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How the Terrible, Insufferable Six-Day Water Fast Made Me a New Man

91 points by cliveowen 13y ago

xefer 13y ago
The greatest weird diet story ever written: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/mar/09/restandrelaxation.shopping http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/mar/09/restandrelaxat...
thecollins 13y ago
Interesting article, but the title is totally misleading. The fast, according to the author, seems only "difficult". And the "new man" part just seems to be that he felt better after. We are, however, not given any details on how his life was bad before the start of this.
- nevinera 13y ago
  >We are, however, not given any details on how his life was bad before the start of this. The article is littered with details on that topic. Here's the largest and most verbose 'detail': >One morning back in 2011, I woke to searing pain in my arms. A flamethrower directed at my arms is what it felt like. The hospital offered morphine, but one shot did nothing. A second and then a third shot only made me sob more quietly. Finally Dilaudid, at ten times morphine's strength, cooled off the pain. Several doctors and hospitals later, I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease in which the nerves that branch from the neck and power the arms are bulldozed by the immune system. There's no cure, just a blitz of medicines to blanket the suffering. So I embarked on a grisly medical protocol: monster doses of steroids, antiseizure agents for nerve pain, and a lot of craft beer, ice cream, and chocolate for the larger problem of what it now felt like to be me.
gregsq 13y ago
I fasted for about 28 days once, when I was 18yo. Just water. Coming off it took days, with just diluted orange and apple juice. Eventually after about a week I started on solids. Quite an experience. I was perfectly healthy before it, and completely refreshed afterwards.
- Florin_Andrei 13y ago
  I've done something like this myself. A few observations from the article: > our bodies are designed for scarcity This is something that's been forgotten in many countries where life is now comfortable all the time. Skipping one meal is not the terrible thing that most people imagine it is. > the Terrible, Insufferable Six-Day Water Fast The first few days are difficult. After day 3 or so, hunger disappears. > vicious headaches, dizziness, and a sad, hollow feeling These are surprisingly similar to an addiction withdrawal process. > On my final day without food, I wake up at 5 A.M. I slept in! And all of a sudden, I feel tremendous. Light, energetic, unreasonably cheerful. Exactly. So, the first 3 days or so are tough. After that, hunger disappears. You get a sense of amazing energy, powerful but calm. Your body is relaxed all the time. There's an amazing mental clarity. You do everything consciously and purposefully. Negative thoughts are gone or greatly diminished. I can definitely see why fasting was used in most if not all traditions where meditation and prayer were practiced. BTW, the longer the fast, the trickier the coming out of it. Restarting suddenly on a high-calorie solid food diet may cause problems.
  - sejje 13y ago
    What are the problems that can be caused?
    - Florin_Andrei 13y ago
      Anything in the range between mild stomach trouble and full-on Refeeding Syndrome.
  - KMag 13y ago
    > > our bodies are designed for scarcity > This is something that's been forgotten in many countries ... This requires either a Biblical citation (substitute your religious text of choice) or (preferably) citations from peer-reviewed journals. I've read Eat Stop Eat and do a 24-hour water/coffee/tea fast once a week, but I don't buy these sorts of justifications that appear rooted in a misunderstanding of Darwinian evolution. * "Non-survival of the least fit" is a better summary than "survival of the fittest". * Even if our bodies were incredibly well optimized for the conditions present during most of our recent evolution, that does NOT imply that those conditions are optimal for our bodies. [Affirming the consequent] * Lots of things will make a person feel "healthy" or mild euphoria, particularly when a person has become accustomed to a low baseline for a couple of days. Subjective anecdotes aren't a substitute for quantitative measures of health. On a side note, detoxification from unspecified toxins is often accepted as an axiom without journal citation or other justification apart from subjective mood following the fast/cleanse. Edited for formatting.
jareds 13y ago
Maybe I'm lucky but dieting doesn't seem that difficult. I've started charting my weight based on info in The Hackers Diet. I have found that as long as I think about what I eat I don't need to count calories to maintain a weight loss rate of between 1.5 and 2 pounds a week.
- laxatives 13y ago
  Well this guy is described as particularly tall and lean. I don't know about your build, but by that logic you'd have a negative mass after a few years.
- dhugiaskmak 13y ago
  You are incredibly lucky.
js2 13y ago
"A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight." http://pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract http://pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.ht... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6130963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6130963
- Joister 13y ago
  I can't find the discussion but he answered some questions on reddit once. He said it was reckless and wouldn't recommend it to anyone, the only reason he did it was because he was desperate.
fmitchell0 13y ago
I wonder if this type of fasting is only advised under doctor supervision. I'd be interested in trying it, but is there enough published of the 'unsuccessful' stories? What are the risks?
baldfat 13y ago
I have done many water only fast in my teens and 20s. I also did a weekly Thursday daily water only fast. Here are my experienced benefits: 1) Self Discipline! Talk about learning how to control yourself. Best reason to do it. 2) strangely after 3 days the stomach stops shrinking and I swear I have the most energy and focus for 3 or 4 days. I use to stop once I started getting tired again. Had several people I know do 40 day fast and well they got more energy again around the 2nd week. 3) Sadly You can't LOSE weight long term on fasting. P.S. I need to try it out again it has been almost 15 years since my last big fast.
- commandar 13y ago
  >2) strangely after 3 days the stomach stops shrinking and I swear I have the most energy and focus for 3 or 4 days. I use to stop once I started getting tired again. >Had several people I know do 40 day fast and well they got more energy again around the 2nd week. That's not strange so much as an indicator that the body has probably shifted into a ketogenic metabolic state at those points. It's being discussed a little bit more upthread.
abecedarius 13y ago
This says he drank distilled water, which seems to imply no electrolyte. Any idea how soon you could expect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia ? (I only skimmed bits of the article.)
- refurb 13y ago
  Normal tap water has a pretty low sodium content anyways (4.8 ppm in SF), so why would distilled water be that much worse? Blood is typically 3.3g/L or 3.3 ppt. Your kidneys are pretty dam good at reabsorbing essential ions. I'm sure an electrolyte imbalance would be an issue eventually, I'm just not sure distilled water would make that much of a difference.
  - abecedarius 13y ago
    why would distilled water be that much worse? Not what I meant: I'd wonder the same thing about tap water. The question is isotonic vs. low-salt; distilled just takes it to its extreme. (When I found out about hyponatremia the hard way, it was with tap water.)
- sp332 13y ago
  Hyponatremia is usually caused by drinking so much water that it dilutes the sodium in your blood, not by losing sodium out of your blood over time. It would take a long time to lose that much sodium! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhydration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhydration
princess3000 13y ago
How does water compare to Soylent?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- venomsnake 13y ago
  Tastier and with higher nutritional value.
venomsnake 13y ago
I have been doing a lot of fasts during the years: It rarely works for permanent weight reduction - mostly because when you are off the fast you don't have proper new eating habits ingrained. It takes 3 days to forget about the hunger. After that you have a lot of energy for the next 2-3 days. Your senses become extremely sharp - you see better, hear better, smell better. The moment you have acetone in your breath is a good time to stop. When you start eating - your digestive tract is really fast to evacuate for the first few times. Be at home. Avoid hard foods. After the first week you may have problems with the blood pressure - stand slowly, take your time waking up - if the world becomes more colorful - lay down on the ground ASAP - you are on the way of passing out. Sex during the fast is awesome - see the senses thing above - the orgasm is multiple times more intensive than usual.
- criley2 13y ago
  The moment you get acetone breath is also a great moment to begin a ketogenic diet if you want to experiment with that diet as well. The acetone breath is probably a function of ketogenic metabolism, and if you've already engaged it, why not continue and see what a primarily fat-burning metabolism paradigm does for you. Also, self control. <20g carbs a day is a whole different kind of diet based self control. But the results from 30 days for me was fun, definitely worth a month as a body hack.
  - commandar 13y ago
    About 4 months was enough for me to drop right around 70lbs a couple of years ago. Keto has a lot of cultists that think it's magic when it comes to weight loss. It's not; it's still fundamentally a caloric deficit diet for that purpose. But it is a really interesting metabolic hack when you start doing some research into it. It's an absolutely fascinating testament to the adaptability of the human body and its ability to metabolize energy from other sources when the "cheap" energy it can get from carbohydrates is unavailable. There's a lot more going on than just burning fat when the body is in ketosis. Ultimately, it's a bit too restrictive for me to stay on indefinitely, but the shift in mental state and energy level is beneficial enough for me to cycle on it a few times a year just because.
ctdonath 13y ago
98% of gall bladder removals go fine, in-and-out procedures. I got to join the 2%. Long story to the point: I wasn't allowed to eat for two weeks. Saline drip kept me hydrated, and that's about it. Connected to the drip, I wasn't really allowed to move either. For what it was, fact is I just didn't eat for about 14 days. Didn't feel hungry, but did watch a ridiculous number of cooking shows. Yes, that had its special case factors. But now I know I can do without food for a prolonged period. Lost 10 pounds too.
wil421 13y ago
I dated a girl who did modeling and whenever a shoot would come up she would do a water/coffee fast. It only worked temporarily and she would be forced to do it before every shoot to get where she wanted to be. There is no substitute for exercise and proper diet.
gesman 13y ago
I'm in the mid of two-days Isagenix cleansing fast (only cleansing liquid). Gym included. Always works like magic. The goodness comes from body's ability to eliminate toxins and that unblocks lots of energy. Within mind, body and spirit too :)
- venomsnake 13y ago
  Please when you say toxin try and give some examples about them - what kinds, what molecules - something that could be tested in a lab.
  - gesman 13y ago
    Went to gym on my second day of cleansing (eating nothing at all) and feel more energy than before starting. Don't care what molecules it involves if it works.
a8da6b0c91d 13y ago
> When you eat too much salt, your blood gets saltier, so your brain tells your body it's thirsty. So you drink more water, diluting your salty blood, and with more blood pumping through your system, you get high blood pressure. To my understanding this is false. The vast majority of people's kidneys rapidly and efficiently remove any excess salt to maintain homeostasis.
- JPKab 13y ago
  How dare you inject your "science" and "research" into this wonderful anecdote. sigh My first fast was 3 days of nothing but water, in the middle of the woods (by myself) when I was 15. It was part of a month long Outward Bound program. The water was coming from a lake, so I was dropping iodine tablets into it to kill the giardia. As bad as the no food part was, the lack of human contact for 3 days was even more alien to me.
- masklinn 13y ago
  > The vast majority of people's kidneys rapidly and efficiently remove any excess salt to maintain homeostasis. Yep, and when your kidneys can't do that and you get into homeostatic imbalance you don't "get high blood pressure", you get organ damage. And part of homeostasis is maintaining the body's fluid balance, separately from osmoregulation (under which salt regulation would fall)
bhavvik 13y ago
Fasting is quite common in Jainism.. There are various fasts people take on, among which is atthai - no food or water for eight days or just no food for eight days.. I've done it once.. its quite similar to how its described in this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_in_Jainism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_in_Jainism There are several benefits of fasting but primary reason to fast in Jainism is non-violence
SandB0x 13y ago
I despair at all the broscience and dangerous advice in this thread.
- ibdknox 13y ago
  Instead of a contentless dismissal, can you provide us some information that supports your claim?
  - lfuller 13y ago
    In science - especially health science - it is not the responsibility of the skeptic to prove that a particular theory is wrong, rather it is the responsibility of the person making such claims to substantiate them.
    - ibdknox 13y ago
      Sure. Where do we derive most of our knowledge as individuals? From anecdotes from others. Is that science? No, not at all, but it's where science often starts. It's a preliminary experiment to at least find out some idea of what may be possible. While not repeated, peer reviewed, or verified in any meaningful way that doesn't make this useless. The OP walked into a room full of very curious people and called them idiots without any attempt at enlightening them on what statements or assumptions might be wrong. In what way is that helpful? HN is not a peer-reviewed journal, it's a place for discussion and he detracted from that discussion. Instead, I was hoping he might provide something meaningful that we could consider in trying to process this anecdote.
    - millerm 13y ago
      Great answer. Sounds like I'm reading the words of a true skeptic.
- gnu8 13y ago
  Would you please identify some of the dangerous advice? I'm not sure of what exactly broscience is.
- 13y ago
logjam 13y ago
Wonderful. "Hacker" News at its finest. A post that is nothing more than an anecdote full of questionable horseshit on an important matter like health in turn generates HN comments that are merely anecdotes full of questionable horseshit. On health. Health.
- DanBC 13y ago
  Kickstarter in two weeks?
- SandB0x 13y ago
  But dude think of the metabolic hacks and read about my one weird trick for rapid weight loss.
- cynicalkane 13y ago
  This is what the flag button is for.
- KMag 13y ago
  You forgot to mention vague references to "toxins" and "detox" as well as anecdotal feelings of mild euphoria (edit: or subjectively elevated mood following/compared to a reduced baseline mood induced by initial hunger) given as evidence of health benefits. I have read Eat Stop Eat, and do a 24-hour water/coffee/tea fast once a week. I had my annual medical exam recently, and I mentioned to the nutritionist that I fast once a week. Her response wasn't positive or negative, just "you can fast if you like, but no longer than 24 hours, and don't let your hunger cause you to over-eat following the fast". The health benefits of my weekly fasting are probably not as great as I think. We'll see how my blood chemistry has changed from my last physical.
- codex 13y ago
  This article is at least as valid as the technical blog bike shedding that is normal HN fodder--possibly more so, as an actual experiment was performed. Would you like sources that fasting is bad for you? Every clinical study I've come across suggests otherwise.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
britta 13y ago
It's irresponsible to glamorize restrictive dieting without talking in detail about why medical supervision is necessary - not just breezily saying "you get dizzy". http://www.canyons.edu/offices/health/nutritioncoach/concerns/reseat.asp http://www.canyons.edu/offices/health/nutritioncoach/concern... - list of physical/cognitive/emotional effects of restrictive dieting: "decreased resting metabolic rate, loss of lean body mass, changes in brain chemistry that increase appetite, constipation and gastrointestinal upset, sleep disturbance and weakness, feeling cold all the time, decreased sexual interest, depression and anxiety, irritability and anger", etc. Along with causing physical problems, restrictive dieting can be a factor in developing an eating disorder. http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/anorexia-nervosa/print.html http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/anorexia-ner... - "Bulimia is often triggered when young women attempt restrictive diets, fail, and react by binge eating" (and eating disorders are perfectly happy to grip men as well). http://calorielab.com/news/2013/03/26/orthorexia-restrictive-eating-disorder/ http://calorielab.com/news/2013/03/26/orthorexia-restrictive... - "there are many individuals who display symptoms consistent with an obsessive-compulsive restrictive eating disorder and have an unhealthy concern with healthy eating patterns."
bstar77 13y ago
I do a 10 day juice fast about every 6 months or so. Here's my experience: - drop about 1-1.5lbs/day when I'm a couple days in, mostly water weight. - feel great and alert despite the hunger - skin clears up - experience memory issues, perhaps a supplement could help with this - usually loose about 5-10 lbs, but gain all but a few pounds back (I'm not over weight to begin with) - every time I do it, despite the hunger it's a hugely positive experience I never do a fast with the expectation of loosing weight. You loose weight by having a healthy lifestyle. Fasting helps detox your body. The one thing I did that made me easily drop 25lbs in 3 months was eliminating all wheat/gluten from my diet. I basically live like I have celiac's disease. By adding higher fat foods in my diet and cutting the sugar/wheat products, I can still gorge myself with meats, nuts and veggies, but not have the negative effects similar to eating a bowl of pasta. If you love pasta, buy corn pasta. It tastes like regular pasta and is a fraction of the cost of rice pasta, plus it's much lower on the glycemic index. Coffee also acts as a great appetite suppressant, but I make sure to only have 2/cups day that I dilute in large iced coffees.
mgraczyk 13y ago
When I hear about weight loss programs or tips, I am reminded of my uncle. For the duration of my youth, he weighed around 300 pounds. Then one day in college my siblings and I visited him and noticed that he was substantially thinner, maybe weighing around 190 pounds. We asked how he lost all of the weight, and he said, "I went to the doctor and he told me that if I didn't lose weight I would die before my 60th birthday. That scared the shit out of me so I started eating less and waking up early and walking a few miles every day. " If adding 10-15 years to your life isn't motivation enough to lose weight, then I can't imagine anything that could be.
tomgruner 13y ago
Fasting occasionally under supervision may have benefits, but it is nothing compared to maintaining a healthy balanced diet combined with exercise. If you really want to take care of yourself, do it every day - don't just save it for a fitness binge like this. Check out something like the anticancer book by the late Dr. David Servan-Schreiber or try out any diet high in veggies and low in processed foods, focussing on occasional high quality meats, eggs and fish. You will be a better hacker for it.
patrickg_zill 13y ago
Slightly off-topic perhaps? I will say that for me, breaking the carb addiction was key to weight loss and feeling better. You can go keto-only or some other diet or a fast, but being able to go through a period of time with a low amount of carbs, and then realizing how crappy I felt after a typical high-carb meal, really helped me stick to a lower-carb diet. But can I also add, "only in America" would you have a place where you pay exorbitant amounts to drink only water and you stay there. However did monks and gurus manage without it?
lotsofcows 13y ago
Oh look, he took a six day holiday where it was all about him and now he feels great! Of course it was because od the ridiculous diet. This stuff reminds me of shamanism: "Oh yes, it's a devil. You need to take all your family (to pray for and with you) on a 10 day journey to 3 different temples 100 miles away while eating only these prescribed foods." Ta-da, cures almost anything.
dariye 13y ago
(y). I will give this a try
dariye 13y ago
(y). I will give this a try

91 points by cliveowen 13y ago

xefer 13y ago

The greatest weird diet story ever written: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/mar/09/restandrelaxation.shopping http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/mar/09/restandrelaxat...

thecollins 13y ago

Interesting article, but the title is totally misleading. The fast, according to the author, seems only "difficult". And the "new man" part just seems to be that he felt better after. We are, however, not given any details on how his life was bad before the start of this.

nevinera 13y ago
>We are, however, not given any details on how his life was bad before the start of this. The article is littered with details on that topic. Here's the largest and most verbose 'detail': >One morning back in 2011, I woke to searing pain in my arms. A flamethrower directed at my arms is what it felt like. The hospital offered morphine, but one shot did nothing. A second and then a third shot only made me sob more quietly. Finally Dilaudid, at ten times morphine's strength, cooled off the pain. Several doctors and hospitals later, I was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease in which the nerves that branch from the neck and power the arms are bulldozed by the immune system. There's no cure, just a blitz of medicines to blanket the suffering. So I embarked on a grisly medical protocol: monster doses of steroids, antiseizure agents for nerve pain, and a lot of craft beer, ice cream, and chocolate for the larger problem of what it now felt like to be me.

gregsq 13y ago

I fasted for about 28 days once, when I was 18yo. Just water. Coming off it took days, with just diluted orange and apple juice. Eventually after about a week I started on solids. Quite an experience. I was perfectly healthy before it, and completely refreshed afterwards.

Florin_Andrei 13y ago
I've done something like this myself. A few observations from the article: > our bodies are designed for scarcity This is something that's been forgotten in many countries where life is now comfortable all the time. Skipping one meal is not the terrible thing that most people imagine it is. > the Terrible, Insufferable Six-Day Water Fast The first few days are difficult. After day 3 or so, hunger disappears. > vicious headaches, dizziness, and a sad, hollow feeling These are surprisingly similar to an addiction withdrawal process. > On my final day without food, I wake up at 5 A.M. I slept in! And all of a sudden, I feel tremendous. Light, energetic, unreasonably cheerful. Exactly. So, the first 3 days or so are tough. After that, hunger disappears. You get a sense of amazing energy, powerful but calm. Your body is relaxed all the time. There's an amazing mental clarity. You do everything consciously and purposefully. Negative thoughts are gone or greatly diminished. I can definitely see why fasting was used in most if not all traditions where meditation and prayer were practiced. BTW, the longer the fast, the trickier the coming out of it. Restarting suddenly on a high-calorie solid food diet may cause problems.
- sejje 13y ago
  What are the problems that can be caused?
  - Florin_Andrei 13y ago
    Anything in the range between mild stomach trouble and full-on Refeeding Syndrome.
- KMag 13y ago
  > > our bodies are designed for scarcity > This is something that's been forgotten in many countries ... This requires either a Biblical citation (substitute your religious text of choice) or (preferably) citations from peer-reviewed journals. I've read Eat Stop Eat and do a 24-hour water/coffee/tea fast once a week, but I don't buy these sorts of justifications that appear rooted in a misunderstanding of Darwinian evolution. * "Non-survival of the least fit" is a better summary than "survival of the fittest". * Even if our bodies were incredibly well optimized for the conditions present during most of our recent evolution, that does NOT imply that those conditions are optimal for our bodies. [Affirming the consequent] * Lots of things will make a person feel "healthy" or mild euphoria, particularly when a person has become accustomed to a low baseline for a couple of days. Subjective anecdotes aren't a substitute for quantitative measures of health. On a side note, detoxification from unspecified toxins is often accepted as an axiom without journal citation or other justification apart from subjective mood following the fast/cleanse. Edited for formatting.

jareds 13y ago

Maybe I'm lucky but dieting doesn't seem that difficult. I've started charting my weight based on info in The Hackers Diet. I have found that as long as I think about what I eat I don't need to count calories to maintain a weight loss rate of between 1.5 and 2 pounds a week.

laxatives 13y ago
Well this guy is described as particularly tall and lean. I don't know about your build, but by that logic you'd have a negative mass after a few years.
dhugiaskmak 13y ago
You are incredibly lucky.

js2 13y ago

"A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his normal weight." http://pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract http://pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.htm http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/07/24/3549931.ht... Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6130963 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6130963

Joister 13y ago
I can't find the discussion but he answered some questions on reddit once. He said it was reckless and wouldn't recommend it to anyone, the only reason he did it was because he was desperate.

fmitchell0 13y ago

I wonder if this type of fasting is only advised under doctor supervision. I'd be interested in trying it, but is there enough published of the 'unsuccessful' stories? What are the risks?

baldfat 13y ago

I have done many water only fast in my teens and 20s. I also did a weekly Thursday daily water only fast. Here are my experienced benefits: 1) Self Discipline! Talk about learning how to control yourself. Best reason to do it. 2) strangely after 3 days the stomach stops shrinking and I swear I have the most energy and focus for 3 or 4 days. I use to stop once I started getting tired again. Had several people I know do 40 day fast and well they got more energy again around the 2nd week. 3) Sadly You can't LOSE weight long term on fasting. P.S. I need to try it out again it has been almost 15 years since my last big fast.

commandar 13y ago
>2) strangely after 3 days the stomach stops shrinking and I swear I have the most energy and focus for 3 or 4 days. I use to stop once I started getting tired again. >Had several people I know do 40 day fast and well they got more energy again around the 2nd week. That's not strange so much as an indicator that the body has probably shifted into a ketogenic metabolic state at those points. It's being discussed a little bit more upthread.

abecedarius 13y ago

This says he drank distilled water, which seems to imply no electrolyte. Any idea how soon you could expect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyponatremia ? (I only skimmed bits of the article.)

refurb 13y ago
Normal tap water has a pretty low sodium content anyways (4.8 ppm in SF), so why would distilled water be that much worse? Blood is typically 3.3g/L or 3.3 ppt. Your kidneys are pretty dam good at reabsorbing essential ions. I'm sure an electrolyte imbalance would be an issue eventually, I'm just not sure distilled water would make that much of a difference.
- abecedarius 13y ago
  why would distilled water be that much worse? Not what I meant: I'd wonder the same thing about tap water. The question is isotonic vs. low-salt; distilled just takes it to its extreme. (When I found out about hyponatremia the hard way, it was with tap water.)
sp332 13y ago
Hyponatremia is usually caused by drinking so much water that it dilutes the sodium in your blood, not by losing sodium out of your blood over time. It would take a long time to lose that much sodium! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhydration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhydration

princess3000 13y ago

How does water compare to Soylent?

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
venomsnake 13y ago
Tastier and with higher nutritional value.

venomsnake 13y ago

I have been doing a lot of fasts during the years: It rarely works for permanent weight reduction - mostly because when you are off the fast you don't have proper new eating habits ingrained. It takes 3 days to forget about the hunger. After that you have a lot of energy for the next 2-3 days. Your senses become extremely sharp - you see better, hear better, smell better. The moment you have acetone in your breath is a good time to stop. When you start eating - your digestive tract is really fast to evacuate for the first few times. Be at home. Avoid hard foods. After the first week you may have problems with the blood pressure - stand slowly, take your time waking up - if the world becomes more colorful - lay down on the ground ASAP - you are on the way of passing out. Sex during the fast is awesome - see the senses thing above - the orgasm is multiple times more intensive than usual.

criley2 13y ago
The moment you get acetone breath is also a great moment to begin a ketogenic diet if you want to experiment with that diet as well. The acetone breath is probably a function of ketogenic metabolism, and if you've already engaged it, why not continue and see what a primarily fat-burning metabolism paradigm does for you. Also, self control. <20g carbs a day is a whole different kind of diet based self control. But the results from 30 days for me was fun, definitely worth a month as a body hack.
- commandar 13y ago
  About 4 months was enough for me to drop right around 70lbs a couple of years ago. Keto has a lot of cultists that think it's magic when it comes to weight loss. It's not; it's still fundamentally a caloric deficit diet for that purpose. But it is a really interesting metabolic hack when you start doing some research into it. It's an absolutely fascinating testament to the adaptability of the human body and its ability to metabolize energy from other sources when the "cheap" energy it can get from carbohydrates is unavailable. There's a lot more going on than just burning fat when the body is in ketosis. Ultimately, it's a bit too restrictive for me to stay on indefinitely, but the shift in mental state and energy level is beneficial enough for me to cycle on it a few times a year just because.

ctdonath 13y ago

98% of gall bladder removals go fine, in-and-out procedures. I got to join the 2%. Long story to the point: I wasn't allowed to eat for two weeks. Saline drip kept me hydrated, and that's about it. Connected to the drip, I wasn't really allowed to move either. For what it was, fact is I just didn't eat for about 14 days. Didn't feel hungry, but did watch a ridiculous number of cooking shows. Yes, that had its special case factors. But now I know I can do without food for a prolonged period. Lost 10 pounds too.

wil421 13y ago

I dated a girl who did modeling and whenever a shoot would come up she would do a water/coffee fast. It only worked temporarily and she would be forced to do it before every shoot to get where she wanted to be. There is no substitute for exercise and proper diet.

gesman 13y ago

I'm in the mid of two-days Isagenix cleansing fast (only cleansing liquid). Gym included. Always works like magic. The goodness comes from body's ability to eliminate toxins and that unblocks lots of energy. Within mind, body and spirit too :)

venomsnake 13y ago
Please when you say toxin try and give some examples about them - what kinds, what molecules - something that could be tested in a lab.
- gesman 13y ago
  Went to gym on my second day of cleansing (eating nothing at all) and feel more energy than before starting. Don't care what molecules it involves if it works.

a8da6b0c91d 13y ago

> When you eat too much salt, your blood gets saltier, so your brain tells your body it's thirsty. So you drink more water, diluting your salty blood, and with more blood pumping through your system, you get high blood pressure. To my understanding this is false. The vast majority of people's kidneys rapidly and efficiently remove any excess salt to maintain homeostasis.

JPKab 13y ago
How dare you inject your "science" and "research" into this wonderful anecdote. sigh My first fast was 3 days of nothing but water, in the middle of the woods (by myself) when I was 15. It was part of a month long Outward Bound program. The water was coming from a lake, so I was dropping iodine tablets into it to kill the giardia. As bad as the no food part was, the lack of human contact for 3 days was even more alien to me.
masklinn 13y ago
> The vast majority of people's kidneys rapidly and efficiently remove any excess salt to maintain homeostasis. Yep, and when your kidneys can't do that and you get into homeostatic imbalance you don't "get high blood pressure", you get organ damage. And part of homeostasis is maintaining the body's fluid balance, separately from osmoregulation (under which salt regulation would fall)

bhavvik 13y ago

Fasting is quite common in Jainism.. There are various fasts people take on, among which is atthai - no food or water for eight days or just no food for eight days.. I've done it once.. its quite similar to how its described in this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_in_Jainism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasting_in_Jainism There are several benefits of fasting but primary reason to fast in Jainism is non-violence

SandB0x 13y ago

I despair at all the broscience and dangerous advice in this thread.

ibdknox 13y ago
Instead of a contentless dismissal, can you provide us some information that supports your claim?
- lfuller 13y ago
  In science - especially health science - it is not the responsibility of the skeptic to prove that a particular theory is wrong, rather it is the responsibility of the person making such claims to substantiate them.
  - ibdknox 13y ago
    Sure. Where do we derive most of our knowledge as individuals? From anecdotes from others. Is that science? No, not at all, but it's where science often starts. It's a preliminary experiment to at least find out some idea of what may be possible. While not repeated, peer reviewed, or verified in any meaningful way that doesn't make this useless. The OP walked into a room full of very curious people and called them idiots without any attempt at enlightening them on what statements or assumptions might be wrong. In what way is that helpful? HN is not a peer-reviewed journal, it's a place for discussion and he detracted from that discussion. Instead, I was hoping he might provide something meaningful that we could consider in trying to process this anecdote.
  - millerm 13y ago
    Great answer. Sounds like I'm reading the words of a true skeptic.
gnu8 13y ago
Would you please identify some of the dangerous advice? I'm not sure of what exactly broscience is.
13y ago

logjam 13y ago

Wonderful. "Hacker" News at its finest. A post that is nothing more than an anecdote full of questionable horseshit on an important matter like health in turn generates HN comments that are merely anecdotes full of questionable horseshit. On health. Health.

DanBC 13y ago
Kickstarter in two weeks?
SandB0x 13y ago
But dude think of the metabolic hacks and read about my one weird trick for rapid weight loss.
cynicalkane 13y ago
This is what the flag button is for.
KMag 13y ago
You forgot to mention vague references to "toxins" and "detox" as well as anecdotal feelings of mild euphoria (edit: or subjectively elevated mood following/compared to a reduced baseline mood induced by initial hunger) given as evidence of health benefits. I have read Eat Stop Eat, and do a 24-hour water/coffee/tea fast once a week. I had my annual medical exam recently, and I mentioned to the nutritionist that I fast once a week. Her response wasn't positive or negative, just "you can fast if you like, but no longer than 24 hours, and don't let your hunger cause you to over-eat following the fast". The health benefits of my weekly fasting are probably not as great as I think. We'll see how my blood chemistry has changed from my last physical.
codex 13y ago
This article is at least as valid as the technical blog bike shedding that is normal HN fodder--possibly more so, as an actual experiment was performed. Would you like sources that fasting is bad for you? Every clinical study I've come across suggests otherwise.
deleted 13y ago
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britta 13y ago

It's irresponsible to glamorize restrictive dieting without talking in detail about why medical supervision is necessary - not just breezily saying "you get dizzy". http://www.canyons.edu/offices/health/nutritioncoach/concerns/reseat.asp http://www.canyons.edu/offices/health/nutritioncoach/concern... - list of physical/cognitive/emotional effects of restrictive dieting: "decreased resting metabolic rate, loss of lean body mass, changes in brain chemistry that increase appetite, constipation and gastrointestinal upset, sleep disturbance and weakness, feeling cold all the time, decreased sexual interest, depression and anxiety, irritability and anger", etc. Along with causing physical problems, restrictive dieting can be a factor in developing an eating disorder. http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/anorexia-nervosa/print.html http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/anorexia-ner... - "Bulimia is often triggered when young women attempt restrictive diets, fail, and react by binge eating" (and eating disorders are perfectly happy to grip men as well). http://calorielab.com/news/2013/03/26/orthorexia-restrictive-eating-disorder/ http://calorielab.com/news/2013/03/26/orthorexia-restrictive... - "there are many individuals who display symptoms consistent with an obsessive-compulsive restrictive eating disorder and have an unhealthy concern with healthy eating patterns."

bstar77 13y ago

I do a 10 day juice fast about every 6 months or so. Here's my experience: - drop about 1-1.5lbs/day when I'm a couple days in, mostly water weight. - feel great and alert despite the hunger - skin clears up - experience memory issues, perhaps a supplement could help with this - usually loose about 5-10 lbs, but gain all but a few pounds back (I'm not over weight to begin with) - every time I do it, despite the hunger it's a hugely positive experience I never do a fast with the expectation of loosing weight. You loose weight by having a healthy lifestyle. Fasting helps detox your body. The one thing I did that made me easily drop 25lbs in 3 months was eliminating all wheat/gluten from my diet. I basically live like I have celiac's disease. By adding higher fat foods in my diet and cutting the sugar/wheat products, I can still gorge myself with meats, nuts and veggies, but not have the negative effects similar to eating a bowl of pasta. If you love pasta, buy corn pasta. It tastes like regular pasta and is a fraction of the cost of rice pasta, plus it's much lower on the glycemic index. Coffee also acts as a great appetite suppressant, but I make sure to only have 2/cups day that I dilute in large iced coffees.

mgraczyk 13y ago

When I hear about weight loss programs or tips, I am reminded of my uncle. For the duration of my youth, he weighed around 300 pounds. Then one day in college my siblings and I visited him and noticed that he was substantially thinner, maybe weighing around 190 pounds. We asked how he lost all of the weight, and he said, "I went to the doctor and he told me that if I didn't lose weight I would die before my 60th birthday. That scared the shit out of me so I started eating less and waking up early and walking a few miles every day. " If adding 10-15 years to your life isn't motivation enough to lose weight, then I can't imagine anything that could be.

tomgruner 13y ago

Fasting occasionally under supervision may have benefits, but it is nothing compared to maintaining a healthy balanced diet combined with exercise. If you really want to take care of yourself, do it every day - don't just save it for a fitness binge like this. Check out something like the anticancer book by the late Dr. David Servan-Schreiber or try out any diet high in veggies and low in processed foods, focussing on occasional high quality meats, eggs and fish. You will be a better hacker for it.

patrickg_zill 13y ago

Slightly off-topic perhaps? I will say that for me, breaking the carb addiction was key to weight loss and feeling better. You can go keto-only or some other diet or a fast, but being able to go through a period of time with a low amount of carbs, and then realizing how crappy I felt after a typical high-carb meal, really helped me stick to a lower-carb diet. But can I also add, "only in America" would you have a place where you pay exorbitant amounts to drink only water and you stay there. However did monks and gurus manage without it?

lotsofcows 13y ago

Oh look, he took a six day holiday where it was all about him and now he feels great! Of course it was because od the ridiculous diet. This stuff reminds me of shamanism: "Oh yes, it's a devil. You need to take all your family (to pray for and with you) on a 10 day journey to 3 different temples 100 miles away while eating only these prescribed foods." Ta-da, cures almost anything.

dariye 13y ago

(y). I will give this a try

dariye 13y ago

(y). I will give this a try