I Ate NO FOOD For 100 Hours: Here's What Happened To My Blood

Hello Health Champions I just finished eating  nothing for 100 hours and today I want to talk   about what happened to my blood work before and  after as well as to some markers that you can   track yourself while you're fasting so 100 hours  is the same as four days and four hours obviously   and during that time I had nothing but water  and black coffee so no milk no butter nothing   like that zero calories and as a result I burned  off a lot of body weight so I lost about seven   pounds in that time about three kilos but as  you also probably know by now if you've been   watching this channel is that most of the weight  you lose in the beginning is water you're losing   glycogen you're burning through the glycogen  which is stored carbohydrate and as you've   used up your glycogen then that release this  is water because the glycogen binds water and   then there's nothing to hold it so you flush  out the water and as soon as you start eating   again about half of that is going to come right  back but you still will burn some fat however   weight loss is not the primary reason that you  want to do this this is a little bit drastic   you don't want to do that all the time just to  lose weight but we're going to talk about what   some of the benefits are and the markers that you  can track yourself through a little finger prick   is glucose and ketones and then what you can do is  you can calculate a glucose Ketone ratio at gki or   index and in doing that you can get a rough idea  of how deep into autophagy you are so there's no   simple way of measuring autophagy that can only  be done in a lab setting with very sophisticated   equipment but you can get an idea by using this  gki ratio and why are we interested in autophagy   it is because it stimulates all sorts of positive  health effects and one would be that it stimulates   sirtuins which are survival genes and it also  stimulates immune function and it has been shown   to be potential for cancer prevention or even in  some cases cancer reversal because cancer lives   off it thrives in a high sugar environment so when  you fast and your glucose drops and your ketones   go up then that's a very inhospitable environment  for the cancer cells and you can actually starve   the cancer cells doing that and autophagy is also  something that can extend life so it's great for   longevity but the other big reason that you might  want to consider a longer fast once in a while is   that you can break through plateaus if you've done  keto if you've done intermittent fasting you've   had some results but then you sort of plateau a  longer fast can be a very powerful way to break   through that and if you had a plateau regarding  weight if you had a plateau regarding insulin that   maybe you monitor your insulin and you drop some  insulin you are moving away from type 2 diabetes   and you had some success but then that insulin  just plateaus a longer fast can break through that   so very often what you find with low carb and  intermittent fasting is that you will drop   your glucose relatively quickly maybe not to the  exact level that you're looking for but it will   typically drop a good bit your triglycerides will  drop your blood fats but very often insulin is   kind of stubborn that's one of the more valuable  long-term markers for insulin resistance so here's   what happened to me and let me start with the home  markers the stuff that you can measure yourself   at home during the fast so glucose and ketones  and we're going to measure after so many hours   and we're going to calculate that glucose Ketone  index that ratio and we're going to measure this   in millimoles and I'll explain in just a second  So after 24 hours my blood glucose was 90 and   the way you convert that to millimoles because 90  is milligrams per deciliter so you divide the 90   by 18 and you get 5.0 so now you have glucose in  millimoles so you can compare that to the ketones   which are usually given in millimoles when you do  the finger prick and at that time my ketones were   0.5 so I was not in ketosis when I started this if  you start off being in ketosis so that you're kind   of at this level of 0.5.8 when you begin you'll  probably get some more some higher numbers quicker   so we divide this out and we find out that my gki  was 10 which is not very much autophagy at all   after almost twice as long 44 hours my glucose  was about the same and my ketones hadn't moved   much either my gki was seven so still not very  significant if you had started out in ketosis   then by 44 hours you would probably see a much  much lower gki after 56 hours though the glucose   had still not changed much but now my ketones were  really getting up in there so 0.7 is just starting   to get into ketosis 2.4 is significant nutritional  ketosis and my ratio is now down to two   a few hours later at 72 hours now my glucose is  dropping a little bit as the ketones go up the   body doesn't need as much glucose because  the brain relies more on the ketones so   now the body doesn't have to engage in so  much gluconeogenesis or making new glucose   and at this point my ketones are up to four and  my ratio is right around one and they've done some   research where they found that you can reverse  certain tumors and the level where that starts   happening was around a gki of one and very often  you'll see that the ketones are kind of sluggish   in the beginning but then they really pick up  speed especially if you don't eat anything at all   and after 80 hours my glucose was still about the  same but my ketones were up to 5.6 and my ratio   now is below one so even more significant ketosis  and probably most likely like we don't know for   sure about autophagy but we can say pretty certain  that that is a very deep state of autophagy after   90 hours my glucose starts dropping significantly  and my ketones are going up a little more so now   I'm at 0.6 and at 98 hours just before I went  to the lab my glucose was 558 in milligrams 3.2   in millimoles and my ketones were up to 6.5 which  is probably the highest that I have ever measured   some people will measure up to maybe seven or  eight but beyond that you want to be really really   careful because then that might indicate that you  are actually having type 1 diabetes but if that   happens if this goes even higher and it becomes a  problem then you're probably not going to see the   glucose drop at the same time and that's where  it can get dangerous so this is still perfectly   healthy and normal and at this point now my gki  is 0.5 and I know that I probably have a very   significant amount of autophagy but then let's  look at the blood work and when you look at a   number of different markers we're going to look at  glucose control electrolytes and cholesterol and   lipids so when it came to glucose when I started  I had 90 and when I went to the lab they measured   55 and some people would say that that is too  low it's definitely below the normal range on   on the lab because they cut it off like typically  at 70 or 75 but again when your ketones go up you   don't need that much glucose so that is perfectly  fine and nothing to worry about even if you get   into the 40s or even high 30s if your ketones are  high and you're feeling good that's not a problem   the A1C is more of a long-term marker so we don't  expect that to change so I did see a little bit   of a drop 5.3 to 5.1 and in only about four and a  half days that's probably more of a change than I   would expect but we also have to keep in mind that  there are there's a margin of error so this might   be five point closer to 5.2 and this might also  be closer to 5.2 we don't know know exactly what   those numbers are and I also measured insulin  which I always do and I started off at 3.2 and   I finished at 0.9 so the normal range goes from  about two to five so 3.2 is right in that optimal   range 0.9 is really low but that's to be expected  after four days of fasting but what it also means   is that when your insulin tends to drop that low  then you're not a person that has to be extremely   strict with carbohydrate not as strict as someone  is trying to reverse diabetes or a metabolic   condition it doesn't mean you should start eating  bread and rice but it means you don't have to be   as strict and you can probably have 50 60 70 grams  of carbs and still maintain perfect metabolic   Health triglycerides are blood fat and when you're  not eating then I'll obviously they have to come   either from converting glucose or from burning  body fat and since I'm not eating any glucose   either the body is not going to convert glucose  into triglycerides so these are coming entirely   from the body fat and 60 is a pretty low level  and my triglycerides actually went up a little bit   but again within the margin of error we would say  that this is no change at all and a lot of people   would think that when you're not eating anything  then the triglycerides would be super super low   but we're burning body fat it has to get into  the bloodstream to get into the cells and it's   not going to change much if you're already fat  adapted because all the fat that gets into the   bloodstream is going to also get into the cells  relatively quickly so that's why there's a quick   turnover and this is a very stable number and then  one of my favorite grid markers for determining   insulin resistance is Homa IR homeostatic model  assessment of insulin resistance so you take the   glucose you multiply by the insulin you divide by  405 if you're measuring the glucose in milligrams   and a typical really good number would be 1.0  that means Your metabolically Balanced that you   are insulin sensitive you're not too extreme  in either direction and I started out at 0.7   so I was a little bit on the insulin sensitive  side but after four days of fasting I was at   0.1 now that's not something to brag or write  home about that's just saying that this was an   extreme State then after four days of fasting  the body is going to have very very low glucose   and also virtually no insulin because there's  no glucose in the blood stream to push into   the cell so everything is kind of on the back  burner there and here's a super important one   to understand when you're fasting because one of  the first things that's going to happen is when   you lose some glycogen that glycogen binds water  and when you lose water you also lose minerals   and the minerals that we want to watch for are  sodium potassium chloride and CO2 so these are   technically minerals per se but this is what you  watch on a blood test the other minerals that are   of Interest are calcium and magnesium but as  far as pH and the the main big electrolytes   these are the ones we're looking for and sodium is  a positive ion it has a positive charge potassium   has a positive charge but chloride and co2 have  a negative charge and when CO2 shows up on your   of blood work they're not actually talking about  carbon dioxide because the body has this mechanism   where it instantly dissolves and it goes back and  forth between bicarbonate and carbonic acid so   don't worry about the names just know that when  CO2 is on your blood work what they're really   talking about is bicarbonate which is a buffering  agent it's alkaline and it helps neutralize acid   and here's why we care about that because now we  can take the positive ions and we can take the   negative ions we subtract the negative ions from  the positive and we get something called anion gap   and this is a measure of your acidity because  the higher this is the more hydrogen ions the   more positive ions you have and the more acidic  you are so if you do a keto diet or if you do a   fasting diet intermittent fasting then you tend to  run a little bit acidic which is not necessarily   a problem but once you start fasting you could  end up on the acidic side so when I started out   I had sodium was 141 potassium 4.9 chloride 101  and CO2 was 25. so we subtract the negative from   the positive and my ion ion Gap was 20. but after  four days I had sodium had dropped potassium had   increased a little bit chlorine chloride which  again is sodium chloride it's table salt sodium   and chloride go together so if you notice  the sodium and the chloride dropped together   and the CO2 was the the biggest difference here  because as I turned a little acidic the body was   using up the bicarbonate to buffer the acid and  that's what happens if you run a little acidic   then you're gonna deplete your bicarbonate and  therefore my anion gap went up to 27 and that's 20   isn't necessarily a problem even if it's a little  higher than typical but 27 is starting to get a   little too acidic so what you want to do is you  want to take an electrolyte powder and I designed   a powder specifically for this it's called you  light we'll put a link down below and when I did   my live stream about that powder I told everybody  that the main minerals in there are the ones that   are a little harder to get like like potassium  and magnesium and calcium and therefore I put   quite a bit of those in there along with some  other things but I didn't put a lot of sodium   because that's just table salt and you don't  have to go and pay expensive money expensive   products to get sodium you just supplement with  some table salt so what I told people is you take   the electrolyte powder and then you take some  salt on the side you always drink water and you   put a pinch of salt in as you go unfortunately I  didn't take my own advice which is why the sodium   and the chloride drop so much I basically  forgot about that so don't forget about it   so basically once you do a fast like this you  want to increase your salt your sodium chloride   and it's also a good idea to take some baking  soda because that is sodium bicarbonate so then   you replenish and you give your body some extra  bicarbonate and you don't need a ton of it but   if you're fasting I would probably do like half a  teaspoon a day and then we get to the cholesterol   and the lipids which is where there's probably the  most misconceptions everybody thinks that it is a   certain way and it's kind of the other way around  and my total cholesterol went from 220 to 255.   so that's a huge shock to most people because  where's the cholesterol coming from if you're not   eating anything because we hear so much about you  need to restrict your dietary cholesterol because   then that if you eat a lot of cholesterol that  raises your blood cholesterol well I ate nothing   zero calories and mine went up and the reason  is first of all your body makes cholesterol as   needed the other reason is that you actually store  some cholesterol in your body tissue so as you   start burning body fat then your cholesterol can  actually go up a little bit and then my LDL went   from 146 to 169. so both total cholesterol and  LDL which we hear all the time are bad both of   those went up so does that mean that fasting is  bad for you well you hear so much about fasting   about low carb about how we have to eat bread  and we have to eat rice to give the brain power   so there are so many myths and misconceptions  that it's not so strange if people would draw   that conclusion but these two numbers and we'll  talk about this in detail the total cholesterol   only LDL are completely irrelevant what we want  to focus on are some other markers and one of   those is HDL and that one weighed from 63 to 76.  so when we look at a ratio of total cholesterol   to HDL which is a very common ratio to assess  cardiovascular risk we see that I was at 3.5   which is a good number and I went to 3.4 which is  a slightly better number but as long as you're in   this range then you don't really have to worry  about it and if your cholesterol is really high   like 350 400 that doesn't necessarily mean that  you are unhealthy and then you will probably never   hit this ratio and you still don't necessarily  want to worry about it so what you really want   to look at is the ldlp which is the particle count  normally this LDL is measured in kilogram it's the   total amount the total mass whereas what really  matters is the LDL P the particle count and also   we want the particle size the the LDL particles  that are smaller than 20.5 nanometers those are   the ones that can actually create some damage  and that reflect a lot of oxidative stress and   inflammation so usually we hear that HDL is good  and LDL is bad but in fact there is good and bad   LDL and what I would say normal and damaged LDL  so a healthy LDL particle should be between 21   and a half and 23. they could be a little outside  that range but the majority of them should be in   that range and here's why the particle count is  much more important than the actual amount of   milligrams so if we have a container imaginary  container and we stuff that full of small LDL   particles we could fit a whole bunch of these  small LDL particles in there that be a high count   for a give in volume and then if we had another  container and we stuffed that one full with larger   particles then for a given volume we would  fit much much fewer so even though they might   look the same or this one might even be a little  higher in terms of milligram this is a much better   situation than this because it's the number that  counts so having a bunch of large LDL is totally   okay whereas having a bunch of small ones is  not so great so how did they go from large   and normal to become small and there are things  like insulin resistance chronic inflammation and   oxidative stress these are the main factors that  will damage LDL and Shrink them overall we would   call these string three things poor metabolic  health and these things are what shrinks them and   turns them from large and fluffy to damaged and  potentially bad but here's the interesting thing   that even though my total cholesterol numbers went  up when I fasted and ate nothing fasting has been   known has been shown to reverse all of this and  we saw that with my glucose with my A1C with my   insulin with my Homa IR all of those went down and  if this can reverse all of them then let's look at   what happened to the size so like I just mentioned  my LDL measured in milligrams went from 146 to 169   which is a 16 increase but at the same time when  we look at the particle count it went from 1709 to   1222 which is a 30 percent drop so overall we we  can surely see that my particles went from small   to bigger and one more way to verify that is to  count the small particles the ones that are less   than 20.5 nanometers and that went from 351 to  less than 90 and that's just how the lab reports   them when they're so few they can basically not  count them then they just put less than 90. so   percentage-wise if you look at the small LDL  compared to the total count of LDL I started   out at about 20 percent and I finished at less  than seven percent and another way of looking at   this very often you might hear that the APO B is a  much better marker much better indicator for heart   disease risk and what does that mean well the APO  B is a protein and each LDL molecule has exactly   one and it kind of winds its way in and out of the  cell membrane so one LDL mod molecule equals one   APO B protein and that's basically the exact same  thing that I'm showing you that if my LDL particle   count went from 1709 then the apob proteins also  reduced by the same amount and even though I had   a dramatic change I went from 20 small particles  to less than seven I didn't start in a very bad   place because the average is right around 53  percent that's the cutoff that they consider as   average Health when you have 530 particles out of  a thousand total but in my mind the percentage is   more important than the total number so overall  we can definitely see that we had a change that   we know going from large to small indicate it's  oxidative stress inflammation and increased risk   of heart disease so during four days of fasting I  dramatically reversed that Trend and here's what   I would recommend about intermittent fasting  I would suggest you stop snacking there's no   reason whatsoever for snacking especially high  carb snacks then I think that a good number of   meals for most people is to eat once or twice a  day I typically eat somewhere mostly two times a   day sometimes once a day depending on schedule  mostly and if you are not trying to reverse a   condition if you're more active if you're insulin  sensitive or if you have trouble eating very large   amounts of food at one sitting if your absorption  if your digestion doesn't work doesn't tolerate   very large meals then you can try breaking them up  in smaller meals and maybe eat three times a day   I would still suggest that you eat those three  meals within an eight to ten hour time period   And I would suggest that you combine that with  anywhere from 20 to 100 grams of carbs per day   and again this is a general range it's pretty  wide but it depends on where are you starting   from are you trying to reverse diabetes then you  definitely want to be at the lower end of this if   you're more insulin sensitive more active a larger  person then you might be closer to a hundred all   depends on your goal and where you are on the  Spectrum so at some point I would suggest that   you find out how insulin resistant you are to get  some blood work figure out your home IR now if you   just stop eating sugar and bread and you drop  60 pounds in two weeks you don't strictly have   to find this out because you're getting results no  matter what but if you are trying different things   and you don't get the results or your weight  is stubborn or your Plateau then it would be an   excellent idea to figure out how insulin resistant  are you are where are you on the spectrum know   what your home IR is and how it's changing then  I would suggest that you skip a day entirely   and you do a 42 hour fast and the reason I say  42 hours is if you have dinner and you skip   a whole day then the morning that you wake up  after that you've done 36 hours so if you don't   eat right away you wait till lunch then you have  somewhere around 42 hours and I would do that for   most people just get a little autophagy I would do  that maybe once a month maybe twice a month if you   are reversing insulin resistant if you're a  diabetic then you can do it more often I would   say to do it maybe once a week or even twice a  week it all depends on how things are moving on   their own if you're not getting the results do a  little bit more and then like the fast that I just   finished here I would suggest that you do a three  to five day fast maybe every quarter maybe twice a   year so two to four times per year and the reason  for that is that you get a great cleanse you get a   great reset you get deep deep autophagy and you  can potentially clean up or prevent some cancer   cells in the process if you enjoyed this video  you're going to love that one and if you truly   want to master Health by understanding how the  body really works make sure you subscribe hit   that Bell and turn on all the notifications  so you never miss a life-saving video

Channel: Dr. Sten Ekberg

Views: 616,871

Keywords: fasting, no food, no food challenge, here's what happened, intermittent fasting benefits, intermittent fasting weight loss, intermittent fasting, fasting benefits, sten ekberg intermittent fasting, benefits of fasting, lose fat, fasting weight loss, fasting for 3 days, ekberg intermittent fasting, how to do intermittent fasting, how to lose weight, weight loss, fasting ekberg, dr sten, eckberg, drekberg, dr sten ekberg, dr eckberg, dr ekberg, e berg, wellness for life

Id: ucknbzRBiSQ

Length: 29min 40sec (1780 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023