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by stephc_int13 746 days ago
I fast once or a twice a year for 3-6 days, and I practice "one meal a day" most of the year.

My first fast was difficult, I did not supplement with electrolytes, slept too much and basically spent the duration watching series and feeling awful.

It is much better to go outside, work and try to follow your regular habits.

Electrolytes supplements are a must, and also some paracetamol during the first few days to reduce the inconvenience of your brain switching from glucose to ketones.

Fasting is easier the more you do it, partly because of calibrated expectations and less fear but I also think that the body simply adapts.

The only difficult day is the first one, for me.

The mental clarity thing is not a boost, you won't gain IQ points or intellectual stamina, more like slightly enhanced mood and more stable/regulated mental performance.

2 comments

Paracetamol is an anticholinergic isn’t it? It’s bad for your brain and its usage is associated with dementia.
> Paracetamol is an anticholinergic isn’t it?

No, per https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.15...

Can’t say whether it’s good for your brain otherwise.

Are you really suggesting paracetamol causes dementia?
Citation needed
"Regular use of paracetamol, but not ibuprofen, was associated with a significantly higher risk of new-onset dementia in the old population, regardless of genetic risks of dementia."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37633120/

Paracetamol is the default painkiller for most people, I would suspect that regular use means some kind of inflammation.

I would not find surprising that chronic headache could be correlated with risk of dementia.

The study however found no such association between regular ibuprofen use and dementia. Not sure what compels people to go all "I have no idea what the supposed results of the study are but my amateur intuition about it tells me it's wrong".
That paper is extremely weak. Look at the confidence intervals surrounding the hazard ratios. There is almost no effect for paracetamol and the difference between paracetamol and ibuprofen is negligible. If this is the evidence, I’m not concerned.
Thanks!
I tried this in the past, I absolutely could not last past 36 hours, all I could think about was food. The easier way for me was to do the Atkins fat fast, which basically 800 calories of 90% fat for a few days to kick myself into ketosis. I’m not sure why I needed with a capital “N” to have food when I tried a “hard” fast. It could be a mental block, as a child I was never allowed to skip a meal, even if I only ate a little bit. Weight didn’t become an issue until post 30 :)
I get very food focused in a fast as well. So I decided to "weaponize it" and use that focus to learn how to conjugate the Japanese verb Taberu (食べる), which means "To Eat." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s40x2zFJHI4
I found a diet which is more carb-rich got my body used to wanting immediate energy from carbs. Capping carbs with a high (low PUFA) fat diet is a much easier ramp (for me) to keto, fasting, intermittent or omad.