Thursday, August 12, 2021

Fasting could have been a terrible mistake...

When I first started Alternate Day Fasting I saw tremendous benefits.

  1. I lost weight hand over foot.
  2. My light chains went down.
  3. My inflammation was low. 
  4. My sugar dropped low.
I had every reason to think it was good for me.  Unfortunately by March I saw some troubling signs.

  1. My weight loss was slow.
  2. My light chains were increasing
  3. My inflammation spiked.
  4. My sugar wasn't as low as it once was. 
  5. My ferritin was very high (another inflammation marker).
But I kept at it... until that is I ordered a cholesterol panel.

  1. My cholesterol was insane at 450.
  2. My HS-CRP was 3.8 *high*
  3. My Fibrinogen was also above normal. 
Now, I have had this happen before when I was on a liquid diet of 700 cals a day.  The good news is that 8 years later I had no heart damage in a CAC test.  But I went off fasting and started eating at my TDEE every day. Then I got tested again two weeks later.
  1. Cholesterol came down 100 points 350 ( expect it to be normal in a few weeks)
  2. HS-CRP dropped to 1.8 *average*
  3. My Fibrinogen dropped to just above the normal range. 
So it seems to me that something causes all of this to happen and the most likely problem is Cortisol.  Your body is under *physical stress* and it releases cortisol. I can't tell what does it, is it the fasting? Is it the low calories? Is it lack of water -- is it all three? I don't know.  But I do know that I can't utilize this method again unless it is for a very short time. And I do know that I have to eat normally at least until my next visit at Dana Farber (late September). 

I am finally done with Keto.

Since the start of the pandemic I have been heavily invested in Keto and fasting. What captured my interest was the book, "Anyway you c...