The fasting journal · matched to fast day 48
Day 48. The Ketones Are Gone and the Bowl Is Full
Day 48 comes in two takes. John filmed the whole update under the gazebo, gnome in hand. The phone stopped before the ending. He picked it back up a minute later and finished the sign off. Same spot, same shirt, same glass. You will not spot the seam.
Numbers first. 179.0 pounds this morning. That is 0.7 pound up from yesterday and the first real bump since the broth started. Total change is 49.6 pounds in 48 days from the 228.6 start on August 1. BMI 27.1, body fat 28.6 percent, muscle 38.3 percent, 1910 calories burned.
Third day of broth
How do I feel? I feel good. I feel fine.
That is the report and it is the same one as yesterday, which after the week he had is the point. Today is the third day of homemade beef broth since the water fast ended on day 45.
It has been doing me a lot of good. It stabilized my stomach. I am not nauseous. I am not feeling queasy or anything like that. It has done a really nice job.
The nausea that forced the stop is gone. The broth had one job and it did it.
The strip finally moved
Yesterday the surprise was that the ketone strip still read 16 after two days of broth. Today it moved.
You can also tell that the broth has changed my ketone reading down to 0.5. Hardly traceable. Very little ketones left inside me at this point. That is as expected. So that is fine.
He is right that it is expected. Cleveland Clinic describes ketosis as the state the body holds while carbohydrate stays low enough that fat is the main fuel. Two days of half bowls were not enough to change that. A third day with a full bowl was. The pad went from the darkest square on the chart to the second lightest. Fat burning did not stop, it eased off. That is what a refeed is supposed to look like.
Half a bowl to a full bowl
At this point I am taking a small bowl of beef broth. I went from half a bowl to a full small bowl. I am doing that once a day and that is pretty much all I need.
One bowl a day for about a week. He does not expect to change anything until after the weekend. Then soft vegetables go into the broth and he sees how his stomach takes them. It is the same ladder he climbed after his earlier long fast. One rung, hold, check, next rung.
Feeling normal is the trap
Here is the part worth reading twice if you ever finish a long fast yourself.
The funny thing is that I feel normalized. I feel like I can eat a full dinner and stuff like that. But you do not want to do that.
What will happen is you fill up with gases. You will have cramps at night. You will not be able to sleep. All kinds of bad things will happen. So just stay the course and you will be fine.
Three days of broth made him feel ready. Feeling ready is not the same as being ready. Cleveland Clinic explains that the risky window after a long fast is the first stretch of eating again, when the body is rearranging how it handles fluid, salt and minerals. John’s version is plainer. Gas, cramps, no sleep. He has been there before and he is not going back. His doctor stays in the loop with the monthly bloodwork that framed the whole run.
Morning juice because he wakes up hungry
One small new thing. He wakes up a little hungry now, which he almost never said during the water only weeks.
In the morning I also feel like having a little bit of juice because I wake up a little bit hungry. About a quarter of cranberry juice and I dilute it with water three quarters of the way.
Cleveland Clinic describes ghrelin, the hunger hormone, as rising on a schedule the body learns from when food shows up. A daily bowl of broth gave the body a schedule again and the morning signal is coming back with it. A quarter cup of unsweetened cranberry juice in three quarters water is his answer. Tiny amount, no sugar. He was sipping it on camera as he said it.
The count
Day 48 of the 90 day calendar. The water only part ended on day 45 and this site said so the same day. What John is doing now is the slow half of the project, the part the first 45 days were for. Broth first. Soft vegetables next. Then whatever his stomach and his doctor agree on. If you are new here, start with what a water fast actually is and then read why the fast ended on day 46.
Forty two days left on the calendar. Cheers.
Quick answers
Why did John's ketone strip take three days of broth to drop from 16 to 0.5?
Because the first two days of broth were half a bowl at a time. Half a bowl of plain beef broth carries almost no carbohydrate. Cleveland Clinic explains that ketosis holds as long as carbohydrate intake stays low enough that the body keeps burning fat for fuel. Forty five days of fasting built a deep version of that state and it did not flip on the first sip. By day 48 the bowl was full, the days had stacked up and the body had enough coming in to ease off fat burning. The pad went from the darkest square to 0.5, the second lightest. John's reaction was that it is as expected. He was more surprised on day 47 that it had not moved yet.
Why does John feel like he can eat a full dinner but will not?
Three days of broth calmed his stomach and the queasiness that ended the fast is gone. That is the feeling he calls normalized. The problem is that feeling ready and being ready are different things after 45 days without food. He lays out what a big meal would do right now. You fill up with gas, you get cramps at night and you cannot sleep. Cleveland Clinic describes the danger zone after a long fast as the first days of eating again, when the body is shifting how it handles fluid, salt and minerals. A slow ramp is the whole point of the refeed. His rule is simple. Stay the course and you will be fine.
How long does John plan to stay on broth before adding vegetables?
About a week from now. He is at one full small bowl of beef broth a day and says that is pretty much all he needs for the moment. He does not expect to change anything until after the weekend. The next rung is soft vegetables cooked into the broth. He will see how his stomach handles that before going further. This is the same ladder he used on his previous long fast, one small step at a time with his doctor watching the bloodwork. The refeed runs under the same supervision the fast did.
Why does John wake up hungry now when he was not hungry during the fast?
Because food is back in the picture. During the water only weeks he said many times that hunger had faded to almost nothing. Cleveland Clinic explains that ghrelin, the hunger hormone, rises and falls on a schedule tied to when the body expects food. A bowl of broth every day gives the body a schedule again, so the morning signal is coming back. He answers it with a small amount of unsweetened cranberry juice, about a quarter cup diluted with water three quarters of the way. It takes the edge off and keeps the amount tiny.