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7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is

by bitL 7y ago

7 days fasting (electrolytes-only) gives me a week-long euphoria afterwards, but days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases, so persevering those is a bit tricky. It also leads to 10-12lb weight loss.

agumonkey 7y ago
what kind of activities do you do during the fast ? normal work life or retreat / reading ?
- bitL 7y ago
  First 3 days normal stuff including intense HIIT training, then I try to relax in my spare time for the remaining 4 days (normal business). On the first day I might suffer from a slight headache if I was used to a lot of caffeine/sugar. On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people.
  - tartoran 7y ago
    > On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people. I've never done a 7 day fast and before I do I'd like to be better informed. What do you mean when you say the smelliest? What does it smell like? Is there some kind of smell throughout the fast? Thank you
    - bitL 7y ago
      Smell is like when you don't wash yourself for a week, quite unpleasant. It's gone on day 3, but on day 2 I am rather staying alone. Then from day 3 you might suffer from bad breath due to ketosis, regular oral hygiene is important when around other people.
      - tartoran 7y ago
        Wow. I haven't not washed myself for a week but I imagine. Does showering more frequently help? I heard about the oral hygiene during the fast before. I am basically interested in doing a fast like this but am not sure if I could go to work if I smell unpleasantly but as you said I could probably start in such a way that the 2nd and 3rd days fall on a weekend. Thanks again!
        bitL 7y ago
        I'd recommend starting on Friday, going through initial crisis on Friday/Saturday (caffeine/tea/sugar withdrawal), then from day 3-4 you should start feeling great (literally). Day 6 might be a bit weird so plan some lighter work around that time.
  - agumonkey 7y ago
    HIIT + fast .. that's a first. How old are you ? 20 ?
    - bitL 7y ago
      I wanted to know myself better, how much I can do and if fasting affects my athletic performance. I did my 3x full-effort HIIT in a row each day and even went climbing steep mountains on a bike on days 2-3 during my first 3 day electrolytes-only fast. The second climb I had to abort in the middle of the climb due to "losing vision", i.e. I perceived my vision was deteriorating in an all-out effort (like when you overdo it with HIIT). I read some study mentioning that HIIT during fasting helps to keep muscles from breaking down as muscles start being utilized at around day 4 to synthesize glycogen from proteins once liver storage is depleted, so I keep doing it, though days 4-7 only one series a day.
foxyv 7y ago
Lately I've been trying supplementation of potassium, magnesium and calcium which are supposedly lost during a fast. (I'm skeptical of most supplementation...) Pretty much just sea salt, creme de tartar, and lime juice. Seems to help a little with the weirder effects of a long fast. (Cramping, weakness, lightheadedness) In water they taste a little like gatorade without the sugar.
- bitL 7y ago
  The electrolytes I use are some kind of salt combined with the elements you mentioned; without proper electrolytes you might die during longer fasts. I avoid any kind of juice to make sure that part of my digestive tract can rest and do some internal cleanup. Autophagy should start at around day 5 and immunity renewal at around day 3. If I do sauna (many hot/cold cycles), I feel great for a day, if I do a 7-day fasting, I feel like that for a week. Sauna probably forces some mild cleanup through sweating, fasting through autophagy and burning off fat that stores toxins body didn't want to deal with earlier.
- bulldog13 7y ago
  Google snake diet - he has a mix.
- jobseeker990 7y ago
  Can you share your exact recipe? I'd be curious what you're doing for magnesium and calcium. How about zinc? Problem is a lot of those electrolyes can cause dihreah especially on an empty stomach.
kyuudou 7y ago
A lot of that loss is water weight, though.
- bitL 7y ago
  Yes, but that stops at around day 5 and you can always drink a lot to compensate for it.
jobseeker990 7y ago
> show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases This could be your body breaking apart old injuries to start repairing them better.
- bitL 7y ago
  I can't really tell, I had 4 symptoms of past problems suddenly escalating on day 6 last time I took the fast, and since then I never experienced them again (so far), so there might be something interesting going on. It's possible autophagy and fat burning might remove some "memory" but I have no scientific explanation for it. My theory is that as body doesn't have to fight all kinds of pathogens coming in from food, it can start correcting internal problems/mistakes instead with the same processes it normally uses to fight external threats.
- sizzle 7y ago
  Breaking apart old injuries...? Never heard of this hypothesis, how would this work?
  - bitL 7y ago
    Many people report feeling older injuries/illnesses during prolonged fasting. It's not clear what is the nature of that, if it's just psychosomatic and some neural pathway is correcting/readjusting/"backpropagating" itself (think phantom pain) or if the original repair was "temporary" and body does a proper rebuild there, or something completely different is going on. Try 1 week then tell us if you felt something similar, I did. EDIT: This Reddit thread has interesting comments, elevated HGH might be the culprit: https://old.reddit.com/r/fasting/comments/5gl1aq/can_fasting_really_heal_new_and_old_injuries/dat9iey/ https://old.reddit.com/r/fasting/comments/5gl1aq/can_fasting...
TurkishPoptart 7y ago
What do you consume during this time? How do you know it's safe? I'd like to try this sometime. Do you have any advice?
- lukifer 7y ago
  I've only done 3-days and not 7, but for n=1: - make sure to consume salt (adding to water is the easiest); if anything, err on the side of both too much water, and too much salt (we normally consume a lot of both through food). - Some people still consume certain zero-calorie items, like black coffee, green tea, or bone broth. You still get most of the fasting benefits, and it might be a good way to start (bone broth with added salt is a great way to keep electrolytes up, and fill your stomach). - I experienced a bit of back pain; apparently muscle pains are common, especially with new fasters. Accounts vary on this being evidence of "detox", or a side effect of mineral deficiency; but supplementing minerals in water probably couldn't hurt. - Dr. Jason Fung is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk - You'll find it odd that you don't know what to do during mealtimes. :) Have a plan for another way to take a break during lunchtime, etc. - Optional: it's vastly easier if you start already in ketosis (IF and/or low-carb)
  - im3w1l 7y ago
    Bone broth has calories.
- bitL 7y ago
  First, try just 1-2 days but remove all caffeine/sugar like a week ahead. Once you can do 1-2 days without any major problems, try doing 3 days (Friday + weekend). Once you are fine with that, try 5-7 days, water + electrolytes only, no food, no juice; drink however as much as you want, if you feel weird, drink more (always with electrolytes). If something really feels off, have some energy bars ready to intervene and break fast quickly and safely. Also, check yourself for diagnoses that might respond badly to fasting and in that case avoid doing it.
  - 7y ago
austinjp 7y ago
> days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases Could you describe this? I'm not sure what it means.
- bitL 7y ago
  I started to feel some past problems in e.g. neck area from some botched gym exercises, inside head where I had often sinusitis problems, some left leg issues etc. They seemed to escalate quite a bit, to the point of pain, I was on the verge of breaking the fast but I kept going, then on day 7 all those symptoms disappeared and I haven't experienced them since my last long fast. Not sure if they were of physical or neural (memory?) origin.
  - bitL 7y ago
    Actually, this is quite cool, after 5 days of fasting human growth hormone jumps to 10-20x normal level and that corresponds to me feeling miserable on the 6th day, then again great on 7th. It's now starting to make sense why some physical injuries were felt and then disappeared. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/
d1zzy 7y ago
Hmm, this seems dangerous or maybe unique to each individual. In the past I've had low blood sugar issues (started shaking and got splitting headache) because I forgot to eat for 24h or so and worked long hours, it wasn't a nice experience and I most certainly wouldn't want to repeat that on purpose by fasting. In addition to that, I often "bonk" on longer bike rides (don't eat sufficiently) and do intensive cardio exercise 6 hours a week. I have a BMI around 22 (used to be lower but hey, I'm not getting any younger..). So do you think this is something anyone can/should engage in? How do you decide if your body can safely engage in multiday fasting like that?
- bitL 7y ago
  I don't know frankly. I was surprised it was so easy for me, but let's say first day I get headaches which I attribute to caffeine/sugar withdrawal, maybe that's your case as well. Drinking 1 liter of water quickly often resolves that though. It's possible you are actually dehydrated as most water comes from food and not drinks, so if you continue drinking like you are used to, you end up with insufficient water.
  - sizzle 7y ago
    Just drinking water can lead to electrolyte imbalance or is am I mistaken?
    - bitL 7y ago
      You are completely right. If you scroll up 3 posts you'll see I mentioned "electrolytes-only".

by bitL 7y ago

agumonkey 7y ago

what kind of activities do you do during the fast ? normal work life or retreat / reading ?

bitL 7y ago
First 3 days normal stuff including intense HIIT training, then I try to relax in my spare time for the remaining 4 days (normal business). On the first day I might suffer from a slight headache if I was used to a lot of caffeine/sugar. On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people.
- tartoran 7y ago
  > On the second day I am the "smelliest", so it's best to have that one over the weekend when I don't have to be around other people. I've never done a 7 day fast and before I do I'd like to be better informed. What do you mean when you say the smelliest? What does it smell like? Is there some kind of smell throughout the fast? Thank you
  - bitL 7y ago
    Smell is like when you don't wash yourself for a week, quite unpleasant. It's gone on day 3, but on day 2 I am rather staying alone. Then from day 3 you might suffer from bad breath due to ketosis, regular oral hygiene is important when around other people.
    - tartoran 7y ago
      Wow. I haven't not washed myself for a week but I imagine. Does showering more frequently help? I heard about the oral hygiene during the fast before. I am basically interested in doing a fast like this but am not sure if I could go to work if I smell unpleasantly but as you said I could probably start in such a way that the 2nd and 3rd days fall on a weekend. Thanks again!
      - bitL 7y ago
        I'd recommend starting on Friday, going through initial crisis on Friday/Saturday (caffeine/tea/sugar withdrawal), then from day 3-4 you should start feeling great (literally). Day 6 might be a bit weird so plan some lighter work around that time.
- agumonkey 7y ago
  HIIT + fast .. that's a first. How old are you ? 20 ?
  - bitL 7y ago
    I wanted to know myself better, how much I can do and if fasting affects my athletic performance. I did my 3x full-effort HIIT in a row each day and even went climbing steep mountains on a bike on days 2-3 during my first 3 day electrolytes-only fast. The second climb I had to abort in the middle of the climb due to "losing vision", i.e. I perceived my vision was deteriorating in an all-out effort (like when you overdo it with HIIT). I read some study mentioning that HIIT during fasting helps to keep muscles from breaking down as muscles start being utilized at around day 4 to synthesize glycogen from proteins once liver storage is depleted, so I keep doing it, though days 4-7 only one series a day.

foxyv 7y ago

Lately I've been trying supplementation of potassium, magnesium and calcium which are supposedly lost during a fast. (I'm skeptical of most supplementation...) Pretty much just sea salt, creme de tartar, and lime juice. Seems to help a little with the weirder effects of a long fast. (Cramping, weakness, lightheadedness) In water they taste a little like gatorade without the sugar.

bitL 7y ago
The electrolytes I use are some kind of salt combined with the elements you mentioned; without proper electrolytes you might die during longer fasts. I avoid any kind of juice to make sure that part of my digestive tract can rest and do some internal cleanup. Autophagy should start at around day 5 and immunity renewal at around day 3. If I do sauna (many hot/cold cycles), I feel great for a day, if I do a 7-day fasting, I feel like that for a week. Sauna probably forces some mild cleanup through sweating, fasting through autophagy and burning off fat that stores toxins body didn't want to deal with earlier.
bulldog13 7y ago
Google snake diet - he has a mix.
jobseeker990 7y ago
Can you share your exact recipe? I'd be curious what you're doing for magnesium and calcium. How about zinc? Problem is a lot of those electrolyes can cause dihreah especially on an empty stomach.

kyuudou 7y ago

A lot of that loss is water weight, though.

bitL 7y ago
Yes, but that stops at around day 5 and you can always drink a lot to compensate for it.

jobseeker990 7y ago

> show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases This could be your body breaking apart old injuries to start repairing them better.

bitL 7y ago
I can't really tell, I had 4 symptoms of past problems suddenly escalating on day 6 last time I took the fast, and since then I never experienced them again (so far), so there might be something interesting going on. It's possible autophagy and fat burning might remove some "memory" but I have no scientific explanation for it. My theory is that as body doesn't have to fight all kinds of pathogens coming in from food, it can start correcting internal problems/mistakes instead with the same processes it normally uses to fight external threats.
sizzle 7y ago
Breaking apart old injuries...? Never heard of this hypothesis, how would this work?
- bitL 7y ago
  Many people report feeling older injuries/illnesses during prolonged fasting. It's not clear what is the nature of that, if it's just psychosomatic and some neural pathway is correcting/readjusting/"backpropagating" itself (think phantom pain) or if the original repair was "temporary" and body does a proper rebuild there, or something completely different is going on. Try 1 week then tell us if you felt something similar, I did. EDIT: This Reddit thread has interesting comments, elevated HGH might be the culprit: https://old.reddit.com/r/fasting/comments/5gl1aq/can_fasting_really_heal_new_and_old_injuries/dat9iey/ https://old.reddit.com/r/fasting/comments/5gl1aq/can_fasting...

TurkishPoptart 7y ago

What do you consume during this time? How do you know it's safe? I'd like to try this sometime. Do you have any advice?

lukifer 7y ago
I've only done 3-days and not 7, but for n=1: - make sure to consume salt (adding to water is the easiest); if anything, err on the side of both too much water, and too much salt (we normally consume a lot of both through food). - Some people still consume certain zero-calorie items, like black coffee, green tea, or bone broth. You still get most of the fasting benefits, and it might be a good way to start (bone broth with added salt is a great way to keep electrolytes up, and fill your stomach). - I experienced a bit of back pain; apparently muscle pains are common, especially with new fasters. Accounts vary on this being evidence of "detox", or a side effect of mineral deficiency; but supplementing minerals in water probably couldn't hurt. - Dr. Jason Fung is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk - You'll find it odd that you don't know what to do during mealtimes. :) Have a plan for another way to take a break during lunchtime, etc. - Optional: it's vastly easier if you start already in ketosis (IF and/or low-carb)
- im3w1l 7y ago
  Bone broth has calories.
bitL 7y ago
First, try just 1-2 days but remove all caffeine/sugar like a week ahead. Once you can do 1-2 days without any major problems, try doing 3 days (Friday + weekend). Once you are fine with that, try 5-7 days, water + electrolytes only, no food, no juice; drink however as much as you want, if you feel weird, drink more (always with electrolytes). If something really feels off, have some energy bars ready to intervene and break fast quickly and safely. Also, check yourself for diagnoses that might respond badly to fasting and in that case avoid doing it.
- 7y ago

austinjp 7y ago

> days 6-7 show some ugly symptoms of previous diseases Could you describe this? I'm not sure what it means.

bitL 7y ago
I started to feel some past problems in e.g. neck area from some botched gym exercises, inside head where I had often sinusitis problems, some left leg issues etc. They seemed to escalate quite a bit, to the point of pain, I was on the verge of breaking the fast but I kept going, then on day 7 all those symptoms disappeared and I haven't experienced them since my last long fast. Not sure if they were of physical or neural (memory?) origin.
- bitL 7y ago
  Actually, this is quite cool, after 5 days of fasting human growth hormone jumps to 10-20x normal level and that corresponds to me feeling miserable on the 6th day, then again great on 7th. It's now starting to make sense why some physical injuries were felt and then disappeared. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC329619/

d1zzy 7y ago

Hmm, this seems dangerous or maybe unique to each individual. In the past I've had low blood sugar issues (started shaking and got splitting headache) because I forgot to eat for 24h or so and worked long hours, it wasn't a nice experience and I most certainly wouldn't want to repeat that on purpose by fasting. In addition to that, I often "bonk" on longer bike rides (don't eat sufficiently) and do intensive cardio exercise 6 hours a week. I have a BMI around 22 (used to be lower but hey, I'm not getting any younger..). So do you think this is something anyone can/should engage in? How do you decide if your body can safely engage in multiday fasting like that?

bitL 7y ago
I don't know frankly. I was surprised it was so easy for me, but let's say first day I get headaches which I attribute to caffeine/sugar withdrawal, maybe that's your case as well. Drinking 1 liter of water quickly often resolves that though. It's possible you are actually dehydrated as most water comes from food and not drinks, so if you continue drinking like you are used to, you end up with insufficient water.
- sizzle 7y ago
  Just drinking water can lead to electrolyte imbalance or is am I mistaken?
  - bitL 7y ago
    You are completely right. If you scroll up 3 posts you'll see I mentioned "electrolytes-only".