I hope you enjoyed and found my Part 1 of this series to be informative. It is my hope to share information that will help other fasters! It seems to be a growing trend. That was a fairly long article, and I expect that this one will be shorter!
After the March 26 Doctor Appointment
After that doctor appointment where I surprised my doctor with news that I had been fasting for 10 days when I entered his office, I decided that I had enjoyed doing the 10 days fast, and wanted to do more EF (Extended Fasting).
I took a few days off from EF and did some IF instead. I don’t recall how many, but I think I did one or two meals a day for about 3 days.
After that, I jumped back into the pond for another 10 day fast, which was also successful. When I was doing fasting for 10 days at a time, my weight loss was spectacular, and my health kept getting better and better.
Many conditions cured
So many things in my body were healing themselves during fasts. I had a lot of skin tags before, but they were all gone after my first 10 days fast. My double chin was gone. My skin in other areas of my body was tightening.
Plus, I felt great!
Mixing things up
I decided to mix things up on my fasts. Sometimes I would do like 2 or 3-day fasts. Sometimes I did 7 days of fasting. I kept my body guessing as to what would come next so that my metabolism would not become used to one certain routine. Mixing things up was working great, until…
Plateau
In late May and into June, I hit a plateau at about 265 pounds. For a week in May, the entire month of June and 10 days into July, I lost nothing, despite a lot of fasting. It was frustrating, but I never wanted to give up. I enjoyed fasting, it made me feel good, even if I was not losing weight.
During this time, I was able to eliminate more medications. Due to my heart condition, I had to keep my blood pressure low. My blood pressure became too low. I went from taking 3 BP medications down to taking only a half tablet of one medication daily, and my blood pressure was lower than when I had been taking more medication! This made me very happy, and my doctor too.
Finally, I broke the Plateau
I finally got sick of being stuck at 265 pounds (more or less, it fluctuates). I had not done a 10 day fast in a while, so I decided that might help break through the plateau.
It worked. I did the 10 days fast and broke down to about 253 lb. I never went back above 260 again after that!
Since then, I have hit other plateaus, but I always kick in a long fast to break through, and it always works. To date, I have done quite a few 10-day fasts, a 15 day fast, and a 20 day fast. I find the 10 days of fasting to be pretty comfortable for me, but the longer ones are harder to do. Mostly, if I want to do a long fast, I tend to go for 10 now.
A new routine
I heard a podcast and the man who was being interviewed talked about how he did 6 days per week fasting protocol, eating one day each week. I liked the sound of that and I started doing it. But, I mixed in other lengths of fasts too. I tend to really enjoy doing that, and when I do that, which is usually, I start my fast on Saturday night at 6 PM, then fast until (around) 6 PM on Friday night. I eat 2 meals on Saturday, finish by 6 PM, and start another 6 days. It works well for me, and I enjoy it. I find 6 days to be pretty easy now that I am used to fasting. I also like the results that 6 days of fasting gives me each week. I expect that by the time you read this, I will have broken into the 220s.
My advice
I think it is a good idea to mix things up. Don’t keep doing the same thing over and over. Even if you set a regular routine, like my 6 days a week of fasting, mix in other lengths (shorter and longer) from time to time. It will help you continue losing. But, as I have said, if (when) you do hit that plateau, do a long fast (my choice for this is a 10 day fast) and you will break through it! It works well for me.
Next article I will talk about how I break my fast and also about how to know if you should break the fast earlier than planned.
Read the entire series!
How to get started with Fasting: Part 1
Good info. Thanks for sharing
You are welcome! Thanks for reading!
Very helpful article, and well written. Thanks
You are welcome, thank you for visiting.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for your personal experiences. This is helping me figure out what and why I haven’t been as successful as I have read others to be. I’m beginning to realize longer fasts are the key. One question though, how long did you do keto before attempting the long fast? I’m struggling ( mental )
Hi Maria. Not sure if you read Part 1 of my series about starting fasting. I did kind of explain about when I started Keto in that article.
Basically, I started Keto in March 2016. I had a heart attack in June, though, and my doctor blamed the keto diet. He convinced me to eat more carbs. After I had bypass surgery in November, I decided to go back to really strict Keto and then started doing IF in February 2017. I did my first extended fast in March 2017 and have been doing that regularly ever since!
I admire your determination! I have not worked myself up to long fasts yet. I’ve only ever done one fast as long as 26 hours. But I do intermittent fasting in the mornings, every morning, and that is getting easier.
And I started a keto diet and fasting blog. I figure if I’m posting about it every day I’m less likely to run out and buy carby food and binge on it. And I’m finding so many new keto recipes to try! I think you can’t really do fasting well without staying on keto in between fasts.
Thank you Nissa. Congratulations on your progress. I believe that by having a blog in writing about it it’s sort of establishes some accountability where if you fall down your answer will the other stand and that helps.
Did you get headaches or feel dizzy during when fasting?
I got headaches or “keto flu” when I first started on Keto, but never had a problem when fasting. Dizziness? Yes, usually that means your electrolytes are too low. I recommend Himalayan pink salt for that, it works well for me.
Thank you
I’m happy to do it.
Well written, and informative, as usual.
Thank you very much, Jeff.