13 replies to this topic

[Benko]

I recently did Lifebox's 5 day fasting mimicking diet.  It went very well and was surprisingly easy. Lost 5 lbs.  

 

However I noticed that my luminosity scores (one of those web sites with various categories of mental tasks e.g. speed, memory attention, flexibility, etc) dropped 20 points when I tried the tests several times during the FMD as compared to my scores before and after the 5 day FMD.

 

This is relevant because I happened to be off work the 5 days i did the FMD, but can't always do that i.e. my next cycle in august I'll be working and my job is demanding intellectually.  
 

I should mention that my adrenals are probablyl not "optimal" (from years of not enough sleep too often), since that may have contributed.  I"m going to make sure I get plenty of sleep between now and next FMD cycle.

 

Any thoughts or experiences of other people?

 

Thanks for your time.

Edited by Benko, 27 July 2017 - 03:46 AM.

[chris85]

Thanks I might give this a shot

[Advocatus Diaboli]

Perhaps your were entering a state of mild hypoglycemia.

 

This link provides data on one person's experiment with a fasting mimicking diet.  He reports no mental clarity problems. He describes going into nutritional ketosis after 1 day on the diet, and then into "optimal" ketosis on day 3 of the diet.

 

Apparently his blood glucose level didn't get low enough to manifest in waking cognitive effects. He further states: "my body wasn’t as keto-adapted as I had thought prior to starting the fast (even though I get into light nutritional ketosis for a short period each day).".

 

I suspect that he actually was well along into keto-adaptation and that the drop in his blood glucose levels were mitigated by increased ketone levels to maintain normal cognitive function.

 

Did you monitor your blood glucose levels?

 

Edited by Advocatus Diaboli, 27 July 2017 - 07:09 PM.

[Benko]

I did monitor my blood glucose.

 

My AM fasting glucose was 85 before, during and after the 5 day FMD.  I did test it a few times e.g. when I felt very hungry or a little weak during the FMD, but never got lower than 85. 

 

I should add that I've never done any keto dieting or ultra low carb dieting. 

 

I plan to do another FMD cycle in August and I'll monitor my glucose very carefully and check the lumosity again to see how ti goes.

[sthira]

I should add that I've never done any keto dieting or ultra low carb dieting.

I plan to do another FMD cycle in August and I'll monitor...

Definitely give your psychology a chance to get used to changes in diet that include reduced eating. I say "psychology" adjustments because your body already knows what to do, your body how to handle hard times without great food choices, this is a built in feature of human evolution. Give thanks you found it in a world of massive over abundance, but also give your habits time to reorient. IOW, take it slowly, tale it easily, but do pursue reductions in calorie consumption if you're interested in possibly extending health span, and hopefully lifespan.

Also way more is going on within than blood glucose, but you already know that.

[Benko]

Good points.  Thanks.

 

I think I'll get my adrenals tested before and after to see what is going on there as well.

[sthira]

I recently did Lifebox's 5 day fasting mimicking diet. It went very well and was surprisingly easy. Lost 5 lbs.

However I noticed that my luminosity scores (one of those web sites with various categories of mental tasks e.g. speed, memory attention, flexibility, etc) dropped 20 points when I tried the tests several times during the FMD as compared to my scores before and after the 5 day FMD.

This is relevant because I happened to be off work the 5 days i did the FMD, but can't always do that i.e. my next cycle in august I'll be working and my job is demanding intellectually.

I should mention that my adrenals are probablyl not "optimal" (from years of not enough sleep too often), since that may have contributed. I"m going to make sure I get plenty of sleep between now and next FMD cycle.

Any thoughts or experiences of other people?

Thanks for your time.

My understanding is that fasting and calorie restriction are both healthy for the human brain.

Have you looked into any of Mark Mattson's work? He's with the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, and has done some fasting research. Here's a fine talk about its effects on human brains:

https://youtu.be/4UkZAwKoCP8

[Benko]

Thanks Sthira.

[Heisok]

Benko, I wonder what you were eating going into the FMD? Maybe your body was adjusting slowly.

 

I am 5 days into adapting myself back to a ketogenic diet not (FMD) after about 1 month where I ate poorly. Bread, potatoes, tortilla chips, cake and ice cream added to whatever meat and vegetables I ate. For 4 days, I felt cognitively impaired/foggy, irritable, depressed and had a lack of energy. On day 5, all that has reversed. During this period, I measured my blood glucose several times a day, and it is running around 79 to 83 with no hypoglycemia.

 

 

 

 

 

[Benko]

Heisok,

 

My diet before FMD:

 

Green smoothie, oatmeal.  lots of berries, giant spinach salad, .  I had a run of days where I had one of those breakfast sandwiches (eggs, cheese, ham or bacon), and a slice poundcake, other days beans and rice.  

 

My experience during the FMD was not like yours.  I was mostly fine, but I had periods during the day where I just started to feel run down and I'd feel energized after my next meal.  Then again, I'd had the same experience ie. feeling run down after not eating for awhile and felt energized after my next meal during periods before the FMD as well.  

[Heisok]

Thanks Benko. It will be interesting to see how it goes next time. I prefer what you went through, rather then me.

[Advocatus Diaboli]

Benko, et al.

 

This link provides some discussion on calorie restriction (CR) diets and intermittent fasting (IF) that you may find interesting. To give a nutshell precis: For longevity, CR is the route to go.

 

Information link found in this thread.

Edited by Advocatus Diaboli, 31 July 2017 - 08:13 PM.

[Benko]

Advocatus,

 

Thanks, I appreciate the info.

 

I started out with low bone density, so I'll stick to IF and FMD.  CR I suspect would be a bad idea for me.

[mccoy]

I'm just going thru my 4th FMD cycle. As far as I can judge (no tests led), there is no impairment on mental efficiency, although at time need of sleep can be overpowering. It's interesting that hypoglycaemia appears not to be a problem. In my case fasting blood glucose even increased slightly last time, when I measured it, relative to start of FMD.