Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire One Week Fast

Decided to clean house a bit and I passed 4 days of a one week fast. First couple days kinda sucked- hungry, headaches, the runs etc. After that, not so bad. Been working and trying to stay busy so I don't think of food all day. The gut is definitely emptying out something fierce Any experience to share?

My coworker told his family, ironically at dinner, that I was doing the one week fast and the conversation went something like this...

Coworker's son: If you didn't eat for a week, you'd die!
Coworker: No, it just feels like you're going to.

LMAO

Did it a few years ago as part of prep for colononscopy. By day 4 I had low blood sugar and started having problems. Quit it then.

I've never done more than 5 days, but regularly do 2 or 3.

1) You'll look back & think it was a whole lot easier than you'd thought it would be

2) Day 2 or 3 I start to feel really good: energetic, clear thinking, etc. I'll bet you're there now, or soon will be.

3) Cramps and/or constipation are easily managed with salt or bouillon in a glass of water, taken 2 or 3 times/day.

4) You may experience restless sleep. I often feel tingly/twitchy at day 2 or 3: I've noticed it coincides with the ketones in my urine going way up. In any case, I feel so much better overall, that I don't mind the insomnia.

5) Go S-L-O-W-L-Y when you resume eating. Maybe 1/2 cup of broth every hour or two, then something very small, & give it a couple hours to see how your tummy responds. Either that, or stay very close to a commode.

Good Luck, & keep us posted on your experience.

FC

Pro tip- never trust a sneeze when fasting!

I did something different this time. I went on a keto diet for 3 days prior to get into ketosis before starting. Seems to have made the transition a little easier.

True Dat!


Also, for the straight dope on fasting, check out Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube. He presents the evidence, with no hyperbole, and nothing to sell.


FC

Definitely. It'll knock the hunger signals way down before you even go into the fast.

FC

Keto is where it is at. Virtually no cravings and going 24 hours is a snap. It’s like the hunger impulse has been completely turned off.

Fasting has been proven to have many health benefits.

In the process your body down loads all kinds of bad things that have been stored for years to include lots of crap (literally) and dead cells.

There is also a spike in stem cell production which go to work fixing things. I've actually heard about people going into remission from cancer due to fasting.

Mix some sodium into water at least once a day to avoid kidney stones.

The only reason it is not promoted by the medical field is because there is not money to made.

After I break the fast, I was planning on doing keto OMAD (one meal a day) for a while. I've done it before and got good results. I usually do lunch and nothing else, because I can easily skip breakfast. The hard part is no dinner and going to bed on an empty stomach. It's better health wise though because then your body is burning fat all night and instead of being tied up digesting food, it can do repair while you sleep.

I’ve never seriously tried to diet before, more just trying to eat healthy. Problem is, I’ve always eaten healthy, just too much of it. I’ve always leaned to Paleo, low carb, but I still eat a lot. Same with intermittent fasting. I just eat as much in 2 meals as in 3.

My blood sugar numbers came back high in Dec and I knew it was because I’d been cheating, eating too much junk. So, I stopped the crap and started exercising more, and the numbers came down but my weight stayed the same, just like everything else I’ve tried.

Couple weeks ago I stumbled across the Carnivore diet. Best description I’ve found is “eat as much as you want, stop eating when it doesn’t taste good”. You know how when you pack it away, eventually you start to get sick of the taste, or that big steak just doesn’t taste as good as it did at the beginning. So I stop.

What I’m actually finding is that I’m 1. Not hungry between meals (2 meals/day) and 2. I’m actually finding I don’t want to eat as much meat as time goes on.

I do take electrolytes 2x day because you don’t get enough of them on this diet. And I’ve always drank lots of water, so I’m good there.

Notice my BM’s are smaller, and I usually only go once a day instead of 3x a day like before. No constipation problems, just smaller.

I’m finding it fairly easy to stay with it, because I’m not having to starve myself, though I do miss a good salad, or pickles, etc. But its not the end of the world.

Some people quit booze, too, but it’s not required for this diet. I tend not to drink a lot anyway, unless I get with the chicken farmer and we kill a bottle of vodka. But that only happens every couple weeks. I’ve lost my taste for beer, but do enjoy a Coors light once in a while. Just tired of the heavy beers.

Anyway, I don’t plan to stay on this forever (some do) but I figure 3-6 months to get things back where they should be, then slowly reintroduce some carbs and track which ones change how I feel, so I can leave them off.

The weight loss is certainly a priority but the time being meals is an independent priority health wise. In the past, I would always do several mini meals a day since it seemed to be conventional wisdom. I found myself constantly miserable and never satisfied. When I do one meal a day, I can be satisfied at least once a day for hours. Combine that with Keto, and being in fat burning mode, and the hunger is much less. But the time between meals, allows your gut to empty, getting rid of indigestion, bloating, reflux etc. It just let's your body catch up. And like I said above, if you can tolerate eating only lunch, your gut is empty by the time your go to sleep and your body can rest and repair all night long while burning nothing but stored fat. It's annoying at night if you're watching a movie or something and you want to snack. I just tell myself I'm going to bed in a couple hours and I won't care about food when I'm asleep LOL.

Keto is necessarily calorie restrictive as well. What you realize is that you ate a bunch of useless calories. If you get a steak and just eat it and some green veggies, you find that you are just as full as if you had eaten the steak, a couple of rolls, and a giant potato. Those are calories that have no impact on filling you up, yet you are stuffing them down. Eat just the steak, feel just as full, and avoid the additional thousand calories.

Fasting is intriguing.

Not sure I have the guts to do it though.

It is interesting reading you guys who have done it and dabbled in it. Maybe someday...

I am on a low carb diet, less than 80 grams per day.
I can fast for 40 hours and not feel hunger.

What is the goal?

Weight loss or “detox”?

The other advantage that some may not realize is that a calorie is not a calorie is not a calorie, depending on the type of food it is. People like to think is all that matter is the total calories you eat versus your daily activity, but it isn't that simple. High carbs spikes insulin, and insulin is a fat storage hormone. A soon as your immediately fuel need is satisfied, boom-> fat. When in ketosis, insulin is lower and steady so you can burn fat all day long. The hidden bonus, is that the process in the body of making ketones from dietary fat is not very efficient, so you burn more calories processing the calories you consume versus carbs which are super easy to process. So, if a person eats 2,000 calories of carbs a day or 2,000 calories of protein and fat a day, the low carb person will lose more weight even if they eat the same number of calories.

Definitely seen my acid reflux and bloating gone. Also reduced my chronic sinus congenstion.

I fasted fridays, for 40 years. Started when I was drinking , it was a way to help clean out my system. Got out of the habit when I retired. Never tried to go longer than one day. What you eat is more important than fasting, I believe. I splurge on a burger now and then, but eat more fish than red meat, and very little chicken. Having been blessed with a good metabolism, it's helped me stay slim. I know nothing about the keto diet, but thought it was mostly for loosing weight. That said, I'm sure there are other health benefits. Good luck with you endeavor. You have more stick to it, than I do. Piece of good jerky and I would fail.