I've been eating Paleo for about a month now and have dropped 10 lbs and now I am ready for my water only fast. I'm male 48 yrs old 5'8 currently 265 lbs. I have done a lot of research over the last few months about water fasting for weight loss and overall health. What are your feelings about a day fast? Is that too long to start out with or is it fine?
I am happy to have stumbled upon your website and have been trying to introduce Paleo/water fasting to my wife. She has serious bloating of the belly and steady weight gain over the last year or so. She just refuses to kick the Sugar/Carbs that is making her miserable. I hope to show her with my water only fasting then Paleo that it can be done. I just came across this site on this morning after completing my first 72 Hour water fast.
A little background on me, I recently completed a round of immunotherapy to beat back Blood Cancer and was looking for something to help cleanse the body. I was in a trial and was lucky enough to come out the end of it in complete remission. Two months out, feeling awesome and returning to normal life I wanted more. I started my fast on a Thursday night after a day of Skiing and a healthy dinner. First day was a piece of cake, went through without a hitch. The first night I had a peaceful sleep and when I woke up the scale said I was 3 pounds lighter and my stomach felt smaller.
Day 2 I had basically water the entire day. That afternoon when on a conference call I was amazed how clear minded I was. Usually my eyes would glaze over or my mind would wander on these things. Around my normal dinner time I felt like I need to taste something, so I brewed a cup of green tea and that satisfied my desire. Later while watching a movie on TV, my wife said I looked like I had a slight sunburn, I felt flush and my heartrate rose.
That night it was a little difficult to get to sleep but once there it was restful sleep. 5am on Day 3 I woke up at 5 AM clear headed and ready for action. I again began the day with a cup of green tea then nothing but water until dinner time.
I did take a one of my dogs on a 4 mile walk to get my mind off the fast and get the juices flowing. Around 3 pm my mind starting focusing on the fast breaking meal and the time dragged on. 6pm Fast Breaking time, First I had a warm cup of Beef Bone broth, followed one half hour later with a cup of yogurt to reintroduce some bacteria fauna into my gut. I waited another half hour then had a salad of mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, Italian seasoning, salt and olive oil and all were tolerated well. I am now going right into a 16/8 meal plan and will not eat until 12pm today.
My experience was rather easier than I thought it would be. I believe this is going to become a monthly ritual along with my new eating schedule. By the way, 10 pounds were shed during this fast and I look forward to see what the coming months bring.
I initially wanted to fast to get quick results but I know the spiritual power of fasting. I am going on a birthday trip the 15th of next month, so I have several false starts thinking I only needed a good 5 days of fasting….because I wasn't thinking about the true reasoning. It seems like after praying last nite i am tempted to eat but i am not interesting in breaking the fast, that well technically started today.
I want to water fast until the 12th of next month to give myself a couple of days to get back to eating some solids so i wont be sick on vacation. I just wanted to post because i felt empowered and i am excited about how i will feel and look in 14 days. But also i am a person who needs immediate gratification so i am hoping i see results because i know i will see my spiritual ones.
My question is i am drinking water but i am afraid i am not drinking enough. Does it slow the process down if you don't drink enough, i didn't remember seeing it in your blog. Also can i put cucumbers and lemon in my water.
And if i don't get filtered can i continue to drink the water that comes out of my fridge or is that filtered? And what is wrong with bottled water you said you didn't drink it, but it is truly the most available water too me. thanks for your post and your energy. This is the third time I've encountered this page in the past 12 months and it's always after I google search for juice fast. I've also done intermittent fasting, paleo, juice fast, low carb, more fats, less sugar, everything.
I've done a three day water fast but it was in the middle of my juice fast when I wasn't feeling well and it just happened. Here, I'd like to focus on strictly a water fast and all the health benefits afterwards. I am 100 pounds overweight and while kickstarting that weight loss would be awesome, I'm really truly trying to heal my body. There's so much thats wrong with my body right now, and it's a domino effect and I really want to focus on healing. It bums me out when I read the comments and a lot of responses are about dropping weight for a wedding or holiday or special event. There's so much more benefits to fasting than just losing weight.
Thank you for putting this page up, sharing your results, and taking the time to reply to the comments. Although there may be some health benefits to water fasting, reducing overall calories is just as effective for weight loss, and is likely to be safer. I have water fasted numerous times over the past 4 years. I just finished up a 5 day water fast as I use water fasting as a way to get back on track and lose a couple pounds of fat. The first day is always painful and the second day is not much fun as there are physical and emotional ramifications from not eating.
The great news is that I have never felt better than when I make it to day 3 and I am in ketosis. I am not hungry, my energy is good and my mental clarity is excellent. I do lose a little strength and my legs are quite heavy when doing cardio due to the lack of glycogen. I do not change my workouts at all and I found it is needed to add salt to my fasting vitamin regime.
Once I come off my fast, my strength and cardio are restored but my body composition is always much improved. I was in the Health and Fitness business for ten years but I still have always struggled with my weight. I have pretty much tried every diet in existence and waster fasting has by far been the best weight loss protocol for me.
BTW, I am 61 and feel that water fasting has been one of the factors in me keeping my youth. I'm currently doing a 72 hour water fast, just water that's it. I'm just over 45 hours now and I'm feeling a bit tired, I do feel quite relaxed too though. The first day has been the most difficult so far, it was the last time I did one too. Today has been better, I had quite a bit of energy earlier today which was nice and I felt quite bright too. I didn't wake up with any hunger pains this morning, it's mainly when I'm cooking my sons meals that I start to feel really hungry.
I've escaped upstairs just now to try and get away from the smell of the food. I was thinking about maybe going on to a 5 day fast but this is only the second one I've done and the last one was a few years ago now. You will likely lose weight on any diet if you eat less than 910 calories a day. But losing 10 pounds in 3 days is both unlikely and unhealthy.
To lose just 1 pound of body fat, you need to reduce your daily calories by about 500 a day for a whole week. That's giving up 3,500 calories over the course of 7 days. To lose 10 pounds in 3 days would mean decreasing your calorie intake by 35,000 calories in just 3 days! The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommends a slow and steady weight loss of no more than 1/2 to 1 pound a week. Otherwise you are losing muscle and water, as well as weakening your bones. You also are much more likely to gain it all back.
Fasting is when you stop eating for a period time. This might best be described through the word breakfast where you didn't overnight and then broke fast with a meal in the morning. People have been fasting throughout time.
There's a number of reasons that people fast including religion, for overall health, medical reasons and for weight loss. One thing to make sure is clear; fasting is not starvation. Fasting is something you will choose to do for whatever reason whereas starvation is usually out of your control. These days IF or intermittent fasting has become a mainstream tool to aid people in losing weight and feeling better all around. For a while I've wanted to try a 3-day fast to see how my body responds. In this post I'll cover my experience with my first 3-day fast.
I will break it down by my overall hunger, energy, ketone, weight loss and waist size. I hope that those of you who've considered trying a 3 day fast will get some valuable insights by reading this article. Now reading up on fasting (which is the reason I came about your great website!) I just completed a 72 hr water fast after a 2 week travel cruise! Except for feeling chilly at times, there was no strange bowel movements except for the occasional stomach grumbling.
On the 2nd to third day my finger dexterity was not up to par and I didn't feel like hitting the gym. Drank lots of coffee during that time and little bit of salt with water. I lost 6 lbs but after breaking the fast and eating it was only 2 lbs which is online with what you say 0.5 lbs of fat a day. My experience started when I had a difficult tooth extraction. Basically it kept me from eating regularly for two weeks.
I never even knew I was already fasting. Anyway dropped 10 lbs in that two weeks. Felt great so I said might as well carry on what I was doing which was an occasional 24hr fast and limited intake of food.
Lo and behold 8-9 weeks later I was down 20lbs. I'm 5′ 9″ and 59 old so I'm still a bit on the over the recommended weight. All my elevated blood pressure, sugar levels went to normal! The amazing thing compared to my other diet plans etc. was all I lost was fat! Went from size 34 to size 32 but my shirt size is the same. I'm another fasting nerd and practice daily 23-hour fasts, with twice-monthly 48-hour fasts.
What you said about feeling mentally superheroic–spot on. I schedule my 48-hour fasts for a tough weekend at work, and my mental acuity and mood are GREATLY enhanced during that time. So much so that I'm planning on going 72 hours this weekend, which led me to Google 3-day fasting, which brought me to your blog. Will post back if I clean out my garage, lol. My husband just did 5 days and his carport was very creatively cleaned out by day 5.
He didn't feel too hot on day 5, either, so won't be going that long again–it stopped feeling healthy and started feeling weakening. The best way to lose weight is to change your lifestyle and eating habits to incorporate healthy eating and exercise. This is much more effective in the long run than using fad diets or even dieting in any form.
You should also talk to your doctor about what types of exercise are safe for you and how much exercise you need to achieve your optimal health and your weight loss goals. Several fad diets encourage fasting for weight loss. They allow some food, but limit calories to fewer than 800 per day, claiming that you'll lose weight fast.
The cabbage soup diet is one example of a fasting diet. It involves eating only cabbage soup and drinking water for a certain amount of time. Diet plans like this one come with many unproven claims, like getting rid of a pound a day for a month or removing toxins from your body. There are varying opinions on what foods you should eat after breaking a 3 day water fast.
However, there is a common guideline that everyone agrees on. You should never break your fast with a binge eating session. You should gradually introduce foods to your system as a large meal might cause some uncomfortable stomach issues. Some people have smoothies or smaller snacks in intervals through the hours following a 3 day water fast.
The longer the fast the longer it may take until you will feel comfortable eating larger meals. Despite these limited findings, Varady still believes the health benefits of intermittent fasting are promising and could go beyond weight loss. The best, heartiest breakfasts are ones that will fill you up, keep you satisfied, and stave off cravings later in the day.
