A few days ago I wrote that I could not tolerate four days a week of fasting because it was causing me to feel horrible. What to do? I decided to switch to a Fasting Modified Diet (FMD), which I had heard about in articles and on Youtube by Dr. Valter Longo. The main reason for this diet is that it's easier than a water fast, and yet has most of the benefits.
So what was my plan? I fasted for four days on low calorie, (about 600 calories a day), low carb, low protein, with most of the calories coming from fat - for me, either butter or cream. This was a whole lot easier than water fasting. I had cream in my coffee. Sometime in the afternoon I made a package of shiratake noodles with salt and butter. In the evenings I ate jello. I drank diet drinks whenever I pleased.
How did it go? Right away I started feeling much better and sleeping well. One thing that I didn't like was that I wasn't seeing much ketosis. Although it is still unclear to me, my understanding is that ketosis ramps up autophagy. This is important because what was my whole point? I wanted to convince new stem cells to proliferate. This seemed to me to be worth a lot of effort. For one thing, I hoped to recover from leg injuries, and I thought stem cells might do it. If ketosis wasn't happening, then maybe autophagy wasn't happening. If autophagy wasn't happening, then maybe stem cell proliferation wasn't happening.
And it was disappointing to see that this didn't seem to do much for weight loss. At best, it's slow going.
This week I cut out the shiratake noodles in the afternoon. I have been determined to continue with at least the FMD indefinitely for four days a week. I have been having cream in my coffee. I even got an espresso maker. I drink diet drinks. That's about it. I totally gave up on losing weight. I was just relieved to see I wasn't gaining weight.
Although the shiratake noodles have nearly no carbs, when I cut them out I finally went back into ketosis. This also helps my ketogenic diet when I go back to eating for three days a week, because usually I have trouble being in ketosis no matter what I do with diet, but with the fasting, a ketogenic diet keeps the ketosis brought about by fasting going almost until the next four days of fasting.
I saw that Walmart was putting summer clothes on sale, and bought some nice clothes. I didn't try them on, being pretty sure of my size. But guess what? I'm down a size in clothing. Yay! Then out of the clear blue sky, the scale said I lost six lbs. Wow. That made my day.
According to an article about a study with mice, mice with both Type I and Type 2 diabetes had regrown cells in their pancreas within 60 days of FMD four days a week. Within six months they both had normal glucose metabolism. This was done by their own stem cells regrowing brand new insulin cells. With this to go on, I think 60 days should show a difference for me. So do I feel that it has? I'm sure there has been improvement. What I want is to get back to completely normal with my legs. I'd like to be able to eat without the swings of blood sugar. How long will it take? I suppose one has to decide to keep going until one succeeds.
It's been eight weeks of fasting four days a week - modified. I guess I've lost about twelve lbs. I feel well except I've given up exercise for the moment. I did have an odd thing happen that I think was due to the fasting. My finger began to itch like crazy, and I scratched it. A blood vessel broke and part of my finger bruised.
So maybe I'll try to water fast again. I may try one day, but if I stop sleeping again, I don't think I'll continue to water fast. I'll go back to the modified fasting.
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