Last meal I had was Monday at around 6pm. Haven’t eaten since. Only drink water and electrolytes. I’m pretty hyped. I haven’t done an extended day fast in almost a year cause I have just been super stressed with work and life. Finally had a moment where I was gonna be alone for about a week and so with no one else cooking and eating around me it was the perfect opportunity.

I’ve done several of these extended day fast over the past few years. My longest was 162 hours or just shy of 7 full days. I am tempted to go for a 7 day this time but not sure if I want to get that close to the Thanksgiving holiday. Refeeding properly takes 2-3 days minimum. The longer the fast the longer you should spend refeeding. By “refeeding” I mean, eating small portions steadily over a few days increasing size and amount as you go till you are having normal sized meals again.

For anyone that is going to go one some “fasting isn’t good for you” rant, do some actual research please. https://youtu.be/7nJgHBbEgsE There has been a lot of good research done into therapeutic fasting. It is a perfectly safe and normal thing to do if you don’t have some medical condition and are intaking the proper electrolytes. The human body evolved to be able to go long periods without food.

Only in the past hundred years or so have humans abandoned fasting at large and I feel a large part of this is the promotion of excessive consumption by capitalism. Almost ever culture on earth has had some fasting tradition in it’s history and many still do. It really is an empowering thing to do. Until I started intermittent daily fasting, and later extended day fasting I didn’t understand how much food ruled my life.

  • Red Phoenix
    link
    71 year ago

    Good for you! I started fasting a few years ago and I love it. I do intermitant fasting every day and try to do multi-day fasts every month or so. I did a five day fast a few weeks ago for the first time and it was awesome. I’d recommend fasting for the health benefits to anyone who can do it.

    • @201dbergOP
      link
      7
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I love how I feel mentally. I’m not sure how to describe it but, as long as your water and electrolyte intake is good and you get enough sleep, my mind feels “clean” and focused. As if I have been driving around with a dirty/foggy windshield and then one day it gets cleaned and you are like “holy shit everything is so clear and crisp looking”. Mood wise I am usually I’m higher spirits. I think a part of that is your mentality going into the fast too. Like I look at this as an accomplishment and as something I am doing to better myself. Taking the reigns kind of thing. There’s lots of talk about how much you gut microbe controls what you do/eat and the way you feel. A part of fasting to me is saying “this is my body and I’m the driver. I eat when I say.”

      I will say, personally, I tend to be a little more hyperactive and will snap as some stuff more readily. On the other hand though it’s usually things that I would snap at anyway, like shitty programs at work and stuff, I’m just a little quicker to get annoyed with it but also recover from it and move on. Like things don’t linger in my mind like the normally do.

      I think a big part of it is it’s your bodies way of putting you into “hunter gatherer” mode. Where it’s like “ok so we are not eating which means we need to find food so we are gonna clean this shit up and get you working at peak efficiency so you can go find/hunt us some food.” Which would explain why I feel like my reflexes are faster and I’m more focused on my surroundings. Then, since I’m not actually hunting shit or searching for food, I can use that focus and mental clarity on other things.

      • Arsen6331 ☭
        link
        31 year ago

        I usually don’t switch into hunter-gatherer mode. I switch into “don’t move, you don’t have enough energy” mode. It actually becomes more difficult for me to get food.

  • @DoghouseCharlie
    link
    71 year ago

    Congratulations! Yeesh, I feel withered just thinking about it though. Do you exercise while you’re fasting? Do you lose a lot of weight?

    • @201dbergOP
      link
      41 year ago

      I stay active but I don’t do a lot of intense exercise. You don’t want to lift heavy or tear your muscles. Cardio is fine though. I did do daily 1 mile walks on my treadmill and one day I did a 4.5 mile walk. Other than sore feet (common when I walk a lot on it) I didn’t feel too bad. Weight loss is steady and you can only really judge your weight before the fast and a few days after because you will loose a lot of water weight from depleting your glycogen stores and also poo weight as you empty the colon out after a few days. lol. My first 7 day fast I maybe lost around 4lbs of actual fat that stayed off for an extended period. The main benefit was to how I ate afterwards and other benefits to my body and mental state. It’s like a spring cleaning for your body really. Causing your cells to recycle damaged parts and build new healthy cells from old damaged one. Cells will also recycle and eliminate stuff like broken viruses and bacteria and other “junk” they have laying around. After 3 days you immune system goes into overdrive in rebuilding and replacing old and damaged cells. This is where they have done research on fasting having an anticancer effect. As newer, healthier, properly operating, immune cells are created and the older ones recycled the newer cells are more effective at locating and noticing cancer cells. Also as the body is more actively looking for damaged cells to recycle a cancer cells is more likely to be noticed. This is all part of the theory behind it. There’s some good studies done on the effects of fasting on cancer but the mechanism for why isn’t full understood. But we know that a dysfunctional immune system is definitely a major factor and we also know fasting helps rejuvenate the immune system. Most effectively after 72 hours.

  • @redtea
    link
    61 year ago

    My initial response to the idea of fasting for so long is one of horror.

    I think, ‘Nooo! That can’t be good; look after yourself, comrade 201dberg.’

    At the same time, I think ‘That’s some determination. I hope you make it.’ So I was going to cheer you on. Then I noticed you posted this 10 hours ago and I’m curious: did you make it?

    And now I’ve read some of your detailed responses, I’m much more open to the idea. If you’re right, it might be worth trying it. Something much shorter to start with.

    Can you link to some research you consider to be worth reading? Or maybe to an old post where you have provided links in the past?

    • @201dbergOP
      link
      41 year ago

      The video in the post is one of the best sources I have. There’s a fasting subreddit with a ton of info on it. And yes I just passed my goal. lol. I was gonna make a post with my final time. lmao

      • @redtea
        link
        51 year ago

        I’ll watch that video, thanks. In my excitement, I missed the link. I realised how close you were to achieving a superhuman feat and needed to ask. Anyway, congratulations!

        • Max
          link
          41 year ago

          Here’s some scientific research from this year, as opposed to, y’know, a CrossFit advertisement.

          https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8754590/

          In summary, fasting not only leads to negative emotional states such as irritability but also positive psychological experiences such as a sense of reward, accomplishment, pride, and control. However, the sample sizes of the studies above were generally too small. Before intermittent fasting is recommended to be widely implemented in the population for the purpose of improving human health, there are still many issues that need to be further studied and clarified, including the method of intermittent fasting (fasting time, duration, and frequency), applicable population (age, gender, weight, and health status), long-term compliance, and safety. Hence, it is necessary to conduct larger and longer-term studies to determine whether intermittent fasting or other modified fasting regimens can be a viable option for diet and lifestyle.

  • Arsen6331 ☭
    link
    5
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    How do you deal with the pain? I feel unbearable pain if I haven’t eaten for longer than 6 hours or so. Usual repetitive noise starts to make me angry. For example, my mom took a few forks out of a drawer. I was about ready to throw something. Even light starts making me angry, and it’s not just annoyance, it’s actual, extreme anger, mostly because I can handle less sensory input and therefore am extremely overstimulated at that moment. It basically starts to become impossible to exist. This usually happens to me when I’m waiting for food and it’s taken a few hours longer than expected for my parents to make. At that point, I’ll usually grab a snack of some kind and go wait in a dark, quiet room. About 5 minutes after eating the snack, the aforementioned effects fade, but that won’t last more than about an hour unless I eat an actual meal.

    • @201dbergOP
      link
      5
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I have never experienced this. Do you eat lots of high carb foods? This sounds like some carb addiction or something. When you subsist on mainly carbs, especially processed carbs, your insulin highs and lows get crazy and it really messes with you. One of the biggest reasons to fast is to help with insulin control and sensitivity. Also the video I linked on the post goes into hunger as well.

      Fasting is something you have to build up to. You can’t just up and do a multi day fast on the fly. Or even a full day fast for that matter. I built up to and did one meal a day fasting for a while and generally eat very low carbs and avoid processed foods. So going into a multi day fast for me now is simply skipping one meal every day and is something I can just flow into. The easiest thing for me was just not eating breakfast and then eating lunch. That’s an automatic 16osj hour fast right there. People forget that’s sleeping is an 8 hour fast.

      It is also a very big mind of matter thing. In the initial stages your body and more accurately your gut bacteria start releasing compounds that make you feel terrible and want to eat. This is even more extreme with the kind of gut bacteria that thrive on sugars and processed carbs. It’s literally like an addiction. There have even been studies showing sugar is one of the most addictive substances humans consume. These kinds of gut bacteria are generally bad for you overall gut health. Fasting is one of the fastest and harshest ways to kill them off but when they die off they will make you feel even more terrible. I experienced a little bit of this my first long fast but not super severe because I had already changed my eating habits for some time. Afterwards when I started eating again I ate lots of probiotic rich foods and my guy health was amazing after that and it drastically changed what I craved and how often I wanted to eat.

      • Arsen6331 ☭
        link
        5
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        My diet is not nearly as unhealthy as most people here in the US, but it’s not too healthy either. I tend to eat bread a lot, especially during breakfast and dinner, because sandwiches are easy to make and I don’t know how to make much else and my parents are either at work or sleeping at the time. I do not, however, eat a lot of processed food or drink sodas or anything of the sort at all. I also do not like burgers, which is very abnormal for someone in the US.

        The sensory issues with light and sound are caused by an amplification of my already existing sensory issues. I experience them constantly, just much more severe when I’m hungry. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was caused by low blood sugar due to the insulin highs and lows you mentioned.

        As for the pain, I have no idea what causes that. I just have always felt pain in my stomach if I don’t eat for too long.

  • Muad'DibberA
    link
    31 year ago

    Well done! I’ve been having decent luck hitting my weight goal using calorie counting, but I might try out IF soon!

    • @201dbergOP
      link
      31 year ago

      Thanks! I never could get calorie counting to work. I think I’m more susceptible to it lowering my metabolism. Also it’s easier for me to just not eat, than it is to eat only a little. The video I posted is a good presentation by Dr. Jason Fung who has done a lot of work around fasting and why the typical calorie counting diets tend to not work long term for a lot of people. It wasn’t till I started IF that I was able to loose weight and keep it off.