Looking for some advice here but first a little background. Sorry this got a bit long winded. I’m a 30 lbs overweight but otherwise healthy 30 something year old. I’ve been eating fairly low carb for a bit and only eat one meal per day several times per week. I was skipping breakfast and lunch on work days mainly out of convenience but realized I didn’t miss them much or get hungry so I decided to go longer and try to fast for 48 hours. That was yesterday and I still felt good today so decided to keep going now moving into my 4th day. Since I feel great and am losing weight I want to keep fasting but just spent a couple hours diving into the internet wormhole and am a bit worried because of the conflicting info out there. Then I landed here. Do I need to do anything different, like see a doctor, before continuing to fast past X number of days? I want to go as long as I feel fine but don’t know how long that will be. How long can I go before I need a doctor’s supervision - 5 days, 7, 10, 14? Or don’t worry about it? I’ve done all the refeeding research and am prepared for that and also started some electrolytes supplements. Do I need to do more or is it as simple as just going with the flow as long as I feel good? My goal is 7 days but some places say no more than 3 or 5 without a doctor’s supervision.
Currently on day 4 and want to keep going
I just did 30 days with no ill effects. As long as you feel OK, I wouldn’t worry about seeing a doctor or whatever. You have 30 pounds to feed on. Fasting after you have lost 30 pounds, will be a different story, but right now, You’re packing plenty of food. Drink plenty of water .
@JakeF82 If you are reasonably healthy and not on medications, there’s not really a reason to see the doctor in my humble non-professional opinion. People have been fasting without doctor’s opinions for thousands of years.
I recommend reading Dr. Jason Fung’s book, The Obesity Code. It will help. 
I still would check in with a doctor for the reason if anything medical unexpectedly pops up. Also I would get all the standard blood panel work done as it gives you a starting benchmark for you and your doctor to measure the progress on your internal health.
Thanks for the advice! I’ll hold off on talking to the doc for now, he’s pretty old school and wouldn’t be of help, probably just tell me to stop.
Day 4 is done, moving on to day 5
Just started a pot of bone broth to be ready tomorrow in case I don’t make it through the weekend. Quick question, do you skim the fat off the bone broth you use for refeeding or drink it as is?
Yeah, my primary physician is skeptical too… Turned into a blessing because I found an endocrinologist who is also a Clinical Assistant Professor with the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. His clientele is focused on Adult Onset T2 diabetics and cancer patients. He was interested in the benefits of Intermittent Fasting for his patients. He agreed to work with me and I consult with him weekly through a status report on my progress. It’s a good relationship as I have a medical professional that I can go to for tough questions and my experiences are helping him with his patients.
Morning of day 5 and I’m still feeling good. Blood pressure hasn’t gotten much better but losing about a pound per day and my fasting blood sugar has dropped from 102 on day 2, to 93 on day 3, to 85 on day 4, to 77 this morning on day 5.
Anybody else track their blood sugar while fasting? How low did it get? Is there a point of concern for it to get too low?
What about blood pressure, if you tracked it how many days in before you saw it improve?
Yes, I still track BGL every morning.
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Mine dropped twice into the 40s: 47 & 48 briefly during my recently completed 21-day fast. According to my endocrinologist: “If you’re not using insulin or sulfonylureas (eg glipizide or glimepiride), the likelihood of a true hypoglycemic event is vanishingly small. So I think your low cutoff can be much lower, if you check at all. Set it at 40 mg/dL”
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Blood pressure is tricky. When I began my customized treatment protocol to become “medication free” I started at 191/103 on 8/9/19. It went up and down quite a bit until I began my 40-day water fast on 10/22/19. Starting bp was 172/102 then it began to drop steadily. At doctor’s office visit on 12/13/19 my bp was 121/81 and officially allowed to drop my 2 hypertension medications.
What helped was a daily walk of 1 to 2 miles. Besides assisting the lymphatic system, I believe it helped my vascular system adapt to rapid change in my body’s composition. My endocrinologist agrees with my hypothesis.
As for improvement there is NO general rule as its complicated by whatever medication your taking, medical history and are you exercising. All I can do is tell you my experience.
Hope this helps!
Good info, thanks! No medication for me but my blood pressure has been in the 130s over 90s. It fluctuates quite a bit but might be on the downswing today, just tested 124/77
Fat & Bone Broth. I cook bones from 24-48 hrs. The longer the better. I put it in glass jars and after it cools, a layer of fat accumulates at the top. I put the jars in the fridge and the fat hardens. This is what I remove. I tried drinking the fat when it was warm and started a revolution in my gut that turned nasty.
I don’t know what this fat is, but one of its properties is that it doesn’t heat up as much as the underlying broth. I heated a cup of broth with a half inch of fat on top until the fat was hot. After I had sipped the fat off, I burned my mouth on the broth. I think the fat would make good lubricating oil for machinery!
Sounds like a plan, thanks