The joy of breaking fast

[Chris24Main]

Just because it was so moving again...

Preface - this is not a hard sell for fasting, intermittent or otherwise, it can be challenging nutritionally, organisationally, socially and in many other ways. It can be tough, but one thing I just don't think gets enough press, is just how fantastic it is to eat breakfast after a full day fast.

My regime is now to do a 36 hour (or so) fast whenever I hit a threshold measuring visceral fat - that is shaking out to be about once a week to once a fortnight. I do gear up for it a little, I need to take more salt (most of the expensive electrolyte supplements are really majority salt, so I just have about a gram of salt) than usual, and if anything I feel slightly restless through the day when I'm not eating - knowing that this is a phycological habit (cooking and preparing food is as much a thing you get used to as the act of eating) doesn't help, and I have to find ways to keep myself occupied. Between lunch time and dinner time, I feel a little hungry, but by the time my body realises it's missed three meals, the feeling of hunger just stops.

By the time breakfast time rolls round on the second day - I really don't feel hungry at all, but man, am I looking forward to the meal ahead...

And this is the point - I'll have some Greek Yoghurt to prep my stomach, and then typically, bacon, high meat-content sausages and eggs, with a lovely black coffee.

Every time (and I've been doing this for nearly a year now) it's like the best meal I've ever had. There is a reason that every major religion has some form of fasting-feast ritual - eating that meal just hits every emotional centre- it's literally a religious experience. I feel overwhelmed with how wonderful it tastes, how lucky I am, how amazing the universe is...

I'm coming to understand a little about how a low carb (nearly zero sugar) regime can make you more sensitive to dopamine, so there is something scientific about this as well, but I'll stick to the emotional road for now...

So, again, not for everyone, and I'm not going anywhere near the medical benefits of fasting - but man... that first meal after a fast is just soo good...

 

[AloeSvea]

"I'll have what's he's having!"

That was very nice to read @Chris24Main.

 

[jeano999]

I know what you mean. Plus for me the joy is being able to cook a meal again and have all those anticipatory moments while I am doing it. Did my longest ever fast recently (92 hours) and could have happily continued but I was bored and hubby missed my cooking. One problem I have (which I will have to address somehow) is having explosive diarrhoea the day after breaking my fast. Not entirely due to the fast I might add - I have IBS and this phenomenon is a way of life for me.

 

[Chris24Main]

That's one way to bring yourself back down to earth....

Wasn't expecting this to become anything other than "how amazing was my breakfast".. but I'm not entirely sure that IBS and that kind of explosive .. er.. situation are a matching pair..

When I tried leaning more into carnivore (for a bunch of reasons) - I was playing around with different levels of fat in mince.. and with the higher fat (25% for example) - that just went straight through me .. it actually worried me a little, truth be told - I couldn't figure what could have "gone so wrong" - because otherwise I was doing just great.

And (and I think it was "steak and butter gal") I caught a "things I wish I'd known" type video, that really drilled into the basics - you have to adjust the level of liquid fat in a meal - too little and you get constipated, too much and it just washes through (and you don't absorb enough nutrients, is the bigger problem..

So you could think about that... not saying that it even contains a solution, but so far I've managed to ... fine tune my bowel movements...

As far as IBS goes - there is a line of thought that what is really going on, is that your bowel is having a reaction to some form of indigestible material - it really cannot be anything other - if it was digestible, you would digest it...

Another way of thinking about this, is that historically the view that "fibre is essential" isn't actually based on evidence - other than - food with fibre removed tends to have a greater impact on blood sugars - ie, it's a glycemic index argument, and because that seems true, then it must be true that fibre itself is "good" - but fibre by definition is really strings of types of sugars that we cannot biologically absorb - nothing more than that. So, a side salad of leafy greens before mashed potato is better than the mashed potato alone, but the leafy greens themselves aren't "good" by themselves (beyond the pleasure you may get eating the salad..)

Again, not trying to diagnose, but there may be something lurking in your regular diet that is at the heart of your IBS.. but since the underlying feeling is that fibre is good - you may not be advised to drop the thing that may be the cause..

By the way - 4 days is hard core... That's a whole other level, in fact, I kind of chose 36 hours as being the sweet spot for being long enough to "exhaust" my short term glycogen store - was focussing on emptying my liver, about 24 hours, and not being so long that I would need to really plan a "re-introduction of food" - 36 hours is really just skipping one day and two sleeps, you don't really need to be super careful about ending the fast..

But - if it works - it works...

 

[jeano999]

Thanks for that. I mainly do OMAD but I am trying to switch it up - sometimes 36, 48 etc. I have been told that part of my bowel is "atrophied" - which to me means dead. I'm not convinced I have IBS but that's all the GP can come up with despite a sigmoidoscopy in 2009 which told me the above. (7 years before diabetes diagnosis). The outcome of that hospital visit was the consultant recommended a daily self administered enema followed by Imodium. All this before getting my son ready for school, dropping off at the child minder before going to work. I think you can understand why I decided to live a normal life with no meds. I do however think that I should rethink my refeeding regime to see if I can find a solution - probably 2 meals instead of one on refeeding.

 

[AdventurousSleep]

Just because it was so moving again...

Preface - this is not a hard sell for fasting, intermittent or otherwise, it can be challenging nutritionally, organisationally, socially and in many other ways. It can be tough, but one thing I just don't think gets enough press, is just how fantastic it is to eat breakfast after a full day fast.

My regime is now to do a 36 hour (or so) fast whenever I hit a threshold measuring visceral fat - that is shaking out to be about once a week to once a fortnight. I do gear up for it a little, I need to take more salt (most of the expensive electrolyte supplements are really majority salt, so I just have about a gram of salt) than usual, and if anything I feel slightly restless through the day when I'm not eating - knowing that this is a phycological habit (cooking and preparing food is as much a thing you get used to as the act of eating) doesn't help, and I have to find ways to keep myself occupied. Between lunch time and dinner time, I feel a little hungry, but by the time my body realises it's missed three meals, the feeling of hunger just stops.

By the time breakfast time rolls round on the second day - I really don't feel hungry at all, but man, am I looking forward to the meal ahead...

And this is the point - I'll have some Greek Yoghurt to prep my stomach, and then typically, bacon, high meat-content sausages and eggs, with a lovely black coffee.

Every time (and I've been doing this for nearly a year now) it's like the best meal I've ever had. There is a reason that every major religion has some form of fasting-feast ritual - eating that meal just hits every emotional centre- it's literally a religious experience. I feel overwhelmed with how wonderful it tastes, how lucky I am, how amazing the universe is...

I'm coming to understand a little about how a low carb (nearly zero sugar) regime can make you more sensitive to dopamine, so there is something scientific about this as well, but I'll stick to the emotional road for now...

So, again, not for everyone, and I'm not going anywhere near the medical benefits of fasting - but man... that first meal after a fast is just soo good...

That’s a great description. Fasting can really feel like a reset. After fasting, that first meal can feel really special. Sounds like you’ve found a good routine that works for you.