Intermittent Fasting: High Blood Sugar, Insomnia, High Energy page

[Stephanie A.]

I have been dabbling with IF as part of my PB program. What I have found is that my blood sugar goes wacky for a couple of days (high) when I IF. I also find that I have a LOT of trouble sleeping and feel a lot of extra energy, almost too much energy when I am fasting. I seem to have less patience, too.

Does anyone else have a similar experience?

I so want IF to work for me, but these results have me concerned.

[Shaun S]

I have not had that experience, except for having an abundance of energy. Wouldn't have called it problematic amount though.
How have you been doing the fasts, and for how long each time and how frequently? If you are doing Eat-Stop-Eat style intermittent fasting, have you tried varying the time of day you start/end your fasts?
How many IFs have you tried? I found it got easier after about the first 3.

edit: Maybe I'm not the best person to have answered, since I don't really know what my blood sugar does as I'm not in any way diabetic. Other than cold hands I don't notice any negative effects when I fast.

[Stephanie A.]

I have been doing a 20-24 hour fast, but always eating each day. So, eat dinner the night before, no snacking in the evening and then break the fast with dinner the next day usually a bit earlier than usual. I have tried this several times now about every 5 days or so for a several weeks.

I am going to eat 3 meals a day for a couple of weeks and try again to see if I have the same reaction. I so want IF to work for me. I love not worrying about or thinking about food all day on the days that I have tried fasting.

[Dragonfly]

If you haven't been Primal for very long, it may take some time (sometimes several months) to get keto-adapted. Generally, it is recommended that folks try IF after being Primal for a month or so and ease into it bit more gradually.

Here are a couple of threads that may be helpful:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread27894.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread28459.html

[Apex Predator]

If you haven't been Primal for very long, it may take some time (sometimes several months) to get keto-adapted. Generally, it is recommended that folks try IF after being Primal for a month or so and ease into it bit more gradually.

Here are a couple of threads that may be helpful:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread27894.html
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/forum/thread28459.html

+1

[MalPaz]

maybe your just eating to close to sleeping. try doing lunch instead of evening eating

[yodiewan]

Magnesium supplementation is supposed to help lower fasting glucose. I can get irritable on rest days when I fast more than 15 or 16 hours. I'm not sure what the cause of the irritability is, but eating almost always makes me happy and calms me down, haha.

I have been doing ~18 hour fasts every day for the past year or so. My fasting glucose was usually in the 90s when I tested it, but post-prandial was at the same level or lower, even after lots of carbs. I started supplementing Mg about 3 weeks ago, but I've run out of test strips to test whether this has helped lower my fasting glucose. Although I eat high-carb post-workout, I haven't found that this negatively affects my ability to fast the next day.

[yodiewan]

Update: I tested my blood glucose a few times this weekend, but with a different meter. So far the results are not very encouraging. Every time I tested, it was in the 100s. Never over 110, but still, I was hoping for an improvement. I tested once in the morning fasting and a couple times post-prandial. I'm not sure what to change at this point to lower my blood glucose.

Update update: I checked the expiration date on the test strips and it was September 2009. I'm hoping that the strips are just reading high because they are old or something. I will report back again when I get new strips for my own meter.

[Stephanie A.]

I haven't fasted in over a week now. My BS have all come back down -- mornings are 80-95 and post-prandial one hour is 85-110. I am either not ready or not a good candidate at this time for IF. For now, I will continue with primal without IF and see how it goes.

The difficult thing is spreading the food out over 3 meals -- the meals are much smaller and not as satisfying as one larger meal with a snack. Eating more frequently keeps food on my mind, too. I will figure it out... I was just loving the freedom of thinking about food when I was fasting, drat!

[New Renaissance]

the best part about fasting is not having to stress about food and meals. Your blood sugar will rise due to your body converting dietary proteins to glucose(gluconeogenesis). This just means your body is working.

I also have a hard time sleeping after long fasts. MalPaz has the best solution: eat earlier. If i get into a long fast, after i break with a big dinner, I sweat, have tons of energy, can't sleep, and don't know what to do with my self. There is some merit to adding starch to your fast breaking meal as well. Play around with things, and try not to worry so much.