Snowman
Level 6 Valued Member
As med school looms nearer and nearer, I still need to test one more cognitive enhancement tool. I've heard that, after two or three days of fasting, some people experience pretty substantial cognitive benefits once they get into ketosis. I have no interest of maintaining 24/7 ketosis, but it might be valuable, around exam time, to give myself a little boost for a day or two.
Background: Male, 25 years old, 155 lbs. Have been doing intermittent fasting for the last 2-3 years. This mostly consists of skipping breakfast and timing my lunch so I get 16-18 hours without food. I think the longest I've gone without food was about 36 hours, but that was just once, and on accident. It wasn't really a big deal, though.
Intent of experiment: To discern the cognitive benefits of multi-day fasting, and develop a reproducible timeline for those benefits, in order to employ similar fasting techniques in times of high cognitive demand.
Parameters: Little to no calorie intake for 3-5 days. I know you can get a fasting response by only eating a little food (200-700 calories, depending on who you talk to), but that just sounds like it would make things complicated. I'm a simple guy. I plan on consuming water, coffee, tea, and maybe some kind of broth here and there. I will do this for 3-5 days. I say 3-5 days because, if I feel awesome halfway through day 2, and it continues into day 3, that gives me about a day and a half of benefit, which is probably good enough. On the other hand, if I can't get where I want in 5 days, then it ain't worth the trouble.
I do plan on training during this time, but I'll be altering routine a little. Instead of my normal training (see my log here), I'll just be doing some walking and some heavier stuff with long rest periods. Which, to be honest, is not that different from what I normally do. Just a little more "extreme" (lower intensity aerobic work, and shorter, higher intensity strength training).
Day 0
Pretty normal day. No breakfast, lunch around 12:30, then a big dinner. I was with some friends, so dinner (normally done by 8:30 or so) wasn't really finished until 10-ish. Also had a few beers. I went for a low intensity (MAF) run in the afternoon.
Day 1
What I did:
Tea in the morning. Coffee at noon. Water throughout the day. I had one M&M due to social pressure (I didn't want to insult someone offering me food), but I'm pretty sure it won't wreck my experiment. Didn't exercise today because I wanted to have an easy start, and I was also pretty busy the whole day.
How I felt:
Normal. I didn't really notice any difference in energy or hunger until it was dinner time. Then it was more a desire for the ritual of sitting down and having a family dinner. I'm not gonna lie, though, during the late afternoon, I was definitely having some food thoughts. No hunger, no cravings, no change in energy levels or ability to focus.
Background: Male, 25 years old, 155 lbs. Have been doing intermittent fasting for the last 2-3 years. This mostly consists of skipping breakfast and timing my lunch so I get 16-18 hours without food. I think the longest I've gone without food was about 36 hours, but that was just once, and on accident. It wasn't really a big deal, though.
Intent of experiment: To discern the cognitive benefits of multi-day fasting, and develop a reproducible timeline for those benefits, in order to employ similar fasting techniques in times of high cognitive demand.
Parameters: Little to no calorie intake for 3-5 days. I know you can get a fasting response by only eating a little food (200-700 calories, depending on who you talk to), but that just sounds like it would make things complicated. I'm a simple guy. I plan on consuming water, coffee, tea, and maybe some kind of broth here and there. I will do this for 3-5 days. I say 3-5 days because, if I feel awesome halfway through day 2, and it continues into day 3, that gives me about a day and a half of benefit, which is probably good enough. On the other hand, if I can't get where I want in 5 days, then it ain't worth the trouble.
I do plan on training during this time, but I'll be altering routine a little. Instead of my normal training (see my log here), I'll just be doing some walking and some heavier stuff with long rest periods. Which, to be honest, is not that different from what I normally do. Just a little more "extreme" (lower intensity aerobic work, and shorter, higher intensity strength training).
Day 0
Pretty normal day. No breakfast, lunch around 12:30, then a big dinner. I was with some friends, so dinner (normally done by 8:30 or so) wasn't really finished until 10-ish. Also had a few beers. I went for a low intensity (MAF) run in the afternoon.
Day 1
What I did:
Tea in the morning. Coffee at noon. Water throughout the day. I had one M&M due to social pressure (I didn't want to insult someone offering me food), but I'm pretty sure it won't wreck my experiment. Didn't exercise today because I wanted to have an easy start, and I was also pretty busy the whole day.
How I felt:
Normal. I didn't really notice any difference in energy or hunger until it was dinner time. Then it was more a desire for the ritual of sitting down and having a family dinner. I'm not gonna lie, though, during the late afternoon, I was definitely having some food thoughts. No hunger, no cravings, no change in energy levels or ability to focus.