It seems to me there must be some difference as I would have thought many, if not most, people have at least 12 hours between their last meal and their breakfast the next day.

Thanks!

This is a terrific article that came out four or five years ago. Well worth reading.

I was excited to stumble on your blog while researching fasting, as I am very impressed with Protein Power Lifeplan and use it as my nutrition and weight loss basic text.

I have lost 50 pounds and normalized my blood glucose with a low-carb 1500-calorie diet, but seem to be stalled at this point. I’d like to try the intermittent fasting. I would also like to follow the fast my church prescribes, which is no animal products from now until Christmas. I can’t eat soy or gluten, and nuts are too high in fat to get adequate protein without going over my calorie limit. Are there any vegan foods which can provide enough protein without excessive carbs or calories? What would be the likely result of two weeks of every-other-day fasting with limited protein?

Thank you.

Andrea

As far as I can tell, about all you can supplement with is rice protein powder. You would probably do okay on that from now until Christmas.

Is it possible that a confounder in the CR studies was nutrient density versus calorie amounts? what I mean is that could the agent of benefit be not so much the calories, but the nutrient density of foods that has the most benefit? Gary Null mentioned this once long ago and I never heard it fully addressed anywhere.

Thanks!
BMC

Most studies of CR use food of the same nutrient density, but just less of them in the CR arm. So, although consuming foods with the greatest nutritional density is a good thing, I’m not sure it really figures in to the CR equation.

Also, it’s true that the male hunters would not eat all day while hunting,
but the women spend the whole day long gathering berries, roots, etc.,
and probably were constantly grazing until the men came home with the meat?

The fasting period can be whenever you want it to be. As far as I know there are no rules. The important thing is to let there be a lengthy time sometime during the day that the GI tract can rest.

MRE

Any thoughts on my situation?
Thanks!

You don’t have to consume all your calories in one meal. You can consume them in smaller meals throughout the time of the day dedicated to eating. Then you consume no calories during the portion of the day dedicated to fasting.

MRE

http://academic.sun.ac.za/medphys/insulinresistance.htm

Hi Dave–

MRE

The Power Point presentation shows the results of continuous BG monitoring of a number of subjects with what are considered healthy blood sugars eating what is considered a normal (carbohydrate-loaded) diet. Three key results of the study caused me to conclude that the blood glucose patterns, far from representing ‘normal blood glucose’, represent a normal response to an abnormal influx of glucose arising from carbohydrates.
1. There was a large BG spike after every meal containing carbs (all meals in
the study did).
2. The biggest BG spike came after a meal in the morning (around 8 AM).
3. BG virtually flat-lined in the night when no food was being consumed
and gluconeogenesis was producing glucose as needed to maintain BG levels.
http://www.diabetes-symposium.org/index.php?menu=view&chart=33&id=322

After being shocked into reality by this presentation I started to eat 2 meals a day. The first is at about 1 PM, the second at about 7 PM. I seldom snack. At least once a week I skip one meal and cycle for 24 hours or more without food. Initially I experienced some flu-like effects and periods of low energy. I attribute these to a detoxification process. Now my energy levels are way up. I have never felt better in as long as I can remember. But the most intriguing effect of IF from the perspective one who was a carbohydrate addict is the modest sense of hunger I feel even after extended periods without food. And when I do eat my appetite is easily satiated. I have also noted some very significant physiologic changes in my desire for fat (which of late has decreased) relative to my desire for protein. It is as if I seem to know what I need to eat and, more important, when I have eaten enough of it.

You said:
“The fast is probably going to do more good for the diabetic condition than all the supplements in the world. If I were going to list my top five supplements for type II diabetes they would be magnesium, lipoic acid, CoQ10, biotin, and carnitine. I hope those are a part of your list.”

These supplements are part of my list. However, instead of the racemic form of lipoic acid I use the R+form which is many times more effective. L-carnitive also seems to have some kind of synergism with lipoic aid. It is important to take about 500 – 750 mcg of biotin with every 100 mg of lipoic acid since lipoic acid depletes biotin. The timing of lipoic acid also seems to be important to maximizing its effect.

I am a type II diabetic (diagnosed in Feb 2005). I am currently on an IF, VLC, no-grain diet. For several months now I have been on IF. I record my body weight. % body fat and total body water every morning at the same time on a bioimpendance analyzer. I am just about to resume reading my fasting blood glucose. Since I have the Dawn ‘Phenomenon’ I normally take 2 readings an hour apart to see whether my BG is increasing or staying stable. After starting IF I began to see near normal FBG readings for first time. Other BG readings are well within limits for non-diabetics.

I look forward to future comments from you and others who subscribe to this blog. I like Kathy Baugher’s idea of monitoring key indicators while on IF.

I would also like to hear your thoughts at some point on insulin resistance which seems to be tied to an inability of glucagon levels to sense BG levels in controlling the synthesis of glucose.

Hi Dave–

MRE

but apart from that i apply IF by skipping breakfast (i am not hungry so why should i eat?) and try to hold on as long as possible (before i get really hungry) and then i eat a “healthy meal” (slow carbs, moderate fat, moderate protein). This is mostly about noon… (so when other people start to eat their second meal of the day). then i wait until 8-9pm before i eat again, mostly a larger meal…

I however do believe that the intermittend fasting priciple only needs to be applied on protein/fat nutrients and not on carbohydrates, some studies do confirm this (need to look it up again on pubmed). In nature you do not have to kill an animal to eat some carbs… just look for a tree and pick an apple or an orange! So i think you can eat carbs the whole day long but try to limit protein/fat meal to once or maximum twice a day…

What are you thoughts on this?

Best regards,

Yannick De Wit

My thoughts are just the opposite. I would say that based on my experience with a whole lot of patients that it is the carbohydrates that need to be restricted and the fat and protein that can be eaten throughout the day. If what you are doing is working well for you, my recommendation would be that you stick with it.

MRE