I just finished a 4-day fast and an exploration of my resilience — the resilience inherent in us all. Unless we are broken, in part or in whole, we all got it.
This is my third 4+-day fast in three years. Fasting is very important for our health — I think we are evolutionarily adapted for it and adapted to need it — but I do not, do not, do not recommend you do it unless you are healthy, are in a solid nutrient state, and are fit and able to deal with stresses. Work your way into it over a period of years, please — and please do your research first! Prepare your whole self in important aspects: body, mind, thoughts, spirit, social support system. (See recommendations and resources below.) But some people should not fast at all. Make sure you are not metabolically broken.
This fast went better than the previous two: I was more alert, more active, and slept better. (Notes below.) I was going to do 4 days and 18 hours, but I felt I might need some nutrients from all the movement training (aka fitness training or exercise) I have been doing. And it was getting boring.
Fasting is beneficial, but follow advice like this: “If you do decide to try fasting, don’t dive in too quickly, Mattson advises. ‘The analogy with exercise applies here as well. If you’ve been sedentary and then all of a sudden you try to run five miles, it’s not very pleasant and you’ll likely get discouraged. It’s the same thing as if you’ve been eating three meals a day plus snacks, and then you’re not eating anything at all for two days; you’re not going to like it.’
“Mattson suggests easing into the routine by starting with one day of moderate fasting per week and then building up to two. There will likely be a week or two of headaches, lightheadedness, and/or grouchiness, which are common side effects, but after the initial phase, experiments show that your mood should pick up.” (from https://www.johnshopkinshealthreview.com/issues/spring-summer-2016/articles/are-there-any-proven-benefits-to-fasting)
Without planning toward a 4+-day fast, that’s basically what I did for maybe 6 years. I spent years first changing my diet, making it more species-appropriate and targeted to my strengths and weaknesses, and learning about diet, physical fitness, and health. After a few years, I did some 24-hour fasts and and some intermittent fasting. Then and only then did I try a 4-day fast.
Benefits and some how-to of fasting:
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fasting-benefits
- https://www.johnshopkinshealthreview.com/issues/spring-summer-2016/articles/are-there-any-proven-benefits-to-fasting
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/fasting-benefits
- https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/48-hour-fasting#benefits
- https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/is_fasting_healthy
- https://kresserinstitute.com/rebooting-system-benefits-fasting-mimicking-diet/
- https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/fasting-shown-drastically-reduce-risk-breast-cancer
- https://wellnessmama.com/345549/water-fasting/
Some people’s experiences with fasting:
- https://www.nateliason.com/blog/5-day-water-fast-health-benefits
- https://thefivejourneys.com/great-fasting-experiment-surviving-7-day-fast/
- http://punchdrunksoul.com/water-fast-benefits/
- https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/my-experiences-with-extended-fasting
Here are some notes from my experience this time:
–Monday, a precursor to my fast: ate less than usual. Following the good suggestion of a friend Keenan, I ate so I could eat, but went low-carb to put myself into ketosis, to make the fasting easier. I did not have to suffer going from being a carb burner to being a fat burner during my fast; I was already adjusted. Some people suffer a lot because they do not do that. I would have been better off eating more, but I was lazy and did not want to go to the store. But some pork chops or brisket or chicken thighs would have been a good addition to the day. And what did I eat? Three-fourths of a crustless quiche made from 11 eggs, 1 point of cream, maybe one-third pound of Swiss cheese, and maybe one-quarter pound of ham. And I think I had maybe 8 ounces of link sausage that day. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, I had a several cups of cold-brew coffee with coconut milk. In the morning, I did maybe 2 hours of easy and moderate exercise/movement training.
–Tuesday, a precursor to my fast: ate less than usual: a crustless quiche made from 11 eggs, 1 point of cream, maybe one-third pound of Swiss cheese, and maybe one-quarter pound of ham. And I think I had maybe 8 ounces of link sausage that day. Again, some pork chops or brisket or chicken thighs would have been a good addition to the day. Throughout the morning and early afternoon, I had a several cups of cold-brew coffee with coconut milk. In the morning, I did maybe 2 hours of easy and moderate exercise/movement training.
–Wednesday, 24 July, 2019, the day I started my fast: in the morning, I did maybe 2 hours of exercise/movement training, including a light/moderate 3.5 mile run on winding, rolling forest trails. In the early afternoon, I pre-interviewed a guest for an upcoming podcast; we talked for one hour. At 1:15/1:30, after the pre-interview, I ate the other one-quarter crustless quiche from Monday. And I think I had maybe 6 ounces of link sausage. Late that afternoon, I recorded a 2-hour podcast interview of a Montessori expert discussing the Montessori method. And I made up show notes for it. Sleep that night was good, better than in years past during a 4-day fast.
This time, this year, I wanted to see how much exercise and movement training I could do. No way was I going to overdo it and go full-out hard-core — I did not want to destroy myself and wreck my health; I wanted to test and feel out my resilience, not break my health or fitness — but I did want to get in some significant movement, if I could. I’d play it by feel and thought. I have done some movement in previous years’ fasts, but not too much: mainly, so far as I recall, some walking and some hours in the woods picking up trash (an activity which involves a lot of squatting, kneeling, crawling, observing, identifying, remembering, carrying).
–Thursday 25 July, 2019: no food, only water (sometimes with sea salt in it) and one cup of black coffee. In the morning, I did maybe 1.5-2 hours of exercise/movement training (no cramping; clear head, even if not 100%): maybe half hour of mobility work, a moderate run of about 1.5 miles on winding, rolling forest trails, some balance work, some work with logs: throwing and catching, get-ups, carrying. One way I knew my brain was OK was that I was not tripping over any tree roots on the trail, I was not stubbing my toes, I was not falling on my face; I was moving over the terrain like a cat. At 1:00 PM, I recorded a two-hour, forty-minute long podcast, after talking to the guest for about an hour. I edited the episode, getting rid of some noise, cutting out a part or two, and splitting it into separate episodes. I worked on show notes, which I finished the next day. Sleep that night was good, better than in years past during a 4-day fast. Went to bed around 10:00, woke up around 6:00.
Some morning exercise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL6ec5PuJ94
–Friday, 26 July 2019: no food, only water (sometimes with sea salt in it; more than yesterday) and about a cup and a quarter of black coffee. In the morning, I did 1.5-2 hours of exercise/movement training (no cramping; clear head, even if not 100%): maybe half hour of mobility and balance work, an easy run of about 1.25 miles on flat park ground, some handstands practice, some mobility and balance work. At 11 AM, I tutored someone in SAT math. My vision was a little wonky on this day, from waking up through late afternoon — indicating a slightly wonky brain. In the afternoon, I felt energetic, so I did half hour of exercise/movement training: worked on handstands a bit, and did some mobility and some brachiation work. In the afternoon, I listened to, among other things, one lecture of the series of lectures entitled The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd edition, by Daniel N. Robinson. I watched part of the movie MI-5 at night. Sleep that night was even better — again, better than in years past during a 4-day fast. Went to bed around 9:30/10:00, woke up around 6:30.
–Saturday, 27 July 2019: no food, only water (sometimes with sea salt in it; more than Wednesday) and about a cup and a quarter of black coffee. My vision — and hence my brain — was better today. In the morning, I did 1.5-2 hours of exercise/movement training (no cramping; clear head, even if not 100%): maybe half hour of mobility work, an easy run of half-mile+ on flat park ground, a 2.7 mile run at a moderate pace on winding, rolling forest trails, some mobility and balance work. Again, one way I knew my brain was OK was that I was not tripping over any tree roots on the trail, I was not stubbing my toes, I was not falling on my face; I was moving over the terrain like a cat. In the afternoon, I felt energetic, so I did about 45 minutes of exercise/movement training (no cramping clear head, even if not 100%): some mobility, some hanging, some pull-ups, some vertical jumps, some vertical jumps into standing balance, some balancing, some downward jumps from about 5’ up. I listened to, among other things, one lecture of the series of lectures entitled The Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd edition, by Daniel N. Robinson, and to some of the very philosophical and biological book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, by E.O. Wilson. I wrote up most of these notes. I watched part of the movie MI-5 at night. Took me a little longer than usual to fall asleep, but then sleep was sweet — again, better than in years past during a 4-day fast. Went to bed around 9:30/10:00, woke up around 6:30.
Some afternoon exercise: https://youtu.be/_MToDSHyg_k
–Sunday, 28 July 2019: no food, only water (sometimes with sea salt in it; more than Wednesday) until 2:00 PM. In the morning, I did 2 hours of exercise/movement training (no cramping; clear head, even if not 100%): maybe ten minutes of mobility work, an easy/moderate 1.5-mile run on winding, rolling forest trails, some mobility and balance work (most of it with my eyes closed) on two 2x4s. I listened to some of the biology book An Epidemic of Absence by Moises Velasquez-Manoff and some of the very philosophical and biological book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, by E.O. Wilson. In the morning, I went to the grocery store and bought food!!!!! Fooooooooooddddd!!!! Yay!!!!! I also bought some Concentrace (trace mineral drops by the company Trace Minerals) and put a good dose of that in my water. I should have bought this before I started the fast, but I did not think about it. Bad planning on my part.
At 2:15 PM: a cup of bone broth
At 3:30 PM (I was hungry): a cup of bone broth, about an ounce of kale chips, a few black olives
At 5:00 PM: a cup of bone broth, a few black olives, about 1.5 ounces kale chips, about 1/2 ounce beet chipss, a few flakes of Parmesan cheese, about an ounce of canned oysters
Dinner: hamburgers (one-half pound grass-fed ground beef; at least 1/4 red onion; some black olives; some cheese; three leaves of leaf lettuce) with some potato chips and dip (made from grass-fed sour cream and from Mark Sisson’s Primal Kitchen brand Chipotle Lime Mayonnaise); and other stuff.
When I drank the bone broth, it was not good — it was delicious — my sense of taste was heightened some; my brain felt satisfied and rewarded — like think our ancestors from thousands of years ago who might have had to fast for a while but then killed a caribou, and how their whole person, their whole rational animal, would have felt strong pleasure from the success at living — my stomach and digestive system, so far as I could tell, were ready and receptive; I felt invigorated and energetic; I felt the pleasure of being satiated and nourished and reconnected again, in the particular way that food and drink connects us, to life, our ecology, and our world.
I was going to have one pound of hamburger, which is my usual, but judged I should stop at the half-pound. It was the proper amount to eat; too much more would have been, I think, too much for the system. I would probably have had to force it down.
And all that continued every time I ate.
Sleep was good.
-Monday, 29 July 2019: I woke up after a good night’s sleep and started my day. While I had no hunger, I did know I was going to need to eat. I had maybe 1/2 cup of coffee (with coconut milk) over an 1.5-2 hour period while I did my morning routine, then went to a local park to do some easy-moderate movement training for an hour and a half. Now, around noon, I’m getting ready to eat breakfast: four scrambled eggs, some link sausage, one small-medium red potato sauteed in butter, some salsa, wrapped lovingly into Siete brand cashew-flour (grain free! gluten free!) tortillas. I was hungry.
One recommendation I have — other than making sure you are metabolically strong and all that!!! — is to have activities planned to keep you distracted and busy. If you are doing a 4-day fast for the first time, don’t do it while you are doing anything important (teaching; work project; lecture; big business presentation; doing something stressful like planning a wedding).
