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Angus Barbieri's fast
- LatteLazy 5y agoI fasted for 3 weeks once (water only) after I broke my jaw. It was strange going back to eating actual food...
- lmilcin 5y agoI fasted for 2 weeks. Only water, tea (no sugar or milk) and a tiny bit vitamins just for safety. I actually loathed going back to eating. At a point I thought it strange that I am actually dragging switching back to eating -- before the experiment I thought I will be looking forward to it. I have fasted many times before and after, though no longer than a week. I think it is easier to fast if you are already doing something like intermittent fasting and are used to skipping whole days of eating. My experience is that the worst is 2nd and 3rd days of fast, it gets better after that and about a week later headaches stop and you are feeling light and slightly energized. I will not repeat fasts over 1 week in length again as I have some data to suggest that my muscle mass and physical fitness decreased due to that fast. So if you are looking to loose weight by going radical fast you need to be mindful you can be loosing muscle mass that is really important to burning energy, and this could undo any benefits. I think if you are very, very overweight and very, very determined you could use this as a drastic measure with intention to build the muscle mass back after you finish fasting. On the other hand shorter fasts (1-3 days), though not so enjoyable, don't seem to be leaving any lasting harm (for me) and over time you get used to it and can control calorie intake better.
- sterlind 5y agoI suffered from anorexia and fell down to 117lbs at 5'8" at my worst. when I was in rehab, they told me I had to force myself to eat on a schedule - after you stop eating for long enough your body's sense of hunger becomes disrupted. refeeding was torture. (I'm doing much better now!)
- antidaily 5y agoIf I've learned anything from Survivorman it's that you figure out how to get clean water first and the rest is a nice-to-have.
- brink 5y agoI keep a couple of Sawyer water filters on hand as a "just in case" because losing access to drinkable water is something I don't ever want to experience if I can help it.
- foxhop 5y agoIt's not nessasarily painful but it will kill you in 2-5 days.
- stavros 5y agoAre you saying humans can't survive without water for 2 days? That seems quite short.
- e40 5y ago3 days is the rule I've heard.
- Jtsummers 5y agoGP listed a range. 2 days probably won't kill most people if they're starting at a healthy point and aren't too active or in an arid environment, but it will probably kill a lot of people if they start off somewhat dehydrated or are too active (by necessity or stupidity) during that period. The usual number tossed out is 3 days, but it's not like people will magically all drop dead after 72 hours from their last drop of water. It's an average or expected value.
- rolobio 5y agoYes that's about right. It depends on where you are. On a very hot day in a desert you can die in less than a day. I can't find any exact numbers for this though.
- nlitened 5y ago125 kg of fat is approximately 1.12 billion calories, enough to last a human for more than 400 days. Rough math checks out.
- steve_adams_86 5y agoYes and no – he lost 125kg of adipose tissue, which is something like 60-85% fats with the rest being other bodily tissues and water. It's hard to say exactly how many calories were used in pure fat, but in any case, the rough math still checks out.
- kkoncevicius 5y agoAre there any guidelines about safe fasting? I know 2 people that developed gallbladder stones and had to undergo gallbladder surgery after a sudden switch to plant-based diet for a month. Doctors say a rapid weight loss might be the cause. I imagine it is only worse with real fasting.
- at_a_remove 5y agoWell, you could supplement with ursodiol, lecithin, and peppermint gel caps taken as a bolus at bedtime during fasting.
- lmilcin 5y agoAbsolutely necessary: drink water. Also, if you have any medical conditions or plan to fast longer than 2 weeks -- seek medical observation. I would also suggest eating a tiny bit of vitamins, electrolytes and proteins, just for safety. Your organism cannot synthesize all proteins that are needed and can't produce vitamins (by very definition) even if it gets good at conserving them. For example tryptophan is precursor for serotonin and melatonin and cannot be synthesized by human body. You are risking depression and sleep problems without any intake of it. Also I am not medical professional. You should probably not base your health and safety on word of a layman dropping his opinion on HN:)
- wodenokoto 5y agoWhy “a little bit” of vitamins? I would expect “top of recommendations if not more”
- lmilcin 5y agoBecause something funny happens to organism on fast and it starts conserving absolutely everything. So what is recommended amount during "normal operation" is probably too much while your organism is in emergency preservation mode. Now, fast is no magic, the organism still uses up stores of various chemicals, just slower, so it still can "run out" of some things even if it still has a bunch of fat available for energy. One way organism can preserve chemicals is the simple fact it no longer has to digest stuff and then expell a lot of waste products. All of this is normally huge drag on your body, mostly on your liver. When on fast, that process is no longer necessary (mostly) and your liver gets much more efficient at the smaller number and volume of metabolic pathways. So when you are on fast and drop a vitamin, your body has not much else to do and will be very efficient at incorporating those vitamins into your body when normally most of these vitamins would not be used because the pathways necessary would be busy doing something else. It is also really funny to observe you can be not eating anything but still poop for at least a weak.
- TimSchumann 5y agoI did a 60 day water only fast, minor electrolyte supplementation, and a handful of vitamins & other supplements later in the fast. Lost 80 lbs in 60 days, kept off around 60 of it for 3+ years. Here's my spreadsheet log.[1] Note this is NOT how I would do things now. I'll be around for the next hour or so and do my best to answer any questions, if I don't catch you, my e-mail is my username here at gmail. [1]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VjOINqshBNPpiUuxHgn2aNwJ8LXIB98FFquXOONgx_4/edit?usp=sharing https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VjOINqshBNPpiUuxHgn2...
- lmilcin 5y agoHow was your muscle mass and health after this? Any other side effects? I lost 30kgs over 12 months in 2013, half of it through intermittent fasting over period of 3 months. I have also fasted for 2 weeks once (not during that year).
- TimSchumann 5y ago> How is your muscle mass and health after this? Literally the best I've felt in recent memory was day 61 after I started eating again. Muscle mass was fine, I'm sure there was some decline in muscle mass, but I wasn't working out excessively during the fast. Mostly just long walks. I'd guess no more muscle mass than just sitting in front of a computer and not moving. I leveled out around 225/230 post fast and I was able to deadlift 450 for 3x reps within weeks of starting to eat again. > Any other side effects? Completely re-calibrated sense of taste post fast, probably partially due to a much healthier gut microbiome -- though I have no way to back that statement up. Massively heightened sense of smell during the fast too. Focusing seemed easier when running on ketones. Long term, it took a while until literally everything didn't taste obscenely sweet.
- DrPhish 5y agoOne of the warnings I read going in to my own (only 10 day) water fast was that it can have a detrimental effect on the muscle mass of your heart. Did you observe any decrease in cardiovascular function?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- joncrane 5y agoThe wikipedia article says he died at age 50/51. He did the fast at age 27. What happened after the fast? What killed him?
- jwdunne 5y agoI was curious about that too. Though I lost a lot of excess fat through intermittent fasting a few years ago. Slipped back into old habits after my relationship broke up and I’m almost back to square one!
- fastly 5y agoAs it turns out, I just ran out of food two days ago and have been on a water fast. I'm homeless. Auspicious timing of hn articles, as usual.
- monkeycantype 5y agoAre you ok? Where are you?
- fastly 5y agoI've been living out of my vehicle for a long time which is about to fall apart. There is help here but I've refused it. Thanks.
- fastly 5y agoIt's so tempting to just end it now, it's difficult to convey how overwhelming the feeling to self-terminate has been these past few years. If history is any measure, I'll back out, though. Why have I heard or read about water fasts from multiple independent parties in the past 48 hours, incl this article? I'm creeped out beyond words.
- jwdunne 5y agoWhat happened man? I know I’m a stranger on the internet and I’m probably half a world away but I’m listening. I’ve been in some real rough holes too and I know what it feels like to lose all hope but I’ve never been without a home. Can’t imagine how hard that is for you mate.