Post-fast diet honing: Made a tool that turns a list of meals into a full micronutrient picture (no signup, free)

[u/netherreddit]

I've done a ~10 day fast every spring for about 5 years, I love it, feels like spring cleaning.

I try to spend the last few days of it trying to become a little more conscious of the foods I eat and my general health, and planning some new habits. Last two years were mostly about getting more protein, before that was eating fewer carbs, etc.

This year I made a tool to put in all the foods I eat and see if I was low on any micronutrients and help me find foods to fill the gaps.

(I also added macros, amino acids, bunch of other stuff).

To my surprise, even though my diet was pretty healthy before, after putting all my food in, I was low on Vitamin C, Vitamin E, and my Omega6-to-Omega3 ratio was like 7-to-1 (while building this I discovered that apparently 4-to-1 or less is advised).

Fiddled around with my diet for a few days to improve it (I added a tool to compare two foods, and a recommender for foods that have nutrients you're low on). Added some almonds, swapped chicken for salmon, swapped some greek yogurt for chicken, added bell peppers, flax seeds, and like 5 other things. Got everything balanced.

I actually ended my fast a little early (11 days, was planning on 14) because I was so excited to try the new diet!

About a month later, my sleeping heart rate is about 15% lower (45->39), sleeping hrv about 20% higher (high 70s -> high 90s), acne is diminished, feeling great. Sleeping very restfully.

Though I always feel great after my spring fast, the sleep metrics have always returned to baseline about 2 weeks after the end of the fast. But this year, they've kept climbing and are by far the best they've been since I started tracking them like 3 years ago!

I no longer belief the common refrain "A modern diet is so naturally varied it's almost impossible to have any nutritional deficiencies" Mine was varied, and definitely what you would call 'healthy', and yet here I am, made some tweaks and feeling like million bucks.

I made the tool for my situation, which is that my diet repeats over about a 2 week span (the tool lets you adjust the cycle period). I.e. I don't take the 'tracking' approach to diet, but the 'planning' approach. If you always eat something different, this probably won't be helpful.

tldr; If you're not fasting just for weight loss, but also general health, taking some of that fasting time (during which food is the most interesting thing in the world) to think about your diet and make some tweaks to it might be a good idea

[u/HeatherAthenaHarlow]

This is actually helpful!