OT: Fitness and Nutrition Part V

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DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
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Tonight, I am completing a 10-day fast. I will be eating tomorrow morning (so ~10.5 days), I would go on longer but there's a cocktail/dinner with donors on Thursday that I have to attend, so I'd like to readjust in time.

Obviously I've lost weight, but what's been great are the neurological benefits. I've never fasted for this long, and I finally understand what people mean when they refer to the mental benefits. My mood, my drive, my concentration, my frustration tolerance, my focus have all been amped up to 11 in the past several days. I worked through the weekend and wrote hundreds of lines of code, and then wrote some text as well. I'm remembering things, making connections, and feeling good.

For now, I'm off the adderall. I did not want to take a pill while fasting so I stopped. My concentration actually improved and is better than it's been on adderall. The volume of work that I got done in the past ten days exceeds my previous productivity.

I also reduced my coffee intake from one cup to 2 cups. Around day 4 or 5 I noticed that I was drowsy until my first cup of coffee. Around then I switched from 2 cups to 1 cup of coffee a day. In the last two or three days I've noticed that ... I don't even need that first cup of coffee, I'm already awake by the time I have it.

I think that I understand this though. I read a study abstract the other day (didn't save it) that associated fasting with up regulation of Dopamine-2 receptor. That will explain at least some of the mental benefits that I and many others report.

******

Separately, I own several pairs of waist size 32 pants made by different brands. Some of them are now too loose, and some are too tight, lol.
 

DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
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You didn’t eat for 10 friggin days?

Lots of water, coffee, tea, sugar free gum.

Three servings of chia seeds plus coconut milk plus cinnamon plus vanilla extract, three servings of miso soup with combination of seaweed/spinach/mushroom, and one flat white.

The flat white was an indulgence, the other items were taken days three to five to help me poop.
 

Sorinth

Registered User
Jan 18, 2013
10,941
5,397
Tonight, I am completing a 10-day fast. I will be eating tomorrow morning (so ~10.5 days), I would go on longer but there's a cocktail/dinner with donors on Thursday that I have to attend, so I'd like to readjust in time.

Obviously I've lost weight, but what's been great are the neurological benefits. I've never fasted for this long, and I finally understand what people mean when they refer to the mental benefits. My mood, my drive, my concentration, my frustration tolerance, my focus have all been amped up to 11 in the past several days. I worked through the weekend and wrote hundreds of lines of code, and then wrote some text as well. I'm remembering things, making connections, and feeling good.

For now, I'm off the adderall. I did not want to take a pill while fasting so I stopped. My concentration actually improved and is better than it's been on adderall. The volume of work that I got done in the past ten days exceeds my previous productivity.

I also reduced my coffee intake from one cup to 2 cups. Around day 4 or 5 I noticed that I was drowsy until my first cup of coffee. Around then I switched from 2 cups to 1 cup of coffee a day. In the last two or three days I've noticed that ... I don't even need that first cup of coffee, I'm already awake by the time I have it.

I think that I understand this though. I read a study abstract the other day (didn't save it) that associated fasting with up regulation of Dopamine-2 receptor. That will explain at least some of the mental benefits that I and many others report.

******

Separately, I own several pairs of waist size 32 pants made by different brands. Some of them are now too loose, and some are too tight, lol.

Congrats!

I've done 3 day fasts a couple times before, but I've been meaning to do a longer one.
 
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DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
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Congrats!

I've done 3 day fasts a couple times before, but I've been meaning to do a longer one.

I'd love to hear from you if you did one and whether or not you found improved mood, etc from day five onwards.

The shorter fasts are easier to schedule. A disadvantage is that fatigue often peaks on day two or three.
 

Andrei79

Registered User
Jan 25, 2013
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Tonight, I am completing a 10-day fast. I will be eating tomorrow morning (so ~10.5 days), I would go on longer but there's a cocktail/dinner with donors on Thursday that I have to attend, so I'd like to readjust in time.

Obviously I've lost weight, but what's been great are the neurological benefits. I've never fasted for this long, and I finally understand what people mean when they refer to the mental benefits. My mood, my drive, my concentration, my frustration tolerance, my focus have all been amped up to 11 in the past several days. I worked through the weekend and wrote hundreds of lines of code, and then wrote some text as well. I'm remembering things, making connections, and feeling good.

For now, I'm off the adderall. I did not want to take a pill while fasting so I stopped. My concentration actually improved and is better than it's been on adderall. The volume of work that I got done in the past ten days exceeds my previous productivity.

I also reduced my coffee intake from one cup to 2 cups. Around day 4 or 5 I noticed that I was drowsy until my first cup of coffee. Around then I switched from 2 cups to 1 cup of coffee a day. In the last two or three days I've noticed that ... I don't even need that first cup of coffee, I'm already awake by the time I have it.

I think that I understand this though. I read a study abstract the other day (didn't save it) that associated fasting with up regulation of Dopamine-2 receptor. That will explain at least some of the mental benefits that I and many others report.

******

Separately, I own several pairs of waist size 32 pants made by different brands. Some of them are now too loose, and some are too tight, lol.


How's your sleep ?
 
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Kriss E

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May 3, 2007
55,329
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Jeddah
Tonight, I am completing a 10-day fast. I will be eating tomorrow morning (so ~10.5 days), I would go on longer but there's a cocktail/dinner with donors on Thursday that I have to attend, so I'd like to readjust in time.

Obviously I've lost weight, but what's been great are the neurological benefits. I've never fasted for this long, and I finally understand what people mean when they refer to the mental benefits. My mood, my drive, my concentration, my frustration tolerance, my focus have all been amped up to 11 in the past several days. I worked through the weekend and wrote hundreds of lines of code, and then wrote some text as well. I'm remembering things, making connections, and feeling good.

For now, I'm off the adderall. I did not want to take a pill while fasting so I stopped. My concentration actually improved and is better than it's been on adderall. The volume of work that I got done in the past ten days exceeds my previous productivity.

I also reduced my coffee intake from one cup to 2 cups. Around day 4 or 5 I noticed that I was drowsy until my first cup of coffee. Around then I switched from 2 cups to 1 cup of coffee a day. In the last two or three days I've noticed that ... I don't even need that first cup of coffee, I'm already awake by the time I have it.

I think that I understand this though. I read a study abstract the other day (didn't save it) that associated fasting with up regulation of Dopamine-2 receptor. That will explain at least some of the mental benefits that I and many others report.

******

Separately, I own several pairs of waist size 32 pants made by different brands. Some of them are now too loose, and some are too tight, lol.

How was your strength impacted?
Would be interesting to study the improvements of brain functions vs the physical adaptation.

Did your brain functions improve but you are now much weaker than before?..etc.
 

Andrei79

Registered User
Jan 25, 2013
14,852
26,111
Slightly improved, still bad.

Do you have a good routine (eat at set hours when not fasting, have a sleep routine, wake up around the same time even on weekends) ? Do you expand enough physical energy during the day ?
 

DAChampion

Registered User
May 28, 2011
29,783
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How was your strength impacted?
Would be interesting to study the improvements of brain functions vs the physical adaptation.

Did your brain functions improve but you are now much weaker than before?..etc.

FYI, studies of long term fasting show that it spares muscle, but, they have yet to try one of those studies in fit people.

For myself, I will let you know after I go to the gym tomorrow.
 

DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
29,783
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Do you have a good routine (eat at set hours when not fasting, have a sleep routine, wake up around the same time even on weekends) ? Do you expand enough physical energy during the day ?

I think so. Hopefully things improve in the next few weeks. I bought some better blackout curtains and ordered some time released melatonin off amazon. I can then reestablish a circadian rhythm hopefully.

I did buy some regular melstonin before, but I didn't realize that the half life was so short.
 
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Kriss E

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May 3, 2007
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Jeddah
FYI, studies of long term fasting show that it spares muscle, but, they have yet to try one of those studies in fit people.

For myself, I will let you know after I go to the gym tomorrow.

Ya, that is what I would be interested in finding out, so we would need people that already have a good-high ratio of muscle and strength.
 

DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
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Ya, that is what I would be interested in finding out, so we would need people that already have a good-high ratio of muscle and strength.

I will, but I'm nowhere near your level.

There are a lot of missing gaps in the literature. The anecdotal reports on fasting vastly exceed the clinically measured outcomes, since it's difficult to get funding to study it properly.

Dr. Jason Fung (a nephrologist) has a fasting clinic in Toronto. He wanted to publish his charts, he said that the Ontario ethics board forbade him from doing so. They said that there was a risk that his charts would show positive outcomes for his patients, and then people would be encouraged to fast.

Dr. Alan Goldhamer runs a fasting clinic in California. He published two papers 15 years ago with the a relatively trivial result -- that fasting effectively fixes high blood pressure. He had a very hard time publishing, journals rejected him because they didn't believe the result, or didn't want to encourage fasting. I'm not sure, but I think that there was a different intellectual climate 15 years ago not just with respect to fasting but also with respect to blood pressure, people apparently thought that it was very hard to lower high blood pressure.

Now, the climate is a little more tolerant. He published a small paper last year on cancer remission. He said that a team of researchers is now hooked up with his clinic. But again he gets the sickest people. So whether or not they benefit from auto-immune or metabolic issues need not have any relevance for you.
 

Kriss E

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May 3, 2007
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Jeddah
I will, but I'm nowhere near your level.

There are a lot of missing gaps in the literature. The anecdotal reports on fasting vastly exceed the clinically measured outcomes, since it's difficult to get funding to study it properly.

Dr. Jason Fung (a nephrologist) has a fasting clinic in Toronto. He wanted to publish his charts, he said that the Ontario ethics board forbade him from doing so. They said that there was a risk that his charts would show positive outcomes for his patients, and then people would be encouraged to fast.

Dr. Alan Goldhamer runs a fasting clinic in California. He published two papers 15 years ago with the a relatively trivial result -- that fasting effectively fixes high blood pressure. He had a very hard time publishing, journals rejected him because they didn't believe the result, or didn't want to encourage fasting. I'm not sure, but I think that there was a different intellectual climate 15 years ago not just with respect to fasting but also with respect to blood pressure, people apparently thought that it was very hard to lower high blood pressure.

Now, the climate is a little more tolerant. He published a small paper last year on cancer remission. He said that a team of researchers is now hooked up with his clinic. But again he gets the sickest people. So whether or not they benefit from auto-immune or metabolic issues need not have any relevance for you.
There isn't much on longterm fasting and performance/strength/muscles.
 
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Suiteness

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Mar 14, 2003
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If you don't eat for 10 days, no protein, no fats and no carbs for 10 full days, you will lose muscle mass and I reckon you will lose a lot of it. It would definitely be interesting to run those tests on people with a good strength base, say someone who benches 250, squats 400 and dead lifts 500. How would he perform after a 10 day fast?
 
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Mrb1p

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Dec 10, 2011
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If you don't eat for 10 days, no protein, no fats and no carbs for 10 full days, you will lose muscle mass and I reckon you will lose a lot of it. It would definitely be interesting to run those tests on people with a good strength base, say someone who benches 250, squats 400 and dead lifts 500. How would he perform after a 10 day fast?
Its not as evident as this, the body kinda evolved on this type of diet and is much more efficient than thay at keeping muscle.
 
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DAChampion

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May 28, 2011
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If you don't eat for 10 days, no protein, no fats and no carbs for 10 full days, you will lose muscle mass and I reckon you will lose a lot of it. It would definitely be interesting to run those tests on people with a good strength base, say someone who benches 250, squats 400 and dead lifts 500. How would he perform after a 10 day fast?

I don't squat 500.

Studies of fasting show that the body upregulates human growth hormone and down regulates insulin. Those two factors respectively make it harder to catabolize lean tissue, and easier to catabolize fat.

The idea that muscle wastes on starvation comes from observations of low-calorie diets, where people eat 1,500 calories/day, often of carbs. In those cases the body either shuts down metabolism or eats itself. However, since insulin never drops much, and HGH never rises much, it's not actually easier for their body to metabolize fat. Measurements show that long-term fasters metabolize ~15 grams of protein/day, but that could be from the blood vessels in fat itself, loose skin, muscle, etc.

Turning fat into energy, as far as I understand, is something that passes through the liver, and requires low insulin levels. That has the positive effect that, for example, you don't turn fat into energy right after eating a bowl of berries or alternatively, a brownie fudge ice cream sundae with whip cream, a maraschino cherry, and peanuts. Think about it. That's a wonderful evolutionary adaptation.

However, people who can squat 500 have more muscle to burn, so even a small fraction of a bigger number can become big. They tend to also have less fat to burn as well.
 

Mrb1p

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Dec 10, 2011
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Did day 3 and 4 of base meso yesterday and today, gotta say these two were pretty easy overall but oh so long. My knees are also aching like I just climbed up the Everest. Looking forward to the three next days of recovery, ill see how the knee goes in the toughest part of the meso, week two and the 20 lbs increase seems rather violent.
 

LyricalLyricist

Registered User
Aug 21, 2007
37,909
5,814
Montreal
Tonight, I am completing a 10-day fast. I will be eating tomorrow morning (so ~10.5 days), I would go on longer but there's a cocktail/dinner with donors on Thursday that I have to attend, so I'd like to readjust in time.

Obviously I've lost weight, but what's been great are the neurological benefits. I've never fasted for this long, and I finally understand what people mean when they refer to the mental benefits. My mood, my drive, my concentration, my frustration tolerance, my focus have all been amped up to 11 in the past several days. I worked through the weekend and wrote hundreds of lines of code, and then wrote some text as well. I'm remembering things, making connections, and feeling good.

For now, I'm off the adderall. I did not want to take a pill while fasting so I stopped. My concentration actually improved and is better than it's been on adderall. The volume of work that I got done in the past ten days exceeds my previous productivity.

I also reduced my coffee intake from one cup to 2 cups. Around day 4 or 5 I noticed that I was drowsy until my first cup of coffee. Around then I switched from 2 cups to 1 cup of coffee a day. In the last two or three days I've noticed that ... I don't even need that first cup of coffee, I'm already awake by the time I have it.

I think that I understand this though. I read a study abstract the other day (didn't save it) that associated fasting with up regulation of Dopamine-2 receptor. That will explain at least some of the mental benefits that I and many others report.

******

Separately, I own several pairs of waist size 32 pants made by different brands. Some of them are now too loose, and some are too tight, lol.


Bolded: Hmmm.

Just teasing DA!
 

Kriss E

Registered User
May 3, 2007
55,329
20,272
Jeddah
If you don't eat for 10 days, no protein, no fats and no carbs for 10 full days, you will lose muscle mass and I reckon you will lose a lot of it. It would definitely be interesting to run those tests on people with a good strength base, say someone who benches 250, squats 400 and dead lifts 500. How would he perform after a 10 day fast?
You have proof of this? Or just your personal belief.

And not talking about people who are in the 1000 club here. Talking average strength..around the 600 mark maybe.
 
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