The FastDay Forum

I took your advice about eating protein rather than carbs on my second day of fasting and was so much better! I had an egg and some mushrooms, then some blueberries for a very late breakfast about midday, then a stirfry with loads of veg and some chicken about 6pm. It was a long time between meals and I can't pretend I wasn't very hungry, but had no reflux problems to spaek of. Later I had a small 100calorie homemade bread roll just before bed (thanks to B&W!) and had no pain in the night. Didn't even take my pills! I even stayed under my 500 cal allowance too!
Next morning I felt full of energy and really good all day! No nasty side effects with the IBS either so am going to stick to high protein from now on.

Hi,

Like most people on here I have passed information around to family and friends. My sister-in-law bought the book and tried the diet out. She followed it to the letter and fasted using 500 cal. The next day she had the meanest migraine she has experienced. In the end we had to call a doctor and she had to come off the diet. Don't know if anyone else has had this but thought I would log it on here.

[carorees]

Yes, migraines or bad headaches can happen at the start of the process. They seem to resolve after one or two fasts though. I think it is the shock of not being fed regularly that causes the body to rebel a bit! (I do have a technical explanation too)

Hi Caroline,

I would like the technical explanation so I can tell her what happened but I don't think she will do this again sadly

I've had some pretty bad headaches but I think it wasn't drinking enough. Having had migraines until I'm sick, I have much sympathy and can see why she wouldn't take the chance again.

[carorees]

Ok, there are two parts to the technical explanation.

One is not drinking enough as BBT053 says. Food contains a lot of water so by not eating we are not taking in as much water. One symptom of dehydration is headache.

The second reason is low blood sugar. Although the body has a great system for swapping between glucose as a fuel to glycogen stores and eventually to fat stores, when we are overweight the body is reluctant to swap to fat burning (this is called metabolic inflexibility). This is at least partly due to high insulin levels which act to prevent the fat stores being mobilised. Because the body is slow to swap to fat burning, it fails to compensate for the lack of glucose in the blood (by producing ketone bodies through fat burning), the resulting low blood sugar combined with no ketone bodies leaves the brain short of fuel and triggers a headache/migraine. I think this may also be a contributory factor to those headaches that we sometimes wake up with...we all fast while we sleep (unless we sleepwalk to the fridge and have a midnight snack) and often we start fat burning overnight, perhaps when we wake with a headache we didn't manage to make the switch to fat burning.

After the first fast, the body will change more easily to fat burning, and over the next few fasts the headaches/migraines will disappear. Of course this applies to the other low blood sugar symptoms as well.

Ketone bodies, which are produced during fat burning and which the brain uses instead of glucose when glucose is in short supply, have been shown to be very beneficial to the brain and enhance nerve growth as well as damping down over-excited nerves as occurs in epilepsy and in migraine. In fact, before the dawn of anti-epileptic medicine, a ketogenic diet (i.e., low carb/high fat) was used to help control epilepsy.

So to avoid migraines you need either to keep consuming carbohydrates and risk attendant obesity problems or to try to enter a state of ketosis. Fasting will do this, but you do have to weather the migraines/headaches. A possible way to help the transition into fat burning would be to eat a low carb diet at least on the day before a fast and during the fast and to do some exercise while fasting. This encourages the switch.

Hope that helps!

The only negative I can find so far that anything on the TV after 9pm on fast days has to be recorded as I cant keep my eyes open!

Please fogive my greeness as I have only done three fast days but the only downside I have so far is throwing food away!!!
I used to do this a lot, however I made myself use the leftovers and was doing really well until now. It's hard to use leftovers when you can't eat!! I'll get used to it and end up buying less I suppose. (That should probably be in the positive section!!)

HI Boatie

Just wondering why you are having to throw food out when you are only fasting for two days in teh week? Surely the food can be eaten on the other 5 days? I have only just started this but I am finding that the quantity of food that I need to buy has reduced but its good to know that I can finish off any leftovers on the day after a fast.

Just curious I guess....

I'm fasting Mondays and Thursdays, having a 450 cal meal in the evening, and a couple of cups of tea/coffee with milk during the day. (plus lots of water and black tea). I'm doing my 4th fast tomorrow.

Main negative side effect is feeling hungry all the time, even on feed days. I'm trying to avoid carbs, and stick to a whole-food diet with plenty of protein. Its a low-level nausea/hunger I'm feeling.

Other disappointment is missing out on lunch with colleagues - we have a nice work canteen but I fast on the 2 days I go into the office, as I want to save feed days to shoe in with my social life.

And I haven't lost any weight yet.

But I do have a sense of achievement from being able to fast, and I can see how this would be sustainable long-term.

Hi Golfcaddie

As I said I'm new to this! Bought a large chicken for Sunday and we only had one breast. I normally use the rest for sandwiches throughout the week but now I'm not eating lunch on Tues and Thursday. Have already bought my sirloin steak for fast days so will need to make a big risotto or curry tonight and freeze the leftovers.
Just going to have to plan a bit more carefully!!!!

So far everything has been positive apart from the initial headaches, until today!
Monday & Wednesday were fast days. Today I went out for brunch at 12 o'clock. ( I have never been one for breakfast). I had eggs Royale, on granary toast. An hour and a half later I had really bad diarrhoea ( sorry!) this hasn't happened before but it felt like my body had just gone, 'Food!? NO WAY!'. I literally had to abandoned my supermarket shop and drive home like the clappers!

I think I'm one of the lucky ones whose body reacts quickly to diets etc - I've had migraines caused by skipping meals (in part - usually tiredness does it) but in the 4-5 weeks I've been fasting I haven't had a single headache which has surprised me. I get a bad taste in my mouth at the end of the day and am convinced I get bad breath but my wife says I don't... and she's the boss..

The biggest problems for me have been sensitivity to cold - this had increased for some reason before I fasted but on a fast day I'm much more sensitive to cold (I spent my childhood in Scotland in shorts and t-shirt even in winter so I find this a weird one to cope with and sleep problems are the other. Whilst I generally sleep OK after a fast (in fact go to bed early) in general my sleep has been more fitful in the last month.

I've lost a stone though so it's not a problem - I suspect once my weight evens off and I eat more on feed days this will probably resolve!

James

This is my 6th week, and I'm starting to feel really run-down on fast days, and finding it hard to concentrate at work. It's odd, because I was fine the first 4 weeks or so, and it's only the last 2 I've noticed this. I thought it was just the sensation of hunger, but I had lots to eat yesterday evening, and didn't really feel hungry during the day.

Think I'll go back to normal eating next week and see if that helps.

[wildmissus]

I wee lots more on fast days. Not a negative but a nuisance. I don't drink any more than normal because I am good at taking in liquid anyway - green tea, fennel tea and water. I have all my calories at tea time and guess that I wee more because the liquid isn't mixing with food and passes through quicker. I am not diabetic or even pre-diabetic.