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I'm doing a 5 day fast, with the intention of doing one each month this year.
I'm about 50 lbs from my goal, so there's a chance that I might reach my goal by the end of '22, if I stay consistent. I know that my weight loss journey has been bumpy and life events derail me, so I'm staying open to the unknowns ahead. In any case, I'm finding good progress with fasting and this year seems like a good time to experiment with various lengths of fasting from daily intermittent fasts to alternate day fasts to longer multi-day fasts. I ended last year with a 21 day fast for Advent and I am planning to do that again next December. A few members of that group are planning to do the 5 day/month fasts with me, to build up our fasting abilities looking ahead to the 21 day fast in December.
This time I'm using bone broth during the 5 days to give me some nutrients with very low calories, and two mornings I've had some MCT oil in my coffee to boost ketones. This morning's ketone blood test was at 1.3, up from .4 on my low carb eating the day before the fast. That just shows that my body is burning fat and most of my glycogen stores are used up. It should go higher over the next few days.
I have read 2 books on fasting since the holidays: Jason Fung's 'Guide to Fasting:Heal Your Body Through Intermittent, Alternate-Day and Extended Fasting" and also, Dave Asprey's, "Fast This Way: Burn Fat, Heal Inflammation, and Eat Like the High-Performing Human You Were Meant to Be."
I highly recommend them both. Jason Fung's book was co-written with Jimmy Moore who adds his own anecdotes from his personal experimentation, but it's the clinical facts from Fung's Toronto clinic that are most helpful. One fact is that on average - over thousands of patients- fasters lose .57 lbs per day of fasting - taking into account the post-fast rebound. This has been true for me, so I only retain about half the loss from the fast, but then it seems to be easier to cover that ground with more usual WOE. Fung suggests that you can figure out the number of days to goal by using a half pound per day of fasting, whether intermittent or extended. Dave Asprey's book is not based on clinical practice, but wide-ranging research and it's chock full of good tips for hacking fasting.
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93.1 kg
Lost so far: 33.9 kg.
Still to go: 2.4 kg.
Diet followed: Reasonably Well.
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Losing 3.4 kg a Week
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