Dealing with hunger on my 5-day fast

I’m currently on day 5 of a 5 day fast, and I must admit I haven’t been particularly hungry. I had no hunger on day 1, and the hunger I’ve had since then has been mild— not like the hunger I get a couple hours after eating carbs, when I’m ravenous for more carbs. My fasting tips are below.

Start by being on keto:

I was on day 25 of restarting strict keto when I began this fast. I had gotten over any initial ‘keto flu’ symptoms and was feeling fine and energetic (which is rare for me.) I started the fast when lunchtime rolled around, I hadn’t eaten, wasn’t hungry, and didn’t want to bother with cooking. I know Dr. Jason Fung starts off his diabetic patients with a prolonged fast, but without doing keto first I just couldn’t manage that.

Minimize temptation:

When I was cheating on my keto way-of-life, I often drove to the local dollar store every day and came home with carb-laden food (or non-food.) And of course when I bought a family-sized bag of barbecue potato chips, it was gone by the end of the day. Even though my family consists of cats who aren’t interested in potato chips and couldn’t get the clips off the bag if they did. Now if I came home with barbecue-flavor mice….

I didn’t go anywhere the first three days of fasting, and so wasn’t tempted to buy junk. The fourth day I went to Menominee, MI (30 miles) to visit my 91-year-old mother, and also to go to Jack’s Market of Menominee, where I could buy Kerrygold butter, miracle noodles, and smoked salmon. (They didn’t have any frozen duck, so I’m going to go get one in Trenary, MI.) 

I was a lot hungrier when I was in Menominee, because normally while I am there I get to eat stuff that I can’t get back home on the farm. But the hunger wasn’t that bad, as I have said.

Anti-hunger measures:

What do you do when you feel hunger pangs? Here are my methods. 

1. Get busy. Preferably away from the kitchen. I did a lot of cleaning in my garage, while listening to a Jimmy Moore podcast.
2. Drink water. You need to stay hydrated while fasting. And if you stay busy you may forget to drink.
3. Drink plain tea (or coffee.) Dr. Jason Fung allows plain tea or black coffee as a fasting fluid. The tea seems to suppress my hunger. I don’t know about coffee since I don’t drink it.
4. Drink a cup of home-made bone broth. (If you don’t have any, try Broth of Life dehyrated, organic bone broth. Use 2 teaspoons per cup, Dr. Jason Fung allows home-made bone broth as a fasting fluid. It’s actually better fasting if you DON’T resort to bone broth, but experienced, regular fasters tend to quit their use of bone broth while fasting naturally, as their bodies adapt. 
5. Semi-bulletproof beverage. When the hunger pangs are hard to ignore, Dr. Fung allows a bulletproof beverage, though discourages a FULLY bulletproof beverage. On days 3 and 4 of my current fast, I had a ‘semi-bulletproof’ beverage with 1/2 T MCT oil and 1/2 T heavy cream. Once it was in tea, and once in bone broth. The bone broth had 1/4  tsp. Himalayan pink salt added. 

My favorite MCT oil (Amazon affiliate link.)

Blood sugar results:

If you are diabetic you may be interested in what my blood sugars have been doing, before strict keto, during strict keto, and while fasting. Here are my results:

Cheating on my keto: 329, 277, 500, 186, 261

During strict keto, before fasting: 184, 187, 170, 201, 127

During my 5-day fast: 102, 94, 111, 91, 97

I should note that I did some fasting before I started the current fast, and my strict-keto readings are before I did any 24 hour or longer fasts. 

Have you tried fasting yet? How was your experience? Are there things you will do next time to prepare yourself for fasting? Share your experiences!

Disclaimer: 

I am not a medical doctor or dietician, and nothing in this blog should be construed to contain medical or dietary advice. Check with your own doctor before making any changes. Preferably, with a doctor that knows about the benefits of keto and fasting. In addition, know that if you are on diabetes meds, you MUST, MUST, MUST consult with your doctor before fasting, since you will need to reduce your meds.