Controlling T2 Diabetes with Fasting

I was a diabetic for a short while when my ‘health care provider’ said my kidney test was bad and I would have to go to a specialist. In fact, when she told me what not-so-close town the specialist was in (because of Medicaid), I tried to tell her how difficult it would be to get there, but she said if I didn’t go somehow I might be reported to adult protective services and they would put me in a home. [Which is absurd. They don’t have homes even for people who need it. A person like me with a Mensa level IQ and Asperger Syndrome would never be put in a home no matter who reported her. And one is allowed to refuse medical treatment in this country— it’s a right.]

Anyway, I went to a good kidney doctor, and when she got fired from the medical business in question I got a far worse kidney doctor. And the worse one said the meds I was on were bad for my kidneys so I had to quit them. The only medication I could take for my diabetes was insulin, and neither the kidney doctor nor my ‘health care provider’ was in any big hurry to get me on insulin.

I found that my keto diet, when I kept to it, controlled my diabetes as well as the drugs anyway. But either way, my blood sugars still weren’t great. I got readings like 150 and 175, which was better than what I got when I was not on keto or meds, but not what I wanted.

Then I learned about Dr. Jason Fung’s approach. He got started recommending fasting to his patients because some of them just wouldn’t understand what he meant when he told them about the keto diet. He’d say they can’t have bread, so they ate pita bread or flatbread. They showed him food diaries filled with pasta and regular pizzas. And so he had the idea to try fasting— which is zero carb, zero calorie and zero fat. 

Dr. Fung has his diabetic patients do 36 hour fasts, and sometimes starts severe diabetics on a 7 to 14 day fast. (Read more about it in the Complete Guide to Fasting by Jimmy Moore & Dr. Jason Fung.) I was too chicken to do fasts as long as that— even though I was already on keto and knew keto makes you less hungry so you can easily skip a meal. 

I started with the No-Breakfast Plan— skipping breakfast to extend my overnight fasting by a few hours. I’d known about this since I read the book ‘Fit for Life,’ though I did not think the author of that book was basing his recommendations on science. And after a while I was able to extend this into ’24-hour’ fasting.

Now, really ’24-hour’ fasting should be called 23.5 hour fasting, because you eat supper every day. So if you are on Metformin, you can still take it with a meal every day— though with fasting in your life, you and your doctor or ‘health care provider’ should reduce the dose of any meds you take. You don’t want to be getting too-low blood sugars every day and still have to take meds that will send them still lower!

After I could do 23.5 hour fasting I went on to 36 hour fasting, and then I did a 5 day fast. And then another 5 day fast. And it wasn’t scary! Day 2 was kind of hard, but since Dr Fung allows plain tea and black coffee and home-made bone broth as fasting fluids, I got through and the end of the fast was easier. In fact on my first 5 day fast I could have gone longer, except that I had bought some delicious smoked salmon at a distant grocery store and I wanted some. Which is OK. Fasting isn’t an endurance contest!

When I added some fasting to my life, my blood sugar numbers went under 100, and sometimes as low as 82. I was becoming like a non-diabetic! Of course, the longer I went without a full-day fast, the higher my numbers began to creep. Dr. Jason Fung recommends his patients fast 3 days a week, regular. This can be alternate day fasting, or you can do them all in a bunch. I’m thinking of doing mine all in a bunch on Monday through Wednesday, but when I’m ravenously hungry on Mondays, I don’t do fasting that day, except for the No-Breakfast Plan. 

My belief is that when you are feeling overly hungry, or ill, or stressed with unusual stresses like a visit from the mother-in-law, that’s not the best day to fast. You can always fast a different day. And you can always fast for several shorter periods instead of a long fast. 

How does fasting help? Type 2 diabetes happens because of insulin resistance. Your body overreacts to foods— particularly high-carbohydrate foods— by making more insulin than you need. You may get low-blood-sugar symptoms from this. In time your body starts ignoring some of the insulin. So your body makes even more extra insulin. In time you get higher than normal blood sugars, not because you lack insulin, like a Type 1 diabetic, but in spite of your high insulin levels. 

When you don’t eat, your body isn’t signaled to make insulin, so your insulin levels go down. Since you are not eating food, your blood sugars go down. Your body starts switching over to a state called ketosis, if you are not in ketosis because of a ketodiet. (Ketosis is not the same thing as ketoacidosis, a dangerous state that Type 1 diabetics can get that features high ketones and high blood sugars.) Fasting, in effect, makes your diabetic body act less diabetic. Ketodiet plus fasting can make some diabetics into recovering diabetics and ex-diabetics, though they have to keep on doing the keto and fasting!

What about weight loss? I was on a plateau on my Atkins/keto diet for some time when I developed diabetes, and frankly I no longer expected weight loss. I just wanted better blood sugars without going on insulin, which I knew would cause weight gain and make things worse. But fasting plus strict keto started the weight loss again and I am now probably twenty pounds less than my plateau weight, and down to 172 from my lifetime high of 255. I’ve purchased smaller jeans and discovered I need the next smaller size to fit well! Since losing weight of itself is supposed to help T2 diabetes, this is a good thing. 

The main thing I have to say to other Type 2 diabetics out there is don’t despair. Don’t feel you have no hope. Your diabetes can be improved, and you can do things yourself to improve it. 

Of course, if you are on meds, you will have to see your doctor to adjust them. If you aren’t on meds yet, and you are just going to start with ketodiet and with the No-Breakfast Plan and perhaps 23.5 hour fasting, your doctor will probably be OK with it. Once you get some results, he may be reconciled to it. Or you can possibly switch to a more keto-and-fasting friendly doctor. If you have a doctor that says no-no-no, ask for the scientific motivation behind his answer. If he has none, if he doesn’t know about Dr. Jason Fung’s book and won’t read it when you tell him, if he just says fasting is bad because if you keep it up forever you will die, that’s not the right doctor for you. If, however, he points out that you have some rare condition that he believes will not be helped by fasting, ask if just keto is OK, or just keto plus the No-Breakfast Plan. If you can’t do the whole 5 day or 7 day fasting thing, you can do it in increments.  

Misunderstandings about the Atkins diet

I regard the Atkins diet, not as a ‘fad’ diet or a failed diet, but as a good start for living a ketogenic and lowcarb lifestyle. But misunderstandings are rife, not just among those actively hostile to Atkins and lowcarb, but among friends of lowcarb eating as well. Consider this quote:

“By eating large amounts of skim milk, lean meat, and protein bars, Atkins enthusiasts were unintentionally stimulating their insulin to the same degree as before.”

    ~~~~ Dr. Jason Fung, ‘The Obesity Code,’ 2016

OK, I admire Dr. Jason Fung. I think he’s really smart. But either he misunderstands what the Atkins diet is and was, or else he was talking about misunderstandings of the Atkins diet among his patients, and was not clear about that. 

The reality about Atkins is this:

1. Atkins does not allow skim milk or whole milk or any kind of milk. In the original ‘Atkins Diet Revolution’ (1972) he makes kind of a big point of that in the book. He does allow 4 teaspoons a day of heavy cream on Induction, the first level of the diet. That is 1 Tablespoon plus one teaspoon.
2. Atkins does not insist on lean meat. He encourages dieters to be shockingly unafraid of fats in their diet. He warns that eating only the lean meats could make the diet harder to follow.
3. Protein bars? What protein bars? When the original Atkins came out, there were no protein bars of any kind on the market. When the Atkins corporation was formed, they did start to make Atkins bars, both ‘meal replacement’ bars and special treat bars. These are not the same as the commercial ‘protein bar’ found today which have lots of carbs, including sugar. (I would not include Atkins products in my diet since they are less-than-ideal processed foods, though I might ask for them if I were too sick to cook and someone offered to get some for me.)

This statement by Dr. Fung would certainly lead the uninformed reader to misunderstand Atkins, though explaining Atkins was not his point in writing that paragraph in the first place. I would advise ketonians to actually read ‘The Obesity Code’ to understand what was meant. And read the original ‘Atkins Diet Revolution’ and perhaps follow that up with reading Atkins’ later books as well, to get a good grasp on what Atkins is all about.

The modern ketonian who keeps up to date will probably add to the wisdom of the Atkins approach by emphasizing ‘real foods’ not processed foods. But when Atkins was written, alternative foods were not available to all, and Atkins was hard put to get his patients lowering their carbs without sending them in a futile search for grass-fed beef and organic veggies. We can add to the understanding given in the original Atkins diet (and avoid being tempted by modern corporate-Atkins commercials that want to sell Atkins products.)

Recommended reading:

Dr. Jason Fung: 'The Obesity Code'

Dr. Robert Atkins:  'Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution'

Gary Taubes: 'Why We Get Fat and What to Do about It' (currently reading)

The No-Breakfast Plan Experiment, Day 3

I've noticed no particular improvement in health-measurements, in part because I haven't been eating many breakfasts before it started. I am being stricter about things like bulletproof beverages and bone broth in the morning hours--- I would consume if I were very hungry in the mornings, but since I've already retrained my hunger away from morning eating, I haven't gotten much hunger yet.

I haven't had any comments to the effect that any of my blog readers are doing the experiment along with me. But that's OK. If you are trying it, and you haven't been on keto or skipped breakfast before, be generous with yourself and allow yourself some bone broth or even a bulletproof beverage. It can help make the No-Breakfast Plan more do-able at first.

"Can you have fruit juice on the No-Breakfast Plan?"

Fruit juice for breakfast on the No-Breakfast Plan? Or even whole fruit? Since fruits and fruit juices are full of (natural) sugars, and in the case of juice, fast-acting sugars, it’s fairly plain that they will stimulate your insulin response and your hunger. 

But it’s understandable that some people think that fruit juice is allowed on the No-Breakfast Plan. Paul C. Bragg, in ‘The Miracle of Fasting,’ speaks of the No-Breakfast Plan but then says it allows fruit. The Diamonds in ‘Fit for Life’ say the body isn’t ready for food in the mornings, but allow fruit (which is a food) during breakfast hours. Ori Hofmekler in ‘The Warrior Diet’ wants you to divide up your day into fasting and feasting periods— but allows juices, fruit and vegetable, during ‘fasting.’

This is wrong. Fasting is not eating, though drinking water is allowed. Some fasting experts also allow certain calorie/carb-free beverages, like tea, coffee, and herbal tisanes (‘herb tea.’) But others reject that. And adding food— especially a carb-filled food that diabetics should not be having— to a fast is breaking the fast.

There is no such thing as juice fasting. “Health nuts” and the manufacturers of high-end juicing machines have been talking about ‘juice fasting’ for years, but a juice diet is not fasting. It does not have the benefits of true fasting. There are people who because of health issues (like diabetes) cannot go on a juice diet, but who can fast (once a doctor adjusts their medications.)

The No-Breakfast Plan is about fasting. It’s beginner-level fasting for just a short time during the day. Since daily hormonal changes make people the least hungry at breakfast time, and the most hungry in the evenings at supper time, the No-Breakfast Plan takes advantage of this to let you fast at the easiest time of day. 

Fruit is a problem. Early humans didn’t have the kind of specially bred, sweet and tasty fruits available. They certainly didn’t have them year-round at the grocery store. So humans are not adapted to be fruit eaters or fruitarians. Dr. Richard K. Bernstein, author of ‘Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution’ and ‘The Diabetes Diet’, who is a Type 1 diabetic, has not eaten any fruit for decades. He eats a low-carb diet, which along with his insulin controls his diabetes. His example shows that you don’t need fruit to live.

Fasting, including the No-Breakfast Plan, gives your body a break. When you are eating, your body has to produce insulin— maybe too much insulin, if you have Insulin Resistance as so many of us do. Your body has to digest the food— three times a day, or more if you eat snacks. And your mind has to plan meals, and perhaps cook and clean up after them. On the No-Breakfast Plan, your body gets a daily break from these things in the morning. 

Fruit eating is not fasting. Eating fruit breaks your fast, and takes you off the true No-Breakfast Plan into some fruit-eating plan. Now, your body may be in good enough shape that you can eat a little fruit from your own garden, in season. But not while you are fasting! Eating while fasting is like having sex during celibacy or committing murders while ‘respecting all life.’ A contradiction in terms. 

What the No-Breakfast Plan is. It is extending the natural fasting we do every night while we are asleep. There is no law that compels us to start eating at 7 or 8 in the morning. There is no law that insists that you must have 3 large meals every day. At some periods of history two meals were the norm, anyway. When you are on the No-Breakfast Plan, in the mornings you drink water. Perhaps pure distilled water. And you may have certain calorie/carb-free beverages such as tea, coffee and herbal tisanes. 

On longer fasts many people need a little home-made bone broth to help them through it. Dr. Jason Fung even allows people to add a bit of cream or MCT oil to a beverage to help them get through. But on the No-Breakfast Plan, it’s best not to make use of the broth unless you have persistent hunger that will drive you to eat before the appropriate time. (If you are very new to the No-Breakfast Plan, you might plan on consuming broth in the mornings at first, and stopping it when you are used to morning fasting.)

The No-Breakfast Plan can help you get started doing longer, more intense fasts, and has benefits of its own when you don’t do longer fasting, but it’s important to gain real fasting knowledge to do it correctly. The Complete Guide to Fasting by Dr. Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore is perhaps the best source of information— please consider reading it.  

Recommended books for the No-Breakfast Plan:

Note that the Dewey book is very old-fashioned and not up-to-date or based on modern research. But it's interesting from a historical perspective. 

Fasting: Day 4 of 7?

Today I am on the fourth day of a fast which may go for as many as 7 days. My blood sugar was 78mg/dL this morning— lower than the norm of 84mg/dL. Lower-than-84 blood sugars are normal when fasting, and I understand are OK when you are not having low-blood-sugar symptoms as a result. 

Between my previous fasts and my keto lifestyle, I had to buy some new clothes, only size XL (1X) after having had to buy 2X clothes before. (Since I shopped a lot at thrift shops, I also had some 3X clothes, if they were cute and not too baggy.) But I noticed my new XL shorts were big on me, and so I’ve recently purchased some items in size L. They all fit!  Bad news is, since I’m on disability for my Autism Spectrum Disorder, I can’t afford to run out and replace all my new XL clothes with L size clothes— not when I’m on track to possibly fit in M size clothes soon! (I have not been so slim since my high-school-hell years.)

I must point out that fasting is not about quick-weight-loss. Quick-weight-loss is a crock. It only leads to quick-weight-regain. The keto-and-fasting approach is about making lifelong changes that will provide long-term health improvements. It may make you lose weight, and lose weight easily, but it’s not about quickly becoming slim-and-‘sexy.’ 

My last 5 day fast— my first fast of that length— started impulsively, when I realized I was not hungry, and not in the mood to cook any food that day. My non-hunger pretty much lasted the first 2 days of the fast. Day 3, I had some hunger, but not enough to make me seriously think of eating something. Days 4 and 5 were easier.

This fast was more intentional. I had a few blood sugar readings which were way better than my previous, not-doing-strict-keto ones, but not as good as the ones just after my last 5 day fast. I had a bit more hunger in the first three days as I had last time.

While water-only fasting is the gold standard of fasting, Dr. Jason Fung allows plain tea and black coffee while fasting, allows home-made bone broth, and allows 1 cup of ‘bulletproof’ beverage per day— in one part of the book, suggesting that the ‘bulletproof’ additions to the beverage be kept down to a lower level than in normal ‘bulletproof’ beverages.

I have made use of a lot of broth during this fasting period. I schedule my broth drinking at my mealtimes, I don’t wait to determine if I am really that hungry before I consume it. (As the fast goes on, if my hunger remains gone, I will try to skip some of the broth helpings.) 

I am doing a ‘mini-cheat’ on Dr. Fung’s instructions. He specifies home-made bone broth, and I do have some on hand, but don’t want to use it all up too quickly— being on disability, the ingredients for bone broth are hard to afford sometimes. So I used canned broth, broth powder, and even dashi powder (I have plans to get the fixings for home-made dashi, a kind of fish broth from Japan, very soon.) I’m trying to have at least 1 cup of authentic, home-made bone broth every day, though.

I also am drinking tea regularly, as well as some cups of peppermint tisane (‘herb tea’) in the evenings. I’m feeling fairly well, though I don’t have the energy boost I experienced on my last fast. I’ve experienced chronic fatigue for probably over a decade, so I’m not surprised, but I hope that the combo of regular fasting and keto lifestyle will help me overcome this problem.

Spiritual benefits

As a Christian (Catholic variety) I know that the Bible commends fasting, and that Jesus both did it and advised it. But I’m not sure that fasting done to help your health has full spiritual benefits. But, just in case, I am dedicating my current fasting to the conversion of sinners (God can pick which ones) and to the Holy Souls. I don’t really feel especially spiritual, and perhaps during a future fast I may add daily spiritual practices like going to daily Mass (or watching it on EWTN television) and more daily prayer and Bible reading/spiritual reading.

Selling out?

You may have noticed that I now have Amazon affiliate links on this blog. Is that a sell-out? Well, perhaps. But I’ve noticed a lot of other keto blogs have advertising to the point of making the blog hard to read. I don’t want to do anything like that. But it’s really hard living on SSI disability, and not being able to get things fixed like the plumbing and the electrical outlet to my stove (my stove hasn’t worked for years because of it.) If a few kind people buy through my links sometimes, it would really help. But if you are not so inclined, just ignore the links. I don’t mind. I write this blog because I want to help others who struggle with some of the same issues I’ve been faced with, not because I think I can ‘monetize’ this blog and live high of the hog. (Which reminds me, I need to buy more bacon.) 

The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jimmy Moore & Dr. Jason Fung

If you fast, you really should read this book. It gives you all the scientific information you need to fast properly and not get led astray into unhealthy practices.

Kettle & Fire Bone Broth, Chicken & Beef

OK, this is not 'home-made' bone broth. But it does look pretty good as a substitute. You might try it.

Preparing your body to start fasting

When I was young, I was really bad at fasting. I had a book or two about fasting, but as I remember, I never did even a one-day fast with any success. I just couldn't put up with being hungry.

Now, at a much later stage of my life, I have even managed a 5-day fast. And the first day or two of that fast was completely hunger-free! The remaining days, there was slight hunger, but not enough to compel me to eat something.

I am not successful every time I try to fast, though. When I have nagging hunger that can't be dealt with or ignored, I cut a planned fast short. I'm not getting some sort of diet brownie points by being hungry and miserable! When my body tells me it wants food, I listen, and provide healthy real-food that is consistent with my keto diet.

There are steps in preparing your body to fast. My early-in-life attempts at fasting failed because I didn't know about any of these steps. If you want to fast, you should try these steps first.

1. Go on Keto for 2-4 weeks before attempting fasting. When you are on strict keto, your hunger goes away, and you often find yourself skipping a meal or two without meaning to. When Jimmy Moore had his Fasting Talk podcast, he often asked his guests about whether they had been skipping meals in an unplanned way on keto before they tried fasting.

2. Track your overnight fasting. What time do you normally stop eating for the day? After supper? After an evening snack? After a 3am snack? Don't judge yourself, just write it down. And at what time do you first eat in the morning (or at noon or afternoon?) As you continue on keto, this might change just because you don't feel as hungry.

3. Try intermittent fasting in the form of the No-Breakfast Plan. Odds are that you are the least hungry in the mornings, anyway. And likely you do little socializing over breakfast. If you do, you can always have a cup of herb tisane (herb "tea") or coffee with the family at breakfast time. NOTE: If you are ravenously hungry in the morning, eat something. Maybe delay that eating something a little if this is a daily problem, but when your body is demanding food, give it something keto.

4. Try narrower eating windows. An eating window is the period of the day when you normally allow yourself to eat. The No-Breakfast Plan gives you a longer fasting period each day. You can try switching from 11 am lunch to 12 noon, and then to 1pm or even 2pm. When you have done that for a while, you might try the ultimate in intermittent fasting--- the one-meal-a-day plan, which is usually supper (the evening meal.) I first tried this after attempts to fast longer. Since I kept being hungry, I added a good keto supper to the meal plan.

5. Try a longer fast when you don't feel like eating. My successful 5-day fast started on a hot day when I just did not feel like bothering with cooking and eating things. That was a signal that both my body and mind were in a mood to take a break from regular meals. It wasn't until lunchtime on the first fasting day that I even decided I was on a fast day, and it wasn't until the second morning that I decided I was going to try to extend my fast more than one day. I was ready for that fast, and so it worked for me.

Fasting isn't about fast-fast-fast weight loss. It is for your general health. It is about taking control of yourself. Every hour you fast, you are showing yourself that you don't have to eat constantly to feel good. In fact, eating too often puts your body to extra work with all that digesting. And if you have an insulin resistance problem, each eating session triggers more insulin release which makes you fatter.

Who should not fast: Dr. Jason Fung says that you should not fast if you are clinically underweight, if you are dealing with anorexia (and are probably underweight) if you are pregnant or nursing (for women), if you are a child under 18. Patients on meds, especially diabetes meds, need to discuss their planned fast with their doctors to get their meds reduced during the fast. (I was lucky, my incompetent nephrologist took me off all meds, said I could only be on insulin, and never bothered to prescribe the insulin. So I didn't have to ask permission to fast or negotiate to lower meds.)

Doctor Jason Fung and Jimmy Moore's book, The Complete Guide to Fasting, is the best fasting book I have found.
My oldest fasting book is Paul C. Bragg's The Miracle of Fasting. I haven't read it in years. Since the author wasn't a doctor, the book is mostly of historical interest, but you might be interested.
The above links are affiliate links, which means, though you pay no more, I get a tiny commission when someone buys through the links. Since I am on disability and can't afford to get plumbing and electrical repairs, every bit of help is gratefully accepted. Thank you!

Who is Jillian Michaels to condemn keto?

Recently I became aware that some celebrity I'd barely heard of, Jillian Michaels, had seen fit to ignorantly condemn the keto way-of-life. She did it in a blog post misleadingly entitled "The Truth about Keto." Worse, since her blog allows no comments, there is no way that we can defend ourselves against this ignorance.

Now, if Jillian Michaels is out there condemning keto, we might assume that she is DR Jillian Michaels and that she's done a good deal of original of scientific research on keto and diets in general.

But she's not a doctor or scientist. According to Wikipedia, she's just a famously lesbian personal trainer and product pitchwoman. She was also associated with the TV show The Biggest Loser. If you have read The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jimmy Moore & Dr. Jason Fung, you know that the contestants on the low-calorie and exercise based Biggest Loser program have gained their weight back, in part because they have slowed down their metabolisms.

I'd like to contrast Jillian Michaels' approach to keto to that of Jimmy Moore, also a non-doctor. Jimmy Moore's book Keto Clarity is just chock-full of quotes from doctors in support of keto, and of mention of legitimate scientific studies (The Biggest Loser was not a legitimate scientific study.) Jillian Michaels just seems to presume the facts  support her side, without bother to check. After all, she's a celebrity. And a LESBIAN celebrity. You are not supposed to be allowed to question her. (My own same-sex orientation doesn't count toward making ME beyond being criticized, since I'm also chaste & Catholic. Sigh.)

In JM's blog post, she starts out saying she's going to infuriate the keto community. Like she's doing something brave or something. Yet she's not brave enough to allow ketonians to have their say by opening up the comments on her blog.

I would not waste my time reading this celebrity personal trainer's opinions. Though I did have to read through the swill to compose this blog post. I would rather re-read Jimmy Moore's book Keto Clarity, or, better yet, listen to one of Jimmy Moore's podcasts. (You can find links to the Jimmy Moore podcasts in this blog's sidebar.)

The keto diet is not a 'fad' diet. The first diet book published in the English language advocated low-carb. There were other low-carb supporting books on the market before Atkins. And Atkins/low-carb morphed into today's keto as a result of scientific facts becoming known to the community. If anything is a fad, it's the idea that calorie & fat restriction plus 'going to the gym' will result in a permanent change in weight or health.

Keto is here to stay. The science backs it. And unlike a celebrity-personal-trainer approved diet, the keto way will change for the better as more good scientific studies are done. Keto has already improved my diabetes so that I have lower blood sugars without any meds than I did without keto and on two meds. I'm sticking with it for the long haul!

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What do you think about the Jillian Michaels condemnation of keto? Do you think she knows enough about the keto diet and medical issues in general to have an informed opinion? Answer with a comment, please.

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Books mentioned in this blog post. This are links to the real-book editions, the Kindle ebook versions are $9.99 for each book. 

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.

I'm not good at fasting yet

Recently I went back on strict Keto after a time period of regular daily cheating with carb-foods. Last Thursday was my 14th day on strict keto, and on impulse I decided to make it a fasting day. 

I have had little success in the past with fasting for 24 hours or more. I just got too hungry, and broke the fast short of the goal. But this time it went more easily. After days of strict keto with no carb-cheating, I didn’t have a big appetite any more. I was surprised at how hunger-free the day was.

Dr. Jason Fung, in ‘The Complete Guide to Fasting,’ allows home-made bone broth as an allowed fasting fluid. I happened to have some home-made bone broth in the freezer, so I thawed it out at heated up 2 cups, one at breakfast-time, one at lunch-time. I would have allowed myself a third serving near supper-time, but I wasn’t hungry and wasn’t in the mood to bother with it.

In previous attempts to fast, about 2 to three pm was my temptation time. I told myself I was so good fasting so far, I really deserved to get myself a little something to eat. Usually a little something meant potato chips or some other carb-poison. This time, I continued not feeling hungry throughout the day, into the evening, and even until the next morning.

I was even tempted to continue the fast during the next day, but decided to break the fast anyway since I could always start a fast again on another day. The next day’s results on my blood sugar was a 110, which contrasts to the 127s I had been getting before the fast, and the readings in the 200s I had been getting on my frequent-cheat routine. Blood sugars stayed lower in the following days when I was back on strict keto.

Another thing that helped was listening to an old episode from Jimmy Moore’s former podcast, ‘Fasting Talk.’ I downloaded a lot of podcasts from that series and it helped inspire me to stick with the fasting. But, as I’ve said, this time the fasting wasn’t any effort, and it was a relief not to have to do the chores of cooking for myself and cleaning up after. 

I think my frequent days of doing intermittent fasting, or ‘the no-breakfast plan’ was a big help. I was going 18-20 hours without food on a regular basis. Though when I went back on strict keto I did eat keto breakfasts, often a ‘bulletproof hot chocolate.’ 

Since I did not plan the fast, I hadn’t written down, for the Wednesday before my fasting Thursday, what time I quit eating for the day. I estimated it as about 6pm. When I added up the fasting time, it came to something like five minutes short of 40 hours of fasting. And all this without hunger or any desires for food!

I’m writing this now on Thursday the 12th of July, and I am once again beginning a fast. I felt good enough to do a long walk this morning (and got caught in a rainstorm I didn’t know was predicted), and I’m pretty confident I can keep fasting through today and perhaps through Friday as well. I can always eat the shrimp I planned to make for Friday on Saturday instead.

What about you, (the reader, assuming I have some/one)? Have you tried a full fasting day yet? How did it go?

Warning: If you are on diabetes meds, you MUST consult your doctor before going keto OR before fasting. You will probably need to reduce those meds. (I was lucky, my kidney doctor took me off all meds and said I could only use insulin, but never prescribed the insulin. So I’ve been using keto/fasting to sub for my diabetes meds.) 

My keto diet experiences

My first experience with a keto diet was sometime in the 1990s when I picked up a copy of Dr. Atkins' first diet book in a Goodwill store in Iron Mountain, Michigan.

I read the book cover to cover and tried the diet. I was so surprised how easy it was to lose weight! The Atkins diet, at least in the Induction Phase, is ketogenic. Dr. Atkins recommended that you run out and buy ketone test strips and test your urine for ketones. That way you could tell if your body had shifted over into fat-burning mode.

After that point I started purchasing any diet book I could find that was low-carb or ketogenic in nature. I read all the info in the books, especially if they referenced scientific studies. And I tried low-carb recipes from a lot of different books.

I lost some weight on Atkins. But in time I stopped doing it. The reason was that it was just hard to find low-carb food you didn't have to cook from scratch. And I had to give up going out to restaurants. There were no restaurants in my area that had low-carb items. And my family members liked to take me out to eat.

I went back on Atkins at some point. I think I was on Atkins for a full year when my father died. But I had to go off the diet at that time because I was eating out with my mother, or eating at mom's house.

At some point, my mother gave me her old blood sugar meter when she got a new one from her doctor. I tried it and found out I had diabetes. My mom's nurse-practitioner put me on Metformin. Later another drug--- I think Actos--- was added.

I found that my blood sugar was only staying under control when I was ALSO doing low-carb. Since the nurse-practitioner didn't care what my diet was, that was working out. Except I wasn't losing weight much, since I was older, menopausal, and diabetic. I was more concerned with blood sugar numbers than weight at this point.

I got a bad number on a kidney test and so had to go to a kidney doctor. And then I had to apply for Medicaid and I had to get a new kidney doctor and new doctor-substitute. One of my kidney doctors took me off all my drugs saying they caused the problem. So I really had to go low-carb. A kidney doctor messed me up by demanding I go on a government approved diet (DASH diet) that did nothing to address my carbohydrate problems. But when I got worse blood sugar numbers she said I could do what worked for me.

I noticed that the more I stuck to my diet, the better my kidney tests were. My most recent kidney doctor told me that diet had no effect on kidney disease. Since I had recently read a medical journal article that said otherwise, and heard about others, she became my former kidney doctor.

I had been collecting cookbooks by Dana Carpender for some time by then. She came out with a new one with Jimmy Moore as co-author. That's how I learned about Jimmy Moore's health podcasts. And when he came out with The Complete Guide to Fasting with Dr. Jason Fung, a kidney doctor (nephrologist), I had to buy a copy.

I feel that I am getting very well read on the science behind ketogenic diets and behind fasting. But the follow-through is hard. I still live alone, don't have a dishwasher or running water in the kitchen sink, and have to drive to another state for a grocery store with good selection.

And so, this blog. I figure if I become a health blogger I will be more motivated to stick to my keto and fasting plan. And if I can help other people to become informed or inspired, that's a bonus. Since I am a Christian (Catholic flavor) I think helping others is cool. So, if I can help you--- maybe answer a question or something--- I will.

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My personal stuff.
On Sept 23, my weight was 199 pounds. (My all-time high was about 255 pounds.) My blood sugars, particularly in the morning, have been BAD. (Not saying how bad.) My blood sugar this morning was still BAD, but was significantly down from the 300+ blood sugars I have been getting in the morning. I have been doing Intermittent Fasting in the mornings, eating only after 11am. I'm trying to hold off until 12 noon every day, and stop eating after 6pm.

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Some books mentioned in this post.