Has anyone done a fast longer than 1 day?

[Mai72]

I was thinking about doing a 7 day water fast. I usually do 18/6 or 20/4 IF and I've done 1 day fast. I've never taken it 7 days though. I looked online (YT, Reddit) and it seems that people have mixed results. The most glaring one is the weight loss. The average was about 15 pounds. And, the mental clarity, youthful skin, and excess energy that happened because of the extended fast. Now, that didn't happen to every person who did a 7 day fast. There were a few who experienced nausea, diarreha, and an inability to sleep well. Also, I've read that it can be quite dangerous with people passing out, or experiencing heart palpitations.

Thoughts?

 

[Kaido]

I do a 24-hour dry fast at least once a month, sometimes more often, just to give my digestive system a break. I've done a one-week water fast several times & a two-week fast with water & broth. I would be careful about going over a week by yourself, without medical supervision. Specifically for weight-loss, I'd recommend using macros.

The rocky portion usually comes around day 3 to 4, which is typically when your body finishes emptying out your GI tract. Think of your gut as 3 buckets:

1. Stomach
2. Small intestine
3. Large intestine

To over-simplify, your stomach is like a blender, which purees food up & funnels it into the small intestine. The small intestine pulls out the energy (macro & micro-nutrients), and then the waste goes into the large intestine, where it comes out as a stool.

As a simple visualization, imagine your GI tract as a big, long hose, and between eating periods, you get air bubbles. When those air bubbles bulge, you get stomach pain from trapped gas. When you don't eat for a few days & your stomach clears out, that's when it will hurt the most, because now you've got a couple big air bubbles pushing on your gut until all the waste is emptied out. Then it's just hunger, which you combat by drinking water.

So the first few days are easy, then a hard day or two, then it's easy. You've most likely done this before at some point in your life, like when you've been really sick & couldn't hold anything down for a few days, then your gut heals itself & you magically feel a lot better. You can also start to understand why gut health is so important if you've ever thrown up & felt IMMEDIATELY better after doing so.

If you want to try it, I would suggest starting out a bit smaller, with a 3-day water-only fast. So for 72 hours, only drink water. Again, consult your doctor, blah blah blah. Once you learn how fasting works & how your body responds etc., it's a lot easier to manage, because you know what to expect

As far as eating styles go, I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting; I like IIFYM, which is schedule-flexible. I did OMAD (one meal a day) for about a year back in college, just because I was working a couple jobs & also going to school, so I was just super super busy & stuff like Soylent wasn't available. It worked just fine. I currently do 7 meals & snacks - I'm not super hungry in the morning, so I have a small breakfast snack, then breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not large portions), then a brunch snack & afternoon snack, plus dessert.

Sounds like a lot, but it keeps my energy up & my GI tract functioning well. An easy way to diagnose your gut health, aside from if you have stomach pain or low-energy, is how your stools are. Not to get too gross, but if they're solid, come out quickly, only need one wipe, sink to the bottom of the bowl, and don't leave a mark on the bowl, and happen on a regular basis, then your gut is probably functioning really well. If you have mush or rabbit pellets, then your diet, exercise, sleep, and stress-management typically need some adjustments.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, watch "The Science of Fasting". It's about an hour long & is available on Youtube & Amazon Prime:

 

[ArchAngel777]

I normally fast about 24-72 hours a few times a year. The longest I have fasted is 7 days. Don't take this as gospel, but I don't believe fasting for weight loss is going to be effective in the long run, unless you plan on keeping it part of your normal regimen. For example, some people fast 24 once a week, or even twice a week. However, these people eventually find homeostasis (likely by eating more the other 5 days of the week to make up for) and so weight loss stops. That doesn't mean that is bad, however.

That said, although not completely proven (though there is substantial evidence), I believe fasting increases autophagy, which should rejuvenate ones system. If done for this reason, I think a few fasts a year is a good thing.

Our biology and history is definitely one of feast and famine. With very little famine occurring for most of us, we tend to feast... Deliberately stopping the feast to voluntarily fast, I believe is supremely beneficial.

 

[Mai72]

I normally fast about 24-72 hours a few times a year. The longest I have fasted is 7 days. Don't take this as gospel, but I don't believe fasting for weight loss is going to be effective in the long run, unless you plan on keeping it part of your normal regimen. For example, some people fast 24 once a week, or even twice a week. However, these people eventually find homeostasis (likely by eating more the other 5 days of the week to make up for) and so weight loss stops. That doesn't mean that is bad, however.

That said, although not completely proven (though there is substantial evidence), I believe fasting increases autophagy, which should rejuvenate ones system. If done for this reason, I think a few fasts a year is a good thing.

Our biology and history is definitely one of feast and famine. With very little famine occurring for most of us, we tend to feast... Deliberately stopping the feast to voluntarily fast, I believe is supremely beneficial.

Autophagy is exciting stuff that few people know, and it is something that I'd like to strive for at least once a week.

 

[Mai72]

I do a 24-hour dry fast at least once a month, sometimes more often, just to give my digestive system a break. I've done a one-week water fast several times & a two-week fast with water & broth. I would be careful about going over a week by yourself, without medical supervision. Specifically for weight-loss, I'd recommend using macros.

The rocky portion usually comes around day 3 to 4, which is typically when your body finishes emptying out your GI tract. Think of your gut as 3 buckets:

1. Stomach
2. Small intestine
3. Large intestine

To over-simplify, your stomach is like a blender, which purees food up & funnels it into the small intestine. The small intestine pulls out the energy (macro & micro-nutrients), and then the waste goes into the large intestine, where it comes out as a stool.

As a simple visualization, imagine your GI tract as a big, long hose, and between eating periods, you get air bubbles. When those air bubbles bulge, you get stomach pain from trapped gas. When you don't eat for a few days & your stomach clears out, that's when it will hurt the most, because now you've got a couple big air bubbles pushing on your gut until all the waste is emptied out. Then it's just hunger, which you combat by drinking water.

So the first few days are easy, then a hard day or two, then it's easy. You've most likely done this before at some point in your life, like when you've been really sick & couldn't hold anything down for a few days, then your gut heals itself & you magically feel a lot better. You can also start to understand why gut health is so important if you've ever thrown up & felt IMMEDIATELY better after doing so.

If you want to try it, I would suggest starting out a bit smaller, with a 3-day water-only fast. So for 72 hours, only drink water. Again, consult your doctor, blah blah blah. Once you learn how fasting works & how your body responds etc., it's a lot easier to manage, because you know what to expect

As far as eating styles go, I'm not a fan of intermittent fasting; I like IIFYM, which is schedule-flexible. I did OMAD (one meal a day) for about a year back in college, just because I was working a couple jobs & also going to school, so I was just super super busy & stuff like Soylent wasn't available. It worked just fine. I currently do 7 meals & snacks - I'm not super hungry in the morning, so I have a small breakfast snack, then breakfast, lunch, and dinner (not large portions), then a brunch snack & afternoon snack, plus dessert.

Sounds like a lot, but it keeps my energy up & my GI tract functioning well. An easy way to diagnose your gut health, aside from if you have stomach pain or low-energy, is how your stools are. Not to get too gross, but if they're solid, come out quickly, only need one wipe, sink to the bottom of the bowl, and don't leave a mark on the bowl, and happen on a regular basis, then your gut is probably functioning really well. If you have mush or rabbit pellets, then your diet, exercise, sleep, and stress-management typically need some adjustments.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, watch "The Science of Fasting". It's about an hour long & is available on Youtube & Amazon Prime:

I'll check out that video. Thanks. I've seen it in my YT feed, but I've never checked it out. IF makes sense for me. I just can't do the 6 small meals a day. I like to eat once or twice and that's it. One of my meals is a 1400 Cal Nutribullet. It's super simple and I'm able to get some good nutritents and fats in a drink. You can't beat that.

 

[Kaido]

I'll check out that video. Thanks. I've seen it in my YT feed, but I've never checked it out. IF makes sense for me. I just can't do the 6 small meals a day. I like to eat once or twice and that's it. One of my meals is a 1400 Cal Nutribullet. It's super simple and I'm able to get some good nutritents and fats in a drink. You can't beat that.

Yeah, my buddy does OMAD (one meal a day) & it works great for him. Well, it's more like a 2-hour grazing period after work...kind of like lazy intermittent fasting, lol. Smoothies are a great way to pack a lot of calories in quickly at once, plus it's super easy to configure your macros in them because you can simply add protein powder for protein, sugar for carbs, and heavy cream for fats & adjust as required.

Do you have a weight-loss project in mind?

 

[RossMAN]

Yeah, my buddy does OMAD (one meal a day) & it works great for him. Well, it's more like a 2-hour grazing period after work...kind of like lazy intermittent fasting, lol. Smoothies are a great way to pack a lot of calories in quickly at once, plus it's super easy to configure your macros in them because you can simply add protein powder for protein, sugar for carbs, and heavy cream for fats & adjust as required.

Do you have a weight-loss project in mind?

@Mai72 don't answer it's a trap

/incoming, run for cover!

 

[Kaido]

@Mai72 don't answer it's a trap

/incoming, run for cover!

ADHD is an amazing thing, lol.

The sad thing is that that entire post would only take about 5 minutes to explain verbally. I'll have to do a video one of these days...

 

[RossMAN]

ADHD is an amazing thing, lol.

The sad thing is that that entire post would only take about 5 minutes to explain verbally. I'll have to do a video one of these days...

As your #1 stalker fan, I support this.

 

[Kaido]

As your #1 stalker fan, I support this.

It's important to under the concept of "Mojo & Force Fields". Every topic has kind of a core truth to it, whether it's using an Instant Pot to cook or building a computer or eating according to your macros. That's the Mojo, and sometimes it can be hard to find the mojo in a given situation. A good comparison is how tying your shoes becomes second-nature...you've got your mojo at that point, but when you're learning how to do it as a kid, it's really ridiculously hard & seems impossible, lol.

There are various "force fields" or barriers pushing out from that central idea & associated checklist procedures, like rings around a bullseye target, things that make them seem amazing or difficult or magical. I remember spending over a month trying to learn how to snap as a kid; it just took me foreeeeeever to make it "click"! Once I got it, however, and found that "mojo", all of those barriers went away.

Likewise, all of this crap I do is really just simple stuff. Sometimes I'm pretty wordy in explaining it, but it's all a bunch of individual situations, each with checklists for operation, nothing more. At the center of it is my own personal productivity system, which is a set of tools for getting things done. Everything kind of plugs into that system & integrates into my schedule. It's like having a genie in a lamp, pretty awesome!

It's not some radically different way of living life; rather, it's just a way of dumping all of the stuff out of your head & into an external system that manages your commitments for you, so that you can have lower stress & better focus because you're not trying to manage everything mentally anymore.

 

[Red Squirrel]

There's lot of conflicting info as to whether or not it's good for your body to fast (which for most people is 24h so basically 1 meal per day). I sometimes fast for 12-24 hours but not really on purpose. I'm never hungry in the morning, and sometimes I'm not hungry for supper either. So a typical day for me might be to get up and go to work (or sleep in a bit if I'm off) and my first meal will be lunch. Sometimes late, like 1-2. Depending on how late, I won't be hungry for supper. If I have to get up early the next day it means I need to wind down and go to bed early, so I'm not likely to eat, so next meal will be lunch the next day. Not sure how good that is either though. But long story short I just listen to my body, if I'm hungry I eat if I'm not I don't. Sometimes I'll have a small snack instead of a meal. Like some mornings I am a bit hungry but not enough to eat a full breakfast and chances are I'll be at work so not really in a position to make one unless I want to order one. So I might just have nuts or a banana or something.

If some study came out that was proven 100% true that said eating one meal per day is healthy, I could easily get on that train with no issue.

 

[Kaido]

There's lot of conflicting info as to whether or not it's good for your body to fast (which for most people is 24h so basically 1 meal per day). I sometimes fast for 12-24 hours but not really on purpose. I'm never hungry in the morning, and sometimes I'm not hungry for supper either. So a typical day for me might be to get up and go to work (or sleep in a bit if I'm off) and my first meal will be lunch. Sometimes late, like 1-2. Depending on how late, I won't be hungry for supper. If I have to get up early the next day it means I need to wind down and go to bed early, so I'm not likely to eat, so next meal will be lunch the next day. Not sure how good that is either though. But long story short I just listen to my body, if I'm hungry I eat if I'm not I don't. Sometimes I'll have a small snack instead of a meal. Like some mornings I am a bit hungry but not enough to eat a full breakfast and chances are I'll be at work so not really in a position to make one unless I want to order one. So I might just have nuts or a banana or something.

If some study came out that was proven 100% true that said eating one meal per day is healthy, I could easily get on that train with no issue.

Yeah, food & health science is so difficult to pin down. One week something is good for you, and the next it's pure evil. We do know certain things, such as avoiding smoking or reversing many cases of sugar sensitivity through a low-carb diet program, but a lot of things really boil down to learning how your body operates.

I'm in the same boat - I'm not really hungry when I first wake up. But I've also got a screwed-up stomach, so I kind of have to force myself to eat a little something when I first wake up to get my gut going, and also do cardio to make sure my GI tract gets manually stimulated & kicks into action, lol. I've gotten good results with macros as well.

Point is, everyone has to learn their own body & discover what they like & what works for them, which I think is really important to do because you're stuck living in your body for literally the rest of your life, so it pays to know how to operate the human machine to help you feel good & have energy!

 

[crashtech]

I have found that, aside from any other health considerations, gaining the ability to fast is extraordinarily empowering. It puts the lie to all the "hangry" bullshit. I've gone without food for over 72 hours, and while it's not always easy, it's exhilarating just to know you can do it and come out the other end feeling fine. Better than fine, imo.

 

[Kaido]

I have found that, aside from any other health considerations, gaining the ability to fast is extraordinarily empowering. It puts the lie to all the "hangry" bull. I've gone without food for over 72 hours, and while it's not always easy, it's exhilarating just to know you can do it and come out the other end feeling fine. Better than fine, imo.

It really depends on your body. Some people are super hypoglycemic & get really shaky & lose emotional control when they don't eat, and I think there are a lot of people out there who are sensitive to their own personal eating schedule. Most kids, for example, will have meltdowns if not fed in a timely manner & just lose it because they're not feeling good.

On the flip side, not many people eat according to their macros & not many people practice any kind of scheduled fasting, so if you're eating donuts (carbs) for breakfast & don't eat within a few hours, then your blood sugar is going to be all over the map & you may be subject to being hangry, even if you're not necessarily sugar-sensitive.

I had to start eating a lot more protein & fat when I switched to macros, as well as simply eating more in general, and that helped me a lot day-to-day & also while fasting.

 

[crashtech]

@Kaido, it's my belief that most of the time, the symptoms you describe in your first paragraph are the result of a diet high in refined carbs and other simple sugars. Metabolic conditions that truly preclude fasting are rare, and the blood sugar roller coaster is usually self-inflicted. That said, both my daughters actually have a metabolic condition called VLCAD that precludes fasting. So anyone who is not sure should get checked out. The largest group that can commonly have problems from fasting is Type 2 diabetics, simply because they'll need to reduce intake of medications in coordination with their doctor during fasting periods. But the benefits for Type 2 sufferers can be huge; fasting and low carb can eventually put the disease in remission for as long as the diet regimen continues.

 

[Ackmed]

No, fasting is dumb, imo.

 

[Riverhound777]

I love fasting, I do IF daily, except on certain weekends to have breakfast with friends. It pretty much allows me to eat whatever I want the rest of the day and not gain weight. My GF used it to lose 60lbs, and does it daily now to maintain.

I think it could really solve the US obesity problems if people took it seriously. I know lots of people who were like "oh I could never fast, I get dizzy if I don't eat." It was BS as once they tried it and eased into it, they lost a ton of weight and it changed the way they live. Once you stop viewing food as a reward for a hard day or as a coping mechanism, it's amazing what you can resist. Not to mention the autophagy stuff, which is nice bonus.

 

[ArchAngel777]

Once you stop viewing food as a reward for a hard day or as a coping mechanism, it's amazing what you can resist.

You nailed it with this. Food really is our drug of choice.

 

[Kaido]

@Kaido, it's my belief that most of the time, the symptoms you describe in your first paragraph are the result of a diet high in refined carbs and other simple sugars. Metabolic conditions that truly preclude fasting are rare, and the blood sugar roller coaster is usually self-inflicted. That said, both my daughters actually have a metabolic condition called VLCAD that precludes fasting. So anyone who is not sure should get checked out. The largest group that can commonly have problems from fasting is Type 2 diabetics, simply because they'll need to reduce intake of medications in coordination with their doctor during fasting periods. But the benefits for Type 2 sufferers can be huge; fasting and low carb can eventually put the disease in remission for as long as the diet regimen continues.

I think you're absolutely right...it's amazing that our country has a greater-than-50% prediabetes/diabetes Type II crisis & no one is really taking it seriously - it's not labeled as a public health crisis because there's so much investment in food lobbying & medicinal treatments. Hallberg's simple reversal methods of taking in less than 20g carbs a day are taking on a $350+ billion-dollar treatment industry and getting better results, which is just incredible.

The problem, of course, is that changing the way you eat is literally one of the hardest things to do on the planet (well, the idea of it is difficult...actually doing it is really easy!). My friend recently died from diabetes because she refused to babysit her blood sugar or give up her high-carb diet. Pretty awful, but as human beings, we're fantastic at living in denial, and that can cause a lot of problems down the road health-wise.

However, the tools & options are getting better - you can get a CGM to constantly monitor your sugar levels & thanks to the keto movement, there are TONS of new low-carb ingredients & products & recipes like Allulose, chaffles, etc. I'm hosting a family member for awhile who has a low-carb medical requirement & have been digging into all of this stuff to learn how to make good food that is also low-carb, and it's amazing how much has good stuff become available since I tried out keto a number of years ago for fun!

 

[Muse]

I once decided to not eat any food, nothing but water, for 5 days straight. At the end of that I went into an iHop for breakfast but I didn't like the service, got up and left (without ordering). Had breakfast instead on the 7th day at a different restaurant.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I can't imagine doing it for more than a day. The hunger pangs would turn into actual pain. It's probably not even healthy at that point, your body still needs SOME food to run.

 

[ArchAngel777]

I can't imagine doing it for more than a day. The hunger pangs would turn into actual pain. It's probably not even healthy at that point, your body still needs SOME food to run.

No, it doesn't. That is the remarkable things about our biology. Your body needs "fuel", but this doesn't necessarily mean food. Plenty of stored energy even in very lean individuals to go several weeks with no food.

Only until recently has food been so reliable that we never need to miss a meal and go without. But with this new found bounty, we also have modern disease that didn't exist as common back then. To put it plainly, 200 years ago, it was normal to have periods of starvation or semi-starvation.

I am not suggesting you or anyone fast. That is your decision. But to call it unhealthy or bad for you is ignoring human biology that was driven by evolution to store excess calories in periods of plenty via bodyfat, so that we could survive during famines from that same fuel source. Additionally, the body cleans up bad and damaged proteins during this period which is known as autophagy.

 

[Kaido]

I can't imagine doing it for more than a day. The hunger pangs would turn into actual pain. It's probably not even healthy at that point, your body still needs SOME food to run.

Fasting is hard until you get the hang of it. Once you know how it works from first-hand experience, it's pretty easy to manage. It doesn't happen like you think it's going to happen, pain-wise.

Imagine that your stomach is like a hose. When you eat food throughout the day, gas bubbles get trapped between the batches of food going through the hose. This is what gives you gas (burping & flatulence). This is also what makes your stomach hurt when you haven't eaten in awhile...there's an air bubble making you go "owie!". And that's what happens when you get sick...your stomach "inflates" & hurts & you get diarrhea & vomiting to push everything out of your system so that your system can reset itself.

That's a super rough comparison for the actual complexities & realistic operation of your GI tract with your stomach, small intestine, and large intestine, but hopefully it illustrates how things work a little bit more clearly. Hunger pains are kind of fake-out & often happen if you have a carb-rich diet. Once you practice fasting, it becomes second-nature. I've been doing a 24-hour dry fast (nothing ingested - no food or water at all) once or twice a month for many years now; it's said that a 24-hour dry fast is equivalent to a 3-day wet fast. I do a one-week wet fast (water only) once a year (second year this year!) as well. That one's a bit harder because around day 3 or 4 is when your stomach finishes emptying out, so per that hose & gas-bubble analogy above, that's when you get some strong hunger pangs from the gas. Once your body is all cleared out, it's a piece of cake! It's much easier to manage the fast at that point.

Science generally tells us that we can survive 3 weeks without food (but with water). Without water, you can only survive like a week max, and most sources say about 4 days tops. That's why it's so important to stay hydrated even when you're sick...you lose water, which leads to a reduction in total body fluid volume, then your blood volume can drop, then your blood pressure starts to drop to fatal levels. I'm no expert on nutrition or the human body, but I do think it's good to give your digestive system a break once in awhile. I think small fasts are pretty manageable & are a great place to start, if you're interested in trying it out! Even though I'm not a supporter of intermittent fasting (daily eating windows, not days off from eating or eating/drinking) as a long-term dietary approach, that may be a good place to start if you want to give fasting a shot!

 

[Muse]

I can't imagine doing it for more than a day. The hunger pangs would turn into actual pain. It's probably not even healthy at that point, your body still needs SOME food to run.

Like I said, I once went 6+ days with no food. It wasn't that bad. Try getting super thirsty, I think you'll find that far more painful.

 

[Muse]

No, it doesn't. That is the remarkable things about our biology. Your body needs "fuel", but this doesn't necessarily mean food. Plenty of stored energy even in very lean individuals to go several weeks with no food.

Only until recently has food been so reliable that we never need to miss a meal and go without. But with this new found bounty, we also have modern disease that didn't exist as common back then. To put it plainly, 200 years ago, it was normal to have periods of starvation or semi-starvation.

I'll never forget. I had an teacher in junior high school who one day said to the class "none of you have ever been hungry." I suppose she explained that she meant a level of hunger far beyond being an hour or two past your accustomed meal. She was referring to people who are seriously malnurished, people who experience real starvation. I never have, for sure.