Well I’m literally in the middle of a 60 hour fast ATM but how it’s been looks like so (since everyone always wants to know this…even though it literally pertains to no one but me)…
Fast until 11 a.m. or 2 p.m. -
I know that’s a few hours range but I fast more intuitively. I know my body well enough now to know when I need to eat more, or can do just fine with less. I usually have 1 pack of ketones during this time.
Training days - break fast with Plasma and Indigo. I start drinking it about 15 minutes before training. The cool thing about fasting is that you become hyper aware of what nutrients do to your mental acuity and energy. So trust me when I say you can “feel” supplements more after you’ve been fasting for a very long time (and I mean after you’ve been practicing it for months and months).
During training - plasma
Post training - Metabolic drive or Mag-10. I go back and forth.
Post training “real” meal 1 - 1 of 2 options
option 1 - 2 cups egg whites, 1 cup blueberries, 20-30 almonds or pecans
option 2 - 10 ounces top round, 1.5 cups of jasmine rice, almonds or macadamia nuts
That’s it. I have a mix and match of these all the time so it’s not like this daily, but these are the constant go to meals. I have no idea the macros and don’t need to.
I’m just getting back to a lower bodyweight right now and getting even leaner. I relaxed a lot the last year on my diet on purpose after two years of being ridiculous strict.
I just go with with sounds better to eat. I don’t overthink this stuff.
I had a friend who did this with great success. Basically have a lateish dinner, go to bed, fast the next day, go to sleep and have a lateish breakfast. It worked out pretty well for them.
I feel AMAZING today. No hunger at all. Tons of energy. There’s always a breakover point in these where you feel like you have to eat. Once you get past that it’s pretty awesome.
I’ve been hearing a lot about the euphoria that can accompany a long fast.
Towards the end of my fast, I started giving the gym that I work in a massive deep clean. I had to be doing something. Felt a massive wave of focus and concentration.
What’s your thoughts on muscle loss with regards to these long fasts?
There’s absolutely zero muscle loss. In fact in the studies we’ve seen on alternative day fasting there was practically ZERO muscle loss even after 70 days I believe. It’s really paranoia.
This is a very interesting point. I usually break a 24 hour fast with eggs and a carrot. My energy and focus go through the roof afterwards.
Unrelated however back in my road cycling days, you could really feel the effect of ‘performance nutrition’ during a long ride. With virtually all fuel digested and assimilated, a sports gel would have a profoundly powerful effect on the cycle. You could literally feel the sugar flushing into the muscles.
You never really ‘feel’ the effects of nutrition on performance if your training in the fed state. That was definitely the case for me.
I’m not sure what science that is, as there’s lots of studies already out there that shows virtually no loss of lean bodymass after 40 hours of fasting, and after weeks and weeks of alternative day fasting. Anecdotally, I’m still pushing 240 pounds and fast virtually everyday. #shrugs
If we started losing LBM after 1 day of fasting…we wouldn’t have survived very long as a species. Hell, it takes about half of a day to go through your glucose reserves. So you’re telling me the body is chewing through LBM shortly after glycogen is depleted with tons of adipose tissue left to gnaw through?
There are studies (Owen et al 1969) showing nitrogen loss after one day and peaking after 3 days. Apparently this works out as a couple of ounces. To be fair to Volek/Phinney they acknowledge caveats, especially the evolutionary argument. Like you, I suspect most folks interested in fasting for aesthetics rarely fast that long. Folks interested in longevity, autophagy, diabetes, etc, may want to take the fast deeper. That’s certainly the message from folks like Jason Fung. It is also fair to point out that both have books to sell based on nutritional ketosis, as opposed to fasting ketosis, so they could be accused of bias. As usual, the truth probably lies somewhere between.
Nitrogen loss I would expect since there would be some protein urinated out along with electrolytes, etc. There’s a sweet spot with fasting that tends to come at about the 18 hour mark or so I believe, if we’re talking benefits of things like really improved insulin sensitivity, which was backed up in the cell study I linked on my IG. I think people should just stop worrying. That probably causes more muscle loss than fasting.
There’s some equilibrium/homeostasis between mTOR being expressed and autophagy being down regulated. mTOR = highly fed, AMPK = absence of nutrients, AMPK turns on autophagy. Autophagy is going on to “some” degree most of the time. It’s just highly expressed during fasting, and yes the longer the fast goes on the more the expression is exacerbated. But once liver glycogen is done for and fasting ketosis really starts to churn you can bet there’s some significant autophagy going on. That “time” within the fast I will assume is going to be different for everyone, and not something that suddenly gets switched on at a 24 hour mark.
