MY EXPERIENCE WITH EXTENDED FASTING
Disclaimer: this blog post is intended for informational purposes only. The information shared is not medical advice, nor should be construed as medical advice. I am sharing information regarding extended fasting and my personal experience with doing it. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions you may have regarding your health and nutrition program.
What is fasting?
Well, let’s be honest. Everybody, when they are not eating, is fasting. Intermittent fasting (IF) is a way to incorporate regular periods of fasting into your daily meal schedule. It’s called 16/8, where you eat within an 8 hour window and then fast for 16 hours. Some people like to push themselves to 24 hours, so you eat one meal and then you eat another meal in 24 hours. It’s all about fitting it within your own comfort zone of what you can do.
Long-Term fasting is great when it comes to improving your health, reducing cravings and jump starting your weight loss. There is a ton of research out there to support its usefulness, but I became interested in longer fasts after coming across Jimmy Moore’s podcast Fasting Talk.
According to Jimmy and his co-host Dr. Jason Fung, there are many different ways to do a long-term fast: Water Fast: Water fasting is only drinking water. You don’t eat. Water + non-caloric beverages: The most common fast is consuming water/tea/black coffee Bone broth: Bone broth adds great healthy fats and contains a lot of protein, so it’s technically not a true fast. However, based on Jason’s clinical experience, many who do a bone broth fast still see good results. And in his book, The Complete Guide to Fasting, he says “If you’re getting the results you want and it’s making it easier for you to stick to the program, then you should do it.”
Long-Term Fasting Benefits
Weight Loss:
The most common and highly researched benefit of a long-term fast is weight loss. When you are not eating anything, the weight will start to come off your body pretty quick. Your body will start to burn off the glycogen (sugar) stores in your liver, typically during the first 24 hours. Once all of the sugars are gone, your body will need to run on what it has stored, which would be fat. What that means now is that you have switched from a sugar burning state to a fat burning state.
According to Dr. Fung, a pound of fat is roughly 3,500 calories, and if you are eating somewhere around 1,800 to 2,000 calories a day, it can take two full days of fasting to burn a single pound of fat. After a few days, your body turns to its fat stores for energy (also known as ketosis). A long fast can be used as a way of staying in ketosis for an extended period of time, since you are forcing your body to rely entirely on its far stores instead of dietary fat intake.
Other benefits:
By switching to a fat burning state, fasting can increase your energy opposed to leaving you feeling exhausted. Fasting helps gain access to all of the energy that is already within your body. It forces your body to start accessing those energy stores and you will suddenly have an unlimited supply of energy.
In addition to weight loss and increased energy, fasting also promotes autophagy, which is basically detoxifying the cells in your body. Since your body is basically eating its own fat, it has a chance to recycle any junk that may have built up, eliminate wasteful processes and repaired the damage.
Another benefit of extended fasting is purely mental: mind over matter. It is a way to reset your relationship with food and free yourself from patterns of emotional eating. Fasting is also a part of many religious and spiritual practices because of its mindfulness. Keep in mind that fasting can require a high level of self-awareness and effort.
My experience with fasting
Now that I’ve given you quite a bit of information, let’s get down to why you are here: my experience with extended fasting. This was the first time I have ever done a longer fast. I do occasionally intermittent fast, but I jumped into this with both feet (something Jason recommends not doing, but I listened to my body and broke the fast when I needed to).
Day 1: My first day of fasting was pretty normal. I wasn’t feeling hungry, and I didn’t have the urge to want to eat. I had a pretty snacky day the day before (Daytona 500), so I know that I had a lot of glycogen to burn off. I drank mainly water with lemon and that helped me get through the day. I did my normal HIIT session workout and got through that without any issues.
Day 2: They say that day 2-3 is the worst when it comes to fasting because you have burned all of your sugar stores and the ghrelin hormone starts to kick in. This was definitely true. I started to feel hungry around noon, and it didn’t help that my team at work got Jet’s pizza for a 3 hour meeting! I was starting to feel pretty shaky, but I drank some black tea and that seemed to hold me over until I got home. When I got home, I made myself a cup of bone broth and I felt fine the rest of the night.
Day 3: I woke up on day 3 feel a little hungry, but not nearly as weak and shaky as I had felt the day before. I went to the gym, but my head was not in it. I couldn’t focus on my work out. I wouldn’t say I had brain fog, but I definitely didn’t feel like my work out was as good as it could have been. I continued drinking water throughout the day and had a low carb kombucha when I got home.
Day 4: I woke up feeling the same way I did on day 3, mentally, so I decided to stay home and relax before work. I did not have any hunger cravings and I wasn’t feeling weak or shaky anymore. I was pretty content, and felt happy that I made it through 3 days. My energy was pretty high and I didn't have any overall issues than normal.
Day 5: The hunger completely subsided and my mind didn’t even think about eating food. It was tough though, scrolling through Instagram and seeing all of the good food posts people had on their feeds, but I didn’t feel the urge to get up and grab a snack.
Day 6: This is where things changed. I woke up and went to the gym. Had a great work out, but as soon as I got home, my energy had gone down a ton. I went out shopping for the entire afternoon, and headed home around 5. I was completely out of it. I had such high brain fog, felt exhausted and couldn’t focus. I even had a hard time keeping up when walking through the stores. I went home and had a nap but was still feeling groggy. I made a cup of bone broth that seemed to hold me over the rest of the night.
Day 7: Waking up on the last day, I knew that I had to listen to my body and eat something. Based on everything I had read/listened/researched, day 6 should have been day 4. I made it until about 1 o’clock and decided to break my fast. They say introducing food back into your body should be a slow process, so I gave myself about ¼ cup of almonds before my first meal. I had some oats and granola around 2, and that was enough for me for the rest of the day.
Overall, would I do it again?
Yes, absolutely! Even though the last day of my fast was a bit off, I don’t think I’ll let that deter me from trying it again. This was my first ever fast, so I expected there would be some complications. The most you continue to fast, the better and easier it becomes. To me, it was more important to figure out the relationship with my body in regard to food. It helped me feel what its like to be hungry vs. when my mind just thinks I am.
Unfortunately, I did not take any measurements as far as my blood glucose levels or my ketone levels. That is something I will definitely do next time. I did however lose 9.6 pounds, and 4 inches off my waist line.
Overall, fasting just makes sense to me. It’s like a reset button for your entire body. It puts your body into repaired more and can restore hormonal function. If you can tolerate fasting and derive some subjective benefits, then those possible long-term benefits I mentioned above make it worth it in the end.
Update: Since writing this blog post, I did another 7 day fast and felt great! I did not have any hunger cravings, fogginess, or lack of energy like I did the first time around. I lasted the full 7 days and broke my fast late on day 7. Jason does mention that the more often you fast, the more easier it becomes.
Have you ever tried IF or extended fasting? Let me know how it worked, or hasn’t worked, with your lifestyle! //
To a life in full,
♡Amanda
Resources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21106691
https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Fasting-Intermittent-Alternate-Day/dp/1628600012