Fast – day#6 / I should be eating pancakes!

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Weight: 78.6
Body fat: 25.5%
BMI: 25.2
RHR: 56bpm
Sleep: 7hrs 15min
BP: 153/80 @61bpm

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It’s Sunday morning here in Australia and I should be eating pancakes!
Blueberry pancakes.
Thick buttery blueberry pancakes.
Whaaaa.
Instead, my Sunday morning breakfast consists of 2 x double espressos only.

My stats today are interesting. I’ve dropped 1.0kg again in the last 24hrs. I didn’t have any bone broth during the past 24hrs. Just water, tea and coffee. My RHR (Resting Heart Rate) has come down to 56bpm. My BMI (25.2) is now hovering just about normal. (Normal is 24.9 and below). My BP (blood pressure) though is up.

How am I feeling?
Not hungry.
A bit lightheaded.
A bit ordinary – to be honest.
I’ve yet to get to that energy boost and clarity of thinking that evidently comes with an extended fast. But then again, I’m only on day#6.

Eight more days to go.

I usually do 60mins on my bike on a Sunday but his morning I didn’t feel I had the energy to go a full hour, so I dropped it down to 40mins.

I’ve been getting some blowback from my family, and from some people on social media, about this endeavour, so I thought I would reference the expert. Here, according to Dr Jason Fung, author of The Complete Guide to Fasting, are some of the benefits of fasting:

Fasting’s most obvious benefit is weight loss. However, there are a myriad of benefits beyond this, many of which were widely known before the modern era. 

It was once common for people to fast for a certain period of time for health benefits. These fasting periods were often called “cleanses,” “detoxifications,” or “purifications,” and people believed that they would clear their bodies of toxins and rejuvenate themselves. They were more correct than they knew. 

Fasting: 

  • Improves mental clarity and concentration 
  • Induces weight and body fat loss 
  • Lowers blood sugar levels 
  • Improves insulin sensitivity 
  • Increases energy 
  • Improves fat-burning 
  • Lowers blood cholesterol 
  • Prevents Alzheimer’s disease 
  • Extends life 
  • Reverses the aging process 
  • Decreases inflammation

11 thoughts on “Fast – day#6 / I should be eating pancakes!”

  1. Dear Bill, I love that you are posting these blow-by-blow reports. The are so interesting and informative. I have done many fasts in my life, though not recently. I am inspired!

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      • I’ve done about 15 fasts in my life. The longest was 11 days. I remember thinking I could just never eat food again. That thought was so freeing to me.

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          • Totally fascinating. And if I ever did think about food it felt like a dream. I truly didn’t want to eat anything. I felt so clear. If I did happen to think of food, or if I was around it, the only thing that I could relate to would be something like plain brown rice. Of course, once I ate again, I was back in the whoosh and whirl of eating and community and civilized society. I remember all of this so vividly and it was almost 10 years ago. Anyway, I really am appreciating these posts. I may do a fast again too. It is time.

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          • lol, that’s a good question. I stopped mostly because I thought I ought to. A little bit of pressure from others too. And maybe mainly, just in case it wasn’t safe to go longer, and that maybe I wouldn’t know it. I remember that it was a very conscious decision. I really did feel I could never eat again.

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  2. There’s a body-builder’s trick to fasting.

    The method is that you systematically do a morning fast — not even coffee — and skip lunch. Just water.

    Instead, you do your physical exercise routines ; as when you do this in a state of ketosis, you don’t just turn fat into energy, but you turn it into muscle far more efficiently than when out of ketosis.

    Then in mid afternoon, have your one (small) meal, with meat/fish/poultry for the protein, and enough fat to keep your brain fed. So that by the time you awaken in the morning, you’ll have returned into ketosis, which doesn’t happen if you’ve had an evening meal ; rinse and repeat.

    —

    As to the weight, it’s fairly normal during a lengthy fast for it to rise and fall from day to day like a yo-yo.

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  3. Hello Bill,I did my first and longer fast, 17 days, in 2004 to cure a burn out. The feeling of clarity, the change in my brain occurred on day 12, in a matter of second, like if some one switched le light. Very surprising. I never had the courage to do long fast again, and the short fasts that I did after that, a week in general did not produce the same effects, this feeling of lightness, physically and mentally, and of extending consciousness. Keep pushing. May be you will feel the desire to keep going. I did. I could have done it further. I stopped because of my husband.
    .

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