NUTRITIONAL KETOSIS WITH FASTING FOR INSULIN CONTROL

I have had an interesting past two weeks since my last post.  The week following my last post was a normal week of three meals a day.  The only unusual day was Saturday, when I went to my grandson's birthday party and tried very hard not to eat the picnic food that the party offered!  I did pretty good, but did have a little lemon bar and a little jello dessert.  But I did not have the cake and ice cream, so I am calling it a victory!

I tracked my food every day that week except for the party day, and here is what my macros of fat, protein and net carbs looked like, along with the averages:

(click to enlarge)

As you can see, I kept it pretty ketogenic, with lower protein and higher fat, and, of course, very low carb.  On Sunday, July 26, I ate pretty much the same way, and the same on Monday.  Any time I tested my blood glucose, it was right where I wanted it.  That's when things got interesting...

I've been reading the blog posts and watching the videos of a doctor from Canada that I found several weeks ago.  His name is Jason Fung, and his patients are diabetics that he treats with ketogenic diet and fasting.  Fasting!  The last time I fasted was a couple of years ago, and it was Alternate Day Fasting.  Dr. Fung also uses this kind of fasting, but sometimes uses longer periods with the purpose of lowering insulin levels and increasing insulin sensitivity.  I have been very much intrigued by his research and practice, and, about a week ago, I decided to give it a whirl.

By the way, I highly recommend that you read everything on Dr. Fung's website and watch all of his lectures.  He explains why fasting is important for insulin control, why calories in/calories out is a crock, and other topics that explain obesity and diabetes and why they happen.

Here is what the past week has looked like:

Tuesday, July 28 - I water fasted all day.  By that, I mean than I only drank water, coffee, tea and chicken broth all day.  It was a challenge, but it was not as hard as I imagined it would be.  Since the last meal I ate was Monday evening, by the time I went to bed, I had fasted for around 28 hours.

Wednesday, July 29 - I water fasted until dinner time, then ate a normal low carb, high fat dinner, so the total time that I fasted was around 44 hours.  Not bad for a first try!  During this fast, I checked my blood glucose a couple of times, and it was always in the low 70s.  So far, so good!

Thursday, July 30 - This day was a challenge.  After fat fasting by drinking a Bullet Proof Coffee for breakfast at work, I joined in the annual potluck that the Ladies League held at the golf course where I work.  I ate a couple of Italian sausages, a little bit of green salad, a couple of bites of cucumber salad (only a couple of bites, for it was very sweet and obviously contained sugar) and a little appetizer of tomato, fresh mozzarella cheese and basil leaves.  My downfall was a small square of cheesecake.  But, if you saw the piles and piles of sugary salads, gelatin desserts, cookies, cakes and candy that I did NOT eat, you would be proud of me!  For dinner after work, I just had a few small snacks of fat, like a fat bomb and a chunk of butter, etc.  By the time I went to bed, however, I was in big trouble!  As I got undressed for bed, I caught sight of my profile in the mirror, and my stomach was distended like a beachball!  I looked seven months pregnant!  I don't ever remember looking like that since I was, well, seven months pregnant.  I was in so much pain that I took a bicarb, which did not help.  I had a lot of trouble trying to sleep, and had a fitful night.

Friday, July 31 - When I awoke on the day after the potluck, I found that I had gained over two and a half pounds and was still bloated and in mild pain in my abdomen.  Although it had not been my original plan to water fast again so soon, I made the decision to do just that.  I spent the day drinking water, coffee, tea and chicken broth.

Saturday, August 1 - Still weighing over a pound and a half over my weight before the potluck, I decided to water fast again for the day.  This was a little bit of a challenge, because I had company coming to spend the night.  They stopped and got gyros and brought them to eat at my house.  Man, they smelled good!  But I did not have any.  I made it through my second full day of water fasting without a hitch.

Sunday, August 2 - I broke my fast with a wonderful breakfast of baked eggs and kiszka with my houseguests.  The total time of my water fast was 62 hours!  When I weighed that morning, I had lost all the water weight from the potluck and then some, my stomach was flatter, and I felt much better!  I even got to eat a little bit of the leftover gyros meat around lunchtime, then fat fasted for dinner after my company left.

Monday, August 3 - I worked today and had a Bullet Proof coffee for breakfast, egg salad with lots of my homemade mayo for lunch, and a nice LCHF dinner of broiled steak with butter and an avocado cole slaw.  For dessert, I had a few Brazil nuts and a small amount of 85% dark chocolate.  Two hours after eating this meal, I tested my blood glucose and it was 91.  Very nice!

Here is where I started two and a half weeks ago:

July 15, 2015
Neck - 12"
Bust - 36"
Waist - 31.75"
Belly - 39.75"
Hips - 40.25"
Thigh - 22.5"
Calf - 14.25"
Scale weight - 146.2 pounds
Body fat - 52.7 pounds - 36%
Lean mass - 93.5 pounds - 64%

Here is where I am now:

August 2, 2015
Neck - 12"
Bust - 32.75"  (lost 1/4")
Waist - 31.125"  (lost 5/8")
Belly - 39"  (lost 3/4")
Hips - 39.75"  (lost 1/2")
Thigh - 22"  (lost 1/2")
Calf - 14"  (lost 1/4")
Scale weight - 142.2 pounds  (lost 4 pounds)
Body fat - 49.4 pounds - 34.7%  (lost 3.3 pounds)
Lean mass - 92.8 pounds - 65.3%  (lost 0.7 pounds)

As of yesterday, I need to lose 8.5 pounds of fat and gain 2.3 pounds of muscle to reach my goal of 136 pounds with 30% body fat.

Here are a few charts.  These charts actually go back to April, because that is when I started weighing and measuring and tracking my food again after a long break of keeping track.  So only the last two and a half weeks of that have to do with my recent posts.

In the coming week, I am going to mix it up by water fasting some days, fat fasting some days and eating regular LCHF the remaining days.

I am so close to my goal weight at this point, that I am tempted to just water fast for a few days and break on through.  We'll see if I decide to do that.

Another change, and I've forgotten if I have mentioned it recently, is that Bill and I started back at the gym.  We are doing Body By Science slow motion weight lifting.  We go once a week and each of us takes around 12 minutes to do the five different machines that compose The Big Five.  More about that later...

I'll keep you posted!  Thanks for reading!