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Two weeks of consecutive 24 hour fasts

Goonergal

Master
Retired Moderator
Messages
13,461
Location
London
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Thought I’d post the results of my experiment of two full weeks of 24 hour fasting - dinner to dinner.

Although I’m within range of my initial target weight (2.8 kg to go), I’m still carrying a lot of weight around my middle, so this was an attempt to boost weight loss and see the impact on blood glucose levels of a longer period of intermittent fasting (I always skip breakfast and generally do a dinner to dinner fast 2-3 times a week).

It wasn’t overly difficult - there were a couple of days where I got really hungry, including yesterday, the final day. I changed my meal plan yesterday as I didn’t think the meal I’d planned would do the job, but managed to stick to the one meal.

Have now done a bit of analysis (comparing to the previous 2 weeks):

Average blood glucose levels during the past two weeks were 4.8, compared to 5.0 in the previous 2 weeks.
Weight loss was 1.8kg during the past two weeks, compared to 1.2kg in the previous 2 weeks.

However, most of those changes occurred in the second week - average blood glucose the past week was 4.6 and weight loss last week 1.4kg.

So nothing dramatic but definitely an effect and worth trying again. Now back to my usual regime, starting with a couple of days of eating lunch and dinner!
 
Fingers crossed that the IF works for you. Well done.
 
Congratulations. The really nice thing about concentrating foods into one very short window is that it opens out the range of foods so nicely in terms of the tastes and how satisfying that meal is. Interestingly, on studying this further myself, it has become clear that when you do this early in the process, the result is a bit of an increase in blood glucose during the dawn phenonemon, something I noticed myself and others mentioned in my dieting thread. According to Dr Fung, it seems that is because the fasting itself brings down insulin production and at the same time the liver starts emptying on the excess glucose which ends up as higher glucose reading during DP . Dr Fung is entirely unconcerned about this part because as far as he is concerned the disease is the insulin not the glucose and that will be helped faster the more intermittent fasting you do. I hope he's right! It sounds like you are already well down the recovery path.
 
I found that my fasting was indeed higher for the first week or two of one meal a day, usually in the 6-7 range, and then a sharp drop happened and I was seeing fasting levels of 3.8 to 4.2. A two day trip to the city and way too many carbs and they were right back up to the 6 range. I am back to the one meal a day and it is slowly dropping again. I think my 2 day bobble refilled my glycogen stores and they will take a bit of time to deplete again.
 
I'm so glad it is working for you. Will you go back to two weeks of fasting after a couple of weeks off? x
 
As you are starting with an average blood glucose levels of 5.0, I would not expect the BG level to drop fast or a lot. Most people would be very happy if they could get down to your starting level. We know that fasting with one meal a day (23hr fasts) is a low-risk option for most people.

I expect you will find that given weeks or months of 23hr fasts, your BG will reduce a little, but that the greatest benefit is you will increasing be able to relax about your food chooses for the one meal, along with gaining more time in your life to do other things,
 

Thanks - very interesting. My DP usually shows up in my second reading of the day rather than immediately on waking. I did have a couple of very high readings - 6.9 being the highest- at the start, but by the end of the two weeks the rise between waking and the second reading was getting smaller: there was even a decrease one day.

Agree about the meals - one a day means you can be quite indulgent but still within carb/calorie ratios.
 
Chook said:
I'm so glad it is working for you. Will you go back to two weeks of fasting after a couple of weeks off? x
Click to expand...

Hi. Yes, I think I will. The timing is working out quite well as I’m away at my Dads during this 2 week period but should have a clear run the following two weeks.
 
Thanks for the replies @Guzzler @Salvia @bulkbiker @Bluetit1802 @chalup

I find this whole area very interesting and have followed various other threads with interest.

@ringi - agree that blood glucose levels are unlikely to drop a lot. However despite having good control and having lost in excess of 30% of body weight, the weight around my middle indicates to me that I’m still very insulin resistant, so am exploring ways to change that. It may not be possible entirely through diet, so I’m also looking at resistance training - just need to set up a one on one session at the gym so I can work out a programme as I have no clue how to do it myself.
 
@Goonergal

Forgive me if this is a rude question, but is the weight round your middle fat? I keep thinking mine is, but when I thoroughly examine it, it isn't fat, it is skin!
 
Bluetit1802 said:
@Goonergal

Forgive me if this is a rude question, but is the weight round your middle fat? I keep thinking mine is, but when I thoroughly examine it, it isn't fat, it is skin!
Click to expand...

Not rude at all! Definitely fat and not skin: I have excess skin at the top of my legs which is definitely different in appearance to what is around my middle. I think I lost a lot of muscle through being excessively sedentary so despite almost being at a “normal” weight according to my BMI (25.2), I still have a high percentage of body fat so really want to address that.
 
I expect you may benefit a lot from resistance training and/or high-intensity interval training.
 
@Goonergal one thing that may kickstart your weight loss could be to do the 24 hour fasts lunch to lunch. Sometimes meal timing is just as important.
Awejob.
 
Troubled1 said:
@Goonergal one thing that may kickstart your weight loss could be to do the 24 hour fasts lunch to lunch. Sometimes meal timing is just as important.
Awejob.
Click to expand...

Thanks. For some reason, I find lunch to lunch MUCH harder so don't think I would stick it out.
 
I'm the same - okay with skipping breakfast and lunch but really struggle with missing dinner.
 
hi Goonergal,

well done it is nice when an experiment works and you have the figures to back it up . i would be thrilled to have bg levels of 5 !
best wishes
James2
 
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