Fasting advice and experience

[goodsamaritan]

Hi,

Please share your fasting advice and experience.
I am aware that several of us here are into fasting from time to time as a tool for health.
Today, I'm just finishing a 3 day orange juice fast.

I know some are into water fasts.

What other fasts and how often do you fast or advice to fast?

[Satya]

I have never done orange juice fasting, goodsamaritan.  What is it like, a strong detox?  Grapefruit is my favorite citrus fruit, and it grows well here.  I have a plant  that I grew from a sproouting seed inside a fruit; it grows slowly. 

I have done several 1-5 day juice/broth fasts, usually with grapefruit am, then a carrot-beet-ginger-celery concoction in the afternoon, finally a veggie or bone broth in the evening.  Sometimes I do water for a day in between.  I have continued with exercise under such a plan and find fasting very rejuvenating from time to time.  I especially enjoy fasting towards the new moon.  Perhaps the tidal effects.  I dunno.  But I do know biodynamic farming is by the moon for this reason.  So perhaps there is some similarity.

What are your experiences?

[wodgina]

Many people talk about feeling more centered when fasting

Here is a new study showing how a hunger hormone (ghrelin) released during stress and on calorie restriction/fasting has an anti-anxiety and antidepressant effect in mice.

"Until modern times, the one common human experience was securing enough food to prevent starvation. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors needed to be as calm and collected as possible when it was time to venture out in search of food, or risk becoming dinner themselves, Dr. Zigman said, adding that the anti-anxiety effects of hunger-induced ghrelin may have provided a survival advantage."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080615142252.htm

[xylothrill]

Thanks for that link Andrew!

[wodgina]

 

NPY (neuropeptide Y) is a peptide  released when fasting, it comes from the fatty adipose tissue from the pot belly area. It has a mediating effect on Ghrelin.High levels of NPY are associated with with increased ability to handle stress.

-High levels of NPY are found in special forces soldiers
-Low levels are found in PTSD soldiers
-Low levels are found in patients with anxiety disorders
-Low levels are associated with lower tolerance of pain
-it's an anti epileptic (inhibits glutamate the excitatory transmitter)
-neuroprotective

Also there is orexin A is another peptide which is switched of after eating. High levels produce increased cognitive ability and alertness.

Not eating appears to be a healthy part of our diets!

Andrew

[goodsamaritan]

After 5.5 years of rpd and I haven't been feeling too well lately and the past year my amount of food intake just dived down.... with my cheating using 3 days of emergency canned food and cooked food... I got stomach inflammations... and since anyway the past few months I've been saying I will go on a long fast... well this was the signal.

So here I am on the 7th day of a diluted orange juice fast. (with a bit of raw liquidy fats once a day... 1 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp of young coconut meat.. 1 tbsp of raw egg yolk)... I don't like the old barefoot recommendation of soya fats granules... yuck.

And I feel immensely fine.

it is amazing so far.

and I'd like to go on and on and on until my body instinctively tells me i want to eat.

no hunger, no cravings.

seems my energy is coming from the fats I've accumulated in my gut

I do normal things and I even went to the protest rally last Monday and walked around then quite a bit.

maybe i am fat adapted.

cannot do water fast as I live in the polluted city.

Just theorizing that this easy easy fasting was maybe due to the accumulated nutrition I've had for the past 5.5 years on raw paleo diets.  Will report some other days.

I'm no laborer, I'm a computer nerd and business owner.  After many days of learning linux software raid 1 and freebsd freenas zfs  and a couple of short sleeps... i'm still fine.

[eveheart]

Often in the past, I have sought relief from food-related symptoms by fasting. Sneezing allergies disappeared forever on a 10-day Bernard Jensen's tissue-cleansing fast with colonics that I undertook 30 years ago. I adhered to a vegetarian diet back then. When I tried to follow the same protocol twenty years later, I found that it was too harsh.

I have followed Stanley Burroughs's Master Cleanse (lemon juice/cayenne/maple syrup) for ten days at a time on several occasions, experiencing an uplift from sluggishness and inflammation. It was always a gentle cleansing experience. This was before I ate RPD.

Since RPD, I generally feel as good as I felt at the end of these cleanses. On RPD, I have used one-day fat-only experiments, but no extended experiments. It would be nice to fast again to discover new benefits. I have not planned a cleanse because of my work schedule and activities as a grandmother. Lame excuses.

[jessica]

I have been thinking about doing a modified fast.  My blood sugar cannot go low though, and it does, even with low carb diet in general, because of my activity level at work.  Perhaps I should do something with egg yolks and some kind of animal fat.  I can't do any fruit in a fast as even a few bites sends my BS into a tail spin still and fruit is not something I generally consume.  I have been feeling the need to do a day of clay water to clean out the system.  I think this thread is a good impetus, thanks for the inspiration!

[svrn]

apparently all cells in the body start cannibalizing each other after 5 hours with no food. This could  be prevented by eating something every five hours this could include orange juice or milk.
Fasting with just water is dangerous.
If i fast it would be with milk eggs and honey. ONly liquid foods to give my body a break but starving it of any calories at all is insane.

[jessica]

There are some parts of my body I wouldn't mind cannibalized.  But I know, I wouldn't "fast" now, even though my health is up, its still very sensitive and I honor that.  But to do a very limited diet, like just egg yolks and tea and lots of clay water for a few days is what I am feeling drawn to.

[Barefoot Instincto]

I don't do full fasts anymore, but now every week for a few days I drop my calories by about half, and eat most of those for my one big dinner meal. This is called intermittent fasting.

I've been seeing better results from this than anything else, especially since its so easy when you can still have a big dinner (although still fairly low in calories). I have a very active job (and an active body) so its hard on me mentally to do full fasts. Extremely easy to do partial fasts, and they seem a lot healthier. On some days I also spike my calories.

So far its been allowing me to lose fat and gain healthy body mass at the same time, constantly, for almost a year now. Unlike conventional beliefs, you don't always need to be in a calorie deficient to lose fat. You just gotta play around with your intake, while keeping that intake very high quality, and doing very high quality body-building movements (I'm 5 feet 3", at 140 pounds. Weight isn't changing but I'm getting bigger and leaner every week/month).

[Aura]

I daily dry fast for 18 hours since 2plus years. During the remaining 6 hours I drink plenty of water and eat plenty of food heh
Reading this post I got inspired to go 20hrs daily, which is basically down to a meal a day.
Lately I am doing fasted workouts because I have lots of energy especially early in the morning.
Some days I just wake up at 04:30 am wanting to exercise..

Here is a IF guidebook
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IntermittentFasting_PDF_r7.pdf

[sabertooth]

I recommend water fasting over juice fasting. Juice fast wont allow the cells to clear out the excess accumulated metabolic waste , because the carbs and insulin keep flooding in. After 3 days on a water fast you can begin cleansing at the cellular level.

Ive always had good experiences with fasting. I regularly do 2 day fast when I finish a lamb about every three weeks. The last 7 day fast I did was without any difficulty. I went from 170 to 162. I broke the fast on eating raw meat, fat, and blood. There was a couple days of diarrhea, but my digestion soon normalized along with my apatite and I gained back the weight within two weeks.

Dr. Bragg's swore by a regiment of regular fasting for health and longevity.

One day a week.

A three day fast every month

A 7 to 10 day fast every 4 months.

[Barefoot Instincto]

Nice guide, I'll definitely give it a read through.

I've been experimenting with fasted workouts as well, and, though I need more experimentation, I'm finding that I may actually have more energy and stamina this way. Yesterday did an intense treadmill workout on a 15 percent grade the entire time. At times I ran at 8 miles per hour for stretches of minutes at a time and really sprinted at 10 miles per hour until I absolutely could not take it anymore. Everyone around me is just like walking on their mills, or jogging lightly. I'm doing things properly, going BALLS OUT for like, 40 minutes or less with periods swinging between light effort to maximum intensity. Then I just take many (a lot of times up to 7 ) days off and rest. So far its working absolute wonders on me.

The fasting I do is definitely a corner stone in my health, contributing to my success. I catch everyone staring at me in the gym all the time. I'm not even that great looking, mind you. I have much higher aspirations. And yet, because I eat so god damned well, my body composition looks a lot harder and leaner, and more proper, than most of theirs, even if they have more muscle than I do (theirs is filled with fat, and covered with fat). It makes for a much more unhealthy, and unsatisfying look. Its occurring to me that an extremely low amount of people actually do things right to make themselves look even half decent. It seems that I'm going to reach one of the most desired functional physiques in a year or so's time, with a very minimal amount of training, simply because I eat the right way, and because I train the right way. Also because I've learned to harness fasting, which most people really seem to not want to do, and don't. But I do it a shit ton, and its paying off. Definitely a thing that should be mainstream practice.

[jessica]

I daily dry fast for 18 hours since 2plus years. During the remaining 6 hours I drink plenty of water and eat plenty of food heh
Reading this post I got inspired to go 20hrs daily, which is basically down to a meal a day.
Lately I am doing fasted workouts because I have lots of energy especially early in the morning.
Some days I just wake up at 04:30 am wanting to exercise..

Here is a IF guidebook
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/IntermittentFasting_PDF_r7.pdf

Yeah when I was up at 4:30 doing work outs before the day of farming I thought my energy was fucking awesome too, but it turned out to be just a symptom of my adrenals giving out all the cortisol and adrenaline they could.  Pretty much if I had mellowed myself out and eaten regularly and worked less, I would have never gotten to such a horrible place physically.  I hope you are being aware of the difference between true energy and anxious energy produced by bodies that are just barely holding on due to lack of nutrients, calories, blood sugar issues, fatigue etcetecetc.  Sometime I worry that we live in a very hyper energetic productive world that makes us burn ourselves out because we think the more we can push ourselves the better.  Just take care and be aware. 

[bookittyrun]

until my transition into this better diet, i would perform an annual fast of 10-14 days, with only water.  i can't imagine doing a citrus fast, especially for that long...  very acidic?  lived life like normal, maybe just a little less aggressive with exercise.  i have done this for the better part of 10 years.  it takes some determination to perform, i would notice that i no longer felt hungry after day 3 or 4...  approx  64 - 96 ounces of water daily, this would typically lessen as time went by...  but ingested as my body desired.  i would fast in this manner because i felt my body wanted it, and it would continue until i felt "clean", then add another day or two.  the hardest part of a longer duration fast is working foods back into yourself once complete...  i would start off slowly with introducing bland, sometimes salty crackers (cuban goya crackers, or saltines), and slowly work light type foods back in... very slowly...  as my stomach allowed.  sometimes another week before eating somewhat normal again.  i completed a 10 day fast last year, just before switching my diet, in an effort to cleanse (my body felt it was needed, but only for that amount of time).  feeling the need to fast was my indication to start eating raw.  i haven't felt the same need since improving my diet.

the way i felt, physically and mentally, after completing the fasting period cannot be described.  it was awesome.  now i'm waiting for my body to tell me when, if ever again...  and if i do, i'm not sure what to do about crackers anymore, either.  i'll make that decision when the time comes.

i did an "accidental" fast of nearly a week last year around thanksgiving, not because i felt the need to, but because i ran out of food and money...  i think it's mentioned in my journal.

best wishes.

[Aura]

I hope you are being aware of the difference between true energy and anxious energy produced by bodies that are just barely holding on due to lack of nutrients, calories, blood sugar issues, fatigue etcetecetc. 

Hi Jessica, now that you make me think about, I m not sure which one it is..  ???Could you explain it a bit further?
I mean, I just wake up, feeling fresh, relaxed and feeling inspired, creative, wanting to dance, to use my body.. It does not seem to be the "anxious" type...

But I do believe I should increase my protein and fat from animal sources into my diet. I live with vegans here..  And I am stuck on this high carb freakin´low fat paradygm..

Sometime I worry that we live in a very hyper energetic productive world that makes us burn ourselves out because we think the more we can push ourselves the better.  Just take care and be aware.

Yeah, I totally agree.

[Aura]

until my transition into this better diet, i would perform an annual fast of 10-14 days, with only water.  i can't imagine doing a citrus fast, especially for that long...  very acidic?

It depends on the oranges/citrus you have available.
Here there are such sweet (cheap) and ripe oranges I would easily mono on them for weeks..

i did an "accidental" fast of nearly a week last year around thanksgiving, not because i felt the need to, but because i ran out of food and money...  i think it's mentioned in my journal.

A blessing came in disguise