5-day liquid fast (days 2-4)
So if you curious why I decided to fast for 5 days on liquid you should read the first blog in this series. The short recap is that sometimes I get overwhelmed by all the food data and diet info and I just want a break from it all. Additionally the mental clarity and inflammation reduction I experience from fasting is otherworldly. One other note is that I also made the goal of “not using technology for youtube, social media, or article reading until AFTER accomplishing my goals for the day. Thus this is both a food fast AND an information fast. Below I will comment on the following experiences of fasting:
Inflammation and Body Pain
Energy Level
Mental Focus/Desire to Eat
Weight Loss w/o Muscle Loss
Sleep Quality
Inflammation and Body Pain
Prior to my fast I was experiencing the following two noticeable body pain issues:
1. Chronic pain in one or both of my feet/plantar fascia/ankle(it moves around) that i usually feel when I first wake up. I’ve had flat feet my whole life and have been prone to ankle sprains since my days of soccer and hockey. Additionally I had a major ankle sprain and achilles partial tear in Nov 2020. The last time I fasted 20 days I felt this pain get noticeable better, but weakness in the morning persists.
PAIN IS GONE BY DAY 2! Woke up day 2 and my feet felt light as air. Later that night I did a full lower body workout(more on that later) and ZERO PAIN day 3. (usually my ankles would be weak and throbbing the next day)
2. I had pain in my upper back on the right side when turning my head to the right, that I felt was related to “text-neck.” I’d been experiencing this pain for about a week and it was exacerbated by some long 4hr drives I had to do last week.
PAIN/TIGHTNESS is 75% gone by day 3
Energy Level
A lot of people worry about whether they will feel tired or fatigued when fasting. Yes, this can happen, however, I have found if I load my days up with movement and meaningful work I actually feel a consistent focused energy throughout the day and not lethargic. I would add that I do consume caffeine while fasting but not more than any normal day.
Caffeine Intake: On Day 2, I drank a matcha/turmeric tea around 8am (30mg Caffeine) and 12pm-3pm I nursed a MUDWTR, (14mg Caffeine), so in all about 1/2 the caffeine of the average cup of coffee. On day 3 I am having a decaf americano with cinnamon (10mg caffeine). The cinnamon has an extra fat burning effect as it mimics insulin and creates satiation.
Pro Tip 1: If you normally take caffeine don’t cold turkey remove it on your fast (Unless you like the idea of a headache)
Exercise: You CAN and SHOULD do the same level of physical activity on your fast as you normally do. If you normally don’t move at all you should AT LEAST go for a walk and get 10k-15k steps in your day. I normally do strong workouts 3-5x a week. So I did the following workout on 48hrs fasted:
10 Minutes of backwards walking on a treadmill w/(20lb vest on)
25 Tibialis Raises
50 KOT Calf Raises
25 Patrick Steps
25 Nordic Lunges (w/20lb vest)
3 mile run with 20lb weighted vest.
Pro Tip 2: If you do plan to exercise intensely or walk 10K steps or more you should take multiple electrolyte packets throughout the day. Given the intensity of the workout I did I should have taken 4-5 electrolyte packets, and because I only took 2 I definitely had trouble sleeping my 3rd night. More on this later.
Mental Focus/DESIRE TO EAT
Wednesday and Thursday I had the added challenge of having to make breakfast and lunch for my kiddos, (my wife and I trade off days) Admittedly on Wednesday (36hrs into my fast) my mouth was watering while cooking the kids meals. However, by Thursday morning about 60hrs into my fast I didn’t feel a single desire to eat. This is typical for me as once I get into the third day of a fast my hunger in general goes way down.
Pro-tip 3, Herbal Tea: Always start your day with a shot of apple cider vinegar and big glass of water. Follow that with a fibrous herbal tea like ginger/lemon or turmeric ashwagandha and your cravings for food will be greatly diminished.
Pro-Tip 4, Stay out of the kitchen: The hardest part of fasting for me is if I end up opening the fridge to fix my kids meals my eyes glance accross the latest groceries and perishables and thoughts like: “It would be a waste if I let that guacamole go bad…” are actually more pestering than the thoughts of food desire.
Pro-Tip 5, Move before 9am: How you start your day can really impact things. Each day of this fast I have been going out for 10-25min walks in the cold morning. Getting the sunlight on my face and moving my body ensures that my body won’t go into starvation mode too quickly. Also I find that the more I move on the fast the easier the fast feels and the better I feel.
Pro-Tip 6, Avoid Addictive Tech: Watching videos on youtube or social media gives you dopamine… Food also gives your brain dopamine… the problem hear is that if you only fast from food some people end up overusing technology to compensate for the dopamine loss. This is why movement, yoga, meditation, exercise are SOOOOOO important when you fast. I make a list of things I want to accomplish on my fasting days and only allow myself social media if I get all those things done. This reinforces the dopamine of getting shit done. Super powerful habit.
On day 3, today I ended up watching a couple videos on youtube this morning between my exercise and writing work and I noticed right away how distracted it makes me. The smart phone truly is a powerful vice.
WEIGHT LOSS
I’ll start by emphasizing that fasting is a double-edged sword when it comes to weight loss. It works… really well… (I’ve lost over 6 pounds in 3 days and in my last 20 day fast I lost on average 1 pound of fat per day after that.) But if you don’t do the re-feeding right then there can be serious consequences, and more importantly if you haven’t developed healthy habits pre-fasting and you go back to your same pre-fast lifestyle you will likely gain all the weight back. You’ll still get the anti-cancer and cell cleansing benefits of the fast but it will be a lot of wasted effort. This has happened to me multiple times in the past. (Losing weight then gaining it back) It wasn’t until I made a clear internal commitment to becoming a more enlightened version of myself that the changes really stuck. I will add that two of the most important habit changes that I’ve incorporated since Jan 2023 are not drinking alcohol and perfecting my evening routine which I’ll write about in the future.
Stats:
Starting Weight: 211.8 lbs
Morning Weight Day 2: 206.7 lbs, (-5.1lbs) 36hrs fasted. lots of water weight drops on day one.
Morning Weight Day 3: 205.4 lbs, (-1.3lbs) 60hrs fasted.
Morning Weight Day 4: 203.8 lbs, (-1.6lbs) 83hrs fasted.
Total Weight Lost So Far: 8lbs (4.5lbs of water, 3.5lbs of fat)
Sleep Quality
I track my sleep quality with an Oura Ring, (this link gets you $50 off, I don’t get anything)
It lets me track my Heart Rate Variability, Total Sleep, REM Sleep (ie Rapid Eye Movement when dreaming), Deep Sleep, Resting Heart Rate, and Restfulness, ie wake-ups, excessive movement, and getting up in the middle of the night. From these factors it produces a Sleep Score. Here’s my data.
Key Highlights:
Sleep Time went down but Quality went up: My sleep quality improved, ie percentage of REM and Deep sleep compared to light sleep the longer I fasted, even in spite of getting less sleep.
My Heart Rate Variability at first went up but by the 4th night went way down. The 4th night my heart rate never got above 146ms where other nights my max heart rate was around between 175ms-245ms. The higher the HRV the better in terms of health but, it’s normal for prolonged fasting to lower one’s heart rate as their body shifts its metabolism.
Anecdotally: I felt the most refreshed on the morning after the 4th night. More to come in the next blog about refeeding.