More about Fasting Benefits

There are so many reasons to at least occasionally do a longer term fast (3 days minimum) and regularly use "intermittent fasting" as a healthy habit.  In this blog post, I will talk about the benefits I personally get when I fast, and about the proven health benefits for almost any healthy person.  Then at the end I will give a short update of my fasting experience this time around.

PERSONAL REASONS

1. Nutritional Reset.  Something about fasting gets me thinking about food.  In a good way.  It motivates me to make better food choices going forward.  I need to reset every so often as I find less than healthy habits tend to creep into my diet.  Fasting is also great for kicking the carb cravings to the curb.

2. Recognizing hunger is not a mandate.  We get hungry and we think we need food, STAT.  Truth is, most of us have plenty of food stored right in our bodies.  That's why if you don't feed your hunger immediately it goes away for a while.  This is your body using stored food to take care of the hunger temporarily.  The self-control required to fast successfully is a real confidence booster.  It feels good to know that I am not a slave to my appetite.

HEALTH REASONS

1. Weight Loss.  You can lose about a pound a day when you fast. Of course some of the weight loss is water weight and will come back quickly when you refeed.  However some of it is fat loss, and if you make better choices going forward it will stay lost forever.

2. Immune system benefits.  Just google "fasting and the immune system" to see the research.

3. A whole host of other health benefits...  you can use google to research this too...

• Decreased insulin levels
• Increased insulin sensitivity
• Decreased blood glucose levels
• Increased fat burning
• Decreased inflammation
• Increased cellular cleansing

Today is day 4 of my 5 days which I will end tomorrow at dinner with a salad or wait until Thursday morning depending on how I am feeling. 

What have I consumed during this fast?

I have mainly been drinking water but I did drink a cup of coffee with milk and 2 tsp. of sugar each morning, about 8 ounces of veggie/fruit juice at about hour 53... I was feeling sick in the night and I am guessing it was about the time my glycogen stores were depleted, but my body had not yet kicked fully into ketosis.  The juice did the trick and I was fine after that. I had another 4 ounces of the same juice yesterday before I rode my bike to a shopping center about 15-20 minutes from home.  Then today another 6 ounces of juice.  

How have I felt?

I have felt okay, but not super. I feel better if I stay busy and active, which I haven't done today.  :-(
The first two days are the most difficult for me as I am really hungry and get irritable.  I did not get headaches this time though.  I would say on average I have had slightly less energy, but some of that may be because now that school is out I have nothing I HAVE to do and I am enjoying the freedom to do nothing.

What's next?
Mark has done a 3 day fast along with me and we both plan to break it by eating low carb for a few days to extend the benefits of ketosis.  On Monday all bets are off as we are having a yummy BBQ with friends.  I do think that I will go back to intermittent fasting (at least one or two 24 hour periods a week) which I haven't done with regularity in quite a while.

Fasting for your health

While I do occasionally fast for spiritual purposes, this post is about fasting for weight loss and health.

About 6 years ago I was trying to lose about 10 pounds of baby weight and joined a gym.  While talking with a trainer I remember telling her I was willing to work out, but I didn't really want to change my diet.  (Carb addict!).  She looked at me and said losing weight is 80% diet.  That moment began my journey of figuring out how to control my weight whether or not I had the time to exercise.

As I was researching I came across a website about Intermittent Fasting and read the ebook called "Eat Stop Eat".  The basic idea was to fast for one or two 24 hour periods in a week.  I decided to give it a try, fasting from dinner to dinner two nights a week.  Over the course of a few weeks I dropped 5 of the 10 lbs I wanted to lose.  I ate any yummy food I wanted on EAT days and still lost weight.

Then some of my friends and I decided to do a 10 day juice fast.  Really, I did it to support them, and didn't believe when I started that I would actually stick with it.  Turns out I am the only one who finished.  It was amazing.  Over the next year and a half I did another 10 day juice fast, three 7 day juice fasts some 5 and 3 day juice fasts.   I blogged about this journey here.

Fasting has been proven to help regenerate the immune system.  And after that year of intense fasting, I rarely got sick for the next four years.  Then, this winter, I got my first cold in years.  So, I knew when summer hit it was time for another longer term fast.

I am currently on day 3 of 5 and in the fasting "sweet spot".  The first two days are rough.  As your body uses up its glycogen stores, hunger is strong, and headaches can be a problem.  But then around day 2 to 3 a switch occurs.  Your body enters a state called ketosis, where it burns your fat for fuel, and the hunger is not nearly as strong, and you get more energy.  Today I biked over an hour total even though I hadn't eaten anything since Friday at dinner.

I am sharing my journey because it has made me a healthier person.  I lost the 10 lbs. I wanted to, I got a stronger immune system, and many other health benefits too.  If you are interested in giving fasting for health a try, let me know, I will encourage you along the way.  And you should know that there are many many ways to incorporate fasting into your life.    (Intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting, eating within a daily window, longer term fasts, etc.)