Author Archives: Bill Bennett

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About Bill Bennett

I am an Australian based producer and director of feature films and documentaries, and author of several novels and non-fiction books.

Fast – day#9 / makes no sense ~

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Weight: 77.0
Body fat: 25.5%
BMI: 24.4
RHR: 58bpm
Sleep: 5hrs 15min (1hr53) + (3hrs32)
BP: 129/61 @62bpm

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This makes no sense.

I’ve dropped only a marginal amount in weight over the past 24hrs, and my body fat has remained pretty much the same. The only thing I can put it down to is two portions of broth I had yesterday – about 1 cup, or 250mls of turkey broth in the morning, and about 300mls of chicken broth in the afternoon.

I would have thought both broths had minimal calories. There are no solids in them at all. But I put in a lot of salt – Himalayan salt. Maybe it is water retention. If so, it pisses me off – if I can use that term in the context of water retention…

A dear Camino friend in the Basque country, Marie – she is a highly experienced chiropractor but also something of a naturopath – posted on my blog overnight, and I put that post in here below because it’s relevant, and Marie is a highly esteemed health professional.

She said she attended a world renowned health clinic in Germany some years back and went on a strict fast, no coffee or supplements of any kind, and after day 12 she made a huge breakthrough and felt wonderful. (see below)

So I have decided I will not have coffee anymore – only tea.
And no more broth.

That aside, how do I feel? Pretty good, really. I feel no hunger at all, and in fact when I had the second portion of chicken broth yesterday it made me feel nauseous. I don’t think I will miss the broth for the remainder of the fast.

What I probably will miss though is the coffee. But I feel that if I am to completely detox, I need to detox from coffee.

When I did my 40mins on the bike yesterday I felt a real lack of energy – I did the slowest session ever: 40mins/14.3kms/403cals. I just had no power in my legs. Prior to the fast I was doing 19kms+ over 40mins.

Sleep last night was difficult. I had a total of 5hrs15mins only.

I woke up at about 1am, and didn’t go back to sleep for some 2hrs40mins later, with the aid of melatonin. I spent the time working out the third act of my new screenplay, then I read. I’m currently reading The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula le Guin, regarded by many as a masterpiece. About a third of the way through I can see why they’d think that.

Anyway, this is what Marie posted on my blog overnight:

To make thing short :on 2003 I was diagnosed with severe burnout and depression. My MD wanted me to take powerful drugs which I did not feel taking. So I looked for an alternative and check into the Buchinger Clinic in Germany, one of the top ten clinics in the world.

I was treated only with fast, no médecines, no supplements, no coffee allowed. And walking, swimming, yoga and art therapy. It was tough but on the night of day 12 something happened in my brain, like if someone had switched on a light bulb. No more foggy brain, good humor, and I started to laugh again.

Physically I was feeling great, started to run, gaining strength. So when my husband asked me to come back I stupidly obeyed. Day 17 I decided to stop to have time to do the transition to normal eating. But I should have kept going.

I was feeling that the process was not finished and this same year I came back for a ten days fast and a third time for a week of detox and others medical treatment like the cleaning of my blood.

BTW in Buchinger, they think that we don’t need supplements, neither salt. Or coffee. Because it is interfering with the the way our body is working thru the fast.

Here is the next excerpt from Dr Jason Fung’s book, The Complete Guide to Fasting. This is about ketosis, and ketogenic diets –

*****

You may have heard of a ketogenic diet—it’s been quickly growing in popularity in the last several years and is known to be helpful for a wide range of health problems, including obesity. As it happens, a ketogenic diet and fasting have several features in common. 

A ketogenic diet gets its name from ketone bodies. These are substances the body produces during fat-burning; they’re what fuels the brain when glucose is scarce. A ketogenic diet helps shift the body from burning glucose to burning fat, which results in the creation of ketones. Of course, fasting causes the body to burn fat, too—and that means it also results in the creation of ketones. 

Body fat is composed mostly of triglycerides, which are molecules made of one glycerol backbone to which three fatty acids of varying lengths are attached. During fat-burning, the triglyceride molecule is broken down into the glycerol backbone and the 3 fatty acids. The fatty acids are used directly by most of the organs of the body, including the liver, kidney, heart, and muscles. 

However, certain cells are not able to burn fat, including the inner part of the kidney (renal medulla) and red blood cells. To supply the glucose those cells need, the liver uses the glycerol backbone to manufacture new glucose molecules. More importantly, though, the brain cannot use fatty acids, either.

Ketone bodies produced during fat-burning fill that gap, and the brain becomes powered mostly on ketones, which supply up to 75 percent of its energy needs. This dramatically reduces the brain’s need for glucose, enabling adequate glucose production from glycerol. 

In this way, triglycerides provide energy in the form of fatty acids, ketones, and glucose—enough for the entire body. So, yes, the brain still requires glucose to function normally during fasting, but we do not need to eat glucose. We can manufacture enough glucose to power the entire body simply from body fat.

This is a normal situation. This is the way our body is designed to work. 

No more coffee, no more double espressos. Now only tea!

Fast – day#8 / I have entered The Zone ~

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Weight: 77.2
Body fat: 25.8%
BMI: 24.6
RHR: 58bpm
Sleep: 7hrs 42min
BP: 126/64 @67bpm

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I woke up this morning feeling pretty drak. Very flat, and a bit light headed. Not hungry at all. It might have been due to the 9mg of melatonin I had early this morning at about 4am.

I’m at a crucial point in my screenplay at the moment, and I use the couple of hours from between 2:30am-4am to work through upcoming story issues. I find it’s a very creative time for me. But the downside is that I sometimes find it hard to go back to sleep. So I take melatonin, which for me works well.

But now having had my two double espressos, I’m feeling good. I feel like I’ve entered The Zone, where should I decide to, I could continue this fast indefinitely. I’ve gotta say though, last night was difficult. Our son Henry cooked chicken and rice for dinner and it looked and smelled delicious. I would have loved to have tucked into it, but it wasn’t possible.

One of the reasons I’m doing this fast is to control my random eating urges, and I have to say this is happening. Whilst I would have loved to have sat down with Henry and Jennifer last night and tucked into a good feed, I didn’t allow myself to. I’m either doing this fast, or I’m bailing. I have no intention of bailing – at least, not yet!

My stats are interesting once again: weight down a bit but not hugely, body fat has actually gone up a bit – how does that work? Resting Heart Rate has edged up a bit. I did a bike session late yesterday and my numbers were a bit stronger than the day before, but nothing like they were pre-fast. I’m not able to produce the kind of energy I had while I was eating. (40mins/16.5km/505cals)

Now having done a week of my fast, I have dropped 6kgs exactly. But the weight loss each day is slowing. See graph below ~

Yesterday I had coffee, tea, water, and about 250ml of bone broth. I had that not because I was hungry, but to ensure that I had some nutrients, including salt. This morning I had some turkey bone broth for the same reason. I’ll probably do that daily now that I’m into the second week of the fast. It’s permissible in an extended fast, according to Dr Jason Fung.

Speaking of Dr Fung, here is the second part of his piece on fridge vs freezer!

*****

The two compartments, the fridge and the freezer, are not used simultaneously but sequentially. You need to (mostly) empty out the fridge before you can use what’s in the freezer—you need to burn most of the glycogen before you can burn fat. In essence, the body can burn either sugar or fat, but not both. 

How easy it is to get to the fat freezer depends upon the hormone insulin. Is the freezer locked away in the basement behind steel gates, or is it located right beside the refrigerator? Insulin levels are the prime determinant. When we are not eating, insulin levels are low, allowing full access to the fat freezer—the body is able to easily get at the stored fat. With low insulin levels, you don’t even have to completely empty the glycogen refrigerator before opening the fat freezer, since it’s so easily accessible. 

Think about your fridge at home. Does it have to be completely empty of everything, including that half-empty bottle of ketchup and tub of yogurt, before you open that pack of burgers from the freezer? Of course not! Similarly, with low insulin levels, the body can burn fat even if there is still some glucose around. That means that if you’re cutting calories and have low insulin levels, it’s easy for your body to compensate for the reduced food energy by getting some fat out of the freezer even if your glycogen fridge isn’t completely empty. 

But the emptier your glycogen fridge, the more likely you will be to use what’s in the fat freezer, and the easier it is to get to the freezer, the more likely it is that you will use it. Not only do low insulin levels allow access to the fat freezer, they actually trigger fat-burning for energy. If insulin levels are abnormally low, then fat is continually burned. 

We see this situation in type 1 diabetes, when the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas are destroyed. As insulin falls to undetectable levels, patients, often children, burn through all their fat stores and are unable to gain weight no matter how many calories they consume. Untreated, this is a fatal disease. 

Treatment with insulin injections allows them to store fat normally once again. On the other hand, high insulin levels prevent the body from accessing the fat in the freezer. It is locked away behind steel bars. Insulin inhibits lipolysis—it stops the body from burning fat. High insulin levels, which are normal after meals, signal our body to store some of the incoming energy. 

Logically, therefore, we also stop burning stored fat (why bother when there’s energy from food?). This doesn’t just happen after meals, however—we also see this in diseases of too much insulin. For example, insulin injections, often used in the treatment of diabetes, commonly lead to increased fat accumulation because the body is unable to burn fat. 

(That’s great for type 1 diabetics, who have too little fat to begin with, but not so great for type 2 diabetics, who usually have too much.)

Insulin resistance, sometimes called prediabetes or metabolic syndrome, is the most common situation where insulin levels are persistently kept abnormally high. 

Weight loss during first week of fast…

Fast – day#7 / new territory…

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Weight: 77.8
Body fat: 25.4%
BMI: 24.9
RHR: 57bpm
Sleep: 7hrs 9min
BP: 125/74 @65bpm

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This is new territory for me, going into day#7. I’ve done 6 day fasts in the past, never 7. This coming week is going to be fascinating, to see how I manage.

If I manage…

First, the stats: I’ve dropped 0.8kgs during the past 24hrs, and my BMI has now officially dropped into the Normal Weight zone. My Body Fat though has only come down marginally. People tell me I look thinner, but I don’t think so. I think they’re humouring me!

This is not a vanity quest for me – my need for this fast goes deeper than that.

How do I feel?

Strangely, I woke up this morning feeling good. Not at all hungry, and in fact I can easily see how people could purposefully starve themselves or go on hunger strikes. It doesn’t take long for you to lose hunger pangs altogether – but more than that – I’ve noticed that I no longer desire food.

I had to go to a formal family lunch yesterday. Jennifer’s uncle, who is an amazing 99 years old, came to visit with his daughter, and all the family went over to Jennifer’s mother’s place – two houses down from where we live – to have lunch.

Lunch consisted of roast chicken – my favourite – with roast potatoes – also my favourite – and other yummy stuff. Out of courtesy and respect for Jennifer’s uncle I sat down at my usual seat at the table and watched everyone eat.

You’d think it would have been difficult for me, but actually it wasn’t. Whilst I would have loved to have hoed into the chicken and spuds, I had no real desire to. There’s a difference. Intellectually, I would’ve loved to tuck into the grub; physically and emotionally, I didn’t want to. I’ve made up my mind to do this fast, and in my mind, food is off limits. It’s as simple as that.

I stayed for a courteous amount of time, and then I left and went back home and had a cup of tea. Later, Jennifer came home with a basket of hot freshly baked scones which her sister had batched up, and I have to admit, I desired them! It was the smell of them did it.

I did my bike exercise early today – 40mins/16.3km/500cals – and at the end of it, when I got off the bike, I nearly collapsed. Fainted. I checked my blood pressure shortly after and it was low – 107/61. It returned to normal levels later, and the dizziness passed. This morning, I noticed my BP was solid – 125/74.

Now for my next excerpt from Dr Jason Fung’s excellent book, The Complete Guide to Fasting, he discusses the myth that you lose weight by eating less and moving more. This is the first part – I’ll post the second part tomorrow.

*****

The reason “eat less, move more” doesn’t work for weight loss is that it’s based on a false idea about how our bodies use calories: the single-compartment model. 

According to this model, the body reduces all foods to simple calories and stores those calories for use in what we can think of as a single compartment; then, the body accesses that compartment to use the calories for exercise and basal metabolism (remember, that refers to the body’s basic functions, such as breathing, removing toxins from the bloodstream, digesting foods, and so on—all these require energy from calories). 

This model is like a bathroom sink. Calories, like water, can flow into or out of this sink. Excess calories are held in this sink and can be easily accessed if our bodies require more calories—for example, exercise would drain calories out of this sink. There is no distinction made between any of the storage forms of calories. 

Whether calories are stored as glucose, which is used for immediate energy; glycogen, which is used in the intermediate time frame; or fat, which is long-term energy storage, all calories are treated equally. 

However, this model is known to be a complete fabrication. It does not exist except in our imaginations. It is more accurate to use a two-compartment model, because there are two distinct ways energy is stored in the body: as glycogen in the liver and as body fat. 

When we eat, our body derives energy from three main sources: glucose (carbohydrates), fat, and protein. Only two of these are stored for later use, glucose and fat—the body can’t store protein, so excess protein that can’t be used right away is converted to glucose. Glucose is stored in the liver as glycogen, but the liver’s capacity for storing glycogen is limited. 

Once glycogen stores are full, excess calories must be stored as body fat. Dietary fat is absorbed directly into the bloodstream without passing through the liver, and what’s not used is stored as body fat. This was one of the reasons why low-fat diets were initially recommended, but the immediate destination of ingested calories is not the main determinant of weight gain. The single-compartment model of calorie storage and use. 

Think of glycogen as a refrigerator. It’s designed for short-term storage of food; it’s very easy to move food in and out, but the storage space is limited. Body fat, on the other hand, is more like a basement freezer. It’s designed for long-term storage and is more difficult to access, but it has much greater capacity. Plus, you can always add more freezers to the basement if you need them. 

When we buy groceries, we store food in the refrigerator first, and then when the fridge is full, we store the excess food in the freezer—that is, we store food energy first as glycogen and then, when the space for glycogen is full, as body fat. Both body fat and glycogen are used for energy in the absence of food, but they aren’t used equally or at the same time. 

The body prefers to use glycogen for energy rather than body fat. This is logical because it is easier to burn glycogen—in terms of our analogy, it’s much easier to get food from the refrigerator in the kitchen than to trek all the way down to the freezer in the basement. And as long as there is food in the fridge, we won’t retrieve any from the freezer. 

In other words, if you need 200 calories of energy to go for a walk, the body will get that energy from glycogen as long as it’s available—it won’t go to the trouble of accessing body fat.

(to be continued…)

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

Fast – day#5 / Hmmmm ~

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Weight: 79.6
Body fat: 25.8%
BMI: 25.4
RHR: 57bpm
Sleep: 7hrs 20min (4hrs31+2hrs49)
BP: 127/69 @64bpm

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Day#5 and I’ve put on some weight.
0.4kgs
How did that happen?

Well, last night I had some beef broth. According to Dr Fung, beef broth is permissible on an extended fast – not that 5 days is necessarily yet an extended fast. But I batched up some broth following the recipe in his book – The Complete Guide to Fasting.

About 1kg of beef bones – I used neck bones, without any real meat on them, mainly bones and marrow. Then some celery, some carrots, an onion, and some leeks. And Himalayan salt. I boiled it down and had two cups – about 250ml each. It was broth only, no solids at all.

I had the broth not because I felt hungry, but because I am writing an original screenplay at the moment and I need absolute acuity of thought, and I found yesterday I was a bit fuzzy-minded. I was hoping the nutrients in the broth might fix that. I wasn’t expecting to put on weight!

Anyway, what’s interesting is that whilst I put on 0.4kgs of weight (when really I should have lost about 1kg of weight,) my body fat percentage has come down quite a bit – from 27.7% when I started to 25.8% today.

No broth today – only tea.

Saturday here so I mowed the lawn, which constituted my exercise for the day. Took me 1hr20mins. Felt good and strong. Listening to Eric Clapton might have helped.

I’m no longer feeling any hunger at all – I miss food now for the ritual of meals, and the companionship that comes with it.

So here’s another myth that Dr Fung busts regarding fasting: fasting makes you burn protein…

One persistent myth of fasting is that it burns muscle, that our body, if we’re not eating, will immediately start using our muscles as an energy source. This does not actually happen. The human body evolved to survive periods of fasting. We store food energy as body fat and use this as fuel when food is not available. 

Muscle, on the other hand, is preserved until body fat becomes so low that the body has no choice but to turn to muscle. This will only happen when body fat is at less than 4 percent. (For comparison, elite male marathon runners carry approximately 8 percent body fat and female marathoners slightly more.) 

If we did not preserve muscle and burn fat instead when no food is available, we would not have survived very long as a species. Almost all mammals have this same ability. Real-world studies of fasting show that the concern over muscle loss is largely misplaced. Alternate-day fasting over seventy days decreased body weight by 6 percent, but fat mass decreased by 11.4 percent and lean mass (muscle and bone) did not change at all.  

During fasting, the body switches from burning sugar (carbohydrates) to fat for energy. Protein is spared. At baseline, eating normally, energy comes from a mix of carbohydrates, fat, and protein. As you start fasting, the body increases carbohydrate oxidation. This is just a fancy way of saying that it is burning sugar, in the form of glycogen, for the first twenty-four to forty-eight hours after you stop eating, until it runs out of glycogen. 

With no more sugar to burn, the body switches to burning fat. Fat oxidation increases as carbohydrate oxidation decreases toward zero. At the same time, protein oxidation—that is, burning protein, such as muscle, for fuel—actually decreases. The normal protein breakdown of around seventy-five grams per day falls to fifteen to twenty grams per day during fasting. Rather than burning muscle during fasting, we start conserving muscle. Much of the amino acids that are broken down during regular turnover of cells are reabsorbed into new proteins. 

Fast – day#4 / things are slowing ~

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Weight: 79.2kgs
Body fat: 27.0%
BMI: 25.3
HRH: 57bpm
Sleep: 5hrs 44mins
BP: 124/74 @78bpm

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So the weight loss is slowing, as expected. I lost only 1.0kg over the past 24hr period, and I put that down to: 1) most of the “easy” calories have now dropped off, and 2) I didn’t do my exercise yesterday. I have one, sometimes two days off a week. According to the monitor on the bike, I use around 550-650 cals per 40mins bike session – not sure how accurate that is.

That said, I’ve now dropped 4kgs in 3 days.

I woke up early – 5:30am, and started working by 6am. Had my two double espressos. I didn’t feel hungry, however if Jennifer had put some thick buttered toast with vegemite in front of me, I would have found it hard to resist!

Other than feeling a bit weary from not enough sleep (5hrs44mins), I’m actually doing ok. I wrote till about midday, then did my exercise – 40 mins on the bike, 17.4km, 584cals. I found the 2nd 20 mins really tough going. A week ago, before I began the fast, I did 40mins, 19.1kms, 673cals. Today I just didn’t have the energy to push myself.

Interestingly though, I did the whole session averaging a heart rate of 126bpm, which is 82% of my Maximum Heart Rate. I hit a high of 142bpm, which is 93% of my MHR. So I was well and truly into my aerobic zone.

It’s interesting how my fast is affecting the rest of the family, and the family’s routine. By rest of the family, I mean Jennifer and our eldest son Henry, who’s currently staying with us. Both Henry and Jennifer are good cooks – but more than that, they enjoy cooking. For them it’s a creative endeavour, but it’s also an expression of love.

I’m very fortunate!

Without me eating though, the routine of meals has been shattered. So too the routine of cooking. I never realised how important this was to the dynamic of family life. Of an evening we would all sit around the dinner table and talk – about all sorts of things. Politics. What’s happened in the news that day. Books we’re reading, or have read, or want to read. Shows we’ve seen. What we liked, what we didn’t. We’d discuss the mechanics of storytelling.

Henry would bring us up to date with the latest stuff on Reddit that’s caught his attention. Or detail story points from highly cerebral sci-fi or fantasy novels that he’s read. Our dinner conversations are invariably wide ranging and intense at times! An important part of the day, when we come together as a family unit.

That’s not happening while I fast. Nor is that time in the afternoon when Jennifer, and Henry, prepare the meals for dinner. That used to be a time of activity and creativity and fun. That’s dead time now. I never realised how important the socialisation of eating really is to me. Now Jennifer walks around the house with Autobiography of a Yogi or one of the I Am Presence books playing loudly on Audible on her iPad.

Here now is another extract from Dr Jason Fung’s book, The Complete Guide to Fasting. Here he busts a myth that fasting puts you into “starvation mode.”

“Starvation mode” is the mysterious bogeyman always raised to scare us away from missing even a single meal. Why is it so bad to skip a meal? Let’s get some perspective here. Assuming we eat three meals per day, over one year, that’s a little over a thousand meals. To think that fasting for one day, skipping three meals of the one thousand, will somehow cause irreparable harm is simply absurd. 

The idea of “starvation mode” refers to the notion that our metabolism decreases severely and our bodies “shut down” in response to fasting. We can test this notion by looking at the basal metabolic rate (BMR), which measures the amount of energy that our body burns in order to function normally—to keep the lungs breathing, brain functioning, heart pumping, kidneys, liver, and digestive system all working, and so on. Most of the calories we spend each day are not used for exercise but for these basic functions. 

The BMR is not a fixed number but actually increases or decreases up to 40 percent in response to many variables. For example, I never seemed to get cold as a teenager. Even skiing in -22°F weather, I stayed warm. My BMR was high—I was burning a lot of calories to keep my body temperature up. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed that I no longer endure the cold so well. I also eat far less than I did as a teenager. My BMR has gotten lower, so I no longer burn as many calories on basic body functions. 

This is what most people mean when they say that metabolism slows down with age, and it contributes to the well-known tendency of older “snowbirds” from the Northeast and Canada to retire in warm places like Florida and Arizona. Daily caloric reduction has been well documented to cause a dramatic reduction in BMR. 

In studies with a baseline daily calorie consumption of approximately 2500 calories per day, reducing calories consumed to approximately 1500 calories a day for a long stretch of time will result in a 25 to 30 percent reduction in BMR. On the other hand, overfeeding studies, where subjects are asked to deliberately eat more than they normally do, causes an increase in BMR. Reduced metabolism makes us generally cold, tired, hungry, and less energetic—our bodies are essentially conserving energy by not burning calories to keep us warm and moving. 

From a weight standpoint, reduced metabolism is a double curse. First, we feel lousy while dieting. Even worse, because we’re burning fewer calories per day, it’s both harder to lose weight and much easier to gain weight back after we’ve lost it. This is the main problem with most caloric-reduction diets. 

Suppose you normally eat 2000 calories a day and cut back to only 1500. Your body cannot run a deficit indefinitely—it will eventually run out of fat to burn—so it plans ahead and decreases your energy expenditure. The end result is a decreased BMR. This has been proven repeatedly by experiments over the last century. Because of this well-known “starvation mode” effect of daily caloric restriction, many people assume that fasting will result in a similar but more severe decrease in BMR. 

Luckily, this does not happen. If short-term fasting dropped our metabolism, humans as a species would not likely have survived. Consider the situation of repeated feast/famine cycles. During long winters back in the Paleolithic era, there were many days where no food was available. After the first episode, you would be severely weakened as your metabolism falls. After several repeated episodes, you would be so weak that you would be unable to hunt or gather food, making you even weaker. 

This is a vicious cycle that the human species would not have survived. Our bodies do not shut down in response to short-term fasting. In fact, metabolism revs up, not down, during fasting. This makes sense from a survival standpoint. If we do not eat, our bodies use our stored energy as fuel so that we can find more food. 

Humans have not evolved to require three meals a day, every day. When food intake goes to zero (fasting), our body obviously cannot take BMR down to zero—we have to burn some calories just to stay alive. Instead, hormones allow the body to switch energy sources from food to body fat. After all, that is precisely why we carry body fat—to be used for food when no food is available. It’s not there for looks. By “feeding” on our own fat, we significantly increase the availability of “food,” and this is matched by an increase in energy expenditure. 

Henry batched up this as a meal for himself last night. Chicken and rice and broccoli – it was hard to sit at the same table!
day 4 of fast. day 4 without shaving too!

Fast – day#3

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Weight: 80.2
Body fat: 26.6%
BMI: 25.6
RHR: 58bpm
Sleep: 7hrs 21min
BP: 124/76 @77bpm

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I’ve decided to only post once a day – at the end of my day. I figure you don’t need to get two of these posts a day. Given the quality of my writing and my deteriorating mind and manners, one post a day is more than sufficient.

I’ve now lost exactly 3kgs in two days. That’s about on par for me, based on previous fasts I’ve done. I usually drop off that much in the first couple of days. It’ll slow up soon.

More importantly my BMI (25.6 this morning) is edging closer from Overweight (BMI above 25) to Normal weight (below 25). The way I’m going I should be below 25 by the end of the week. Interestingly, my blood pressure has come down quite a bit. It was high yesterday – it’s normal today. As I say, I have a pre-disposition to high blood pressure.

Even though according to the sleep app I had more than 7hrs sleep last night, I felt tired this morning on waking. I know the sleep app registers you’re “sleeping” when you’re just lying still in bed. I did a lot of that in the middle of the night last night.

I’m writing a new screenplay at the moment, and night time is my most fertile time for creative thinking. I stayed awake for several hours last night figuring out the next section of my story. I probably had about 4½ – 5hrs sleep.

But now I’ve had my two double espressos so I’m okay!

3PM – Now towards the afternoon of day#3, the hunger is starting to diminish. I’m feeling a bit light-headed but that could be because of the disrupted sleep. A few hours ago I had to go food shopping for Jennifer. I boldly and gallantly walked passed all those yummy foodstuffs that ordinarily I would have grabbed for a big nosh-up later.

Here is the next section of Dr Fung’s book – The Complete Guide to Fasting – that I want to share with you: The five stages of fasting…

The transition from the fed state to the fasted state occurs in several stages, as classically described by George Cahill, one of the leading experts in fasting physiology:

1. Feeding: Blood sugar levels rise as we absorb the incoming food, and insulin levels rise in response to move glucose into cells, which use it for energy. Excess glucose is stored as glycogen in the liver or converted to fat.

2. The postabsorptive phase (six to twenty-four hours after beginning fasting): At this point, blood sugar and insulin levels begin to fall. To supply energy, the liver starts to break down glycogen, releasing glucose. Glycogen stores last for approximately twenty-four to thirty-six hours.

3. Gluconeogenesis (twenty-four hours to two days after beginning fasting): At this point, glycogen stores have run out. The liver manufactures new glucose from amino acids in a process called gluconeogenesis (literally, “making new glucose”). In nondiabetic persons, glucose levels fall but stay within the normal range.

4. Ketosis (two to three days after beginning fasting): Low insulin levels stimulate lipolysis, the breakdown of fat for energy. Triglycerides, the form of fat used for storage, are broken into the glycerol backbone and three fatty acid chains. The glycerol is used for gluconeogenesis, so the amino acids formerly used can be reserved for protein synthesis. The fatty acids are used directly for energy by most tissues of the body, though not the brain.

The body uses fatty acids to produce ketone bodies, which are capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier and are used by the brain for energy. After four days of fasting, approximately 75 percent of the energy used by the brain is provided by ketones. The two major types of ketones produced are beta-hydroxybutyrate and acetoacetate, which can increase over seventyfold during fasting.

5. The protein conservation phase (five days after beginning fasting): High levels of growth hormone maintain muscle mass and lean tissues. The energy for basic metabolism is almost entirely supplied by fatty acids and ketones. Blood glucose is maintained by gluconeogenesis using glycerol. Increased norepinephrine (adrenaline) levels prevent any decrease in metabolic rate. There is a normal amount of protein turnover, but it is not being used for energy. In essence, what we are describing here is the process of switching from burning glucose to burning fat.

Fat is simply the body’s stored food energy. In times of low food availability, stored food is naturally released to fill the void. The body does not “burn muscle” in an effort to feed itself until all the fat stores are used up. One critical point to underscore is that these mechanisms are entirely natural and entirely normal. Periods of low food availability have always been a natural part of human history, and our body evolved mechanisms to adapt to this fact of Paleolithic life. Otherwise, we would not have survived as a species.

There are no adverse health consequences to activating these protocols, except in the case of malnourishment (you should not fast if you’re malnourished, of course, and extreme fasting can cause malnourishment, too). The body is not “shutting down”; it’s merely changing fuel sources, from food to our own fat. It does this with the help of several hormonal adaptations to fasting.

Fast day#2 pt2 / fridge gazing ~

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Weight: 81.6
Body fat: 27.1%
BMI: 26.0
RHR: 57bpm
Sleep: 4hrs 57min
BP: 153/84 @54bpm

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So far the hunger pangs haven’t been too bad.

I mean, yes right now I’d love to sit down to a good feed, but that’s not gonna happen so I might as well just get over myself.

Here’s how my day has gone so far:

5am – first double espresso.

6am – second double espresso

9 am – Jennifer has a home-made muffin with her coffee, and I desire it. Unconditionally.

10am – I have a cup of Darjeerling tea. The highlight of my morning so far.

11am – I open the fridge, gaze inside, close the fridge.

11:15am – I open the fridge, gaze inside, close the fridge.

11:30am – I resist the urge to open the fridge. I note this as a form of spiritual growth.

12pm – I hear a thunderstorm coming but realise it’s only my stomach…

6pm – I exercise on my bike. 40mins/18.0kms/582cals

7pm – I have another cup of Darjeerling tea. The highlight of my evening so far.

Continuing citing Dr. Jason Fung’s book, The Complete Guide to Fasting, here is what he has to say about the spirituality of fasting…

Fasting is widely practiced for spiritual purposes and remains part of virtually every major religion in the world. Three of the most influential men in the history of the world, Jesus Christ, Buddha, and the Prophet Muhammad all shared a common belief in the healing power of fasting. In spiritual terms, it is often called cleansing or purification, but practically, it amounts to the same thing.

The practice of fasting developed independently among different religions and cultures, not as something that was harmful but as something that was deeply, intrinsically beneficial to the human body and spirit. Fasting is not so much a treatment for illness but a treatment for wellness.

The regular application of fasting helps protect people from illness and keeps them feeling well. In the story of Adam and Eve, the only act that is prohibited in the Garden of Eden is to eat the fruit of one tree, and Eve is tempted by the serpent to betray this trust.

Fasting is thus an act of turning away from temptation and back toward God. In the Bible, Matthew 4:2 states, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.”

(I’ll mention here the interesting point that hunger often disappears during extended fasts, which has been noted throughout history.)

In the Christian tradition, fasting and prayer are often methods of cleansing and renewing the soul. Symbolically, believers empty their souls so that they may be ready to receive God. Fasting is not so much about self-denial but about a reaching for spirituality and being able to commune with God and hear his voice.

By fasting, you put your body under submission to the Holy Spirit, humble your soul before the presence of God, and prepare yourself to hear the voice of God.

Buddhist monks are known to abstain from eating after noon, fasting until the next morning. In addition, there may be water-only fasts for days or weeks on end. They fast to quench their human desires, which helps them rise above all desires in order to achieve nirvana and end all suffering. This fits with their core beliefs in moderation and austerity.

Hinduism embraces fasting in the belief that our sins lessen as the body suffers. It is also seen as a method of cultivating control over desires and guiding the mind toward peace: the physical needs of the body are denied for spiritual gains. Certain days of the week are designated for fasting in Hinduism, as are certain days of the month. Fasting is also common at festivals.

Traditional Ayurvedic medicine also ascribes the cause of many illnesses to the accumulation of toxins in the body and prescribes fasting to cleanse these toxins. Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during the holy month of Ramadan. According to the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad said, “The month of Ramadan is a blessed month, a month in which Allah has made fasting obligatory.”

The Prophet Muhammad also encouraged fasting on Mondays and Thursdays. Ramadan is the best studied of the fasting periods, but it differs from many fasting protocols in that fluids are forbidden, which results in a period of mild dehydration.

Fast – day#2 pt1 / a great start

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Weight: 81.6
Body fat: 27.1%
BMI: 26.0
RHR: 57bpm
Sleep: 4hrs 57min
BP:

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(When possible, I will post twice a day – once in the morning and again later in the arvo. I’ll do my blood pressure in the arvo. I’ll also post info on fasting in the afternoon blog.)

I woke up early (4:30am) feeling refreshed and ready to start work for the day. Yes I felt a bit hungry, but nothing too bothersome.

On weighing myself I noticed that I’d dropped 1.6kg within a 24hr period. This didn’t surprise me – early in a fast the weight tends to drop off quickly.

What was interesting though is that my RHR – my Resting Heart Rate – dropped from 60bpm to 57bpm. It will be fascinating to see how that goes during the fast.

I have included a new marker in my stats – my duration of sleep. I have a FitBit Charge 3, and the sleep app associated with it is fairly accurate. So each day I’ll post how much sleep I’ve had. (I usually have a 20min kip in the afternoon as well.)

Late yesterday I took various vitamins. I will be taking these each day:

  • MultiVitamin (for males 50yrs+)
  • Mega B
  • Vit B12
  • Magnesium
  • Vit D
  • CoQ10
  • DHEA

So now it’s 5am and I’ve had my first (of two) double espressos and I’m ready to start work!

morning double espresso – that’s crema on top, not milk!

Fast – day#1 / here we go!

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Weight: 83.2kgs
Body Fat: 27.7%
BMI: 26.6
BP: 141/83 @56bpm
RHR: 60bpm (Resting Heart Rate)
(I’ll be taking these readings at the same time each day, to reduce variables)

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So, I start. And from these figures above, none too soon. I’m heavier than I should be, I’m carrying more fat than I should, and my BMI is above what it should be. It should be below 25. My blood pressure is highish, but I have a genetic pre-disposition to hypertension.

I got a call from my doctor last night. He gave me the results of a blood test I had done late last week. All good. Cholesterol good. Blood sugar good. No nasties. Phew. I put this down to 1) cutting dairy out of my diet altogether. I’ve not eaten dairy now for about the past 12 months, 2) reducing red meat to about 2-3 servings a month, and 3) exercising regularly. I do 40 mins on my bike 5 days a week at moderate to high intensity. On Sundays I do 60mins.

I’ve stopped walking for a while because my knee’s buggered.
Again.

10am – and I’ve just had 2xdouble espressos.
Yes, 2.
No milk, no sugar, of course.
Just pure caffeine.
That’s what I need to start writing.
That might change as the fast progresses.

1pm – I’m hungry. I want lunch.

2pm – Jennifer comes in and asks me if I want an orange juice. No, I say. Do you want some orange juice in a glass of water? No, I say. (my stomach rumbles.) What do you want then, she asks. A cup of Darjeerling tea, thanks. She comes back later with a Yeti flask of Darjeeling tea.

5pm – exercise on my stationary bike. 40mins/17.9kms/631cals.

7pm – dinner / black tea.

So, I want to introduce you to a good book on fasting. It’s written by Dr Jason Fung. He’s a specialist in kidney disease, and regarded as a world expert on fasting. He’s Canadian based, but worked a lot at the Los Angeles Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre. HIs book is called, simply: The Complete Guide to Fasting – Heal your body through Intermittent, Alternate Day and Extended Fasting.

Here’s the Amazon link – The Complete Guide to Fasting Here’s an extract: (and I’ll be posting regular extracts as my fast progresses…)

Starving and fasting should never be confused with each other, and the terms should never be used interchangeably. Fasting and starving live on opposite sides of the world. It is the difference between recreational running and running because a lion is chasing you. Starvation is forced upon you by outside forces. Fasting, on the other hand, may be done for any period of time, from a few hours to months on end. You may begin a fast at any time of your choosing, and you may end a fast at will, too. You can start or stop a fast for any reason, or for no reason at all.

Fasting has no standard duration—since it is merely the absence of eating, anytime that you are not eating, you are technically fasting. For example, you may fast between dinner and breakfast the next day, a period of twelve hours or so. In that sense, fasting should be considered a part of everyday life. Consider the term breakfast. The word refers to the meal that “breaks your fast”—which is done daily. The word itself implicitly acknowledges that fasting, far from being some sort of cruel and unusual punishment, is performed daily, even if only for a short duration. It is not something strange but a part of everyday life.

I’ve sometimes called fasting the “ancient secret” of weight loss. Why? It is certainly an ancient technique, dating thousands of years, as we’ll discuss in Chapter 2. Fasting is as old as humankind, far older than any other dietary technique. But how is fasting a “secret”? Although fasting has been practiced for millennia, it has been largely forgotten as a dietary therapy. There are virtually no books about it. There are few websites dedicated to fasting. There is almost no mention of it in newspapers or magazines. Even its very mention draws stares of incredulity. It is a secret hiding in plain sight.

How did this happen? Through the power of advertising, big food companies have slowly changed how we think of fasting. Instead of being a purifying, healthful tradition, it’s now seen as something to be feared and avoided at all costs. Fasting was extremely bad for business, after all—selling food is difficult if people won’t eat. Slowly but inevitably, fasting has become forbidden. 

Nutritional authorities now allege that even skipping one single meal will have dire health consequences. You must always eat breakfast. You must snack constantly, all day long. You should eat a bedtime snack. You must never, ever miss a meal. These messages are everywhere—on television, in the newspaper, in books. Hearing them over and over again creates the illusion that they are absolutely true and scientifically proven beyond a doubt. The truth is exactly the opposite. There is no correlation whatsoever between constant eating and good health.

If you want to learn more about Dr Fung’s approach to diet and fasting, watch these videos on his website: https://www.dietdoctor.com/authors/dr-jason-fung-m-d

day #1