Gin Stephens didn’t emphasize a clean fast in her first book, but she has since decided the key to her success and for her thousands of followers is NOTHING except water, black coffee or tea when fasting. Not a 10 calorie splash of milk, sprinkle of sweetener, a drop of oil. Many of her success stories claim their key to nirvana was a Clean Fast.
Color me skeptical...I use a splash of Nutpod and sweetener, about 20 cal in my coffee, and do 18 hours with no problem.

https://www.ginstephens.com/all-blo...gory/clean-fast

To pick some nits: 😁

Gin Stephens promoted the clean fast on her first Facebook group, One Meal a Day. Which was founded four or five years ago and I was one of the first few hundred members. She definitely discussed it in her first book "Delay, Don't Deny".

I started fasting years before this, in 2013, so I too didn't clean fast, but I avoided calories and only transgressed as far as flavoured teas 😁. So I know you can lose weight without sticking to clean fasting. I have however found it easier to fast longer by doing so, and nowadays I am also very much about the autophagy.

I figured that was it, but I don't like tea without a generous splash of lemon.

Rules, rules, rules. I get so tired of rules and if you don't follow each and every rule you're "not doing it right" and you get your hand slapped by the purists. There's more than one way to get the job done. Just sayin'.

True. I remember when Dr. Fung allowed chia seeds, a little cream or milk in coffee, lemon in tea, etc. during fasting.

I also remember "black rice" being on his food list , which enabled me to discover something new - turns out I love it and if you're going to eat rice, it's very nutritious. And I also cool/freeze it too to enable some resistant starch after I cook it with some coconut oil. I don't know if that experiment that supposedly reduced carbs/calories was ever repeated, but I do it anyway, just in case.

So this is strange. Yesterday I didn't feel all that well, had an upset tummy all day long and didn't feel like eating. I had some water, a diet ginger ale, and finally 5 Ritz crackers mid-afternoon in an attempt to calm the tummy (a couple crackers usually does it for me). Then for dinner I had less than 4 oz steak.

This morning I took my waking BG and it was 110. Huh? After 13 hours of not eating? Whatever, so I had my usual black coffee but added 1 scoop of collagen peptides.

My tummy was still a bit upset a couple hours later, so I decided to have some 0% Greek yogurt, but took my BG again before I went to the fridge. Now it's 114. This was almost 16 hours after eating last. Could the collagen have bumped it up that much? I've had days when just black coffee alone has bumped it up 10 or 15 points, but I've also had days when just black coffee made no difference at all.

My waking BG has been averaging in the mid-90s, and my trigger is 80.

Think it's just an anomaly due to the sour stomach?

If you're really curious get 3 data points from the same drop of blood or finger - who knows what mysteries await us.

I've had similar experiences after some different additions to my food and/or not getting enough sleep. One thing you can do is go back to what you were consuming when you had consistent BG readings in the mid 90s, and then try the collagen in the coffee after your readings have normalized a few days later to see if that was the culprit. It could be many factors including Thud's reference to data points. Some (I'm finding many) meters must have total consistency in getting a reliable measurement from prepping the skin, to amount of blood, to the phase of the moon, to Tom Brady back in New England, . . . and on . . . .

Yes, phases of the moon and planets being out of alignment are high on the list of things that have affected me.

How do real diabetics who need reliable readings do so with these meters? Mine is a Precision Xtra, not sure how old but probably 7 or 8 years old.

My best readings are from the middle finger of my left hand, and only when the drop of blood is HUGE. If it's a little scanty, the reading will be higher. It's also higher with any other finger on my left hand. I actually have bruises on the pad of the middle finger because of all the pokes.

I've had the collagen with yogurt almost every day for the past 5 weeks. Early on when I was testing before and after every snack/meal, I found that the yogurt with collagen usually made BG go down by 5 to 15 points.

Nothing to do but keep on keeping on. I'll start my normal foods and routine again today and just watch it. It should resolve itself over time. At least I finally broke the 7-pound loss hurdle and got to 8 pounds lost.

The Precision Xtra is one of the meters in my "collection." It was ok for ketones but the strips were ridiculously expensive back a few years ago to the point where I ordered ketone strips from a farm supply company (I kid you not!) that were exactly the same but intended for cows at a much lower price.

When I tried measuring glucose, I found the Xtra all over the map, so I ordered another glucose meter at the time recommended by Dr. Bernstein. Then, I ordered the Keto Mojo (still measuring ketones) and found it very consistent with glucose, more so than my other meters. Go figure . . .

Now I have an "upgraded" meter from Keto Mojo with glucose strips, only, so I'm in the process of testing it. Time will tell. Yes, very annoying they can't get these to at least be consistent on the same drop of blood.

The last time I ordered strips for the Precision Xtra, it was $54.99 for 2 boxes of 100 each (Amazon). That's the cheapest I've found. I think the time before that it was around $50 for 100 strips.

EDITED TO ADD: It's almost noon here and I'm thinking about having something to eat so I took a reading. Middle finger left hand: 125. Immediately took another reading from index finger left hand: 103.

This is nuts. I'll continue monitoring waking and before-lunch values, but am definitely not recording these absurd readings.

Just found my original order for the meter. It was October 2012. I wonder if it's time to purchase a new one. Thoughts?

I just ordered a Contour Next One - Strips are ~.33 - I'll report on it. I'm guessing it will be similar.

This is a guess, but I wonder if diabetics need to really worry about -+15% when we're testing in such a narrow band (trying to get just below trigger consistently. I think the meters do a fine job if you need to know if you're WAY high or WAY low

Way "high", I might experiemnt with that to see how high I can get my BG after eating straight sugar/candy durning the break between sessions. I can't really tell what "high" feels like as mine has not gone over 105 this session - and that was walking BG

I'm starting to get better and guessing and feeling it get a "little" low (not dangerously low like a diabetic might be looking for?) - then I decide to eat or not.

A game of small numbers and averages over time. Any meter should work for trends as long as you're not trying to hard to game the meter itself.

Any diabetics here care to comment on BG meters, accuracy and how and when you use them? There was some talk on the DDF fourm that CGM's tend to read low - but they show trends nicely, even the interesting trend that you BG may rise before you even eat a meal in anticipation - I wonder if that's a good reason not to use NAS either - Carly Simon said it best.

who really knows tho, I don't.

I'd think the meters are fine over time, it's the strips and technique that concern me when getting weird results one and a while.

Roll with it, maybe get some new strips if you have not for DDF next round :)

You're probably right. There's no way my REAL reading would be 125. Should be in the 80s based on what I've eaten (or, rather, not eaten) yesterday and today. The strips are new, and they are good into June 2022.

OK, the healthy attitude to take is to not stress about it. Eat what and how much and when, as I've done for the past 5 weeks and see where that takes me.

Thanks for the dose of reality.

The time I tested Metene, True and Contour Next together against the lab blood draw, they were clustered close together. Now the Contour seems to be "more right, more of the time" than the True..which does bounce around using the same drop of blood. :confused: I often use those two, the True strips are only $15 for 100. I think going forward when the True runs out just use the Contour, the strips are reasonable $25 for 70, and not obsess about BG (which I have been doing more than 6 months already :lol: ). In a week, I’ll also know what Thursday's blood draw showed about accuracy.

I am ending DDF today, heading out later to have an early Easter with DD in a lovely restaurant! Like "normal" people. :lol: I am at a lower weight since ending visits at the Duke Keto clinic. Also pulled out old Weight Watchers cards and much lower than those weights. That was a trip down (bad) memory lane.
I will probably change my goal here back to 160, and if get crazy through the summer pool season...push it to "wedding weight" of 154. (My first ever round of Weight Watchers) though I never thought to make that a goal that back in August when I started DDF.