7 ms·
I recently finished a forty day, forty night water fast and while I wouldn't recommend anyone do it, it was effective. At the end I was down roughly 40lbs/18kg,
by jerrycruncher 8y ago
I recently finished a forty day, forty night water fast and while I wouldn't recommend anyone do it, it was effective. At the end I was down roughly 40lbs/18kg, around five of which came back relatively quickly as my body began retaining water.
I supplemented sodium and magnesium during the fast (which is essential), but otherwise only consumed water. During my first few days of re-feeding, I also supplemented sodium diphosphate to avoid hypophosphatemia - which is really only a problem when slamming carbs after an extended fast, but I wanted to be careful.
The most interesting thing for me was that after the first couple days (I've done shorter duration fasts ranging from one to five days intermittently for a few years), my desire to eat was entirely mental - the physical pangs had gone. After about the tenth day I was simply not hungry, at all.
- drb91 8y agoI’m assuming you have a lot of extra weight to burn entering the fast.... i weight about 120lb and it seems like a 40 day fast would kill me.
- jerrycruncher 8y agoI had recently nudged into the 'obese' BMI category, so yes. From the reading I've done, most Americans/people who eat what could be called a 'Western diet' could fast for 30-40 days before coming close to bottoming out their fat stores.
- ttul 8y agoSo the next recession will be a breeze.
- Consultant32452 8y agoTo put some numbers on this... there's 3500 calories in a pound. If we assume a person burns 2000 calories in a day then a 30 day fast is 60,000 calories or 17 pounds. The average height of a man in the US is 5'10". The difference between the low end of normal BMI to high end of normal is 132-167, or 35lbs. So even a person at the high end of normal BMI could easily fast for 30 days without going underweight.
- filleduchaos 8y agoThis is such a hodge-podge of figures What adult man burns 2000 Calories a day?
- Consultant32452 8y ago2k calories per day is what the US FDA recommends for the average adult. I found this[0] chart which gives more specific information for age, lifestyle, and gender. After you pick how many calories you likely burn, it's all the same calculations after that. [0]: https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/estimated-calorie-requirement https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/estimated-calorie-requir...
- ghostbrainalpha 8y agoWhat was the effect on your sleep like? Do you still need your normal 8 hours? Also could you maintain a normal libido? My wife won't let me do fasts because it impacts our sex life too much. But I wonder if I would break through after a couple days and get things back to normal in that department.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jerrycruncher 8y agoSleep-wise, it took me some time to fall asleep during the first couple days. After which, my mind calmed considerably and I slept normally for the rest of the fast. Libido-wise, I couldn't tell you. My sex-drive has been abnormally low for my entire life. Your wife's suspicion would seem to make sense. 'The Science of Fasting' - a movie available on Amazon Prime - goes into some detail about the metabolic changes a body undergoes during the process. It would make sense that reproductive urges would diminish during a time when one's body was focused on conservation.
- ph0rque 8y agoI recall reading that a consistent 500-calorie deficit (daily) pretty much kills the libido.
- cimmanom 8y agoyou're not concerned about longer term metabolic effects?
- jerrycruncher 8y agoNot especially. Humans have fasted intentionally and unintentionally for millennia. Our bodies are built for periods of lack. There is almost no research available on the subject in the west, and there likely won't be - studies of this sort require funding, and Pfizer or whomever aren't going to spend money on research that could show that the most effective form of weight loss available is freely available for everyone.
- cimmanom 8y agoRight, and part of being built for those "periods of lack" is that our bodies tend to respond to them by slowing our metabolisms. That way when we're well fed again we store an even higher percentage of calories as fat in case of future famines.
- jerrycruncher 8y agoMy weight has been stable in the three months since stopping.
- Numberwang 8y agoThat's why you should eat a low fat vegan diet.
- kriffo 8y agoSo go eat every hour and agree to disagree.
- TheForumTroll 8y agoThe slowing metabolism is a myth.
- dfraser992 8y agoIf your base calorie requirements drop because you have lost a bunch of weight, but you don't change your eating behavior after stopping the fast, then of course you will end up gaining the weight back. They have done studies on the "World's Biggest Loser" contestants that show this. The facile interpretation is that you "slowed your metabolism".
- code_duck 8y agoDoes pure fasting have benefits vs consuming a low amount of nourishment, like protein powder with vitamins? I’ve been doing this inadvertently, due to illness, and lost about the same amount - 40 lbs in less than 2 months. I was trying to eat as much as possible, though. I went from being in the higher healthy range of BMI to the low end.
- jerrycruncher 8y agoI'm not a doctor, so I wouldn't be comfortable making any assertions here. If you're interested in the subject, I'd recommend looking up Dr Jason Fung - he's an MD who's been doing work in the area over the last few years.
- code_duck 8y agoThanks, directing me to reading material is perfect. I’m not interested in it personally as I don’t need to lose weight or want to take risks.
- hycaria 8y ago>forty night water fast / but otherwise only consumed water. I don't get it
- jerrycruncher 8y agoThe supplements were in pill form.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- viperscape 8y agoYou didn't take a multivitamin? How did your body handle lack of vitamin c? or d?
- jerrycruncher 8y agoI didn't. Just electrolytes. I won't say I felt amazing for the duration - I fatigued easily, as could be expected, but other than that and some light-headedness when standing quickly from a seated or reclined position (which is common for people following a keto diet, too), nothing felt seriously off.
- jahaja 8y agoWhy does it seem to be such a challenge for people to eat & drink whatever they did before - including beer, fast-food and what not - but just less? Too often it's the extreme changes that's being touted about together with some self-punishing training regime that does little good for the goal.
- jerrycruncher 8y agoI think that if one's goal is to disrupt harmful addictive habits, such an effort can do a fair bit of good.
- jahaja 8y agoYup, in that case, definitely.
- jdietrich 8y agoModeration is psychologically more difficult to adhere to than explicit prohibition. Most drivers routinely exceed the speed limit, but they rarely jump red lights. Religious laws have lots of "thou shalt not", but rarely any "thou shalt only in moderation". The laws of kashrut are incredibly inconvenient, but they're remarkably easy to follow in practice because they're absolute - either a food is kosher or treif, with no middle ground. You don't have to exercise judgement or restraint, you just have to blindly obey a set of well-documented rules. Fad diets like paleo are ostensibly irrational, but they're a good fit for human psychology. Counting calories is a minefield - it's too easy to slip up, too easy to deceive yourself about the size of a portion, too easy to nibble at something while you're cooking and forget to count it. A diet that says "don't eat grains" might be theoretically sub-optimal, but it's easy to stick to and much more resistant to self-deception. Exclusion diets also front-load the burden of self control. If you don't buy any cookies, you have to get into your car and drive to the store if you get a craving for them. If you've got a jar full of cookies, you're relying on pure self control to eat only one rather than scarfing the whole lot. They're always sitting there on the counter, tempting you to break your diet.
- 8y ago
- TimSchumann 8y agoThis was very similar to my experience on the 60 day fast I did last summer. I was stupid/stubborn and didn't supplement anything but salt for the first 30 days. If you're going to fast, sodium, potassium and magnesium are what I would recommend. I could post my before/after pictures and the spreadsheets with my logs if there's any interest.
- dfraser992 8y agoI'd appreciate getting the spreadsheet, if you don't mind - then I'd know what to track, what to examine. I keep meaning to do this again - I did 2 weeks a few years ago and it helped a lot (e.g. I was sleeping better and was full of energy), but ... life keeps getting in the way.
- TimSchumann 8y agoHere you go. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VjOINqshBNPpiUuxHgn2aNwJ8LXIB98FFquXOONgx_4/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VjOINqshBNPpiUuxHgn2...
- mercurialshark 8y agoGreat documentation, those of us that are curious do appreciate you sharing.
- Raphmedia 8y agoWas the goal weight loss? I would be worried about loss of muscle mass (especially important muscles such as stabiliser muscles), bone loss and cartilage issues. Not even talking about vitamin deficiency and imbalances. I feel that this would wreck my hormone levels too.
- jerrycruncher 8y agoIt was. Some muscle loss is inevitable over an extended period of time, but muscle tissue and especially bone tissue aren't storage forms of energy. Fat is. I definitely felt weaker at the end, but was back to my pre-fast strength level within a few weeks with regular exercise. I can't assuage your concerns, and I'm not advocating that others do what I did. But, by being careful with electrolyte supplementation and extremely careful when re-feeding, the process was free of negative side effects, for me.
- nkkollaw 8y agoWhat was your goal? I read a few days ago about hunger helping with chronic pain and I read a few articles about fasting (although, you're saying you don't feel hungry anymore after a while, which would not be poaitive in my case). Pretty fascinating stuff, though.
- jerrycruncher 8y agoMy goal was pretty shallow, honestly: I was going to be looking for a job in the new year, and I wanted to be able to fit into my interview clothes again. I also wanted to move my BMI into the average or low-end of the overweight category. Re: your interest, there's a segment in a movie called 'The Science of Fasting' available with Amazon Prime streaming which follows a woman undergoing chemotherapy whose doctor ok'd her desire to fast during the process based on promising results from an animal trial[1]. During her first round she fasted and only minimally felt negative effects from the chemo. During her second she ate normally and reported feeling substantially worse. The film also goes into how fasting significantly alters short-term gene expression, which might also be of interest. I agree that the area is exciting. What little work has been done seems to show that the field holds huge promise for a number of therapeutic uses, the least of which is weight loss. [1]https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fasting-might-boost-chemo/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fasting-might-boo...
- nkkollaw 8y agoThanks, I'll take a look. Congrats, I think it takes some courage and determination to succeed at fasting for so long!
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]