I saw in another thread your post about your success taking care of your diabetes! Really awesome. I was wondering what method of intermittent fasting you do? Thanks!
Flagging @IxnayBob
Yes. It is I, not Bob.
My wife is coming home, and I’m going to break my fast shortly, so I might have to get back to this tomorrow.
I do a low carb, sort of keto eating when I’m eating. I have a 14 day continuous glucose monitor, so I’ve gotten good at knowing what foods and activities spike my glucose.
My fasting is mostly one meal a day, eaten around 4 PM or later. On weekends I usually do two meals a day, eaten starting at 2 PM or so. I’m not religious about it, but even my half witted approach has worked well enough.
My wife just pulled in the driveway, so until later …
Peter Attaia has a podcast called The Drive and I was glued to one episode listening to his interview with a doctor that incorporates fasting into his practice.
He’ll put severely diabetic patients on a 7 day water fast, then maybe 1 day weekly after that — with very good results.
I had never heard of such a thing for diabetes.
Ep. 59 with Dr Jason Fung!
To be clear, this is for TYPE 2 Diabetes. I stopped taking insulin injections more than a year ago; A type 1 diabetic can reduce their injection dosages based on diet and meal timing, but since they no longer produce insulin, they will require insulin injections.
Dr. Jason Fung is a hero to me. He added decades of improved living to my life. Get The Diabetes Code and/or The Obesity Code. Both books cover similar territory, but with different emphasis.
I personally don’t fast for more than 24 hours. I probably safely could, but I don’t like going to sleep with low-ish glucose levels. I could set my glucose monitor to alert me if I go hypo, and maybe someday I will.
I will say that it is surprisingly easy. I am a person with minimal will power, but not eating breakfast feels fine, and then you extend it, first past noon, then until 3PM, and then until dinner. You should eat a full day’s calories then, in order not to stall your metabolism. Do it so your food is digested before bedtime. It is easiest to start fasting after becoming “fat adapted” by fueling yourself from healthy fats (grass fed butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, olive oil, pasture raised eggs, grass fed beef, etc) rather than glucose (carbs are the devil).
The only thing I really miss is pizza. I don’t miss 5 injections a day of insulin (150IU at my worst).
Another book I recommend is Delay, Don’t Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle by Gin Stephens. It includes less scientific exposition than Dr. Fung’s, although she has links to the science. She is interesting in that she had had a weight problem for years, solved it with IF (intermittent fasting), and her husband (non-diabetic and naturally thin) began doing IF also because he was impressed with how much energy she had.
I can attest to the energy and increased focus when IFing.
As part of my “owning my health,” I also stopped taking statins (with cardiologist’s blessing). In addition to the muscle pains statins gave me, I had symptoms of mild cognitive decline. I won’t get into it, but insulin resistance is implicated in the mechanism for developing Alzheimer’s (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5413582/ and much much more).
My DH started IF about 3 weeks ago, as I’ve had such luck managing my weight the past 6 months, e en during times of overeating. He’s gotten past the hard part and is really enjoying it. He does the 16-8, like me.
I’d like to read up on it. I’m going to have my A1C at the beginning of 2020. It will be interesting to see what it is.
Just want to say diabetics can have their own individual sensitivities. Note that Ixnay has a continuous monitor. I’m assuming he also has the right med team, is very informed (was already) about what to do, before modifying his own path. And aware of any collateral health issues. Is that so?
Because, to me, big diff between the threats of diagnosed diabetes versus using the diet principles to lose weight.
My own numbers edged up and diligently watching carb counts showed me how “off” my prior understanding was. Wow. But if anyone is in a life threatening situation, that’s different.
@conmama, there’s a relatively inexpensive and accurate HbA1c test, available on Amazon and other places. Since it’s a 3 month average (give or take), I could verify it against what my “official” blood test was. It was within 0.1 or 0.2. Good enough for me.
I had to change my medical team because we moved. I probably would have anyway, because my old team was obstinate and kept just increasing my insulin dosages rather than attacking insulin resistance (the core problem in Type 2 diabetes). I find it shocking how stubborn some doctors are: saturated fats are the enemy, eat low fat diet, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, use vegetable oil rather than grass fed butter, and a hundred more mantras.
I took the leap even before getting new docs, because I’d already had a heart attack, my diabetes was getting worse by the day, and at one point I didn’t expect to live more than another 5 years. By then, I knew enough to interview potential doctors. My cardiologist, rather than insisting on statins, took me off them. He does keto and IF himself.
And yes, you learn a lot with a continuous glucose monitor (CGS). Insurance/Medicare will pay for it if you qualify. I learned, for example, the effect stress (physical and psychological) will have on glucose level; a hot shower will spike me 20 points (albeit for less than half hour), dental pain will send it skyrocketing, etc. There’s a lot more to hormones than what you eat, but other than intense pain, everything else is trumped by carbs.
Mine was pushing statins hard when my normal “diet and exercise” didn’t move the numbers. She prescribed them, I didn’t fill the prescription and started a keto diet. Next physical she admitted there was improvement and cautiously allowed me to continue w/out the drugs. Next visit my numbers were great and so she agreed there was no need for them anymore and said “keep doing what you’re doing”.
She still automatically recommends a low fat diet though!
I kind of IF, kind of not. Most days my schedule is to eat between noon and 8, though I put a little cream in my coffee before that.
Everything I’ve read differs if you are breaking your fast with milk/cream in your coffee in the morning. What are your feelings about that?
I refused statins, did more research and the improvements are mainly for men above an age and who had a prior heart attack. The rest of the numbers sure look minimal, to me. Something I haven’t dug into yet, but just heard, is that new studies suggest less reliance on statins, at all. Sorry for the little sidebar, but, as with diabetes, you need good docs, the med knowledge they offer, but they aren’t all perfect, all the time.
I taught myself to enjoy black coffee. Any dairy or sweetener, IMO, triggers an insulin response. I recommend Hawaiian Kona beans 
You don’t want perfect to be the enemy of good, but i don’t think it’s worth it to break a fast just for some milk in coffee. It’s better to upgrade your coffee, although Kona is pricey.
Good thoughts, thanks - sorry for the sidebar.
A quick google suggests it’s OK - https://www.dietdoctor.com/can-use-cream-coffee-fasting - that’s Dr. Fung.
Do you ever stop fasting?
I’m curious about eating a day’s worth of calories in one sitting (one meal).
Was this a big adjustment for you? Tell me more, if you are willing.
I guess it depends on why you began fasting and how well you feel when fasting, but I don’t intend to.