Five Day Fast

Last week I’d mentioned I was taking part in a 5-day fast. That went from Monday the 25th to Friday the 29th of August. I never really explained why I would do such a thing, but it really just boils down to “I wanted to see if I could do it.” I did a 3-day fast back in 2022, and figured I could extend it a bit to five days since I felt basically OK on the beginning of day four.

How did it go?

• Day 1: Ghrelin spikes suck, but the hunger is manageable. Going for my usual daily walk is no problem.
• Day 2: Feeling OK, actually. Another walk, plenty of energy.
• Day 3: I feel like actual death. No soreness or headaches thanks to an electrolyte mixture, but everything just feels off. No energy at all. Tried a morning walk and aborted. Noon walk worked, but felt pretty bad.
• Day 4: Basically like day two. Day three was the hard one last time, so it makes sense.
• Day 5: What happened here? I actually feel worse than during day three. No energy, negative energy. I went for my daily walk but went incredibly slowly because I couldn’t push at all. Toward the end of the day, I actually felt like I was going to pass out, so I checked my blood sugar and it was 57mg/dL.

I’m pretty sure the walk on day five depleted my already flagging energy reserves and that led to my downfall. But why? What happened to my gluconeogenesis? My theory is that I haven’t been nearly as strict with being Keto recently, so perhaps my system wasn’t fat-adapted enough to tap into my reserves properly.

Regardless, I broke the fast with beef bone broth, and then had some more bone broth with some chunked chicken breast and a single egg done over-easy. I have to say that after five days of no food at all, that impromptu chicken soup tasted like pure ambrosia. I’ve spent the rest of this week re-acclimating to normal meals and that was pretty uneventful.

This Monday was also Labor Day! Having just finished a long fast, I was definitely looking forward to having some BBQ on Monday. There’s a place here called Annie’s Eats which is supposed to be pretty good, so Jen ordered their sampler special and we put it in our downstairs fridge. That gave me Saturday and Sunday to work toward eating regular meals again, otherwise I’d be too afraid to risk eating a pile of various meats.

Jen and I spent Monday at her parents’ place, and that sampler sure went a long way. It’s supposed to feed 4-6 people, and they definitely weren’t lying. There were plenty of ribs, pulled pork, chicken, brisket, sausage, and sides for everyone, and then some. Better yet, it was probably some of the best BBQ I’ve had in Illinois, and that includes Black Dog. And it wasn’t just my fasting-addled brain saying so, everyone agreed it reigned supreme. After two days in the refrigerator at that!

Anyway, I’m not sure if I’m going to attempt a 5+ day fast again any time soon. If I do, I definitely have to spend at least a week in hard ketosis to jumpstart my fat-burning system so I can survive the attempt without going dangerously hypoglycemic. I really like the way I felt afterwards, but the cost of getting there was pretty steep. We shall see.

Until Tomorrow