Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Hungry vs. Empty

As I have been doing intermittent fasting daily, I have realized a few things that were surprising to me.

1) I can function well on less food, in fact I feel better if I'm never actually full.
2) The feeling that I used to consider "full" or satisfied was really just the sensation of my body digesting a meal. When my digestive system finished with that task, I always assumed I was hungry. I wasn't, I was just no longer digesting the last meal. That light, unburdened feeling is one that I am learning to love.
3) Hunger is a different sensation, when the body needs nutrients and goes looking for them. I'm able to tell the difference now that I've experienced both. I'm more likely to be comfortable throughout the day now that I'm not in a cycle of feeding to stay full.

2 comments:

  1. Pre-diabetes, I used to fast frequently and got a sort of high from it. Post diabetes, no high.
    I don't enjoy being full though.

    How does your blood sugar react to different eating times?

    I find that skipping breakfast makes me slightly insulin resistant the rest of the day- not something I can't handle, but not something I can just ignore. And if I skip breakfast and lunch (and frankly, I can only skip lunch if I'm insulin resistant from skipping breakfast or really high from under-dosing breakfast, because I usually need to eat without insulin at that time of day), then I have to eat supper really slowly or inject a hella lot of insulin to prevent a really high spike from supper, and the supper then makes my stomach hurt.

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  2. Jonah,
    Interesting info about your pre-diabetes and post-diabetes fasting. I think the "high" you are speaking of is when your body switches over to burning ketones instead of glucose. I felt that for about one day when I started intermittent fasting. I was really wired all day. Using ketones for brain fuel causes you to feel much more alert. I've been surprised that I can go from 7pm to 1pm without eating, but I actually feel clear-headed and strong.

    I'm finding that my dawn phenomena insulin resistance is simplified by not having breakfast. I have adjusted my basal rate to keep things stable in the AM and I just have coffee.

    One factor that might be different between us is that I'm eating a very low-carb diet, and getting most of my fuel from fat, protein and greens. Eating this way has made me much more sensitive to insulin and also to carbs. My carb ratio is 1 unit: 8 grams. I'm taking about 22 basal, and 7 in meal boluses and corrections for the day.

    My basal insulin gives me most of what I need for the day, including some snacking on nuts and chocolate. Sometimes I will get close to hypo in the middle of the day because my basal is set to flatten out some rises from small amounts of food.

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