Great job Becca! I’m glad you had a good experience from this week of fasting!
Becca's Journal
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Congratulations! Such an achievement 
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That’s very interesting that you had a similar experience with the kidney pain. Mine has completely gone since I ate so I might assume it’s related. It’s just incredible how healing fasting is. Wow! That’s excellent.
Congratulations on curing your metabolic diseases. I hope you can achieve all of your goals with fasting. My dad also has only one remaining good eye and already had to get cataract surgery at age 55 so I wish he would also try fasting to see if there are improvements. Your fasting regimen sounds effective and manageable. I agree about the keto - I have tried it before a few times and found that a low carb diet comprised of unprocessed foods is the best. I think carbs in the form of vegetables and legumes are very beneficial. And it does help, thanks a lot!
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Thank you so much Anna!
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Thank you Nayohme!!
So the kidney pain has completely vanished which is good news. I’ll see if it happens again this week when I attempt another 3-5 day fast. However, I noticed some negative effects 6-7 hours after eating last night. I had the worst sleep I’ve had in months - in general and while I was fasting I slept 7-8 hours straight through the night. Last night I couldn’t sleep until 5 AM and only slept 2.5 hours. This is extremely unusual for me. Following my feelings of euphoria, I had some low moods all of a sudden yesterday evening and this morning. I felt quite depressed for no reason. I hadn’t felt anything like this all week - I was happier and calmer than usual. I just feel generally unwell today, which could be caused by the lack of sleep. I also woke up with a small acne breakout and my face is all flushed even though my skin was completely clear and smooth while I was fasting. I did have a full cup of coffee around 5 PM for the first time all week so that also might have caused my symptoms. Usually coffee doesn’t seem to affect me much but maybe I just don’t realize the effects because I drink it so frequently. No more caffeine in the evening. I’ve had some mild abdominal upset and hunger but my appetite is low. I have no interest in eating now so I’ll see how I feel in the evening. I wonder if it’s something I ate that’s causing the skin issues. I know that fasting can help us identify food sensitivities.
Overall, I really prefer the way I felt when I was fasting. My mental health was definitely better than usual. So the weight loss really is secondary. If I can use fasting as a tool to improve my mental health, that will be amazing. I’m going to stay in ketosis this weekend and start another fast tomorrow afternoon. I want to experiment and see if I have the same experience and reactions after eating again. If so, I need to identify the offender. I also want to see if the kidney pain comes back again.
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So after last week’s 5 day fast, I avoided binging all weekend - I just didn’t have the urge to eat much and my appetite felt very controlled. So I just ate one healthy meal each day. But I was unable to sleep at all on Sunday night no matter how hard I tried - my mind was racing and completely alert the entire night. I unintentionally pulled an all-nighter and then went to work! This is incredibly unusual for me. Sleep is so important to me and I always sleep 8 hours a night so I had a rough day. I know that sleep issues are very common with fasting and I thought I had escaped them - nope! I had planned to do another 3-4 day fast starting Sunday afternoon but my hunger was just ravenous and constant all night and through the day. It would not subside like last week. The complete lack of sleep just really messed me up this entire week. I decided to break my fast on Monday at 24 hours and ate a decent amount. It kind of felt like my body finally realized what I’d done to it last week and wanted to make up for it - luckily I managed to avoid actually binging and ate only healthy unprocessed foods.
I found fasting way harder this week than last week. The hunger didn’t subside as often. I don’t have much to lose and I know our bodies want to put fat back on but I pushed through. But I also wasn’t on top of my electrolytes like I was last week. So I’ve started experimenting and seeing which days and lengths work the best for me so it’s not a constant struggle. I did a 48 hour fast from Monday evening to Wednesday evening which was very difficult, then another 20 hour fast, and today I was off work so I broke my fast at noon which is early for me. It felt kind of unnatural to eat at that time and I wasn’t even the least bit hungry. I just find it hard to fast when I’m at home so I need to create new habits. At least I’ve realized that I prefer not to eat until around 4 so I’ll keep up the habit of not bringing lunch to work indefinitely.
What I’ve realized is that fasting really evens out my mood and calms my anxiety. I feel way more anxious after I eat - especially after I drink coffee. I find it so easy to go 24+ hours compared to before so that’s good. I don’t have any desire for junk food and I find that I’m pretty much only eating out of hunger now, which is much more satisfying. Before my 5 day fast, I found that I was almost always eating out of boredom or for some emotional reason - anything but actual hunger. I don’t even want to snack anymore which is huge for someone who used to constantly graze. Today was the first day in almost 2 weeks that I emotionally ate. Fasting has helped me realize that there are tons of things more enjoyable/fulfilling/helpful in stressful times than eating. Food does not help me cope and never has. So I need to nip this right in the bud. I also need to write here more regularly to keep me on track.
I want to do another 3 day fast this coming week to help my stress levels - all of the pandemic news lately is really getting to me and I refuse to continue the cycle and go back to emotional eating to deal with my mental discomfort. It’s 2:30 PM and I am going to start my 24 hour fast at 3. Whatever I’m eating (lots of vegetables) is causing abdominal issues and I want to pinpoint the offender.
It’s not that your body wants to put fat on, its that its trying to get back to its body set point. Set point is the weight range in which your body is programmed to function optimally. During fasting, weight is usually lost, but the body always tries to gain it back.
When I finished my Part 1 of my customized treatment protocol where I achieved my main goal of becoming “medication free” I dropped 81lbs from 278lbs to 197lbs from Aug 9th to Dec 12th last year. After a 21-day refeed and a 30-day workout program I went back up to 216lbs. Then completed a 21-day fast and dropped it down to 184lbs. Did a 10-day ReFeed and on Day 20 of a 26-day workout program after which I’ll embark on another 21-day fast. During this workout phase my weight has ranged from 198lbs to 208lbs. The main point being my body’s set point dropped 13lbs as I’m averaging around 203lbs. I understand its a process but by keeping at it I hope to keep dropping my body’s set point to somewhere in the 160s.
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Thank you very much for your comment, and I apologize for the late response. The pandemic has derailed me a little. That’s very helpful and makes a lot of sense. I guess the key then is actually establishing the new set point by staying at your ideal weight for an extended period of time. My set point is a little higher than I want it to be so it’s a struggle stay at my goal weight.
I can’t believe it’s been 6 weeks since I completed my 5 day fast. It seems like a lifetime ago. The current events have really de-railed my fasting aspirations. I’ve been stuck at home for a month now since my work shut down and have no idea when I’ll be able to return. I’ve always had trouble fasting at home so it’s been really tough for me. For the most part, I’ve been doing IF, but I’ve been unable to muster up the motivation and strength to do the monthly extended fast that I’d planned.
I’ve also been eating a lot more carbs and snacking way more than usual. My goal with fasting was to eradicate emotional eating but I’ve started elapsing due to this stressful situation. I haven’t gained any significant weight luckily, but I feel out of control - I don’t want to cope with stress like this anymore. The pandemic is out of our control, but eating whenever I feel bored or stressed won’t improve anything at all.
I’ve decided to do a minimum 2 day water fast, but 3 would be ideal. I just want to get back into the fasting mindset and give my body a break. I’m not going to cope with food anymore. Right now I’m on hour 21 which is the longest I’ve gone since mid-March. I’ve attempted a few fasts since then but I just felt like I didn’t care. But I do care, I do want to stop emotional eating before I gain real weight. I need to nip this in the bud again. Checking in here keeps me accountable.
I hope everyone else is staying safe and taking care of themselves!!
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