Day 2 – Almost too comfortable!

I was not looking forward to Day 2 of the fast.  At Buchinger Wilhelmi, that fear is unfounded.

The “Do it Yourself” Experience

I’ve tried water fasting before on my own, and Day 2 is always miserable.  Day 1 is usually easy because you get to burn your glycogen stores.  It’s Day 2 when your body goes into gluconeogenesis, and things can get uncomfortable!

THE GLUCOSE RESPONSE CURVE. True hunger occurs when glycogen stores are depleted, so that gluconeogenesis can be avoided. (Source: Nutrition Journal, 2010)

The Buchinger Experience

Here at Buchinger, day 2 is a breeze.

Inputs and Outputs

Part of the Buchinger formula to get to ketogenesis (fat burning) without the pain is through careful control of what comes out of your body and what goes in!  A summary:

• cleaning out intestines with Glauber salts on day 1 to avoid hunger
• a morning tea and yogurt (honey if you’re not diabetic)
• vegetable consommé at lunch and dinner times (today we had chard broth at lunch time and tomato brother at dinner time!)

Outside the clinic, this is referred to as a fasting mimicking diet, where you still consume small amounts of food but “trick” your body to get the same therapeutic benefits of fasting!

Hot Liver Compress and Tea

The other thing starts on Day 2 is a hot liver compress.  The concept is to heat the liver to improve blood circulation and liver function during the fast.

Every day at about 11:45am, the nurse places a wet towel over your upper abdomen, puts a hot water bottle over the towel, and then swaddles you snugly using another cloth.  I don’t know whether it really makes the liver function better, but it definitely put me to sleep in the middle of the day, and made me feel great!  Quiet time at the clinic lasts at the clinic until 2pm.

After that, you get hot tea served in your room!

This felt like such an awesome mid-day pampering.  My wife joked that she’s never going home!

Results from morning nurse visit

• Blood pressure: 157/89 – a tiny bit higher
• Blood sugar: 141 – back to where it was on Wednesday morning
• Weight: 71.9kg (158.2 lbs) – down yet another 0.8 kg from the day before