Week-long Fast page 13

[Diana Renata]

Wow, that seems really high. I guess part of it could be fat content? This that I have, there's pretty much none. The bones I tossed in were pretty well bare- scraped clean. I guess it's more of a bone broth. Hmm...

[jadedgamerx]

Maybe I'm not looking in the right places, but I'm unable to find an answer to my question. Maybe you all can give me an answer on this.

I'm starting an extended fast from today (Saturday) through sometime Thursday. About 6 days. Coffee, tea and water are a given. I was toying with the idea of adding some bone broth or beef stock with gelatin- couple cups maybe- each night.

What are the pros/cons of doing this, do you think?

Hi Diana,

I just wanted to point out that if you are consuming anything that provides some calories for burning (even if it's in fiber free liquid form) it's technically not a fast and you won't be going into the same body state as someone who is restricting themselves from all caloric intake completely. You would be doing a severe calorie restriction diet instead, which might still have benefits and obvious weight/water loss - but not necessarily the same. It would only seem logical that the healing/repairing benefits of shutting down the digestive tract would be minimized by consuming something that needed to be processed.

That being said, it looks like you already have a fair amount of setup done and are on your way at this point so maybe my post is just something to consider for your next time around. If you were to consume the cup(s) of bone broth during an intermittent fast window (say only consuming them from 10am-2pm) you might be able to enter into a similar state as a full fast once your body has finished digestion, elimination, and is then in a fasting state before hitting the next 10am-2pm window.

I don't have any scientific research to back up my statements, I'm just trying to give you the best advice I can based on what I have read and experimented with thus far.

Good luck!

Aaron

[Diana Renata]

Thanks Aaron.

Yeah that's a point I've considered. I'm not drinking the broth continuously, but only having a cup or two in the evening before bed. Last night was a cup of broth, and then a cup of green tea with lemon juice.

Feeling good this morning. My bedroom was far too hot so I feel a little crappy this morning, but not really hungry. Coffee's brewing and I'm thinking about just brewing up a huge batch of tea to sip on throughout the day.

[Diana Renata]

Nope. Body doesn't want to fast. It doesn't want a lot of food either but fasting... no go right now, so I'm gonna listen to it. It just wants meat and broth.

I've been feeling a tad under the weather but I figured the fasting would clear that up. Body is saying more salt and fat right now, so that's what we're doing.

Will shoot for this again after the new year.

[jadedgamerx]

Nope. Body doesn't want to fast. It doesn't want a lot of food either but fasting... no go right now, so I'm gonna listen to it. It just wants meat and broth.

I've been feeling a tad under the weather but I figured the fasting would clear that up. Body is saying more salt and fat right now, so that's what we're doing.

Will shoot for this again after the new year.

Good to hear you are listening to your body and not forcing anything. Hope you feel better soon.

[Wulf]

just fyi, there is actually a lot of fat contained in the inter-cellular space of bones, (not just in the marrow, which will also add calories), which is why some cultures crush bones before making broth with them, gets a lot more of the fat out. imo for a true fast, real bone broth would indeed add a fair amount of calories, especially if cooked over a long period/continuously, that will probably pull more of that fat out of the bone even if not crushed. But the calcium and other minerals you will get in bone broth is very important to have, even/especially while fasting.

I am very concerned with people doing fasts because you can cause a very dangerous loss of electrolytes, especially consuming a large volume of liquid and not adding back daily enough sodium/potassium/calcium/magnesium lost in urine and sweat, leading to light-headedness, irregular heartbeat, and possible death over a long period (remember, it is possible to kill yourself by drinking too much water, because it dilutes your electrolytes out too much for your heart to function). It is probably a good idea to take a vitamin and mineral supplement daily during fasts, and if absorption is a concern, crush it with mortar and pestle and add it to a drink. Probably you could just add the supplement to hot tea and it will dissolve on its own even.

[Sabine]

See electrolyte water posts earlier in thread, but I like the idea of crushing your supplements and dissolving them in liquid. I will keep it in mind for any longer fasts.

[JudyCr]

I have fasted every Tuesday for the past 6 wks.
I eat a good primal meal on Monday at 5pm,
get DH's plate ready for warm-up later.
Then I clean up the kitchen like the control freak I am
and set my mind to 'vacation from kitchen'.
DH has full day out and dinner meeting on Tues,
so it works out great. Primal bkfast Wed 8am.

[Sabine]

It's great when you can work a fast into your daily life like that. That's how I started my IF, just not wanting to eat an early or late dinner on gym night. Suddenly, there was a 24-hour window, almost without thinking about it.

[jadedgamerx]

I've actually been re-working my schedule here with all the information from this thread (and many others on MDA) as well as some from a couple outside sources about body transformation / weight lifting (like Evan Pavan (MDA poster and blogger), rippedbody, and Leangains).

I've implemented the following schedule this week:
Monday-Saturday: eating window between 12pm and 7pm (IF from 7PM-12PM next day, for a 17 hour IF, daily)
Sunday: planned fast until 7pm for a 24 hour fast total, if feeling great, skip 7pm dinner and keep going through to Monday 12pm meal.

I'm going to see how this affects my feelings of hunger and body composition. It seems like a pretty safe way to get my caloric intake and BF% down while not feeling so gloomy and I am finally starting to feel like I have control over my binge eating habits even while being primal.