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Fasting, Day 2

Blog Instead of being asleep at 16:52 on 15 January 2017, kitt created this:

I did a 24 hour fast yesterday, having eaten Friday night and not eating on Saturday until the evening. I think I managed about 900 calories around dinner time, eating slowly from about 5:30 until about 8. Around 8, I started again.

Yesterday's fasting was easier than I expected to be, but knowing both what the experience is like and that I can endure the hunger for one f'ing day, made the day not particularly difficult.

What has surprised me about today's fasting, however, is the lack of hunger I am feeling. I was expecting today to be incredibly hungry, but, nope, not really. When I think about the question, "Am I hungry?" the answer was no until about 4pm. This surprised me a bit, until, well, I realized the body adapts to many things, and hunger is one it is evolved to withstand.

I'm uncertain how many days I'll do this. I suspect tomorrow will have a huge hunger backlash and I will want to eat everything in sight. I might switch to every other day if that happens. We'll see.

Tonight, however, I'm having buttermilk cornbread from a new-to-me recipe, and chili.

Comments

Submitted by kitt on Sun, 2017-01-15 20:46

The cornbread was disappointing. Flat, not flavorful. I'll try again with a better corn meal.

The fasting has totally f'd with my ability to eat. I was full after about 500 calories. Ugh.

Submitted by Rob Whiteley (not verified) on Mon, 2017-01-16 11:57

One thing I tried while I was training for my climb was to take advantage of your liver's glycogen storage capacity. Your liver can only really store and effectively convert 12-14 hours worth of glycogen into glucose. After that, your body starts to use amino acids and triglycerides from stored body fat. So as a more sustainable approach to fasting, try a 16-hour fast instead of a 24-hour fast. Eat dinner at 6, and then nada until the next day. Have nothing else until a late breakfast, early lunch kind of thing. You get to sleep for half of your fasting period of 16 hours, and during the last few hours of your fast your body is using stored fat and some aminos to power you. I was also power-hiking in the mornings to accentuate the effect. For me, the psychology of a 24-hour fast is just too brutal. I found that if I could cram all my eating into about 8 hours from early lunch to dinner, I could make it work.

Submitted by kitt on Tue, 2017-01-17 11:03

How does a 16 hour fast different from normal eating schedules? First meal of the day at 11, dinner at 6, done. Doesn't seem to be any fasting, though.

The "cram all my eating into about 8 hours from early lunch to dinner" part feels like a normal day to me. What am I missing?

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