I don’t meant for weight loss, I mean health benefits as in autophagy, clearing out toxins, giving your organs a break type stuff
clearing out toxins
you either have a healthy liver or you don’t, stop with the ‘detox’ bs
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So you don’t believe that depleting your glycogen stores and going into ketosis is efficient at releasing fat soluble toxins?
I used to do 36 hours a week, as an experiment. Not for weight loss. Maintained my weight.
Results: lower LDL cholesterol. Sharply lower. Blood pressure lower only while fasting.
Side effects: migraines. I tried to arrange it so there was not so much time fasting before sleeping but would usually wake up with a migraine.
Never fasted more than 2 days voluntarily.
What did you allow yourself to consume during the fasts and how did you break the fasts?
Did you LDL go back up when you stopped fasting?
Just coffee. I would eat a late breakfast one day, then stop eating, coffee (no calories) the next morning and then nothing until supper, usually around 8pm.
Yes the LDL went back up. I know it was related to the fasting and not weight loss - I am not fat and maintained calories overall to keep my weight stable. I had been sort of stumped, like you are. Obviously if someone is overweight and loses weight that will have benefits, there wasn’t a lot of research on people of normal weight fasting and not reducing. I got the one measurable benefit, but no improvements I could feel in any way, and the headaches were pretty bad.
ETA - short fast doesn’t need careful refeed. I just made a regular supper to break those fasts. No problems, and in general digestion has never been a weakness for me.
I do intermittent fasting 18h, 5 days a week. It started as an attempt to curb my ulcerative colitis, which worked so I have just continued that.
I do 72 hour fasts every two or three month between. Total about 5 times now. I drink water and coffee and a bit of salt. I break the fast with some nuts and avocado and then some mild soup usually.
The first day I find most difficult, the hunger is most prevalent, then it subsides. I think about food often but not in a bad way. More as inspiration what I should eat when the fast is over. The second and third day my body is a bit weaker so no intense physical activity. But my mind is clear, almost a bit electric in a way. I enjoy that clarity. After the fast I feel fantastic, energetic and rejuvenated.
I do it mainly for the reported health benefits like autography. Probably will continue doing it till I die
It seems that the clear state of mind and burst of energy is a universal effect of people who fast properly. Do you know if your fasting has had positive effects on paper like with your bloodwork and liver tests?
Haven’t done any of those since I had my episode. They were improved then, but that was mainly because my body didn’t lose any blood and could absorb the nutrients from the food. But it would be interesting.
The last time I fasted I had some inflammation in my right hand. That went away the second day of fasting. I had it for two weeks and it didn’t want to go away. So maybe the fasting helped.
Edit: I saw in the comments that you were looking for true fasting for minimum of two days, I have only tried for two days twice and my body went into lockdown. I couldn’t move and it felt like I was depressed. I do not think my body can handle it. And I do not want to waste two days of my life again just laying down being not able to do anything. But I will keep my comment here if ppl are interested in my other experiment with some of the same benefits when it comes to how I felt and my well-being.
I did an experiment where I didn’t eat normal food for dinner I only mixed veggies, oatmeal and water and drank it and ate an apple as a side dish.
My lunch and breakfast was not changed much. The only change to my lunch was that I started eating sweet potatoes instead of pasta.
I have problems with low blood sugar and hunger so I wanted to test if I could lessen it with potatoes (and meat) for lunch and oatmeal and veggies for dinner, especially oatmeal, it has a lot of good health benefits like keeping the blood sugar more balanced, lessen inflammations and making you feel fuller for a longer period. The first month was great, I didn’t feel hunger in the same way anymore for the whole day, I had more energy, my blood sugar didn’t drop like a bomb around meal time and I was happy. But then I started experimenting with tastes, I used milk instead of water and then also stoped adding celery (did not go well with milk). Tried using berries and other types of veggies or even less veggies and more fruits. After maybe 2,5 months did I feel really hungry again like extremely hungry, it hurt in my stomach in a way I have never felt before and I got migraines and felt like shit. So I stoped the experiment. I think the whole experiment was around 3 months. Now do I eat like normal, the only thing I still do is eating an apple almost every day after dinner. And I crave crispbread that has an extremely healthy taste to it in the evening… It is very weird.
I would like to try the experiment again to see how long it takes until I feel like shit and also write down what I mix together with notes on how I feel, to get a better understanding of what happens and when.
I appreciate any experience people want to share. Did your blood sugar end up being low again after going back on a regular diet?
Yes unfortunately, so now I walk around with a proteinbar in case it dropps too much, but the best solution is to eat actually food before that happens.
Ah, sounds like maybe fasting might not be the best thing for you. At least until you get the blood sugar more stable.
That it works
At times I won’t eat until midday, if not until dinner. If I do eat before then, I lose energy, I think it boosts metabolism and energy. I am just not hungry in the morning sometimes I’m not trying to fast per se.
autophagy, that’s all you need to know
I was watching a youtube video that mentioned autophagy which made me ask this question. It looks to be scientifically backed but I was wondering if people really benefit from it.
I believe not getting cancer is quite a benefit.
Also scientifically backed.
For anyone else curious about it: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/24058-autophagy
