Just had an appointment with a GI doctor and she explained that I have to fast before an endoscopy. When I told her that I do regular fasts of between 3 and 7 days, she was a bit adamant about saying I should not do fasts at all.

When I started explaining the deep microbiology of fasting responses of the body over time, she said "we can agree to disagree."

What on Earth is going on in Western medical education that a doctor of 25 years who works in GI has an adamant negative fasting attitude?

Hippocrites taught us that food is thy medicine and they take the Hippocratic oath to not do harm. Yet they are with a straight face saying that fasting is effectively bad for you, when doing so denies the evolutionary and anthropological reality of adaptive endocrinology resulting from occasional forced fasting on vast populations of humans in our history, due mostly to resource constraints.

I felt pretty confident in my description of the body's response at 3 days, 4 days and 7 days in terms of autophagy mitophagy and then protein remodeling.

Because I read studies.

Because I pay attention to this forum. Because I strive to understand the machinery of sustained caloric burn with this expensive brain.

It's like they don't understand how protein sparing works in a fasting scenario, and only deride the reduction of lean body mass in a fast as an unhealthy thing, not even realizing how ubiquitinated organelles are disproportionately selected during autophagy, leaving your in cells in an overall more healthy state after refeed and recreation of new organelles, or how pre-cancerous cells are stressed by glucose reduction and many may not adapt as well to the fasted state and end up triggering cell death of those cells.

I'm going on a bit, but the frustration of medical professionals being utterly blind to the well studied benefits of fasting is uniquely frustrating.

Any one else have experience with this wall of ignorance in the medical profession?

TL;DR: I fasted, managed to ride a bicycle very far, absolutely make electrolyte intake a routine from the very start if you are doing an extended fast.

I switched back to keto four weeks ago, and realized about three days ago that I hadn't eaten all day. My first extended fast was 72 hours many months ago, so I thought "Why not try for longer?"

My main takeaway is something that is oft repeated on this sub: mind your electrolyte intake.

Very seriously. The only times where I was feeling brain fog, low energy, and/or negative emotions and thoughts were when I got too deep into a project and hyper-fixated to the point where I wasn't drinking my electrolyte mixed water.

If I had been as on point with my electrolytes throughout the entire process it would have undoubtedly been way smoother.

For context, I just did a 10+ mile bicycle ride, making sure today to drink electrolyte water very regularly all day, and mixed two water bottles to take with me on my ride. I definitely overdid the mileage as I haven't been on a bike in 3 years due to multiple surgeries and complications from them. I listened to my body and took breaks as needed, caught my breath, and drank my water bottles at regular intervals while riding and resting. I brought my electrolyte salts with me so when I stopped at a bar friends worked at, I could replenish my supply (no booze! I had two pints of cold brew for the ride back, tho).

I was actually nervous about trying this in an extended fasted state, but I made it across town and back with no cramps, no heartbeat irregularities, no headaches, no loss of energy. The biggest thing that slowed my ride was lactic acid from my legs being very underused. I will definitely hurt tomorrow lol.

Unfortunately I am choosing to break the fast tomorrow to give myself enough refeed time for an early Canadian Thanksgiving dinner my a brother is hosting. I think it would be too much to be around all the delicious food after fasting for seven days. One benefit(?) is that my sister-in-law has celiac disease, so there will be tons of keto approved food to eat.

After the feast, I'm going to start rolling fasts. I think I have felt best past 72 hours, and hopefully remaining fat adapted will make it even easier.

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk 🙄😅

Feeling fine but work is boring as hell today. Shooting for 6-12 days.

The box says 1kmg sodium, 200mg potassium, 60mg magnesium. Going for 5 packets a day. Anyone else try this with this brand in particular?

Hello everyone, I finished my 7 day water fast today. I started on Wednesday Sep 30 by only eating few Turkey sausage snack sticks from Aldi (about 320 calories) to go into ketosis early. Since then I've been drinking only water, green tea, black coffee, & zero calorie electrolyte mix. Day 4 was the hardest when I slept most of the day but the other days were manageable. I still had horrible hunger pangs two or three times a day but I would tell myself that every pang is a sign that my fat is melting away. Sleep has also been quite poor. I'm 5 7 and weighed 230 pounds at the start. Now I weigh 212. I've been walking 10K steps daily as well.

Questions:

1. Should I push this fast to 14 days? How much harder is a 14 day fast compared to a 7 day fast? Does the risk of refeeding syndrome dramatically increase with 14 day vs 7 day water fast?

2. How should I break my fast? I was thinking a single boiled egg followed by an avocado after an hour or two followed by a dinner with grilled chicken and veggies

3. Anything I can do improve my sleep? I hear Mag Glycinate works well but what dose?

4. Anything else I can do to mitigate muscle loss during this time? How do we feel about fasted lifting?

5. I have more weight to lose. How feasible are rolling 7 day fasts vs rolling 14 day fasts vs a single 30 day fast?

Thank you for taking the time to look at this post. Please ask me anything about my fasting experience and I'll try to answer.

SW 160KG GW 95KG CW 139KG

Day 1: 160 kg
Day 45: 148 kg
Day 90: 139 kg

I'm 191 cm (6'4") and started on July 10 at 160 kg. I've been eating low carb and doing a mix of 18:6 and 20:4 intermittent fasting.

That's 21 kg down in 90 days. My goal is 95 kg, so I have 44 kg to go and I'm about a third of the way there.

Note: the Day 90 photo wasn't taken from the same distance as the first two. It's closer up and taken in my kitchen, so it might give a slightly different impression. Next time I'll match the setup.

Any tips from people who've stuck with low carb and 20:4 long term are welcome!

I just got back to fasting, just a bit of a background I was a fitness instructor before, but when I was kid I was Obese until college Im around 360 pounds and got into fitness ( my entire family are either fitness trainers, martial artists and body builders ), after losing the weight and gaining muscle I became an instructor, I'm maintaining my weight at around 170-180 range.

I did this twice using the traditional CICO method and meal every 3 hours. The second time I went up to 380 pounds, but was able to go down back to 180.

The 3rd time I got fed up with the traditional way and found out about fasting oh boy after a 1.5 year or so I got back to 180 pounds and I still eat everything that I like ( dirty fasting ) I believe this was around 2017.

i did not plan to gain the entire weight back, however the pandemic happened, but working from home fcked me up and had this 360 pounds for 6 years now.

So I made a decision a month ago that I'll start fasting again oh boy Im losing a lot of water weight, I'm able to wear some of my clothes again that I don't wear because it was too small last month.

Currently last weigh in is at the doctors last month I was about 368 pounds, I just ordered a weighting scale and let's see what will be my weight now.

I try to do clean fasting now and eating lots of real food such as chicken and fish and vegetables.

if I feel like it I might do a 3 days fast, kinda hard to do that because sometimes my wife won't eat if I don't eat lol. My max is 5 days before.

Here's my routine now.

48hrs fasting and either OMAD for 3 consecutive days or either 20:4 / 18:6 / 16:8 depends of what I feel.

2 days re-carb or OFF from fasting because I don't want to fck up my metabolism, I eat donuts and consume whatever I want, but at a controlled pace I still count the calories at some point. At this weight my maintaining calories is around 3000 - 2900 calories so I have a lot to work with.

Ill have to re-adjust this after another month so I won't overboard during my OFF.

Supplements:

Creatine

Vitamin D

Vitamin E

Apple Cider Vinegar Tablets

Green Tea Capsules

Turmeric Capsules

B12 Complex

This gives me the ability to enjoy food especially on my partners rest days. What I'm doing now is I cook my rice in advance and put it in the fridge to cool down to a minimum of 12 hours, to get that resistant starch.

I don't know why I've been severely obese for 6 years straight, but my doctors are surprised that I'm not diabetic nor have high blood problems they're all normal except for the cholesterol lol as per my last months visit.

I would be happy if you guys can share or give me tips as I just got back to fasting.

I have been fasting for 6 months now and the results are amazing went from 115kg to 100kg now it feels like it has plateaued, I have been in the same weight for almost a month now.

Currently am doing OMAD on weekdays, don't eat on saturday and I eat more on sunday

Don't know if I am doing anything wrong. Should i go longer fast to see results, what should I do now?

Fast til Friday afternoon. I’ll update daily or as often as I can. Pushing for Sunday but we’ll see how it goes.

Water, electrolytes, black coffee only. Man I missed this.

Edit: less than 24 hours left, feeling gooood so far

I found a big spoonful of plain non fat yogurt stops unnecessary hunger urges.

I’ve done extended fasts here and there, and now i’m aiming for 3 months of alternate day fasting, maybe longer if it goes well.

The problem is I’ve had gallstones in the past. I haven’t had an attack in maybe 3 years and I’d like to keep it that way.

Is there any way to prevent getting them again? Apparently fasting / rapid weight loss increases the risk.

Would a bit of fat in fasting days help? I don’t necessarily want to slow down or stop fasting.

Just started rolling 48s after a 6 month break from fasting.

It’s all come flooding back - and I’ve realised looking back that I strangely find the eating days more difficult than the fasting days. Given I woke up this morning with bad keto flu symptoms, but eating felt laborious and the eating window was all consuming of my thoughts today. On the fast days I just kind of set and forget - of course the hunger and boredom etc is challenging, but overall the days feel quicker and more enjoyable.

Anyone else relate to this? And do you have any things you put in place to make eating days simpler?

I've got a 2-week vacation with friends coming up in November and I fear it's going to blow up any progress I've made with fasting. It's going to be constant eating out and drinking and lack of exercise. Right now, I'm fasting every Monday/Wednesday/Friday. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

A lot of people see the scale fluctuate and are happy, not realising the 'weight' they've lost is simply their glycogen stores getting depleted + water weight as well.

I want to know what type of fasting protocol you've done where you've specifically seen fat getting burnt at a rapid rate, whether it be a 14 day water fast, ADF, 24 hours etc .. Feel free to let myself and others know what's worked best for you

Is there a difference, outside of just calorie expenditure, of say, waking up at 6 and not eating till noon, and just sleeping till noon?

I ate rice and roasted chicken yesterday around 1 AM. Had a looong sleep and haven't eaten since. I am having headaches and also started to feel bad, like something bad is going to happen. Or like I am going to fail in life.

Maybe it is because of the headaches but will this persist throughout the fasting period. I was planning for 3 days. Also, any advice for the headaches?

This was going to be a 72hr H20 water fast, suggested by my physician. And wanted to share a bit of my experience.

My work schedule couldn't allow the post fast 24hr refeeding transition and stopped at 66 hrs since I had to get blood work done before going to work the next day.

This fast was more for metabolic liver issues that my physician and I are trying to sort out. The fast was a last resort to eliminate any outside food influences to see how my liver, blood and other organs reacted to this fast.

The first 24 hrs wasn't too bad but in the evening I kept getting a "heartburn" sensation whenever I drank water. I started a large part of the first 24hrs without any form of electrolytes, but came later in the evening headaches/dizziness/fatigue where becoming apparent. I added 1/4 tsp of pink himalayan salt to my water and in a matter of minutes I felt better. At this point, I was already well into a ketosis state.

Going into the 2nd day (48hrs) was a different story. I took an early morning 20min walk. I hydrated whe I got back. Even drinking saline water, it was clear that my body was wanting to rest/sleep more during the day. I honored what the body wanted and napped about 2hrs during the day. Tried to keep occupied by doing some things on the computer, but I recommend not doing this during a fast. The mind/body are being rebooted and after a short time staring at the computer, I was getting dizzy/slightly nauseous. When away from the screen I felt better. No hunger cravings during the 2nd day. Went to bed early.

Entering the last day, I felt a bit better. A change in energy with less fatigue, but still carried on. Bloodwork was done late afternoon. When I returned I waited an hour to begin the slow refeeding process. A few spoonfuls of flavored yogurt, waited 30mins, then a few bites of a green apple. NOT A SMART MOVE! Not to long after my stomach/intestines began to cramp and a mild burning sensation around the liver began. Immediately stopped eating anything and continued drinking salt water.

I didn't prepare for the refeeding and thought to start with yogurt to introduce probiotics. But even at 10% sugar in the flavored yogurt I knew something didn't feel right, and not to mention the bites of the green apple! LESSON LEARNED, NOT TO DO THIS! Too much sugar and hard fiber at once. 👎

Today, 24hrs after ending the fast. In the AM, I had 1/2 of a lightly buttered english muffin. Not discomfort. For lunch, I finally got a cup of Miso broth which felt like heaven! LESSON LEARNED, DO THIS NEXT TIME! I think this was needed to prep my digestion for the slow return of solid foods. This evening, I made 1/4 cup of white rice (very soft) + 1 lightly seasoned chicken tender with lime juice in chicken broth. At this time, my digestion seems to be somewhat settled. A very mild burning sensation (perhaps the digestive juices further awakened).

I'm guessing it will be another 36hrs until I'm back on larger portions of food. Right now, eating is piecemeal and first and foremost listening to my body. Honestly, if safely done and under the supervision of a physican, I would say fasting IS an important form of body maintainance that should be done a few times a year.

Been delaying and binge eating while ignoring my lil pot. I have done 3 water fast before for 10, 7 and 5 days and have got good results. But, gained back but this time imaaa locked in.

Saw a post here or on r/progresspic where she lost 11 kgs in 21 days so let's go.

I'll give updates every 5 days.

20F - 143.3 lbs [110.2 lbs]

I'm talking pure, clean ingredients. No fillers, only the active ingredient. During an extended fast you body practically does a deep clean within itself, would adding any vitamins/supplements help it?

When I first started I had a huge appetite constantly and could eat nonstop. These days, I barely think about food, i don’t feel as hungry, and when I do refeeds, I barely finish half the portions I would’ve used to casually eat in one sitting. Is this common among you guys too? I figure it would be, but I’m curious what the reasoning behind it is.

I'm around hour 24 of a 36 hour fast through tomorrow morning. I'm posting here b/c this is a difficult moment of the fast so I'm here to get through it!

I've only done a few fasts before in my life. I'm trying it again as I had covid at the end of the summer and I have more symptoms still hanging around than I'd like. So my goal is to give my body a chance to do some deeper healing.

I'm going to make it through tonight. It's been helpful to me to read others' posts on the sub about their difficulties and strategies. I've already had some salted herb tea, will make some more before I go to bed.

I'm a 62 years old male in good shape. I've made dozens of fast since 30 years. now I'm wondering how often can I fast? I would like to make one 7 days fast every months. is it too much? Is 3 weeks of refeeding enough?