4 ms·

The mental clarity you mention is interesting. Did you by any chance do stuff during that stretch that would give a more objective mental performance -- meanin

The mental clarity you mention is interesting. Did you by any chance do stuff during that stretch that would give a more objective mental performance -- meaning, was there a quantitative way for you to evaluate your 'mental clarity'? I ask because I've water-fasted for two days on several occasions, and I've always broken because the mental handicap was just too much, and I've had work to do.[1] In particular, I've found that writing code and writing research papers is almost impossible on day 2. However, I've wondered if either a) pushing through it, or b) keto-adapting beforehand might prevent the mental slowness. I know a superstar scientist who claims that he thinks better in ketosis, so presumably the mechanism for pushing through it would be to get to the point of keto-adaptation. [1] Well, that's kind of a copout. I could always do it while on vacation or something. So mental handicap + willpower.

justinpaulson 12y ago
I would say that day 2 is probably the hardest day. Day 3 was when I really started to feel almost normal, I lost cravings for food I mean. The craving and mental occupation of hunger is really distracting the first couple of days. After that you can focus more on your normal tasks without the constant nagging reminder that you are fasting. In fact, after about 12 days someone offered me a cookie at work and I almost took it and started eating it because it just completely skipped my mind that I had been fasting. I finally caught myself right before I started to eat it, but the hunger was so far gone from me that I wasn't mouth-wateringly rabid about eating a cookie, it was just like "sure, I'll take one" without a thought about it. So, I would probably say pushing through to at least day 3 or 4 would be worthwhile. If you steal feel handicapped after those days then it probably isn't for you. I wish I had done some sort of quantitative test to see if this was beneficial. I was taking 3 summer classes and working 20-30 hours at a pizza place (yes, hand making pizza all day at Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, MO while I was fasting.) And I did well in the classes, but I wouldn't say they were the most challenging classes as far as math and science, it was two philosophy classes and one theoretical physics writing class that was a lot more theoretical than practical application and calculation. Perhaps next time I will take some sort of mental performance tests at each week interval and see if there is marked improvement or detriment.
- shanusmagnus 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Your classwork under fast is inspiring, since it sounds like it included some fairly diverse cognitive skills. In my case trying to write a paper was a really emphatic illustration that something weird was going on, since I could do other, simpler tasks without really noticing a difference. But creative, integrative work that required planning and holding multiple things in memory at once was like running into a tree. The pizzeria thing, on the other hand, doesn't really surprise me. I worked in a pizzeria once, and my experience there (and from talking to other friends in fast food) was that the more time you spend in food prep, the less hungry you are. There might be eating out of impulse, but the hunger triggers seem to go away pretty quick. I'd encourage you in your final sentiment, though: quantitative performance info on fasting would be really useful, and doesn't seem to exist in the literature. If you ever want to talk about it please PM me.

justinpaulson 12y ago

I would say that day 2 is probably the hardest day. Day 3 was when I really started to feel almost normal, I lost cravings for food I mean. The craving and mental occupation of hunger is really distracting the first couple of days. After that you can focus more on your normal tasks without the constant nagging reminder that you are fasting. In fact, after about 12 days someone offered me a cookie at work and I almost took it and started eating it because it just completely skipped my mind that I had been fasting. I finally caught myself right before I started to eat it, but the hunger was so far gone from me that I wasn't mouth-wateringly rabid about eating a cookie, it was just like "sure, I'll take one" without a thought about it. So, I would probably say pushing through to at least day 3 or 4 would be worthwhile. If you steal feel handicapped after those days then it probably isn't for you. I wish I had done some sort of quantitative test to see if this was beneficial. I was taking 3 summer classes and working 20-30 hours at a pizza place (yes, hand making pizza all day at Shakespeare's Pizza in Columbia, MO while I was fasting.) And I did well in the classes, but I wouldn't say they were the most challenging classes as far as math and science, it was two philosophy classes and one theoretical physics writing class that was a lot more theoretical than practical application and calculation. Perhaps next time I will take some sort of mental performance tests at each week interval and see if there is marked improvement or detriment.

shanusmagnus 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Your classwork under fast is inspiring, since it sounds like it included some fairly diverse cognitive skills. In my case trying to write a paper was a really emphatic illustration that something weird was going on, since I could do other, simpler tasks without really noticing a difference. But creative, integrative work that required planning and holding multiple things in memory at once was like running into a tree. The pizzeria thing, on the other hand, doesn't really surprise me. I worked in a pizzeria once, and my experience there (and from talking to other friends in fast food) was that the more time you spend in food prep, the less hungry you are. There might be eating out of impulse, but the hunger triggers seem to go away pretty quick. I'd encourage you in your final sentiment, though: quantitative performance info on fasting would be really useful, and doesn't seem to exist in the literature. If you ever want to talk about it please PM me.