Holy macaroni am I cold. I can’t feel my toes, and I am wearing three layers.
I have experience in fasting. About two years ago, for three months I fasted 3 days out of a week, but I can’t remember feeling this cold all the time.
Will this go away after my body acclimates to a ketogenic state? Or should I supplement with something? It’s quite unpleasant. Has this every happened to any of you guys?
The older I got the colder I got. I just stopped fasting in the winter unless I could keep the house very warm.
Your body is clever. It’s just trying to conserve energy by down-regulating certain processes to a safe low.
Probably, not what you want to hear if you are doing this for weight loss, but if you are doing it for health reasons I’d suggest five days, four times a year on top of a good diet the rest of the time. That way you can keep it away from the coldest months.
This happened to me. I recommend anything to get your circulation going. Exercise, add some spice to your water, drink warm/hot water. There’s a supplement that aids in circulation, I think it’s called l-citruline, but I’m not sure if there’s a calorie free option out there.
Calisthenics
I found doing some air squats or other calisthenics every hour during the day helps to counter the coldness. Then I put a big “comfy” on I bought from Costco.
You body wants to drop your metabolism but you have to wake it back up over and over again. Calisthenics helps your burn more calories and keeps your joints healthy.
It’ll keep happening if you’re not fat adapted prior to fasting. I don’t get cold anymore when I fast, but that’s largely due to my eating keto/carnivore outside of fasting. I bet you don’t eat very low carb when you eat (6 weeks + prior).
It’s worth considering that when you’re feeling cold, it might be your warmth leaving your body, rather than the cold getting in. Maybe warm your core a little more deliberately with some broth or coffee and focus less on stacking blankets and coats and such.
When all else fails, there’s always a hot shower for a nice little “reset.”
I find this interesting. I usually experience the opposite. I do a lot of 36-48 hours fasts so I feel no different for those, but longer I usually start to heat up.
I live up north where it gets cold (around and sometimes below freezing) but during my last long fast (11 days) I usually just stayed in some athletic shorts and a t-shirt when going shopping and heading to work. I kept a jacket for emergency but wouldn’t wear it.
But probably one big difference is I’m a big guy, 6’0” and 250 lbs. I’ve wondered if this will change once I’m slim.