i can see me making a 4 or 5 day fast a regular monthly event.
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
@Chook I'd forgotten about the autophagy.
My joints and tendons did seem a bit more flexible during the fast (Yoga class on Thursday) but I don't know if this was coincidence.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jpscloud and Chook

jpscloud

Well-Known Member
Messages
729
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Interesting thoughts about fasting and eating disorders. I have atypical binge eating disorder, but don't purge or vomit, or engage in spitting out. My main fear was that I would binge after a fast, but I have found this doesn't happen and so far it seems the longer the fast, the nearer to "normal" my appetite is post-fasting.

Since beginning low carb with intermittent fasting, I feel that I'm learning to be satisfied with much smaller amounts of food. For a person who has been a chronic binge/overeater and morbidly obese for over 20 years, this is something of a miracle. I can see how fasting could be addictive, but I think if this WOE gets me to a healthy weight, I'll take my chances with it. Without being too dramatic, the alternatives on the table for me are bariatric surgery or early death.
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,233
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
Well, not sure that went too well.
I have had several attacks of the serious munchies and the weight seems to be flying back on.
Now a pound heavier than when I started the fast.
I will post thoughts elsewhere about easy weight gain.