Nutritional Endocrinology Practitioner Training (NEPT)
Clinical Pearl
January 7th, 2018

Therapeutic Fasting

Over the holidays, my husband and I did a water fast.

We drank just water for a full 8 days. On the evening of the 8th day we drank homemade vegetable broth. On the afternoon of the 9th day, I blended the veggies used for the broth and drank that.  I had some interesting observations. I tracked glucose and ketones. I didn’t do BP but wish I had. I’m including a link to the google document where I’m posting my results. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1PDQDp_XZMlOQwSelm-zhSrbkVdYb3mHzmVyzliok7_s/edit?usp=sharing

I just recently got a second ketone meter called Keto Mojo. It was recommended by one of my clients. It measures ketones, glucose, hemoglobin and hematocrit. I added those columns when I received the meter. I am going to be comparing the glucose reading to my current True to Go (my favorite). I will compare the ketone readings to Precision Xtra.

The things I found interesting were:

During the first 5 days of the fast, my blood sugar was in the 30’s and 40’s. On day 6, I woke up feeling really strong, and felt like exercising. My blood sugar went up from 33 to 44 after 20 push-ups and a minute and a half of planks. After that my fasting blood sugar never went back into the 30’s or 40’s.

I’m interested in finding out if this is coincidence or not. My guess was that I started metabolizing muscle to make glucose at that point. My ketones had been in the 6 range before the exercise and after had been in the 2.5 range.

The next day I felt great again, but didn’t exercise to conserve strength.

On the 7th day, I worked out with Maria through Zoom. Even though we took it relatively easy, my sugar went from 52 to 72. Where did the sugar come from? My glycogen stores were depleted, so I assumed I was burning muscle.

I’m new at gathering this info during a fast so it’s been interesting to note all the changes.

More interesting was that an hour later my sugar went into the 70’s. I assumed, I worked out too hard for my current state.

Since I hadn’t eaten in 8 ½ days by then, I again assumed I was eating muscle to make glucose, otherwise where would it have come from? Thoughts?

My food intro was slow and steady. Broth, blended cooked veggie soup, then raw smoothies. I introduced fat in the form of avocado and dehydrated cashew cheese on Day 11. I felt tired afterwards.

On Day 11, I also started taking supplements, tuning into what my body needed. That seemed to work well.

The things that puzzle me are that my sugar went to 85 after veggie broth and higher after blended veggie soup.

I’m still collecting data and analyzing so I can write a paper.

I think it would be great to take 5-10 people thru this with all taking measurements so I can formulate hypotheses.

Anyone game?

I’m not sure when, but maybe the spring.