Started at 260 lbs, 6’ 2. My goal is 210; then, depending on how I feel and look, possibly 190. I don’t “look” “fat” even now (I have strong legs and a naturally good shape, and lots of meat under my fat). I’ve done the keto diet a few times before. I’m on day 3 of the first 72-hour fast. I’ve had only a few 1 L bottles of snake juice over the course of these three days (perhaps half of the suggested number of liters). Are my energy levels supposed to be this abysmal? Is it because I’m not drinking enough snake juice? I’ve lost nearly 10 pounds but I need to re-feed, especially if I want to make it to the gym; and I feel as though I’ve plateaued for a day at 249. I have keto breath and I’ve fasted before (the most I’ve done is five days), so I know it’s working.
I also recently found out that my testosterone levels are lower than I would like, despite seemingly (usually) having high energy. Don’t carbohydrates boost testosterone levels? My energy levels are way too low.
I’m a few hours away from my re-feed time. I think I’ll switch to 48s so I can make it to the gym.
I have a lot of work due so I need a little 0 calorie caffeine before my re-feed.
Am I not making myself drink enough snake juice? Should I force myself to drink 2 L a day at a minimum?
My snake juice recipe is 1 L at a time (so I halve the salt). I have Bob’s Red Mill baking soda, potassium chloride, pink Himalayan salt from Cost Co, and USP grade magnesium sulphate.
Thanks!
You and I are about the same, 6’2” and I’m at about 250 right now. I personally found that drinking 2L of water with half amounts of SJ kept me just right through the day on 3 and 5 day fasts. I also take vitamins during my fasts: multi, D3, fish oil, etc.I do:
1/2 Tsp. Potassium chloride
1/2 Tsp. Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda)
1/4 Tsp. Sodium chloride (HPS)
1/4 Tsp. Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt)
These amounts keep me from having diarrhea and have me feeling pretty good. Your low energy levels could be due to so many other factors but I would suggest maybe increasing the salts a bit. Basically just tweaking the recipe until you find what works well for you. If the scale keeps going down and you’re losing fat, then things are going in the right direction.
> Are my energy levels supposed to be this abysmal?
Yes. I don’t care what anyone says. There’s some jokers who claim that you can “gain” and be “explosive” in the gym while on long fasts, and I don’t believe them because they never explain how.
When the body doesn’t receive excess energy, it conserves that energy by slowing down. This does NOT mean that your metabolism is crashing. It means your CNS going to resist facilitating muscle movement beyond the minimum. It means that your blood glucose is going to be at a minimum. Doesn’t matter much how many ketones are flowing through the body. Fasting is a catabolic state even if you have elevated HGH (which is somewhat overrated). Having high energy, going to the gym, and so forth is counter to being in a fasted state. You can do it, and to a certain point it’s a good thing, but yeah, you’re going to suck donkey balls in terms of performance.
> Don’t carbohydrates boost testosterone levels? My energy levels are way too low.
I’m not as knowledgeable in endocrinology, but testosterone depends on many things. Carbohydrates can help increasing testosterone, but testosterone requires things like fat and cholesterol. When you are fasted, the body does break down fat and cholesterol from your adipose cells, but it’s not going to prioritize utilizing those for testosterone since elevated testosterone isn’t critical to survival using scarcity (what you are simulating when fasting).
When you have lots of body fat, you are likely fighting an uphill battle with testosterone because adipose fat aromatizes testosterone into estrogen. A certain amount of estrogen is good in men, but if a lot of testosterone is being aromatized then you won’t be making efficient progress in terms of being anabolic.
Again, why would your body go through the trouble of producing an anabolic hormone when it’s in a catabolic state? You might get a bit of an initial testosterone boost, but with prolonged fasting the body isn’t going to permanently stay anabolic. The effects of fasting don’t just stop the moment you eat. If you fast a lot and then have a refeed, you aren’t suddenly going to go full speed catabolic. For all your body knows, that surplus of food won’t be there the next day or the day after that. Why would it build up a bunch of muscle it’s going to eventually want to tear down anyway with no added survival benefit? It will resist doing this as much as it can.
Keep exercising when you can, but just accept that your performance will be dogshit most of the time even if you refeed on loads of white rice every 72 hours. Your body will use up most of the glycogen from that rice in a fraction of that time and be back in a catabolic state. The best you can do is to work out around 90 minutes after you’ve done a refeed because that’s when your blood glucose and insulin will be at their highest, which is actually is good for building muscle and your overall energy.
Depending on what you’re refeeding on, it may even be better to not workout at all during your fasting journey. When you’re working out you are tearing up muscle fibers. Why would your body repair broken muscle fibers when it’s trying to conserve itself? Remember what I said about muscle growth? Same thing applies. However, if you keep your muscle fibers intact and you have elevated HGH, you may keep more of the muscle you currently have than you otherwise would.
There’s some things I disagree with Cole on these days, but this is why he only tells people to do extremely light cardio at most. Fewer muscle fibers are destroyed and more glycogen is used up.
Only you can know your body, so try things out and see what works.
By the way, snake juice won’t do anything for your hormones beyond a certain point. Snake juice is actually excess electrolytes, which isn’t a bad thing at all because we simply piss out excess electrolytes, but any hormone benefit from getting adequate sodium is already achieved.
EDIT: I do actually have a few suggestions now that I’ve reread your post.
Cut down on the caffeine. Doesn’t have to be cold turkey, but caffeine doesn’t really increase energy but alertness. It raises cortisol which is going to exhaust you quicker and is bad for muscle maintenance.
Also look into vitamin D if you haven’t already. It’s important for many things including hormones (technically it’s a hormone itself). Vitamin D supplements are fine but sunlight is optimal, especially AM sunlight. Not only does sunlight help you convert vitamin K in your skin to vitamin D but it also increases nitric oxide which helps to lower blood pressure. Any brief amount of sunlight is good, but AM sunlight is the best because you can be exposed for longer periods without worrying about sunburn and the greater red light profile is good for your mitochondria.
I finished my re-feed. It was too much! I also made hollandaise for the eggs. But I enjoyed it. I stopped once full, and will save what I can for Sunday or Monday night. The caffeine and fat has shot up my heart rate. I’ll probably cycle through 48-hour fasts instead.