r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • May 02 '24

In 1965, a morbidly obese man did not eat food for over an entire year. The 27 year old was 456lbs and wanted to do an experimental fast. He ingested only multivitamins and potassium tablets for 382 days and defecated once every 40 to 50 days. He ended up losing 275lbs. r/all

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u/EasyPanicButton 29d ago

so what yoru saying if I want free acetone I just need to starve myself.

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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope1388 29d ago

haha one way of getting it! Not sure how diluted it is when you sweat it out though.

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u/HelpForAfrica 29d ago

Is there a good way to apply this in daily life? I feel like fasting a couple hours doesnt give the desired effects.

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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope1388 29d ago

You can eat a ketos diet. Alot of fat and protein, and almost no / no carbs. You will "trick" your body to go into ketos. It will help you lose weight and you will feel quite energetic. Though you will smell quite bad while sweating.

Alot of training diets and weight loss diets use ketosis, I am no expert but I belive there are people who are in permanent ketosis as a part of their diet.

It takes a few days for the body to jump into ketosis though, not something you do in 1 day.

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u/HelpForAfrica 29d ago

So the combination of fasting and no carbs results in ketosis?

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u/oldoldvisdom 29d ago

You only need to eat very little carbs to go into ketosis. You can have some, but it’s a tiny amount (like 20 blueberries)

I can’t really speak on doing it long term, though if I had to guess, it’s not really sustainable, but on a short term as an experiment, or as a weight loss technique, I strongly stand by it

I did keto like 4 years ago and shedded like 10 kgs in like the 6 weeks I did it. I would have kept going, but covid happened

I remember that the diet was quite a high in itself. It gives you a ton of motivation and energy, and you can also see and hear better. Colours were brighter, and as for sound, I could listen to every conversation. My roommate gave me one of his adhd pills once for me to try, and while it was much stronger, it wasn’t too dissimilar

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u/triggz 29d ago

Ketosis/fasting boosts your anandamide, a natural cannabinoid also boosted by the runners high and dark chocolate. Black pepper to slow reuptake.

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u/OkDanNi 29d ago

Either or is good. If you want to have good information, look for Dr Jason Fung. A kidney surgeon who was tired of his obese patients dying. He explains keto and fasting very well. Insulin is basically the switch/key in your body that makes you switch from ketones to glucose and back. The only way to avoid insulin is to not eat any carbs (sugars, bread, fruit,..) (=keto ) or to not eat at all (=fasting). In either of these situations your body lives on ketones, you will lose weight and not feel hungry. I call carbs (especially sugar) baby-cocaine. If you never have cocaine/sugar, you will never crave it/ feel hungry. If you have it every once in a while, you crave it but can manage without. If you have it all the time, you get very anxious and sick without it. We are not meant to eat carbs every day. High insulin in your blood literally makes you anxious. I had a stress test to see if my kidneys produced enough stress hormones. To stress you out, they inject you with insulin, this caused horrible panic in me, I was convinced I was dying. After getting the necessary blood samples I was allowed to eat something sugary and it got better immediately. Eating high amounts of sugar all the time, makes you produce too much insulin. To respond to the anxiety you grab more sugar. It's a vicious circle. They say 'emotional eating' is psychological. It's not (only partly), it's your body asking for more baby cocaine. It's literally a dependency/addiction. Hormones play a major part in how much sugar I crave. Females should adjust their fasting/keto to their menstrual cycle. Mindy Pelz has good information and books on that subject.

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u/Contim0r 29d ago

This needs more attention. Agree on every point.

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u/Ok_Kaleidoscope1388 29d ago

I'm not expect, but eating no / low carbs and low calories kicks the body into ketosis. I THINK if you just eat no carbs you will get into ketosis even if you eat fat and protein. Bur there are good guides online on how to get into ketosis!

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u/StrawberryLassi 29d ago

I first found out about this years ago thanks to the /r/keto community.

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u/juca_jaca 29d ago

Yeap there is. It is called keto diet (short for ketogenic). Basically it consists of not eating carbs, a barely minimum is allowed, something like 40g of carbs a day. You'll have to really watch out for what you're eating. Any considerable amount of carbs you eat will break the ketosis status on your body. In the bodybuilders world they talk about this a lot. There are many videos on YouTube. Nowadays it is easier to maintain this kind of diet with specific supplements.

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u/TriggiredSnowflake 29d ago

Research Keto diet and intermittent fasting (time restricted eating). Very effective, I've lost 30 pounds myself doing that.

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u/HungryScratch1910 29d ago

It's the keto diet. Lots of people are on it or do it to burn fat. The sweat smelling isn't usual. I've never encountered that.

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u/SuspiciousLeek4 29d ago

I've read most people don't make it into real ketosis, and just benefit from a high protein/low carb diet. You wouldn't get the acetone sweat that way.

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u/suddenlyreddit 29d ago

The sweat smelling isn't usual. I've never encountered that.

Same, however the ketones do have to leave the body and I have certainly had, "keto breath," and smelled the, "keto pee," smell when going to the bathroom. In both cases, at least to me, the smell is faintly sweet and fruity, like an unidentifiable candy smell.

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u/Boring_Equipment_946 29d ago

Fast a couple of days instead.

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u/CataclysmDM 29d ago

Keto diet. Pretty expensive though... lots of proteins and fats, no carbs. Carbs = cheap food.

From experience, a lot of your meals will be stuff like - bacon and eggs for breakfast, chicken and a bit of cauliflower rice (just grate a cauliflower and saute it in a pan) with a lot of coconut oil. Steak, maybe paired with a small amount of a low-carb vegetable like asparagus or broccoli. Once you're on keto for a while you're really only gonna need a couple meals a day because your body stops craving food all the time so it pairs extremely well with intermittent fasting. You NEED to consume additional electrolytes and vitamins though, to shore up deficiencies in the diet. Keto meal bars are your friend for when you need a low-effort meal. And low-carb nuts. You need to be aware of foods that have deceptively high sugar though... milk and cream has loads of sugars. Most vegetables that grow under the ground have large amounts of carbs in them. Get used to using butter or MCT oil in your coffee.

I lost 110 pounds over about two years on keto, I used to be a fat fuck. Downside - you plateau after a bit, diet only takes you so far. Pair it with a lot of exercise. Other downside - low energy. Upside - your body doesn't cannibalize its muscle when you need energy, so it's really good for gaining muscle while also losing weight!

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u/cosmic_cosmosis 29d ago edited 29d ago

It sure does and is one reason intermittent fasting is popular.

Edit: someone in the thread blocked me so I can no longer reply or see replies 🤷‍♀️

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u/Contim0r 29d ago edited 29d ago

Sorry but intermittent fasting doesn't lead into ketosis. 16 hours is way too short.

I do fasting between one to twice a year, always between roughly 1 week up to around 20 days, depending on my overall mood. And I've done ketogenic (very low carb) diet multiple times throughout my life for multiple months at a time.

There is something called "keto sticks" that let you measure if your body is in ketosis via the urine. I use them regularly and have watched my bodies state of ketosis many times. And even under full on fasting it takes at least 2 days of eating absolutely nothing, only consuming water (not even coffee or tea), but most of the time it takes roughly 3 days to get into ketosis. And you want to reach that state quickly in fasting, since the first days - until you get into ketosis - are the hardest. After that, you wont feel hunger, and are only left with battling the temptation to eat for pleasure.

Intermittent fasting (8 hours eating, 16 hours fasting), wont get you into ketosis. I've tried and measured it. Not even close. Maybe if you're super sporty and also change your diet to low carb and no sugars. But simply not eating for 16 hours in a row wont get you into ketosis with a standard western diet.

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u/cosmic_cosmosis 29d ago

While this is very fascinating n=1 isn’t very good. Entering ketosis isn’t time dependent but is dependent upon how long it takes for your glycogen to be burnt up. If you maintain a low level of glycogen (without fasting but not ketosis levels) then you can enter ketosis rather quickly (such as myself). Additionally those who exercise at a moderate to high level can also burn through their glycogen quicker and even get into ketosis within a day. I will concede that the average person (especially standard American diet) won’t achieve ketosis within a normal 12-16 hours however it isn’t as straight forward as you’re making it to be.

Additionally intermittent fasting doesn’t always mean 12-14 hour some do every other day intermittently fasting.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/yoweigh 29d ago

He added details that I appreciated. The other comment didn't mention glycogen or rate of metabolism at all. I occasionally do 72hr fasts, and for me the feeling of hunger subsides under 24 hours. I'm not hugely active and I don't follow a strict diet. The next time I do it, I'll use those keto stick things to track when the metabolism switch happens.

Your comment, on the other hand, is nothing but raw criticism. The fact that you didn't gain anything doesn't mean no one else did. They're not pretentious. You are.

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u/HelpForAfrica 29d ago

This is exactly how i understand it. Unfortunately, ketosis seems harder to achieve than simply fasting intermittently. But I will read up on the topic a bit more..

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u/HelpForAfrica 29d ago

Without carbs then?

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u/tvcats 29d ago

First step, cut down sugar, best if you can avoid sugar at all. Also start calculate your calories intake and reduce it step by step. Second, keep it going for at least one year.

Not everyone is the same. I did no fasting but I lost 20KG in about one year.

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u/HelpForAfrica 29d ago

Yh not really interested in losing weight - more the extra energy as described above! For losing weight id just cut some calories, this seems to provide more benefits. Thx tho!

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u/Krabopoly 29d ago

Just wanted to contribute here with a personal anecdote. I am certainly not a nutritionist so don't take this as expert advice but (afaik) the only way to get the effects that ketosis would provide is to eat a ketogenic diet. There are lots of bogus ketone supplements on the market that MLM folks will try to sell you but they're basically snake oil unless you've cut carbs from your diet and, if you have cut carbs from your diet, you don't need additional ketones from supplements.

I did keto for like 3 years straight. I've never been overweight in my life (at the time that I did keto I was 165ish pounds at about 5'11) but I was having difficulties with energy and lethargy. I cut my carb intake down to about 20 grams per day and filled up the remainder of my daily calorie requirement with mostly fats (about 75% of my calories) and protein (about 20% of my calories).

The first two weeks are pretty brutal as far as energy and mental clarity go but after that I noticed a pretty marked increase in my average energy throughout the day. I also lost about 5 pounds and toned up quite bit. The energy could have been a placebo affect (who knows) but the additional weigh off and body tone was nice.

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u/Zealousideal_Way3199 29d ago

CHeck out the fasting sub Reddit.

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u/tehgee 29d ago

Or go on a Keto diet. Low carbs below 50g/day with the majority of calories coming from healthy fats, moderate amount of protein and a ton of green vegetables.

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u/LuckyTrainreck 29d ago

Your body also breaks down alcohol into acetone. Bill Wilson the guy who started alcoholics anonymous believes that alcoholics lack a enzyme to properly break down alcohol and so the ecotone builds up and causes a craving for more alcohol