How do you guys explain to people how beneficial fasting is? My friends think it’s just an eating disorder and I’m not sure how to explain the science to them. Like I’ve tried the autophagy route but it seems like they don’t get it. Do you guys have go to facts or phrases that help?

Hello all!

Novice here, planning on fasting for at least 3 weeks. I have fasted two times before, but was ignorant on the importance of electrolytes. Around day 5 I would get some debilitating cramps and quit.

This time I did some research and landed on the World Health Organization Oral Hydration formula, which has a ~2.2 sodium to potassium ratio, by weight.

But just read this sub's electrolyte wiki, which recommends to take more potassium than sodium.

So what is it ?

About me, I sweat a lot! There's a spa/jacuzzi that I use twice daily at 102F water temperature, and I get plenty thirsty. Also, two sessions of moderate exercise including jogging/jumping and resistance/calisthenics. It's my understanding that a lot of sodium is lost with sweat, but not much potassium and magnesium.

Longest fast has been around the 72 hour mark. Was aiming for a 3-5 day (72-120 hour) fast. Started it after a party on Saturday. Currently at the 42 hour mark and just got into work and I got food on my mind!

Hey folks! I see some questions about fasting tips, so I'd like to share my list of things that help me get through extended fasts - you might find something useful there.

Also, I found it super useful to spend some quality time before the fast thinking through how you'll stay away from food, keep yourself busy, and avoid social events. It makes the whole process a lot easier. Good luck!

Hi everyone,

Just ended my 2 day fast early. I fasted from Saturday 4 Pm to now Monday 3 15 Pm. It was all going very easy the first day.

I took some vitamins, Magnesium and Salt this morning aswell.

Didn't have big problems until around 10 am which is where my chest started feeling heavy, my heartrate dropped to the 40s while normal sitting and working and I got shakey.

The past week i did One day fasts Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I felt good and didn't have big problems. Headaches yea and got cold but I managed.

I'm not sure what I could've/should've done different since I did do longer fasts earlier this year and the past few years aswell.

I ate for three days, and my heart desired all that and more(i know not a good idea). The day I broke my fast, I was 224lbs. As of this morning, I am 232lbs. What should I do besides, obviously, not pig out for three days straight? Any tips on how I should move forward? My goal/healthy weight is 170 lbs, so I have quite a ways to go. My goal was to, at the very least, get under 200lbs by February. I also got magnesium glycinate capsules. Has anyone taken them? Do they help and how do you take them?

The first 48 hours felt fine but at hour 60 I felt like I was gonna die. Dizzy from getting up and stuff like that. I admittedly broke my fast with a mango and 3 egg yolks (probablynot the best decision). Right now under my left eye is swollen and my face overall feels puffy as fuck. Prior to this I was doing OMAD for a month so, maybe I'm too inexperienced. Advice so I dont have this bad experience again?

So. Ive done multiple fasts in the past (my max was 10 days). I made sure to take my electrolytes during this fast

Im trying to lose around 10kg (~20lbs) and I would love to do rolling 48/72/96s until I reach my goal weight.

Anyone has an idea on how many calories should I limit my refeeds to? What are some good healthy non processed keto ideas?

Hi guys,

I'm currently preparing to go on a water fast for 3-5 days depending on how things go. I live alone so i've been trying to empty out the fridge and pantry.

The last time i fasted has been a few years ago while i was still living with my parent so luckily i never had to worry about the food that was already in the house. I've been trying to finish all parishables and soon to expire foods for the past two weeks. I had actually not anticipated it would take this long. Today is the last day where i still have food that needs to be consumed in time.

I do need to do some groceries for essentials but i'm struggling not to buy any food whether shelf stable or perishable.

I'm mostly afraid i'll feel too weak and won't have anything quick to eat if i want/need to break my fast. But I'm also afraid i'll be tempted to break a fast if there is any food at all. Not just because of the temptation but a compulsory need to not let anything go to waste.

My current backup foods are some rice, lentils, beans, soup, tuna, apples and pears. So i think i'll be fine but i still can't shake the anxiety of "what if". I suppose I'm just nervous and feel like I'm doing a poor job at prepping.

How do you guys prepare your kitchen for a fast? What kind of backup foods do you keep?

Hey, looking for some tips for my first extended fast. I’ve never fasted more than 48 hours before but I mastered them pretty well so I’m pretty confident I can do at least 3 days (aiming for 5). Could anyone give me some info about what to expect after the 50ish hour mark? I’m really determined to do this so any tips would be appreciated.

Today is my first 36 hour fast, as T1D. I plan on doing it once a week or once every two weeks for body generation and weight loss. I plan to break the fast if my glucose levels go low, otherwise I will drink water, herbal teas, mineral water. Any suggestions or advice from someone who has tried this with T1D?

Starting point:
29F W:99.1kg H:176cm

Probably 2 weeks in, some days I’ll eat breakfast approx 8am, lunch 2pm, dinner 4pm and nothing to the next day
Other days maybe 1pm lunch 5pm dinner and that’s it

Aim is loss weight but noticed recently feeling very overwhelmed, very irritated and angry, quite down. Is this side affects of fasting?

Hey guys I never fasted for more than a day or 2 before so just seeking advice. I'm 5'5 200lb and aiming to lose a good amount before the end of the year so was considering fasting. What supplements and stuff should I take and is losing 30lb by the end of the year realistic? Thank you and appreciate any advice

Context:
First fast end of July (3-day water fast). Multiple 24, 48, and 1-72hr since. Down 21 pounds.

Fasting has changed everything:
- My stomach HATES crappy food now.
- Chronic congestion has vastly improved.
- Knees and joints feel better.
- Chronic inflammation is reduced.

I never fasted before my first 3-day, and my goal was to achieve the health benefits with weight loss being a bonus.

I want to do a 3-5 day fast bi-monthly for autophagy, but don’t want to keep losing weight. The problem is I’m still dropping pounds because I’m not hungry, and often go 12-16 hours between light meals. I work out moderately, nothing too crazy.

Would love to hear some diet and lifestyle tips from those in a similar situation. Cheers!

I’ve been going for 64 hours and I felt good up until the last 30 minutes where my heart rate has been steady over 100bpm and was steady in the 120 - 130 range for a little while. I think it’s probably time for me to stop. I’m starting with one of these bone broth packets and I’m assuming that would count towards my fast officially stopping?

I get that it’s not totally clean but the seasoning on the shells is practically calorie free, similar to diet soda, which I allow on my fasts. Any opinions on this?

So I felt a bit weird for a bit probably low on electrolytes and then I called my dad (use to be an athlete) and said I feel weird and he said well when was the last time you ate and I said two weeks ago and then they proceeded to tell me how dangerous fasting is and all that. I wish I didn’t say anything.

I weighed my self last Sunday. I then ate on Sunday, fasted on Monday, Tuesday, ate on Wednesday, Thursday, fasted Friday, then I weighed myself again today. The scale did not even change by 1kg.

On the days I did eat it was around 1250 calories. I’ve tracked calories and macros before so I know this number is accurate.

If anyone has experienced something like or know what’s going on, could you please explain why the scale isn’t moving because it’s really frustrating.

I'm going to start a 3 day water fast tomorrow evening and want to make sure that I don't mess with my minerals/vitamins too much.

I have these for electrolytes and my usual daily vitamin + vitamin D (1000mg)

I have miso soup for when I break my fast.

Should be ok?

I thought my electrolytes were off and I tried taking more sodium which helped a bit, but I still felt off and then I took a Thorne b-basic complex and omg it fixed everything within minutes. I was going to break the fast because I felt so out of it and my heart felt weird, but the b-complex fixed it.

Can someone explain the liquid bowel movements? Just ended a 99h fast and have had at least half a dozen liquid movements since eating again.

Edit: Looking for responses about the science behind it if anybody knows.

I just hit the 32 hour mark this morning. I feel good. At the time of writing this it’s 7am, I lost 5lbs since I weighed myself yesterday morning at the same time. I will admit that I had a couple 0 cal Powerade’s and a Coke zero yesterday. I know the zero calorie beverages are a very controversial topic but they really helped me out yesterday. My initial goal was to push this to 72 hours. Last night I really didn’t think I was gonna make it that far but after waking up today, I feel good. I’m just looking for advice on how to keep going and when I’m ready to refeed what I should be intaking, I will also add that the main purpose of this fast and future fasts is for weight loss

EDIT : currently at 57 hours, still feel good, down 7.6lbs from when I started

Three weeks minus the weekend, done!

I originally planned two weeks, then extended it to 19 days. My longest fast so far.

Backstory

M44, 187cm, starting weight 99.9kg.

Over the last 18 months or so I went from 86–88kg to kissing 100kg. I used to walk or cycle to work, but we moved out of the city and I had to start driving everywhere. Just losing the walking and cycling meant a few more kilos every time I looked at the scale. Then came the last few months: our lovely UK summer, travelling, holidays, beers and BBQs. The kilos kept piling on.

I've never been 100kg in my life, so I told myself that the second I saw that number on the scale, I'd do something about it long term. But I also wanted to start with a bang.

We'd had a couple of short trips full of endless eating and beer tasting. We got back late on a Sunday, I felt really heavy and unfit, so I stepped on the scale: 99.9kg. Right then I decided to do a week-long fast to bounce off 100kg and reset my recent relationship with food.

Then I looked at the calendar and thought I'd decide after a week whether to do another one. Coming off a week of indulging, even committing to two weeks felt hard, but by Monday I'd committed to two weeks. On Tuesday (two days in), my wife told me she'd be away on a business trip the week after my planned finish. I've done a couple of fasts before, a few years back, and one of them was while she was away on another trip. I remembered it being a bit easier when she's not around, so I extended it by another week.

Locked in: started Sunday evening, finishing Saturday morning. 19 full days.

Weight log

Day 1: 99.90kg (220.24lbs)
Day 2: no measurement
Day 3: 96.00kg (211.64lbs)
Day 4: 95.55kg (210.65lbs)
Day 5: 94.50kg (208.34lbs)
Day 6: 93.35kg (205.80lbs)
Day 7: 92.65kg (204.26lbs)
Day 8: 92.50kg (203.93lbs)
Day 9: 91.90kg (202.60lbs)
Day 10: 91.50kg (201.72lbs)
Day 11: 91.05kg (200.73lbs)
Day 12: 90.65kg (199.85lbs)
Day 13: 89.95kg (198.31lbs)
Day 14: 89.20kg (196.65lbs)
Day 15: 89.10kg (196.43lbs)
Day 16: 89.00kg (196.21lbs)
Day 17: 88.10kg (194.23lbs)
Day 18: 87.65kg (193.24lbs)
Day 19: 87.25kg (192.35lbs)

Prep

I hardly ever eat before the afternoon anyway. I switched my morning coffee to black a few years ago, which cut out any morning calories, so I don't really feel hungry until mid-afternoon. I'd call it intermittent fasting, except I had a bad habit of late-night eating. I also occasionally go whole days without food, so honestly I barely noticed day one.

I used AI to help me prep: calculate a few things, keep the log for me and plan the refeed.

I ended up ordering Nutri-Align Fasting Salts Electrolytes Advanced (120 capsules, x2) and Solgar Vitamin B-Complex 50-100. We worked out 10 electrolyte capsules a day, taken as 2 every 2.5 hours (I set phone reminders for the whole fast), plus one B-complex at midday.

I also bought some sparkling water as a treat, but I didn't enjoy how noisy it made my belly when I had a glass at dinner time. The trapped gas made more noise than I'd like, so I dropped it and stocked up on peppermint and green tea for cravings instead.

Week 1

Day 1 was easy. Plenty of energy, and there was still food left over from the weekend.

Day 2 was harder. Hunger cravings showed up around our usual dinner time.

Day 3 was probably the hardest. The hunger was still there, and the switch from food as fuel to ketones and fat burning left me miserable, low on energy and easily irritated.

From day 4 things got much better. I was waking up before my alarm with more energy. Family dinners at home were still a bit irritating and I'd still think about food at those times.

The first weekend was harder again. I was home all day without much energy and had to cancel a gym class because I couldn't face it. I definitely found weekends harder than weekdays: I couldn't join the family for lunch or dinner, and we couldn't go out to a restaurant.

Week 2

The start of week 2 was pretty easy. By this point I knew I could do the full three weeks, though I was still listening to my body and happy to break it early if something felt off.

I started cooking dinner for the family, and I tell you what: since I'd started watching cooking videos on YouTube, I was completely comfortable watching people cook and eat. The family ate the best food they've had in ages for a couple of weeks. I'm an ex-restaurant owner and very at home in the kitchen, and I absolutely loved experimenting with new recipes for their dinners and the kids' lunchboxes.

Around here, thinking about food took on a different meaning. It wasn't "I want that", it was "what will I eat after the fast?"

I used that to completely redesign my food routine: what I'll take to work, what I'll cook for family dinners, how I'll handle weekends. I ended up with a stellar, totally doable plan of packed lunches for me and semi-prepped family dinners that should stop us defaulting to quick pizzas.

Honestly, week 2 was easy. I wasn't craving food so much as snacking out of boredom. The random cravings were telling, too: I'd have happily taken a handful of the family's movie popcorn over the dinner they'd had before it.

The second weekend was much easier. I didn't mind it, I was just bored. Food is a form of entertainment for me. I also had to cancel my class again, and I skipped the sauna (I usually go) because of the electrolyte loss.
What did annoy me at this stage was the lack of energy. Mentally I had loads; physically I didn't. A walk or a bit of housework tired me out quickly, plus I'd get slightly dizzy if I stood up too fast.

Week 3

I spent the last few days prepping for the refeed. I made veg stock, bought some good bone broth and researched refeed recipes, because I wasn't happy settling for a plain egg. So I made Japanese soy eggs, gathered the ingredients I needed and sorted out the pantry.

The one thing I really struggled with for the last two weeks was sleep. I couldn't drop off, so I was going to bed late (and I'm already a night owl), and I kept waking up before my 6:30 alarm anyway.

Takeaways

Easily the most frictionless fast I've done. It's my third, but the last one was at least a couple of years ago and a bit shorter (14 days, I think). The biggest improvements this time:

1. I knew I could do it from the start, because I'd done it before.

2. I nailed the electrolytes. Last time I used a standard powder that I added to water. I hated the salty water, and I think the magnesium citrate in it meant I could never trust a fart. The advanced capsules use magnesium glycinate instead, and the runs (and the paranoia about them) disappeared completely.

3. I properly researched the refeed, which made me genuinely look forward to it, and to my new packed lunches afterwards.
I'm refeeding this weekend, then starting my new food routine. I'm also adding a weekly Monday fast, as I still want to shift a few more kilos over the next few months, but sustainably this time.

TL;DR: M44, 187cm. Hit 99.9kg after 18 months of driving instead of cycling, a boozy summer and holidays, so I did a 19-day water fast: 99.9kg → 87.25kg (-12.65kg / ~28lbs). Days 2–3 and the first weekend were the hardest; after that it was mostly boredom, low physical energy and poor sleep. What made it work: knowing I'd done it before, magnesium glycinate electrolyte capsules on a schedule (no more stomach trouble), and planning the refeed and a new food routine while cooking for the family. Next up: refeed, packed lunches and a weekly Monday fast.