Month: July 2017

I made it 6 days and 23 hours before I broke my fast. I could have gone that extra hour but hadn’t had dinner with my family for a week, so I decided to end it a little early. Here’s my observations  from a week of fasting:
1.  Most importantly, I like to eat. After day 4, I was never physically hungry, but there were times when I just wanted some food in my mouth, or wanted something with flavor to eat. LaCroix and Kombucha were OK, but at then end were not quite satisfying enough.  And I was definitely looking forward to dinner, drinks and a concert this weekend with some friends.

2. I never felt the euphoria that some people feel when their body switches over to ketones exclusively for fuel. That was kind of disappointing. Some of the things you read when people talk about how good they feel when fasting makes you think, “why would you ever even eat?”  I did not have that experience.  It was a daily challenge to keep fasting, and I considered ending it at some point almost every day.

3.  I typically felt good in the mornings and by the evening my energy level was pretty low, and I was sluggish. I would get light-headed when I stood up quickly as well in the evenings.  This is supposedly related to dehydration but I drank a lot of water and was peeing clear so I don’t think that was the problem.

4. I did not sleep well at all while fasting. I would toss and turn and get up at least twice to go to the bathroom. To be fair, I am not the best sleeper in the best of conditions, but this last week was especially bad. I have read that others have that problem with fasting as well. The last night of my fast I had a dream that I was in my parents pantry eating potato chips by the handful. I cannot ever remember having had a dream about eating before, so that was interesting. I took it as a sign that it was time to eat again.

5. I did feel good during the day, and fasting did not affect my work at all. In fact, no one even knew I was fasting except my one confidant at work. I did some big cases and took care of some really sick people and never felt like I was compromising their care. I would have eaten right away if I thought that.  I lifted weights at the beginning of the fast, but was too busy with work to exercise at the end. That would have been interesting to see how I felt.

6. It took me 2 days to get into ketosis, based on blood sugar and urine ketones, but once I got there, my body stayed there. I hope that my body will return to ketosis more easily now after shorter fasts. Hopefully this will improve my insulin sensitivity as well.  If nothing else I proved to myself that I can do it.

7.  I lost 12 pounds during my 7 day fast. From what I read, you can expect to lose about 1/2 to 3/4 pound of fat for every day that you fast. So I lost a lot of water and some fat, and created some good momentum to carry me forward.

All things considered, my fast was a big success, but not something that I am planning on repeating anytime soon.  I will probably do a long Fast once a year for its anti-cancer properties, but not more than that. I am going to continue my daily intermittent fasting, aiming for 16-20 hours of fasting most days, and keep on keepin’ on. My next couple blogs are going to be about fat-adaption and hormonal theory of obesity, so check back in. Until then, thanks for reading!

“Until you’re broken, you don’t know what you’re made of.  It gives you the ability to build yourself all over again, but Stronger than ever”

I made it through the weekend without breaking my fast. It wasn’t the most fun weekend of my life, but it also wasn’t the worst. Here’s what it looked like:

Saturday (Day 2)- I was still making the transition to fat burning today. Mid-day my blood sugar was 124 (normal fasting is 75-105, so I was a little higher than I should have been) and I had trace urinary ketones. I felt pretty good, a little bit hungry, but I was expecting this. I have heard and read that the second day is the hardest in terms of that, and so I was ready to ride it out. I went to a neighbors birthday party that night, which in hindsight might not have been the best decision. It was at a delicious Mexican restaurant, with all you can eat tacos and all you care to drink Margs. These are 2 of my favorite things to consume and it took a bit of will power to stay there and drink my club soda with a lime and not try all the delicious looking food and drinks being paraded by me. But I held strong and made it home without any cheating at all. That night my sugar was 104 and ketones were moderate. Now I was starting to get into some more ketosis.  I was pretty hungry and really wanting to put something in my mouth with some flavor, but settled for a Cherry-Lime Lacroix and went to bed.

Sunday (Day 3)- I woke up feeling pretty good.  My glucose was 82 and my ketones were moderate. Now we were in business!  I was expecting to not be hungry today, but I was very hungry and feeling low on energy and sluggish. I checked my sugar at that time and it was 61. That’s a little too low and so I ate a little bone broth and felt a lot better. I am not going to lie though, it was a rough day. I felt hungry at times throughout the day and didn’t have very good energy. I thought about calling it quits, but decided to finish the day and hope for a better day 4.  I had some bone broth at dinner with my family and drank 1/2 a kombucha. I crawled into bed and hoped that the next day was going to be better or else my fast was over.

Monday (Day 4)- I woke up feeling better and more rested than I had the previous days. My sugar was 84 and my ketones were large now. And as a nice bonus I had lost 8 pounds since I had started my fast! Probably alot of water, but hopefully a little fat too.  This was definitely where I wanted my body to be and so off to work I went. I had much better energy and felt pretty good, and I wasn’t really hungry at all throughout the day. So for me, it was 3 days before my hunger hormones finally started to settle down. When I got home from work, I checked my sugar again and it was 82 with large ketones. I was feeling a lot better now, and was excited to see if I could go the full 7 days. That’s where I am right now and things are good. I’m planning on some bone broth for dinner and a little kombucha action and see what tomorrow brings. I’ll post again in a couple of days and let you know how things are going then. Until then, thanks for reading!

“And so I try to understand
What I can’t hold in my hand
And whatever I find, I’ll find my way back to you”

 

Now that my big ride is over I have been thinking about doing a longer fast, and by that I mean 3-7 days.  I was trying to find a good time to do it, and woke up Friday morning and decided that this weekend would be the right time to start, and since I hadn’t eaten since dinner Thursday I had already started!  I am on call this weekend, so I will just be hanging around the house trying to get stuff done, and keeping my head down hoping my pager does not go off.  If I were to fast three days then my fast would end on Sunday night, seven days would end Thursday at dinner time.  As always with fasting, I am going to play it by ear and see how it all plays out.  If I’m feeling good I’ll keep it going and if I’m not feeling right I’ll shut it down.  When I start to fast, I will just drink black coffee, water, and tea and take a multivitamin and see how long that lasts.  If I feel like I need more than I will try drinking some Kombucha and eating a little bone broth with salt added.

There are many different kinds of fasts as I am sure all of you know now.  The most hardcore is the water only fast.  I am not going to do this for fear of a crushing caffeine headache, and also the fact that without a little caffeine in the morning it’s very difficult for me to get out of bed.  The other fasts are less hardcore and much easier to stick to, and that is the kind of fast I am planning on doing.  Kombucha and bone broth are acceptable in a fast because they do not have enough protein or carbs to stimulate much insulin release, and can also make your fast so much more comfortable.  Some fat in your coffee is also acceptable, and some people use cream, or butter, or coconut oil.  Again the idea is to make sure it’s a little bit of fat, which should not cause much insulin to be released by your body at all.  I am not going to do that though, I am going to stick to my black coffee and iced Americanos with no room.

I am going to do it like the science nerd that I am, so I have ketone strips, to test my urine and see how my body responds,  and a blood glucose monitor to keep an eye on my sugars, all ready to go.  I’ll add some updates along the way and then a recap after it’s all over.

The Triple Bypass Ride (TBP) ended up a little different from what I had expected this last weekend.  As many of you know, there have been a lot of fires in Summit County here in Colorado, and so on Thursday afternoon, the Triple Bypass Ride was cancelled due to air quality and concerns about rider safety.  This was absolutely the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it definitely messed up my plans.  My buddy was on a plane from California to ride the TBP with me and I knew he wouldn’t let me get away with a day off.  We had been planning this for a year, we were trained and carbo-loaded, and we were going to ride!  So after talking through our options, we decided to ride the TBP route anyway, and my wonderful wife volunteered to be support (like she always does).  I carbo-loaded just as I had planned, and my weight finished up 6 pounds heavier and so I was pretty sure that my stores were as full as they could be.  I woke up, ate a big breakfast and was in the car at 5 Am on the road to Evergreen, where we parked and were riding by 6 AM.

The TBP consists of three passes, the first one being Squaw (or Juniper Pass).  I took it slow making sure that I had enough gas for the whole day.  I ended up getting up the first pass with the third fastest time I had ever had for that segment.  So far so good, but there was still a long way to go.  I regrouped and refueled in Idaho Springs, still feeling pretty good.  My refueling during the ride was mostly refined carbs and sugar to raise my blood sugar and conserve my glycogen for as long as possible.

The next pass was Loveland Pass, which is the hardest, tallest pass of the ride.  It starts in Georgetown, and continues 16 miles with 3,437 feet of elevation gain;  it is very steep.  I ended up going up this part faster than I ever had before.  This is the segment I was worried about the most, and this is where my fasting/carbo-loading experiment would be most tested.  If I had insufficient stores then I would bonk here since there is no real way to eat enough to fuel this part of the ride.  After Loveland Pass, 60% of the distance and 80% of the climbing is done.  All that is left is Vail Pass.

During the usual route of the TBP you do a “little” hill called Swan Mountain Road between Loveland and Vail Passes.  We decided to skip that part because the fires were supposedly at the end of Swan Mountain Road and the trail we would take from there was closed.  I had a little mechanical problem with my brakes on the descent from Loveland Pass, so the decision was made to end the ride on the top of Vail Pass, and skip the descent for safety reasons.  The final pass, Vail Pass, started in Frisco and was 11 miles long with 1,311 feet of elevation gain.  I finished strong on that pass, going up it faster than I ever had before.  Even better was that my family was waiting on the top with ice cream and Coke, what a great finish!!

All things considered, my carbo-loading experiment was a resounding success.  I was able to do a daily fast the week before the ride, start loading on Wednesday night, and load all day Thursday and Friday for my Saturday event.  By loading and eating steadily, I had plenty of energy during my ride, and never felt like I was close to bonking.  I also tend to get leg cramps on longer rides, and I did not have any issues with that during the ride.  I  had 48 segments that I got a top 3 time on, including my fastest time up two of the three passes.  It was a beautiful, long day on the bike and a successful experiment, followed by and fun and relaxing night in Vail, what more can you ask for?

 

“I eat too much, drink too much, want too much.  Too Much!” – Dave Matthews

My big bike ride of the season is coming up this weekend, and so I thought it was a good time to think and write about carbo loading.  My ride is the Triple Bypass (TBP), which covers 120 miles and 10,000 feet of elevation gain in one day as I inch from Evergreen, Colorado to Avon, Colorado.  It is a very difficult day, and certainly not one that I can do fasted.  There are too many steep gradients, too much high altitude and the day is just too long.  At least for now…

When I first started this experiment what I really wanted to do was be able to practice intermittent fasting most of the time, but be able to cram my muscles and liver with glycogen for the occasional big endurance event that came up.  It is carbohydrates that your liver turns into glycogen in the presence of insulin, and since my non-fasting diet is mostly high fat and low carb, my glycogen stores have been habitually low for the last few months.  When you ride a bicycle (or do any exercise) you burn glycogen and fat for fuel, and the ratio of which you burn is different for every individual based on a variety of factors.  In general though, if you are at a low intensity you are burning more fat and if you are riding at a high intensity then you are burning mostly glycogen;  I think of glycogen as jet fuel and fat as diesel fuel.  The human body can store only 1,500 – 2,000 or so calories of glycogen, and has 100,000s calories of fat energy (even skinny Tour de France riders have plenty of fat energy).  I will probably burn 4000-5000 calories during the TBP, much more than I will have stored, so I need to have a strategy to avoid using all my glycogen.  If anyone has ever experienced “hitting the wall” or “bonking” or know someone who has, it is what happens when your body runs out of glycogen.  I can tell you from personal experience it is not very fun.  You get nauseous, fatigued, have no energy, cold, and most people have very negative feelings about everything.  One good way to avoid running out of glycogen is to maximize your glycogen stores, or carbo load,  right before the event.  Another way is to keep your intensity low enough that you spend most of your time in the fat burning zone.  A final way is to ingest carbohydrates that your body can easily use during the event, thus sparing your precious glycogen stores.

I am going to do what physiologists call non-depletion carbo-loading where I will try to cram my glycogen stores as full as they can be right before my ride.  To properly do this I am going to need to start 2-3 days before the event.  Contrary to past beliefs, you cannot fill your glycogen in one meal or even in one day.  For those 2-3 days I am going to eat 80-85% carbs and 4 grams of carbs for every pound of body weight, which is a lot of carbs and calories, and going to be harder than it sounds.  I am going to focus on rice, juice, bagels, yogurt, bread, oatmeal, pasta, potatoes, and waffles.  I am going to stay away from high fat foods like cheese, butter and oils because they take longer to digest and do not help your glycogen.  I am also going to stay away from highly refined carbs as much as possible like white bread, white rice, candy, and chips.  They spike the blood sugar too fast and so they get used as fuel instead of being stored as glycogen.  (As an aside those highly refined or high glycemic carbs will be prefect for during the ride where I will want a quick blood sugar spike).  You might ask: “How do you know if your carbo loading is working?”  As luck would have it our body has a built-in method to let us know we are loaded to the gills with glycogen.  For every gram of stored carbohydrate or glycogen, your body stores 3 grams of water, so I expect that my weight will go up 3-5 pounds from my loading.  This means that by glycogen loading I am also super-hydrating my body.  Wow, two for the price of one and the ability to eat the foods I have been mostly avoiding for the last few months.  Its win win win.  I will report back next week and let you know how it went and how I felt.  Wish me luck…