Thoughts from my 7 Day Water Fast — And my Frenzy Refeed
Having written a water fasting book myself a couple of years ago, I thought of getting back into the practice of doing prolonged water fasting at the beginning of this year.
As of writing my book back then, I only completed a 4–5 day water fast and often regular 24-hour fasts — which are easy. But this year I began doing 36–48 hour fasts almost every week and I also completed a 96 hour fast earlier in April 2019.
So, I was and I am pretty accustomed to not eating. Which is why I thought of trying a 5 day fast with the possibility of extending it to 7 days. The main reason was for rejuvenation and also to test my body’s capabilities.
And to be honest, this is not some great feat or major achievement, because many people do it every day. Many people fast for 10, 20 and even 40 days regularly. Just go to any water fasting community on social media platforms and you’ll see it for yourself.
Fasting — A Well Developed Evolutionary Mechanism
Fasting is a learned mechanism of the human body. Supposedly, in the paleolithic age, people would eat with much less frequency than today. They might have often gone through long periods of no eating. Thence, fasting is a well developed evolutionary mechanism inaccessible by the majority of people today — because they eat every day.
The entire process of digestion takes a lot of energy from the body. And, it is only during fasting where a lot of healing and rejuvenation of the body takes place (think autophagy) — as the body can focus energy expenditure away from digestion.
Anyway, back to my fast….
I finished my last meal on Sunday, June 2, around 9:30–10 PM. A quick parenthesis, I’ve been following the ketogenic diet since late 2013 with 2 or 3 short periods of breaking it and being on a low carb diet. The ketogenic diet makes fasting much easier. And, on the same note, as someone said a few days ago, fasting is the ultimate ketogenic diet. Closing the parenthesis.
Ok, so my thoughts are going to be all over the place, but you’ll get the gist of it…
Bear in mind that one of the main aspects of my fast was to remain active and lead my normal life and daily activities minus, of course, the eating aspect (which sometimes can take mental space due to planning, shopping for food and preparation).
What I had during the Fast
As suggested by the practical wisdom of many prolonged fasters, I would have minerals/electrolytes every day — so as not to suffer from lightheadedness, low energy or the risk of fainting due to urinating/flushing out minerals from my body without replacing them.
The electrolytes I took are magnesium citrate (600–800mg/day), potassium chloride (700mg/day) and 2 tsp of salts, one in the morning and one in the evening.
1 tsp is around 4g so I would have: 2 grams of iodized pink Himalayan salt and 2 grams of high potassium salt.
I would also have about 1 tbsp (10–12g) of apple cider vinegar in the morning and in the evening.
On top of the electrolytes, I continued supplementing with: vitamin D3 (2000 IU/day), vitamin C (1000mg/day) and omega3 fatty acids (2000mg/day).
This regimen kept me free of headaches and enabled me to remain active and not lethargic. Had I not had them (electrolytes and supplements) and had I gone to purely water only, I suspect I would not have been able to remain active, focused and full of energy, so as to go along with my life during this 7 day fast.
I rode my bike every day, for at least 5–6 miles and I would do pushups and a short bicep workout in the evening. On day 7, Sunday, I took my bike for a 1-hour ride, and I also had a soccer freestyle workout in the sun (at 6 PM). It was extremely surprised by how much energy I had to play with the ball in the sun.
Every day, I would take a cold shower in the morning and a cold bath (5–10 minutes) in the evening.
I had a normal bowel movement on day 3 and then days 4–7 liquid bowel movements, mostly triggered, I suspect, by the salt combinations.
‘Bloody’ Ketones
Here’s how my blood ketones looked like:
Day 4 in the evening my blood ketones were 5.7mmol/L.
Day 6 in the am they were 5.8mmol/L and day 6 in the evening they were 6.8mmol/L. That’s when I felt really high, mentally speaking. It felt like my mind was super calm, very euphoric and highly focused on whatever I was doing. Now, let’s talk about sleep…
Sleep
In the previous 36–48 hour fasts and in my latest 96-hour fast, sleep suffered a ton, even though I had plenty of energy. On those fasts, I drank black coffee and chewed 2–3 pieces of sugar-free gum daily. Plus the supplements and minerals.
During this fast though, it was the complete opposite. I could say that sleep throughout this fast was even better than my sleep when I eat normally. I suspect that the major sleep disruptor in previous fasts was caffeine, but I want to investigate further.
So, during this 7-day fast, I had no caffeine and no chewing gum. Just water, electrolytes, and supplements — as I explained above.
Weight
Speaking of weight, I lost around 6–8 pounds, most of which is probably water and maybe 2–3 pounds of fat. I’m not interested in weight loss because I’ve been on my ideal weight since 2013 when I began constructing my ketogenic lifestyle.
Now, for the short term, I need to put this weight back, speaking of which…
Breaking the Fast
At the time of this writing (Tuesday afternoon), it’s been 2 days since I ended the fast. Here’s how I broke it on Sunday evening (around 8:30 PM), after my cold bath. I had:
- a salad with arugula, beef and cheese, olive oil and mayo
- a handful of nuts, high-fat Greek yogurt
- half an avocado
- some coconut meat and nut butter
- a few pieces of dark chocolate.
I ate these foods over the course of 1 hour and a half. Blood ketones were 5.5 mmol/L, about two hours after the meal.
My intention was to start eating normally as I had an intuitive feeling of my body’s ability to accept food. I, under no circumstances, recommend or suggest that anyone should do what I did. This post is just the public journal of my experience and must not be taken as any sort of advice.
Most experienced fasters recommend high-caution when refeeding after long fasts (such as in starting with liquid meals, broths, fruit, etc), so, if you (the reader) ever consider trying prolonged fasting, listen to that. And, of course, never try an extended fast without the supervision of your doctor (I need to say this).
Ok, now back into the details. My Sunday evening meal was around 2,000 calories. I slept well afterward…
On Monday morning, I had a liquid bowel discharge (only water), followed by 2 fluid bowel movements (borderline diarrhea). I had no cramps, no stomach trouble or upset whatsoever. I just eliminated rapidly what I ate the night before.
I immediately realized what I did wrong…
I told about the electrolytes and the supplements I’ve been taking. So, 7–8 grams of salts + 600–800mg of magnesium + 1000mg of vitamin C, have a pretty damn strong laxative effect. I should have stopped taking vitamin C and magnesium on Sunday and reduce the salt intake to no more than 2–3 grams, given that it was my last day of fast.
So, as to test this theory, on Monday, the second day of refeeding, I didn’t take any salt, magnesium or vitamin C. I only took D3, potassium chloride 350mg, and omega3s.
I ate three meals on Monday, which accounted for 3800 calories (314 grams of fat, 204 grams of protein and 56 grams of carbs). It’s a long list of foods that I had, so I’ll only mention a few:
- beef, mayo, cheese and other animal products in the morning
- mixed steamed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots) with fried chicken and pork sausages + a salad of cucumber, and tomato
- an evening meal very similar to the night before (just with higher quantities).
The result: still no stomach trouble, bloating or cramps.
And a large, smooth, normal bowel movement on Tuesday morning. It’s incredible that I was able to gorge on so much food and be able to get away with it, guilt-free.
I have to be honest, I was a bit reluctant on Sunday evening when I was about to break my fast, which is why I bought a small bottle of digestive enzymes, just in case things would go down south. Luckily, I didn’t have to use it…
The Big ‘H’ Word
Oh damn, I got to the end of this journal and I forgot to mention one the major aspects that almost everybody talks about when referring to prolonged fasting: hunger!
In short, I never felt hungry. Not during this fast, and not during my previous fasts. I attribute this fact to my adaptation to the ketogenic regimen for long term (my body being in controlled strict ketosis — measured in the blood). My body seems to be well adapted to burning fats and ketones as its primary source of energy. I wrote extensively about this in my first book, Ketone Power, and also in Periodic Fasting, which is why I won’t go into details here.
What’s Next…
Moving forward, my focus is to put on some weight — in the immediate future. And that might be a bit tricky because I usually undergo a 40–48 hour fast + two 24-hour fasts every week. And I’m not going to skip them this week either. So, we’ll see how it goes…
A quick note for ending this journal…
It seems crazy that in my 7th day of no food, on Sunday, I was feeling very energetic, very calm and surprisingly normal.
We aren’t aware of what our body is capable of, as we consume food every day, never giving our body a break from digestion, and allowing it to focus on healing and regeneration.
And, in that sense, fasting is a superpower in the modern world where most people eat everyday.
