Fasting - all types (intermittent, long, dry, etc)

Papist

Papist

Trad Catholic
Heritage
Anyone fast for long periods for health benefits?

If you fast (i.e. abstain from food) for religious reasons, have you noticed any health benefits?

I have been looking at fasting in order to trigger autophagy, heal my leaky gut and to gain the myriad of other benefits (weight loss, improved microbiome, spiritual, etc).

It instructs us to fast in the Bible.
 
GodfatherPartTwo said:
I generally do intermittent fasting. Sometimes even sticking to one meal a day (make it a good meal). I have been slimming down, keeping strength, and feeling less desire for crappy food.
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For a few of the last weeks or months of last year, I was eating one meal a day. Not really voluntary as I was juggling sleep and study. Don't remember how long this lasted, but it was alright enough. My family always made a big deal out of fasting. Lost a bit of weight and had barely any issues. I'd definitely recommend fasting of some kind for a while, for anyone who hasn't already. It kind of changes how you look at food.

I did get organizized later, however.

The desire for goyslop very much stopped, but that was a bit after I started doing it. What time of day did you eat your one meal? I was eating at night almost all the time. This created a bit of anticipation for the meal, but that stopped after I set up a specific hour and meal "plan" routine.

Do note, some medication makes fasting PAINFUL. I was on some goyed meds a few years ago, and that gives you so much hunger that I was eating lunch at the time, and 20 minutes later feeling as hungry as I was before it. The one guy I met who also took the same claimed it gave him a "nutrition disorder" or something, and he was morbidly obese.
I can't really detail if that was my specific medication, but I'm going shrug it off as another reason not to take (((anti-psychotics))).

Edited too much because I'm using a different keyboard from the stone age.
 
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I do "snake diet" which is electrolyte fasting + someone shouting at you.

Also ketostix to measure ketosis, refeeding on protein and fat heavy meals.

The most I ever did was 5 days but I usually do 3 days followed by a few rolling 48s.

As needed, but am about to do it again as am a few kilos more than I should be at the moment.

Can be quite an intense state in the middle of the longer fasts..
 
I used to fast more, need to get back into it. The longest I ever fasted was 4 days (actually longer when I was a young man who was heartbroken and couldn't eat anything for weeks and I lost 40 pounds. I don't ever remember being afraid of what was happening to me and I never felt weird and I had an active 10k steps a day job at the time). With the 4-day fast the worst part was how dry my mouth constantly felt and how bad my breath was. That was something no one ever talked about but I honestly couldn't wait to eat again just so my mouth could feel moist and clean. I did the 4-day fast because I heard somewhere that was how long it took for your good bacteria to eat the bad bacteria in your gut. I think I had better digestion for months afterwards, but this was 4 years ago so my memory is fuzzy.
 
Fasting is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Controlling the lower appetites is completely necessary for you to improve your impulse control and to subordinate your lower appetites to your right reason.

I hope you, as a traditional Catholic, are following all the traditional days of fasting and abstinence. In addition to those days, I would recommend performing a Catholic fast once a week. Eat 3 meals. Make 1 meal medium sized (large enough for you to feel content, but not full, and certainly not stuffed), and 2 small meals (when you put together these 2 meals, they are not larger than the 1 medium sized meal).

From the regular performance of this type of fast, you will learn not to overeat and not to snack. You will become less impulsive and more reasoned and measured in your life.
 
stadtaffe said:
I do "snake diet" which is electrolyte fasting + someone shouting at you.

Also ketostix to measure ketosis, refeeding on protein and fat heavy meals.

The most I ever did was 5 days but I usually do 3 days followed by a few rolling 48s.

As needed, but am about to do it again as am a few kilos more than I should be at the moment.

Can be quite an intense state in the middle of the longer fasts..
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I've seen his videos: "OI FATTY!" :LOL:
 
I started skipping breakfast about 15 years ago. I have diabetes that run in my family through my native Indian genes, and during a routine health check I showed some early warnings. I was a healthy eater and always worked out, but I had a mentality that I needed breakfast otherwise I would gas out before lunch.

It took a couple weeks of getting used to, but once established it was a life changing moment. I had more energy, I was less hungry at lunch and I never got any stomach or digestion issues like I did sometimes when I ate breakfast.

I also bend the rules to some degree. I will have some jerky or nuts or chips sometimes in the evening if I want to watch some TV with my wife. But if instead of TV, we read books, than that urge to snack after 8pm is gone. Funny, that.
 
I will soon start a longer term program to drop a bit of weight, back to where I was and lower. Just a certain chapter I have been going through led me to overeat for a while and the extra weight is affecting athletic performance and optics. In my forties I do fear the weight thing could be a slippery slope. Was resisting the temptation to try to do something really long, like 5 days or longer as last time I really noted that it is way better to maintain a campaign over a month or so which looks like 3,2,2,2,2,2,2,2... days. Exactly what the snake diet proscribes, or used to proscribe before someone maybe warned him legally and he softened it slightly.

It needs a long campaign, not just a one-off 5 days. It was tempting to say "a month" but really, the length is when the target weight is reached.

I can't do it in periods where I have travel, when something upsetting is happening or am with my young daughter and have to eat with her not so something strange and confusing, can only do it when it's just me alone and I can keep the apartment mainly devoid of food so I don't crack and go to the fridge. Not too many social engagements in that period to drive me to food. Listen once a day or as needed to Cole Robinson as a reminder.

I will do sport on the refeed days, leaning towards weights, maybe the odd tennis game but will try not to do the 60 minute cardio things I would normally do as it creates such an intense blood sugar swing it throws the routine out and makes it likely to drop it altogether. "snake walking" as he proscribes is better..

Did have some nasty road rage some time last year when someone blocked my car in just when I needed to drive out to get to a place and get a steak after two days of fasting. After that, and what happened on the rest of the drive, I will think twice before getting behind the wheel when in strong ketosis..

It's definitely healthy - for both body and mind. If your body is constantly "fed", it becomes quite untrained at living off fat and it needs periodic reminders to keep everything running right. This 3,2,2,2,.. is not a way to live, just something to do occasionally as needed. Would be good to have one's regular eating stable such that extremes were not necessary. I had a good run for many years where I was stable at a trim (but not cut) level but certain stressful events and age caused a departure from that eventually.
 
stadtaffe said:
I will do sport on the refeed days, leaning towards weights, maybe the odd tennis game but will try not to do the 60 minute cardio things I would normally do as it creates such an intense blood sugar swing it throws the routine out and makes it likely to drop it altogether. "snake walking" as he proscribes is better..
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Couldn't stop myself doing 20 minutes of intense cardio on a refeed day before lifting, will see what that does to it.

Walking, even fast walking is just not enough to feel okay day in day out.

I'm thinking of starting a cardio thread, given there's a lifters lounge, but no thread here to cover all that stuff.. They say 40 minutes is the minimum cardio for it to count I that seems like the starting point for me as well, 20 minutes does not feel like it counts. Cardio is very good for you and important for heart health and even blood lipids but I don't think it goes with fasting.

There was something I read which encouraged fasted cardio and at one stage I was starving for 48 hours then forcing myself to the running track. It felt very wrong however. There's a discussion here :
Some people must see a benefit in it.
 
I've successfully done Water only Fasts twice. Both were for 14 days.
For a couple of years there I did it to mark the start of the new year, as some kind of reset. If i'm honest it really wasn't a spiritual thing, but more of a detox.
I was in a position where I didn't have any heavy lifting or hard work. Pretty much used the time off Work to fast.

I'm hoping to do my first 40 Day Water only Fast this year.

Obvious benefits of previous fasts were incredible sleep and understanding the mental aspect of Food. Fasting is not easy, it is a war with desire. Especially mentally.
During these times I would only feel tired at 11pm and sleep till maybe 5am solid. Probably because the body doesn't need to digest so sleep cycles are pure and efficient.

An incredible experience. The best moments were prayer meetings. It's very hard to explain, and I know people will read this and think this is nonsense, but in a sense there was less blockage, or hinderance between you and God. I don't understand it, and it's not all feelings based, but when praying with others was incredibly profound and emotional. It was like despite all the B.S. I carry in my life, God just cut through and met me with mercy.


I don't do it regularly, as i've said, but massive respect for any Church Tradition that practices regular Fasting. Both times were incredible.
 
Hardly ever eaten breakfast throughout my whole life. Always thought that 'breakfast is the most important meal of the day' stuff to be either a hangover from when manul work was the norm or just a marketing slogan from cereal companies. Maybe I'm wrong.

I fast regularly for weight management / healthy living reasons, which makes oberving it for orthodoxy purposes actually very straightforward for me. Which perhaps defeats the point, but hey. I've got a sweet tooth so fasting with regular 48s and 72s (most was 96 hrs a few years ago) means I can indulge a bit without getting out of shape - something that gets harder as you get into late 30s.
 
I was ill all over December and the very begining of January. I couldn't keep anything down, so I decided that it was a prime time to try my first ever fast.

I did 80 hours in total, and I must admit, I felt great for it. I lost a stone and a half, and I felt energetic, both physically and mentally.

I definitely plan on making it a semi-regular thing. So my real question is, how often should I do a three day+ fast? What's a benificial amount of time, and what would have negatives, if any!

Cheers!
 
Kiwi said:
During these times I would only feel tired at 11pm and sleep till maybe 5am solid. Probably because the body doesn't need to digest so sleep cycles are pure and efficient.
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I also experience that early wakening and it becomes bothersome sometimes to wake up strangely early while fasting but that's how it is. 5am okay but I don't like it so much when its 4 something.
 
I have done 18:6 for ten consecutive days now and it's become very easy. Indeed on some days, I have fasted for 20 hours.

Unfortunately, I lack the discipline to fast much longer. Respect to @Kiwi - 14 days is some achievement. However, is it actually healthy to fast for 40 days?
 
I have done about 3 sets of 36:12 now to use the same units of measurement.

Initially was going for 72 but I cracked after about 50 hours at 10pm one night, bad time to crack, just before sleeping. My living situation is not yet quite right for that level of starvation. So have been sticking to "rolling 48s" and with one short intense bit of cardio in it.

Can't cope with 3 days at the moment I don't think. I'm losing weight but maybe not fast enough, will see what the scales say tomorrow.

I do think that electrolyte fasting is healthier than water fasting which is healthier than dry fasting. I'd probably never do the latter and have tried it with just water and there's too many unpleasant symptoms.
 
Can any boffins on here shed some light on the potential benefits, if any, of adding alternate day keto (carb-cycling, effectively) in addition to 18:6? I'm guessing it would trigger ketosis, but not for very long.
 
Papist said:
Can any boffins on here shed some light on the potential benefits, if any, of adding alternate day keto (carb-cycling, effectively) in addition to 18:6? I'm guessing it would trigger ketosis, but not for very long.
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I'm doing carnivore OMAD and feel quite well.

During lent I might try to do full day fasts again, and have smaller fish/egg/cheese meals on other fasting days. I'd like to do the full Traditional fasting calendar this year.
 
Papist said:
Can any boffins on here shed some light on the potential benefits, if any, of adding alternate day keto (carb-cycling, effectively) in addition to 18:6? I'm guessing it would trigger ketosis, but not for very long.
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Excerpts from the book "Tools of Titans" by Tim Ferriss, chapter is from an interview with Dr. Dominic “Dom” D’Agostino

Dr. Dominic “Dom” D’Agostino (TW: @DOMINICDAGOSTI2, KETONUTRITION.ORG), PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, and a senior research scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC). He has also deadlifted 500 pounds for 10 reps after a 7-day fast.

He’s a beast and—no big surprise—he’s a good buddy of Dr. Peter Attia, my MD friend (page 59) who consumed “jet fuel” in search of optimal athletic performance. The primary focus of Dom’s laboratory is developing and testing metabolic therapies, including ketogenic diets, ketone esters, and ketone supplements to induce nutritional/therapeutic ketosis, and low-toxicity metabolic-based drugs. Much of his work is related to metabolic therapies and nutritional strategies for peak performance and resilience in extreme environments. His research is supported by the Office of Naval Research, Department of Defense, private organizations, and foundations.
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Why Consider Ketosis or Supplemental Ketones?
  • Fat loss and body recomposition
  • Potent anti-cancer effects
  • Better use of oxygen: Dom can hold his breath for two times his normal duration when in deep ketosis (2 minutes → 4 minutes). I observed the same. Essentially, you can derive more energy per oxygen molecule with ketone metabolism. This oxygen utilization advantage is why some elite cyclists are experimenting with keto. This also helps performance at high altitudes, if you’re going from sea level to mountains, for instance.
  • Maintain or increase strength: In a study with 12 subjects, Dom demonstrated that even advanced weight lifters could maintain or increase strength, performance, and hypertrophy after 2 weeks of keto-adaptation, consuming 75 to 80% of calories from fat (supplemented with MCT and coconut oils) and restricting carbohydrates to 22 to 25 g per day. Ketones have an anti-catabolic protein-sparing and anti-inflammatory effect.
  • Lyme disease: (Caveat: This is a personal experience, not a double-blind study.) Reaching deep ketosis (for me, 3 to 6 mmol) through fasting, then continuing with calorie-restricted keto for a week, completely eradicated symptoms of Lyme disease when all else failed. It was the only thing that helped after my first course of antibiotics. It produced a night-and-day difference: a 10-time improvement in my mental performance and clarity. I suspect this relates to mitochondrial “rehab” and the anti-inflammatory effects of ketones. More than a year has passed and the symptoms have not returned, despite following the non-ketogenic Slow-Carb Diet (see page 81) 90% of the time.
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WHY CONSIDER FASTING?

Dom has discussed the idea of a therapeutic “purge fast” with his colleague Dr. Thomas Seyfried of Boston College. Per Dom: “If you don’t have cancer and you do a therapeutic fast 1 to 3 times per year, you could purge any precancerous cells that may be living in your body.”

If you’re over the age of 40, cancer is one of the four types of diseases (see Dr. Peter Attia on page 59) that will kill you with 80% certainty, so this seems like smart insurance.

There is also evidence to suggest—skipping the scientific detail—that fasts of 3 days or longer can effectively “reboot” your immune system via stem cell–based regeneration. Dom suggests a 5-day fast 2 to 3 times per year.

Dom has done 7-day fasts before, while lecturing at the University of South Florida. On day 7, he went into class with his glucose between 35 and 45 mg/dL, and his ketones around 5 mmol. Then, before breaking the fast, he went to the gym and deadlifted 500 pounds for 10 reps, followed by 1 rep of 585 pounds. Dom was inspired to do his first 7-day fast by George Cahill, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, who’d conducted a fascinating study published in 1970* wherein he fasted people for 40 days.
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I am currently on Day 7 of a water fast (had a small lunch on Day 3 that I couldn't avoid with family) and have so far lost almost 10 pounds.

One unintentional side effect is that I'm thinking much less about sex and porn. I confess to having a bad habit of using porn or scrolling through social media and flicking through images of attractive women. However during my fast I find myself doing this much less. Instead I am thinking of food and cooking, various recipes, preparations, things to share with family and friends when I finally decide to break my fast (I still cook for my family, and have not sneaked in any bites). I don't feel like I'm starving, just a mild hunger that has become easier over time to tolerate.
 
From @SCW 's quotes:
Maintain or increase strength: In a study with 12 subjects, Dom demonstrated that even advanced weight lifters could maintain or increase strength, performance, and hypertrophy after 2 weeks of keto-adaptation, consuming 75 to 80% of calories from fat (supplemented with MCT and coconut oils) and restricting carbohydrates to 22 to 25 g per day. Ketones have an anti-catabolic protein-sparing and anti-inflammatory effect.
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This is what I'm interested to see, what happens if you keep this up over an extended period. For me it will be more about 'rolling 48s', can't see myself trying to cut carbs and just eat normally. Of course I keep carbs reduced, don't do the opposite.
Dom has discussed the idea of a therapeutic “purge fast” with his colleague Dr. Thomas Seyfried of Boston College. Per Dom: “If you don’t have cancer and you do a therapeutic fast 1 to 3 times per year, you could purge any precancerous cells that may be living in your body.”

If you’re over the age of 40, cancer is one of the four types of diseases (see Dr. Peter Attia on page 59) that will kill you with 80% certainty, so this seems like smart insurance.

There is also evidence to suggest—skipping the scientific detail—that fasts of 3 days or longer can effectively “reboot” your immune system via stem cell–based regeneration. Dom suggests a 5-day fast 2 to 3 times per year.
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I probably could not emotionally cope with cancer, had too much other struggle to push through. Does not run in the family either but this gives me some extra reason to try to push it to 5 days again at some point. Even just to 3 again..

I know this thread is about fasting not eating, but on the last refeed I added a 'healthy' carb of home cooked sweet potato to accompany the protein which was a 4 egg omelet on that occasion. Just worth keeping in mind as it can help keep you away from the bread based stuff which my intuition tells me is best minimised in the refeeds when doing this kind of thing.
 
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