5-day Water only Fast - Ask me Anything!

What's your longest water only fast?

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PURETENNISsense

PURETENNISsense

Professional
I've done several 24, 36, 48 hr water only fasts and completed a 4day 15hr one as well. On the longer one I ended up losing 5-6% body fat and around 7-8lbs. Felt fantastic, still worked full-time and exercised a little bit. Looking forward to completing 5 days this time.... Ask me anything!


Going for 5-days now as the goal.

Sunday 6/5 10:30pm was the last meal.
Saturday 6/11 in the am will be the next meal.

Going to document as much of it as possible and possibly put it into a video.

Will be doing some light tennis, working out, and working.

Consuming water, black coffee, teas and electrolytes (raw liquid form) not from processed drinks. Will be showing/posting most or all the drinks consumed and where to buy/how to make them.
 
XiP said:
I feel these are impossible to accomplish unless you tell everyone you meet about it.
Click to expand...
Haha really? Why is that? I only told a few students and my family about the long fast Indid and that was just so they didn't think I was acting weird for not eating with them
 
XiP said:
I feel these are impossible to accomplish unless you tell everyone you meet about it.
Click to expand...
i feel the same. the people around me are all so concentrated on food. i am the same. i would like to be like people who dont care what they will eat and focus on other things. but i cannot help myself.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Haha really? Why is that? I only told a few students and my family about the long fast Indid and that was just so they didn't think I was acting weird for not eating with them
Click to expand...
so what health benefits did you had with the 4 day one? i feel like a low power zombie. maybe i need at 7 days of fasting, but my work is physical demanding so i am hungry like hell.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
I've done several 24, 36, 48 hr water only fasts and completed a 4day 15hr one as well. On the longer one I ended up losing 5-6% body fat and around 7-8lbs. Felt fantastic, still worked full-time and exercised a little bit. Looking forward to completing 5 days this time.... Ask me anything!


Going for 5-days now as the goal.

Sunday 6/5 10:30pm was the last meal.
Saturday 6/11 in the am will be the next meal.

Going to document as much of it as possible and possibly put it into a video.

Will be doing some light tennis, working out, and working.

Consuming water, black coffee, teas and electrolytes (raw liquid form) not from processed drinks. Will be showing/posting most or all the drinks consumed and where to buy/how to make them.
Click to expand...
recommended by @ChaelAZ , i'm a big fan of the life app...
sounds stupid, but it has little tokens/milestones i'm striving for, as i'm progressing in a fast.
 
acintya said:
so what health benefits did you had with the 4 day one? i feel like a low power zombie. maybe i need at 7 days of fasting, but my work is physical demanding so i am hungry like hell.
Click to expand...
like lifting weights, you need to build up to longer day fasts. i've never done 7d, but that would probably be my max.
if you're getting hungry during multi day or even 24h fasts, your body probably hasn't acclimated to consuming ketones for energy.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Consuming water, black coffee, teas and electrolytes (raw liquid form) not from processed drinks. Will be showing/posting most or all the drinks consumed and where to buy/how to make them.
Click to expand...
my typical sched when doing omad or multi-day fasts:
7a: 32oz seltzer water + 2tbsp apple cider vineger + lemon wedge
9a: 12-16oz black coffee
2p: 12-16oz black coffee
6p: herbal tea
9p: water + electrolytes (lmnt or snake juice), typically while i'm playing tennis.
11p: occsionally 16oz of seltzer water + 1tbs apple cider vinegar
 
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PURETENNISsense said:
On the longer one I ended up losing 5-6% body fat and around 7-8lbs.
Click to expand...
The first part of this statement is incorrect. The second is misleading.

You did not lose 5-6% body fat in five days. Fat simply doesn't drop off like that.

Could you have lost 7-8lbs in five days? Sure. And that's easy to measure. However, the vast majority of it will have been water weight. It's temporary, and will quickly return when you resume eating.
 
Dags said:
Fat simply doesn't drop off like that.
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not gonna dispute the actual % & lbs (which can vary depending on how lean/obese a person is).. but fasting does force your body to convert fat (long term storage), into energy to be consumed by your body... so there is absolutely fat reduction during periods of long fasting.... and during a water fast.. you're consuming large amounts of water...

en.wikipedia.org

Angus Barbieri's fast - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
.

in one of this doctor's vids (
), he has prescribed a 100d (monitored) fast for very obese patients (he states that the leanest person still has ~40d of fat energy storage, but very obese people have far more fat energy - and can fast much longer)
 
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nyta2 said:
link backing your claim?
lifeapps.io

The 5 Stages of Intermittent Fasting - LIFE Apps | LIVE and LEARN

From ketosis to autophagy, learn more about the five stages of intermittent fasting with the LIFE Fasting Tracker!
lifeapps.io lifeapps.io
Click to expand...

I was wrong.

Safety, health improvement and well-being during a 4 to 21-day fasting period in an observational study including 1422 subjects - PMC

Only few studies document longer periods of fasting in large cohorts including non-obese participants. The aim of this study was to document prospectively the safety and any changes in basic health and well-being indicators during Buchinger periodic ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Dags said:
However, the vast majority of it will have been water weight.
Click to expand...
This isn't true. I can't remember exactly but I was drinking at least 150oz of water everyday. Not sure how drinking over 10lbs of water a day (water being 8.3lbs/gallon) would make it that I'm losing mainly water weight?
 
nyta2 said:
my typical sched when doing omad or multi-day fasts:
7a: 32oz seltzer water + 2tbsp apple cider vineger + lemon wedge
9a: 12-16oz black coffee
2p: 12-16oz black coffee
6p: herbal tea
9p: water + electrolytes (lmnt or snake juice), typically while i'm playing tennis.
11p: occsionally 8oz of seltzer water + 1tbs apple cider vinegar
Click to expand...
This is awesome! I was planning on something similar when in my planning phase last few days.

Have you read Shawn Stephenson's Eat Smarter?
 
Your muscle glycogen storage gets depleted and that releases water you have stored in your muscles. All the water you drink is garbage-in/garbage-out.
 
nyta2 said:
during a water fast.. you're consuming large amounts of water...
Click to expand...
PURETENNISsense said:
This isn't true. I can't remember exactly but I was drinking at least 150oz of water everyday. Not sure how drinking over 10lbs of water a day (water being 8.3lbs/gallon) would make it that I'm losing mainly water weight?
Click to expand...
Water consumption and water weight are very different things. In very broad terms, if you don't eat, the sodium levels in your body will change and you'll dump the excess water. This is not the water you're drinking, it's the water your body otherwise retains, and comes from both fluids and liquid content that you'd find in foods. It's why one of the potential dangers of water fasting is dehydration, ironic as it sounds.
 
Dags said:
Water consumption and water weight are very different things. In very broad terms, if you don't eat, the sodium levels in your body will change and you'll dump the excess water. This is not the water you're drinking, it's the water your body otherwise retains, and comes from both fluids and liquid content that you'd find in foods. It's why one of the potential dangers of water fasting is dehydration, ironic as it sounds.
Click to expand...
yep, agreed, that's that's why electrolytes are critical (in fasting, in sports, etc...), to avoid hyponatremia.
electroylytes like lmnt for example, provides quite a bit of sodium:

LMNT | Zero Sugar Electrolytes | Paleo-Keto Friendly Hydration

An electrolyte drink mix with everything you need & nothing you don't. No sugar. No artificial ingredients. No fillers. LMNT kickstarts your day, suppor...
drinklmnt.com

SNAKE Juice – SNAKE Diet Electrolyte Drink

snakebrands.com snakebrands.com
 
Dags said:
Water consumption and water weight are very different things. In very broad terms, if you don't eat, the sodium levels in your body will change and you'll dump the excess water. This is not the water you're drinking, it's the water your body otherwise retains, and comes from both fluids and liquid content that you'd find in foods. It's why one of the potential dangers of water fasting is dehydration, ironic as it sounds.
Click to expand...
This is why I'm supplementing with a range of electrolytes throughout the day.

I also make a warm water based broth with salt, black pepper, turmeric, garlic, ginger, etc... and have this a couple times each day from day 3 onwards.
 
41h was my longest one, achieved a couple of weeks ago. Last meal - Friday 17h all the way until Sunday 11h. Gym/exercise on Saturday and a little walking on Sunday.

First couple of days after such a long fast are toughest than the fast itself, IMO. But I actually lost almost 2 pounds of fat and half of pound of muscle mass (I have a bioelectric impedance scale, this isn't a 'guess').
 
augustobt said:
41h was my longest one, achieved a couple of weeks ago. Last meal - Friday 17h all the way until Sunday 11h. Gym/exercise on Saturday and a little walking on Sunday.

First couple of days after such a long fast are toughest than the fast itself, IMO. But I actually lost almost 2 pounds of fat and half of pound of muscle mass (I have a bioelectric impedance scale, this isn't a 'guess').
Click to expand...
Day 3 ended up being a gamechanger for me. For day 1 and 2, I still had cravings and hunger. After that I didn't have a desire or want to eat anymore until I decided to end the fast.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Day 3 ended up being a gamechanger for me. For day 1 and 2, I still had cravings and hunger. After that I didn't have a desire or want to eat anymore until I decided to end the fast.
Click to expand...
I had trouble sleeping the second night, I felt like my sleep was really fragile there. But I'll try +60h soon, I'm taking some caffeine pre-workout [about 250mg caffeine and 10mg iohimbine] until July 9th, after there I want to do at least one month with highly reduced caffeine intake (so I can return in late August), and that's when I'll try from Friday 7pm until Monday 11am at least once.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Day 3 ended up being a gamechanger for me. For day 1 and 2, I still had cravings and hunger. After that I didn't have a desire or want to eat anymore until I decided to end the fast.
Click to expand...


That is kinda on par what most people experience on longer fasts, but as you do fast more often you start to be able to differentiate between simple cravings and hunger, and have less of both overall.
 
I will add, the craziest part of doing fasting, especially longer fasts was what to do with all the time I had. I am not kidding. I love to cook so when I do I spend at least and hour per meal, but usually more. So in any given day when you don't have to buy, prep, cook, clean up and such, you feel weirdly out of place in your routines. What helped me was taking up more reading time evenings instead of dinner, and finding tasks to do regularly during the day. Morning was easy because I could go for an hour walk.

Anyway, one of those things you never think of until it is starring you in the face. Maybe others didn't experience it, but it was just one of those odd realizations for me. And that realization also helped me understand my relationship with food and how socialized and media driven many aspects were, especially in portions and such.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Day 3 ended up being a gamechanger for me. For day 1 and 2, I still had cravings and hunger. After that I didn't have a desire or want to eat anymore until I decided to end the fast.
Click to expand...
personally i had to go incremements over months...
12h, 16h, 18h, 23h, 36h, 48h, 60h, 72h,... 4d20h (my max, i consider it 5d, but technically fell just short due to social obligations)
 
nyta2 said:
personally i had to go incremements over months...
12h, 16h, 18h, 23h, 36h, 48h, 60h, 72h,... 4d20h (my max, i consider it 5d, but technically fell just short due to social obligations)
Click to expand...
I'll consider 5d for you.

I'm doing intermittently 18h at least 4 or 5 times a week for the past month and a half and it's being relatively easy. No binges yet.
 
As far as extended fasts, I only do them when I kinda fall of my schedule or once a month for the BDNF and other systemic factors. As far as weight loss, doing at least 36 hours is usually more than enough to kick start metabolic switching and allows me to be more fat adpated with my normal OMAD or 16-18 hour daily fasts (with lower carbs as well). I LOVE the clarity and feeling of those longer fasts, but too often for me and I never feel like I get in a goo meal routine.
 
augustobt said:
I'll consider 5d for you.

I'm doing intermittently 18h at least 4 or 5 times a week for the past month and a half and it's being relatively easy. No binges yet.
Click to expand...
That's typically what I do as well. So much easier to maintain. I lost my schedule due to Ramadaan and also some family get togethers.... just had a baby so meeting fam and such at times when bread is broken (not me eating bread but figuratively).
 
ChaelAZ said:
I will add, the craziest part of doing fasting, especially longer fasts was what to do with all the time I had
Click to expand...
This was quite something unique I experienced as well. little to no time in the kitchen, except to make electrolytes, tea and coffee. Still cooked a bit for the family but was so free to do many other things. Had a lot more time to read as well which was nice.

It was also very unique spending time with family and them saying they were "starving" and such haha.... was a funny coincidence.
 
ChaelAZ said:
As far as extended fasts, I only do them when I kinda fall of my schedule or once a month for the BDNF and other systemic factors. As far as weight loss, doing at least 36 hours is usually more than enough to kick start metabolic switching and allows me to be more fat adpated with my normal OMAD or 16-18 hour daily fasts (with lower carbs as well). I LOVE the clarity and feeling of those longer fasts, but too often for me and I never feel like I get in a goo meal routine.
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Have you seen Dr. Ekberg?

Turns out this guy has his practice like 5 mins away from where I teach tennis!

The clarity was amazing. I was much more relaxed as well especially when it came to conversations that would typically strike a nerve.
 
augustobt said:
How much of "lower carbs" are you guys getting per day?
Click to expand...

I stopped tracking anything years ago, but having done it for years I kinda know where I need to be. For me keeping carbs down is easy because I mostly cook clean meats and lots of veggies. I rarely add breads and grains, though I might throw in a small spoonful of rice/pasta/potato for some meals. I do seltzers mostly when really on track, so only a few grams of carbs there, but do like a small glass of wine or good IPA, so some carbs in that as well. Simple as that for me and I can keep fat adapted and/or in ketosis for weight loss and energy with it.
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Have you seen Dr. Ekberg?

Turns out this guy has his practice like 5 mins away from where I teach tennis!

The clarity was amazing. I was much more relaxed as well especially when it came to conversations that would typically strike a nerve.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I have followed him for some time, along with tons of others in that space. I like the information and it is interesting, but some of the nuance things still do not add up to the hype and cost/effort. I stick with the basics of maintaining a fasting schedule, eating clean meats and mostly veggies, then managing carbs as mentioned in my past post. If you haven't checked out Dr. Mark Hyman's approach, I like the way he looks at fasting and healthy eating.


There is also Dr. Mark Mattson, Dr. Valter Lango, and others.
 
I'll check his stuff out today! Thanks for the suggestions, I'll check the other ones out as well.
ChaelAZ said:
I stick with the basics of maintaining a fasting schedule, eating clean meats and mostly veggies, then managing carbs
Click to expand...
I find this is the easiest to do. Initially measuring number of carbs was important to figure out a range but now it's just sticking to whats good.

Love a delicious Ribeye on the skillet with baked veggies and of course a nice chunk of Brie.

Started making a hearty bone broth soup too with beef short ribs.... amazing!
 
ChaelAZ said:
I stopped tracking anything years ago, but having done it for years I kinda know where I need to be. For me keeping carbs down is easy because I mostly cook clean meats and lots of veggies. I rarely add breads and grains, though I might throw in a small spoonful of rice/pasta/potato for some meals. I do seltzers mostly when really on track, so only a few grams of carbs there, but do like a small glass of wine or good IPA, so some carbs in that as well. Simple as that for me and I can keep fat adapted and/or in ketosis for weight loss and energy with it.
Click to expand...
I can't stop tracking. Every time I did it I met downhill a few bends ahead. Right now is stronger than me, but maybe when I finally reach my 13% bf I'll relax a little bit more.
 
augustobt said:
How much of "lower carbs" are you guys getting per day?
Click to expand...
per one of the vids on fasting i watched... tracking macros (fat/carbs/protein) is not as important as the timing of eating (eg. lengthen time between meals as much as possible).
however, reducing carbs == less carbs to store in muscles (aka short term energy storage) == less time to get into ketosis (eg. shrinking fat organs by converting energy stored in fat, into ketones)...
if i'm staying strictly keto, i can be in ketosis without fasting at all
but if eat carbs (typically a couple slices of sour dough bread, nuts, and veggies), it can take 36h+ before the keto (pee) strips register that i'm in ketosis
 
XiP said:
Your muscle glycogen storage gets depleted and that releases water you have stored in your muscles. All the water you drink is garbage-in/garbage-out.
Click to expand...

Your fat stores also get depleted, which is why many fast.

I do it for autophagy reasons: to recycle dead/inefficient proteins that can actually emit toxins and harm surrounding cells. The sweet spot of autophagy [CMA: Chaperone-Assisted Autophagy] doesn't kick in until around 48 hours, which is why 72 hours is a convenient compromise between achieving CMA and not going bonkers.
 
nyta2 said:
per one of the vids on fasting i watched... tracking macros (fat/carbs/protein) is not as important as the timing of eating (eg. lengthen time between meals as much as possible).
however, reducing carbs == less carbs to store in muscles (aka short term energy storage) == less time to get into ketosis (eg. shrinking fat organs by converting energy stored in fat, into ketones)...
if i'm staying strictly keto, i can be in ketosis without fasting at all
but if eat carbs (typically a couple slices of sour dough bread, nuts, and veggies), it can take 36h+ before the keto (pee) strips register that i'm in ketosis
Click to expand...
I haven't gotten that deep to try using the strips but I can feel my body appreciate and enjoy a lower carb more keto style diet as the days progress. I just keep peeing all the time with all the water intake lol.
 
S&V-not_dead_yet said:
Your fat stores also get depleted, which is why many fast.

I do it for autophagy reasons: to recycle dead/inefficient proteins that can actually emit toxins and harm surrounding cells. The sweet spot of autophagy [CMA: Chaperone-Assisted Autophagy] doesn't kick in until around 48 hours, which is why 72 hours is a convenient compromise between achieving CMA and not going bonkers.
Click to expand...
Well said!

I've heard that people can go into autophagy a little bit sooner (obviously to a lesser degree) than 48hrs if the body is already fat-adapted.

Have you heard this?

S&V-not_dead_yet said:
I had trouble sleeping the 2nd night because I was thinking about what I would eat when I broke my fast!
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What was it?
 
PURETENNISsense said:
Well said!

I've heard that people can go into autophagy a little bit sooner (obviously to a lesser degree) than 48hrs if the body is already fat-adapted.

Have you heard this?
Click to expand...

Results vary by body type; I haven't gone that deep into exactly when CMA kicks in which is why I prefer to go significantly beyond 48 hours so I don't have to worry about how much benefit I'm getting.

In the not-too-distant future, we'll be able to easily measure this in real-time, just like we currently do with glucose monitors.

What was it?
Click to expand...

The first meal was quite modest: salmon and veggies. I thought it best that I not shock my system. Then again, my ancestors lived through feast and famine so I probably am able to handle that too.

But I went to town for dinner: a meatball sub from my favorite Italian joint. And a good red, of course.

Just don't tell @mad dog1 you're going to fast because he'll send you food porn.
 
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