Well, I Broke the Fast (A Little)

Whoever started talking up "hypokalimia," you really #triggered my panic/hypochondria.

Just kidding. Sort of.

After feeling great all day and having no hunger, I got a little lightheaded when standing up and started into my hypervigilance spiral.

I just had two cups of chicken bone broth (about 100 calories total, about 14 grams of protein) and a pickle. Not sure about what's in the pickle.

It's not much food and if this panic passes, I'll just chalk it up to "fasting-mimicking" (if you eat but less than 600 calories, it's pretty much just fasting for most biological purposes -- basically a de minimis amount of food that the body still considers starvation) and go back to fasting.

But right now I'm thinking, I did what I wanted, ten days, and it's getting old at this point, I'd like to get back to exercising again (I've avoided that during the fast), and I'd like to just start being normal again, with a more normal diet IF+Keto diet.

If I stick with breaking the fast, I'll wait another hour or so and then have Campbell's Cream of Chicken and Mushroom and see how that goes.

Then by tomorrow I can start eating a little more.

No Chinese Food Apocalypse this time.

By the way: I looked it up. I really didn't have any of the symptoms of hypokalimia but I sure dreamagined I did. Lightheadedness isn't even a symptom. Cramps are -- which I just don't have.

In 1965, A Very Fat Man Fasted for 382 Days on Nothing But Water, Tea, Electrolytes, and Vitamin Pills. It's true.

That’s not a typo. In 1965, 27-year-old Angus really did fast for one year and 17 days. He ate no food at all, and lost 125 kilograms (19.7 stone).

Angus was reportedly sick of being obese, and checked into the University Department of Medicine at the Royal Infirmary of Dundee weighing 207kg (32.5 stone). He told hospital staff he was ready to cut out food together, so doctors happily agreed to monitor his progress.

Angus's doctors didn’t really expect the fast to last long. But they thought a short fast would help him to lose some weight. To compensate for his lack of nutrients, he was prescribed multivitamins to take regularly, including potassium and sodium, as well as yeast.

As days turned to weeks, Angus's persistence increased. The Scot wanted to reach his reported "ideal weight" of 180 pounds (12.8 stone), so he kept going, much to his doctors' surprise.

I'm not suggesting that anyone try that (note that this was under direct medical supervision), but a lot of people seem very, very over-worried that people will die over relatively short fasts.

Human beings were made to be hunters. Hunters do not eat daily. Sometimes they don't eat (or don't eat but very little) for weeks.

If we were to die every time we go a week without food, the species wouldn't have survived its first 100 years.

Any fat on the body is stored energy for the precise use of being burned during periods of little or no food. It's what it's there for! It's not decoration!

posted by Ace of Spades at 09:24 PM

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