{"id":528,"date":"2017-04-20T14:47:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T21:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/?p=528"},"modified":"2019-04-01T08:02:47","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T15:02:47","slug":"the-fasting-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cholesterolcode.com\/the-fasting-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fasting Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fasting_macros\"<\/a><\/p>\n[UPDATE 4-1-2019: This article still often comes up as though it is making a statement about fasting in some way — it is not. It is simply an experiment in fasting that that had dramatic results. And these results further emphasized the Inversion Pattern<\/a> as well. My current opinion on fasting remains: if you can do it comfortably, you probably should<\/em>.]\n

Fasting has been all the rage lately. Jimmy Moore and Jason Fung released a book<\/a> on it that quickly shot up the New York Times Best Sellers list. In fact, it has been so popular that they launched a podcast<\/a> on it at the beginning of this year. Oh, I did I mention the episode\u00a0featuring Jason Fung and fasting is still the most downloaded of the 2 Keto Dudes<\/a> podcast?<\/p>\n

Yet other high profile low carbers such as Dr. Stephen Phinney\u00a0are not part of the fan club<\/a>. My personal favorite article on the subject was Not So… Fast… (A Rant)<\/a> from the prolific Amy Berger.<\/p>\n

While on low carb myself, I’ve only ever intentionally fasted for 14 hours at a time, which was only done to meet the requirements of a blood draw. But while I don’t feel hungry when fasting, I don’t feel… right<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To be sure, I’ve wondered if I\u00a0want to eat all the time so that I either maintain or gain weight, given I’m underweight right now. And therefore\u00a0my feeling odd when not eating is perhaps entirely\u00a0mental manifestation. Regardless, a fast of a few days probably wouldn’t be that bad anyway, right?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Experiment<\/h2>\n

The plan was pretty simple:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I’d take a blood draw in the morning at the beginning of the fast.<\/li>\n
  2. Fast for three days\u00a0while both supplementing and keeping electrolytes high, but otherwise drinking only water.<\/li>\n
  3. Take a final blood draw for comparison on the morning 72 hours after the first blood draw. So in all, 86 hours will have passed since my last meal, making it a total of 3.5 days.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Execution<\/h2>\n

    Day One<\/strong>:\u00a0I was surprised to find I wasn’t hungry at all. This seemed to back up my theory that if I had already made the commitment to myself to forgo eating, my brain wouldn’t send me subconscious “shouldn’t we be eating?” signals.<\/p>\n

    As happens with me when I’ve lowered my total calories for an experiment (but while still being keto), I feel run down and puny. I have\u00a0an overall feeling\u00a0of lower energy. I also feel a little dispirited in this state, but its hard to tell how much of that is annoyance of that phase of the experiment\u00a0vs it being an actual physical response.<\/p>\n

    However, that not-feeling-right sensation I mentioned above?… I was certainly getting that signal. But I had hoped I’d only feel it on the first day.<\/p>\n

    Day Two<\/strong>: I still wasn’t feeling hungry. And while I did continue to feel low in energy, it wasn’t notably better or worse.<\/p>\n

    However, the\u00a0not-feeling-right sensation was definitely much, much higher. It was like nothing I’ve experienced before this point. In my imagination it was as though my body\u00a0found a red phone line and called some special center of my brain to say, “ABORT! ABORT!” No physical pain, no odd changes in the senses, nothing other than a feeling… a feeling this was terribly wrong.<\/p>\n

    By the evening I decided to go ahead and cut the experiment short. I’d take my blood on the morning of Day Three as opposed to Day Four. Heck, at least it was a 2.5 day fast in the Data Can. I just knew I’d feel annoyed if my numbers had hardly changed. (Just writing that last sentence makes me laugh out loud now…)<\/p>\n

    General Bloodwork<\/h2>\n

    In every blood draw now, I get a slate of general panels\u00a0like a CMP and CBC. The latter is known as a\u00a0Complete Blood Count and has 14 markers. These numbers always been in range… until this time.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/td>\nRef Range<\/td>\n3\/21\/17<\/td>\n3\/23\/17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    RBC<\/td>\n4.10-5.70<\/td>\n5.02<\/td>\n5.85<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Hemoglobin<\/td>\n13.0-17.0<\/td>\n15.3<\/td>\n18.1<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Hematocrit<\/td>\n37.0-49.0<\/td>\n44.6<\/td>\n52<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    All of these markers have to do with red blood cells and their functionality, which I won’t cover here. What I really wanted to see is if I had fallen off on my electrolytes, which would explain both the run down feeling and my general sense of malaise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/td>\nRef Range<\/td>\n3\/21\/17<\/td>\n3\/23\/17<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Sodium, Serum<\/td>\n134-144<\/td>\n137<\/td>\n136<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Potassium, Serum<\/td>\n3.5-5.2<\/td>\n5.1<\/td>\n5.8<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Calcium, Serum<\/td>\n8.7-10.2<\/td>\n9.6<\/td>\n10.5<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Interesting — instead of being under, I was over on K and Ca.<\/p>\n

    Cholesterol<\/h2>\n

    Of course the big one is the lipid profile. And if you follow me, you already know what I’d predict\u00a0after fasting for the very first time given the Inversion Pattern –> a record increase in LDL cholesterol.<\/p>\n

    So what happened? I hope you’re sitting down for this….<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/td>\nRef Range<\/td>\n3\/21\/17<\/td>\n3\/23\/17<\/td>\nDifference<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Cholesterol, Total<\/td>\n100-199<\/td>\n371<\/td>\n479<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n+108<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    HDL-C<\/td>\n>39<\/td>\n72<\/td>\n70<\/td>\n-2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    LDL-C<\/td>\n0-99<\/td>\n284<\/td>\n368<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n+84<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    LDL-P<\/td>\n<1000<\/td>\n2068<\/td>\n3348<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n+1280<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Small LDL-P<\/td>\n<=527<\/td>\n<90<\/td>\n546<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n+546<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    Triglycerides<\/td>\n0-149<\/td>\n76<\/td>\n205<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n+129<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    Indeed it was<\/em><\/strong> a record!<\/p>\n

    Let’s unpack a few things:<\/p>\n