Fasting decreased my insulin resistance

[Cajunboy47]

I woke up Wednesday morning from a dream, but that’s not all! In my dream I was instructed to fast for 40 days, but to first fast for 40 hours as a test. The message was so emphatically strong, I felt compelled to do it and for some strange reason, it felt very natural to do it….

At the point I woke up, it was 0700am, I had already fasted 12 hours, so I continued it until noon today (Beijing Time), which is actually 41 hours. I did not feel hungry till the 40th hour and then I was very hungry, but we were out shopping and it took the extra hour to get to a Restaurant to eat….

Here are the results of my fast: (Tuesday night 0700pm to Thursday at noon 1200pm)

Tues Night:

10pm BG 97

Weds Morning: drank 13 glasses (10oz) of water… NO vitamins, herbs, etc…

7am FBG 92
715am one hour walk
9am FBG 85
11am FBG 89
5pm FBG 85
6pm drank fresh squeezed juice of 1 apple & half a banana (10 oz)
7pm BG 135
715pm forty-five minute walk
8pm BG 91
10pm BG 87

Thurs Morning: drank 4 glasses of water… NO vitamins, herbs, etc….

6am FBG 91
630am forty-five minute walk
8am FBG 85
12noon Ate lunch
Dish #1 Salad: celery, spinach, carrots, peanuts, green onions, peppers (vinegar & oil)
Dish #2 Tufu served with minced beef in a pepper sauce (served hot & spicy)
Dish #3 Bitter melon steamed with carrots, green onions and garlic in a light sauce
Dish #4 Noodle soup with edible fungus, peppers, tofu, minced onions & peppers
1:30pm BG 97 Still no vitamins, herbs, etc…..

I am not sure when I will do the 40 hour fast, but this was an eye opener for me…..

[RobLL]

After reading Eat Stop Eat I started intermittent fasting, twice a week, from after dinner until the next dinner. It has been helpful for BGs and losing some of that last 10-15 pounds. Rob

[MizKitty]

That's why I fast daily, only eating between the hours of 6:00 - 8:00pm. It keeps my BG low and steady all day, and I spike less after eating, even though I'm consuming all my calories for the day at one time.
I believe the reason for that is:
-Glucose supplies in the muscles become very depleted during the fast, making them primed and ready to soak it up when I eat (that's the less insulin resistance part)
-Fasting allows your phase I insulin supply to completely restore itself, so you have a better insulin response when you finally eat.

I tried one 40 hour fast just to see what would happen, and my numbers went too low. Plus, I enjoy eating and even though I wasn't hungry, I didn't enjoy skipping a day of food. But I'm willing to defer eating all day for the opportunity to have one big fabulous meal at the end of each day.... especially when it's helping me control my BG.

[Nancy LC]

Man, if I acted on my dreams I'd be even weirder than I already am.

[Cajunboy47]

Nancy,

I haven't acted on the other part of my dream, which was fasting for 40 days... :)

Karen,

I have to tell you, I've watched how your fasting worked for you, but until I tried this, I was too focused on seeing the losing weight part of it and my focus has been on health first, but now, I see your views completely...

Fasting for a diabetic is probably a very healthy thing to do, if there is weight loss or not....

I am debating if I want to do a long fast, but I'm now convinced I need to do fasting on some kind of regular basis, such as perhaps 3 days per week, maybe 3 in a row, every other day, etc... I'm using this weekend to think it through, but I know fasting is in my future now...

[ruthla]

Are you sure the dream told you to fast for 40 days straight, as opposed to fasting for 24 hours on 40 separate occasions?

Or maybe the 40 day fast in your dream has to do with Passover coming up (didn't Moses fast for 40 days when he was up on Mount Sinai getting the Torah?) and was just a dramatic way of telling you to fast for 40 hours.

[eddiemcm]

About fasting:
I used to fast 4 days and would predictably lose 7.5 pounds between days 3 and 4.I believe this is very unhealthy as most weight loss will come from muscle.I also believe that any apparant "insulin resistance" improvement is short term.
Cajun,please forget 40 days.Just my opinion-been wrong
before.
Cheers
Eddie

[MizKitty]

I don't think you're wrong eddie... what you've said fits in with what Dr Eades wrote.... he believes fasts of up to 48 hours are safe, do not cause muscle loss or "starvation mode".

[Cajunboy47]

ruthla: I'm sure of my dream.... I'm also sure I did not have thoughts or dreams of a passover. My dream didn't even resemble anything biblical, but when I awoke, in my thinking I suppose I did link 40 day fasting with biblical history..

Dreams are liken to notions, so I thought I'd check out things by researching the internet about water only fasting to see if there is any validity to my dream........

I found some websites that are interesting:

http://100777.com/node/1319

http://www.riversidehealth.com/articles/fasting.htm

http://www.gaianstudies.org/articles4.htm

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070701103642AAdH9am