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[ProphetofProfit]

Could anyone first tell me if what I experienced is symptomatic of hypoglycemia and if so, suggest a solution? I intermittent fast most days and this could be the cause of the problem.

Timeline:
07:15 Get up. Coffee. Nothing to eat.
07:45 Start reading some complicated text, concentration and understanding are good.
08:30 I've read 20 pages and now I start to experience confusion while reading, not understanding the material and having to reread sentences. More significantly, when looking at nearby objects, I lose focus and experience double vision temporarily.

My hypothesis is that blood glucose is low upon waking, and my brain subsequently burns up the limited glucose that's available. Excuse me but my knowledge of nutrition is not brilliant.

If the above is correct, what is the best solution? I initially started IF'ing because eating, as a general rule, causes moderate brain fog. Please note that I'm broke and have 4kg of dextrose powder available, so that appears to be the best option available to me, 10g or so of dextrose every hour instead of fasting, or whatever best solves the problem.

[chung_pao]

I do the same thing, but with doubt of its efficiency.

Dopamine is one of the neurotransmitter necessary for attention and concentration.
Neurotransmitters are quickly depleted when fasting. This leads to your attention span being very short.

The only thing that helped me was:
L-tyrosine supplementation.
/stop drinking caffeine
/nootropics: modafinil + ginkgo biloba and others
But... My ability to concentrate and understand complex literature always fades after 2 hours of concentration while fasting.

This leads me to the a dilemma:
1. Increase meal frequency, which would be the only solution.
but, this would also mean losing the benefits of intermittent fasting.
2. Continue IF: prioritizing body over learning and productivity.

Conclusion:
Practice intermittent fasting when it works. Break the fast when I really start to feel depleted.
Some days fasting is easy, some days the brain works like an old windmill (slow).

For meals, eat slowly digested foods such as low GI foods and high protein: my preference: spinach and eggs.

Btw, about the dextrose: my guess is that you need protein, not pure sugar.

Edited by chung_pao, 21 November 2012 - 12:24 AM.