10 days fasting and calcium/vit d supplements increases bone mineral density

Unfortunately this is very true. The intention I feel is to rest the body during Ramadan, eat only what you need, maybe a bit less to actually feel hunger, become more spiritual, etc. But where I am, it is literally the opposite; people make huge feasts, with round two being sweets and dessert. EVERY SINGLE DAY. Add to that the lack of motion and activity and at 30 days we’ve put on 10 kg. Sorry to put this under your comment xD

the longest that I fasted was about 3 months and the biggest challenge that I faced was that if you omit protein from fasting then you have this weak/tiredness feeling throughout the time that you're fasting. what I found is that if you drink One of those 30g protein shakes everyday and a vitamin B complex vitamin (which supposedly breaks down lipids/fats) during the fasting, those feelings went away. on average I lost about 1 lb per day of body weight by doing such a fasting,.. and then after about 2 weeks of fasting it appears that your stomach gets smaller, and you become less hungry as a result, and the desire for food itself decreases.... during that 3 months I lost about 50 lb, and I think only because I would cheat once per week on Sunday.

This is probably because your body has atrophied fat burning metabolic pathways.

I would suggest to start with regular daily fasting. This means you eat within short window of time every day (max 4-6h) and the rest you get by with no calories. It takes about 2 weeks to a month for a person to adjust depending on your overall health, age and whether you are insulin resistant.

Once you get adjusted, you can try to restrict carbs a bit. Carbs are responsible for most of the hunger feeling. When I cut carbs my hunger ended completely. Cutting carbs (with restricted eating window) will force your body to adjust to functioning on your fat stores alone.

Please, be mindful none of this requires cutting calories. You can eat as much as you want, just keep your feeding to a short window every day and try restricting carbs and replace them mostly with fats. Ideally you would also want to pay attention to what kind of fats -- refined ones are usually the worst.

Hunger is your body signalling inability to get fuel for its critical processes. Given that most of us have hundreds of thousands of calories of fat (even if you look relatively lean), it is a bit preposterous idea that should be understood by your body having large stores of fuel but being unable to access them when it needs.

This might be because there is insulin present (any levels of insulin basically block your fat metabolism). Or it might be because you have never exercised your fat metabolism and now suddenly you require it to provide a lot of energy which it is not equipped to do.

This is solved by simply exercising it which means allowing your body to metabolise your stomach content and then waiting some more so that it has to reverse its processes to start metabolising fats. 16-18 hours is what is necessary to get there and that's why 4-6 hour eating window comes from -- so that you can train your fat metabolism a bit, every day.

With healthy fat metabolism you should be able to go on a prolonged fast and it should be enjoyable.

People think I'm skinny and I'm 1.82m, fairly narrow build, and usually 78kg-82kg.

I've never worried about what I eat. My weight has been more or less constant. I know other people have to be very careful or they easily put on more weight. There is very little fat on me (maybe I could go a little bit leaner but I mostly don't worry about it).

That said, I think extended fasts are not about managing your weight, they're intended to force your body into a different mode. I'm pretty sure they're not an efficient way to reduce your weight (more activity + a bit more control over what you eat would be better). If you want to increase your weight without being fat then resistance training + eating more.

Is the parent getting enough magnesium? Also avoid foods with phytic acid when taking magnesium, since phytic acid may reduce the amount of magnesium and other minerals absorbed by the body.

from https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/891683:

A review published in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found Vitamin D can't be metabolized without sufficient magnesium levels, meaning Vitamin D remains stored and inactive for as many as 50 percent of Americans.

"People are taking Vitamin D supplements but don't realize how it gets metabolized. Without magnesium, Vitamin D is not really useful or safe," says study co-author Mohammed S. Razzaque, MBBS, PhD, a professor of pathology at Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

...

Patients with optimum magnesium levels require less Vitamin D supplementation to achieve sufficient Vitamin D levels.

phytic acid: https://www.webmd.com/diet/foods-high-in-phytic-acid

When you eat foods high in phytic acid, the molecules bind with certain minerals in your digestive tract, including:

Calcium Magnesium Iron Zinc Chromium Manganese

Once this occurs, your body no longer has access to these nutrients.

Presumptive GI absorption issues and high GI motility.

Blood tests confirm my levels are right on the money.

Also not a doctor, but from what I've read for some people it could lead to starvation and death. Basically when you are fasting, your body starts to eat your fat instead, so if you have some underlying disease, or if you are extremely lean, or e.g. a high-maintenance sports person, you are probably at very serious risk.

That said, 10 days seems a bit short for death, but yeah if you are in one of those 3 groups (high sports, extreme low fat, or with some disease) I would not take fasting lightly.

Refeeding syndrome as discussed upthread.

“At risk of refeeding problems” is not the same as refeeding syndrome.

This is something that applies to holocaust survivors and hunger strikers.

This document from some Canadian health agency on how to handle patients participating in hunger strikes provides a good overview of the various conditions and risk factors for refeeding syndrome and much more. If you are into fasting it's an interesting, if poorly organized, document:

https://cchcs.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/60/CG/HSFR-Car...

> Died: 7 September 1990 (aged 50–51)

Odd how this part often gets ignored when his example is cited.

Thanks for sharing. I was always wondering why I was so distracted while fasting. But it looks to be normal thing.

Curious why the pickle?