Fast Changes

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At the end of another week of three 36 hour fasts, I’m contemplating how much my life has already changed, and how much it may still change, as I continue my fasting and attack on diabetes.

Changing your lifestyle is the first key to beating diabetes

First of all, I currently weigh about 30 pounds less than when I started on the low carb high fat program. Fasting started about two weeks later, after I took the time to consult with my endocrinologist about how to manage my blood sugars during my fasting. We had already switched to two different types of insulin, long acting and fast acting, and I’m using the new meter that tests all day long, so he felt that the risk of a dangerous low could be managed.

Secondly, I now know that fasting isn’t really all that hard, for me. I suspect that motivation is a huge part of this, but fasting seems pretty straightforward to me now. Take care of my insulin and blood glucose levels, otherwise just don’t eat. Anything. Instead of it being hard, it’s been pretty easy, and the results so far are gratifying.

Weighing myself every day has become a lifetime habit. Getting my weight to a better levels is one of the keys to improving my diabetes, blood pressure, arthritis, and many other inflammatory problems and diseases.

I made the change to my lifestyle on July 10, and began fasting near the end of the month. It’s now the end of the first week of September so I’m approach two months into the program. My insulin levels are lower than ever as are my glucose readings. I take half of the prescribed dose of long acting insulin these days, and no fast acting insulin at all on my fasting days, and about three quarters of the previous prescibed dose on my non fasting days.

The biggest concern is keeping my blood sugars high enough not to end up in a coma from hypoglycemia from having too much insulin in my system and lowering my blood sugar too much. In more than 20 years of trying to manage my diabetes low blood sugar was never ever a remote possibility, even after being on insulin, as my blood sugars were always higher than desireable.

I recently made two new holes in my belt to keep my pants from falling down, after moving from the last belt hole at the other extreme. I didn’t measure my waist when I started because I was too embarrassed to admit how big I had become. Now I wish that I had because I’m shrinking fast.

When I started this fast, I told myself that I would stay the course for three months, and then re-evaluate where I’m at then, from a health perspective as well as general feeling perspective. I also said that I would be happy if I were to get my weight under 200 lbs or 90 KG by the end of the 90 days of fasting. Today I weigh 217 lbs, down from 244 lbs on July 10th. I believe that I will achieve both goals, at which time I will commit to the next phase of this program.

I wish I could say that there have been no negative effects of fasting. It’s a little early to make that statement. What I can say is that there haven’t been any, so far.

24 thoughts on “Fast Changes”

  1. Congratulations on your weight loss, man. All the best! Keep going on your journey to regain your health! I changed my diet around the end of May as my blood pressure started to get a little concerning. I also eat low carb high fat and my blood pressure went back to normal. I’ve lost about 25 pounds or so, but my diet is more Paleo rather than Keto. I eat fruit and the occasional dark chocolate. Slow and steady, I’m also attempting to get down to a normal weight to avoid health issues in the future. I don’t think that losing the weight is as hard as keeping it off and maintaining it though as the body fights against us all the time. I’m scared of getting sick as I age, however, which is motivation enough for me to stay away from carbs. lol

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  4. As a diabetic myself, I can totally relate to your attempts to manage your blood sugar + weight. Tonite I went on my daily 35 min walk to help with my situation.

    I’m glad to have come across your blog as I know that I’ll learn from it! 🙂

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  12. This is great! I’m sharing this with a friend who is also diabetic. I hope it helps her. Do keep sharing your experiences with fasting and managing diabetes.

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  13. Thank you for visiting and liking my blog. Congratulations on your weight loss. I have some family members, especially my mom, who have to monitor their insulin levels as well. My mom’s is better but she still maintains her blood levels, etc. including her kidney transplant successful/blessing journey.

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    • Good for you! Hang in there. The most important thing is finding what works for you to get off the merry-go-round. It really helps to have support from the people in your life. I hope my blog helps too.

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  16. Don, that’s terrific. I need to lose 30 pounds. Three 36 hour fast per week? That’s 4.5 days per week of not eating. Am I reading you correctly? Are they total fast other than water? Have you included exercising regularly into the routine or are you fasting with no exercise? Either way, it’s admirable for you.

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    • They are total fasts, with the exception of water and coffee with heavy (18%) cream. That’s it! I do exercise with a routine of walking between 4,000 and 8,000 steps every day, regardless of whether I’m fasting that day or not. The days I walk further are the days I don’t take the car to work, and make up the difference in having to walk to transit, between buses and the train, and from the final train stop to my office and back. It adds about 4,000 steps to my day. I don’t actually think that extreme exercise is recommended during a fast, as it over stimulates the metabolic rate, and can actually cause the lever to start digesting bone and muscle tissue to get the glucose it’s looking for to feed the need.

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  19. Good for you! Your program seems similar to one my in laws are using. It sounds hard and torturous to me, but they said they’ve noticed a positive difference and it looks like so far you are too. Congratulations.

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