Ketogenic Diet…. Check

Intermittent Fasting…. Check

Time Restricted Eating…. Check

Calorie Restricted Diet…. Check

Prolonged Fasting…. Check

Fast Mimicking Diet …. Check

Serving as your dietary crash dummy is one small service I render freely. Following my experience with water fasting for five days, I became convinced of the value of the practice and pledged to do it quarterly or more often. I had planned and was mentally preparing to do my next one early in January. Unfortunately, marathon vacationing, dinner parties and gourmet excesses cause me to hit the upper limit of clothing’s capacity last week. Not ready for the asceticism of water fasting yet, I decided to try an experiment by drawing inspiration from all of the buzzwords above. Here are the essential elements.

1. Coffee with heavy cream in the morning followed by supplemental exogenous ketones (Keto Ca-Na) and electrolyte replacement (Lime Juice, Morton’s lite salt, stevia and water).
2. No food with the exception of bone broth until dinner. Bone broth is 35 calories per cup which I count as negligible. A few times I boosted the broth with a tablespoon of coconut cream as well as a half teaspoon of turmeric and a grind of black pepper. This version was delicious, satisfying and anti-inflammatory as well.
3. Dinner was fish (Smoked trout, smoked salmon, seared grouper) and a half avocado.
4. Vodka with dinner with a squeeze of lemon and a bourbon after.
5. A few ounces of mixed nuts (not more than two oz. a day) to provide something crunchy whenever willpower waned.

Results:

1. The program was easily tolerated as compared with the water fast.
2. I lost 10 lbs in five days. I lost 12 lbs on water only in the same timeframe. Historically four pounds come back when eating begins. My first normal meal will be dinner tonight.
3. The pants that were uncomfortably tight five days ago are now comfortably loose.
4. My energy level was extremely high for the five days. This makes evolutionary sense. When your body senses almost no food coming in, it wants you to get into high gear and go kill something. If fasting goes on too long, your body concludes there must be a famine and so it dials your metabolism way down to conserve.
5. My experience with fasting shows that there is a huge boost to growth hormone when feeding resumes and thereby muscle is packed on.
6. The work of  Dr. Valter Longo on the fast mimicking diet suggests that I should enjoy most of the biological benefits conferred by water fasting. The list is a long one. Google Valter Longo and the fast Mimicking Diet to see the full list.

Conclusion:

I have no idea how safe this way of eating (not eating?) is. I tolerated it fine but you may not. I would suggest being under the care of a good functional medicine doctor before trying it. I also suggest getting before and after lab work done to see how any personal risk factors are changed by doing this. I have labs schedules. if the numbers move in the right direction, I will put this plan on my calendar several times a year.