What's the longest you've fasted...

Einhard

...and would you recommend it?

My dad recently embarked on a 14 day water diet because of a condition he has. He researched it all himself, and then sought medical permission from his doctor. It was a diet of complete abstinence, with the exception of water. Neither food or liquid, other than water, passed his lips for two weeks. I thought it was daft, and was concerned about the negative health impact it might have. More importantly, I couldn't fathom going without food for a couple of hours let alone a couple of weeks!:D

Anyway, he seemed to get through with no problems, and after undergoing blood tests, it seemed that the anticipated benefits were realised. At about the same time, I was struggling to shift some lbs. I had lost about 8lbs in three weeks of moderate dieting and exercise, but for two full weeks I had remained stubbornly at the same weight. I could deal with one week, but two weeks was taking the p*ss.

I decided then, that I'd give the water fasting a go. I modified it somewhat to include tea and coffee, and from last Monday week at midnight I went without food. I lasted until Thursday at 6pm, which is approximately 90 hours without any food whasoever passing my lips. I ate normally that night, and on the Friday. Then, I renewed the fast for the weekend.

I have to stress that I am quite overweight, so I wasn't endangering muscle. I also kept up with my multi-vitamin supplements. Very strangely, I didn't feel that hungry. At times I felt a little light-headed, and somewhat weak, but that was the extent of the effects.

I weighed myself Monday morning last, and I had lost approximately half a stone. Which is pretty remarkable, I think. It's certainly not going to become a regular feature of my lifestyle (I like food far too much for that:o), but I was pleasntly surprised both by the efficacy of the method, and lack of, for want of a better word, side effects.

I wanted to ask have other people tried this approach, either in dieting, or as part of a medical intervention? And did you think it was worth it etc?

g'em

I always loved the idea of fasting and bingeing (in a calculated way) having an effect of leptin, glucose and the other myriad of hormones associated with appetite and food processing. Was anything like that ever proven or was it just more marketing bumpf that I inadvertently subscribed to?

The Guvnor

Did 48 hours once!

http://web.archive.org/web/20060908073326/http://www.theministryoffitness.com/mof/library/articles/article7.htm

AntiVirus

14 days!! Sometimes I can't even make it through the night without waking up and having something to eat.

I would have thought its not good for you, your body needs vitamins.

Bad Panda

AntiVirus wrote: »

14 days!! Sometimes I can't even make it through the night without waking up and having something to eat.

I would have thought its not good for you, your body needs vitamins.

14 days is pretty impressive.

AntiVirus

Bad Panda wrote: »

14 days is pretty impressive.

I didn't do 14 days, maybe 14 hours when I was a student but does beer count?

AntiVirus

The Guvnor wrote: »

Did 48 hours once!

http://web.archive.org/web/20060908073326/http://www.theministryoffitness.com/mof/library/articles/article7.htm

Interesting story there Guv, looks like you're ready for the 4 day fast now :pac:

Deise Musashi

70 odd hours, years ago.

I used it as part of a cut to make weight for a fight. I used to weigh 76kg and cut to 72kg for competitions. Three days fasting got me down to 68kg @ 5' 10".

I have started to "IF" again to lose weight. It's easier than arranging food to bring in to work, I just don't eat.
I borrowed a glucometer and tracked my blood for about a week (damn "four hour body").
Fasted blood sugar was 4-4.5mmol/l and after eating, it went to 6-7mmol/l.
This testing showed that even protein shakes can take two hours to alter my blood sugar, whole foods up to four hours depending on fat content etc.

Have a look at this though.

http://pmj.bmj.com/content/49/569/203.abstract

Summary
A 27-year-old male patient fasted under supervision
for 382 days and has subsequently maintained his
normal weight. Blood glucose concentrations around
30 mg/100 ml were recorded consistently during the
last 8 months, although the patient was ambulant and
attending as an out-patient. Responses to glucose and
tolbutamide tolerance tests remained normal. The
hyperglycaemic response to glucagon was reduced and
latterly absent, but promptly returned to normal during
carbohydrate refeeding. After an initial decrease was
corrected, plasma potassium levels remained normal
without supplementation. A temporary period of
hypercalcaemia occurred towards the end of the fast.
Decreased plasma magnesium concentrations were a
consistent feature from the first month onwards. After
100 days of fasting there was a marked and persistent
increase in the excretion of urinary cations and
inorganic phosphate, which until then had been minimal.
These increases may be due to dissolution of excessive
soft tissue and skeletal mass. Prolonged fasting in this
patient had no ill-effects.

However...!

There have been reports of five fatalities coinciding
with the treatment of obesity by total starvation
(Cubberley, Polster & Schulman, 1965; Spencer,
1968; Garnett et al., 1969; Runcie & Thomson,
1970). One was attributed to lactic acidosis during
the refeeding period following a 3 week fast (Cubberley et al., 1965). Two were considered to be due to
ventricular failure, occurring during the fast, at 3 and
8 weeks respectively in patients who had shown
evidence of heart failure before beginning the fast
(Spencer, 1968). One patient (Runcie & Thomson,
1970) died on the thirteenth day of his fast from small
bowel obstruction. Only one of the five 'fasting'
deaths has been associated with a fast of more than
200 days' duration. It occurred during the refeeding
period after a fast of 210 days in an apparently well
young woman (Garnett et al., 1969).

Einhard

382 days without food?? :eek:

I thought I was extreme at 90 hours, and my dad loony at 14 days!!

Seriously, how could anyone go without food for that long?

The thing that surprised me about my fast was the fact that i wasn't particularly hungry during it. I relished the chance to eat again, but I didn't need to stop when i did. I could have kept going.

Locust

i did 13 days a few years back, nothing but water with a squeeze of lemon and cayenne pepper... Very good for you - as a detox, followed up by an auld 'salt water cleanse.'

Most people on a 'western diet' have years of gunk stuck to the walls of their intestines (meant to lead to cancers/illnesses etc). Good to give you intestines a break and clean them out every once in a while. Gross but very healthy.

Lost about a stone when I went a week without eating. Generally I'd go 24 hours without eating at least once a week, it doesn't help me with managing my weight at all. :pac:

Deise Musashi

Most people on a 'western diet' have years of gunk stuck to the walls of their intestines (meant to lead to cancers/illnesses etc). Good to give you intestines a break and clean them out every once in a while. Gross but very healthy.

I've often thought about using "Cleanprep" or "Picalax" to clean the auld gut. It's used prior to putting in a camera to check the gut, so should be every bit as efffective a colonic irrigation et al. for gut cleaning?

Only takes spending a day on the toilet to achieve inner cleanliness

Locust

Deise Musashi wrote: »

I've often thought about using "Cleanprep" or "Picalax" to clean the auld gut.

Go on a fast for at least 3 days so you have empty stomach bowels. Then do a cleanse of some sort.

To be honest the classic Salt water cleanse is probably best/cheapest - its just 1-2 table spoons of sea salt (non-iodinized) in 1.1L of water. Chug it down as best you can in one or two goes without gagging. Lie on you left side for half an hour.

That or a pint of prune juice, down it in one go! Just make sure you have the day off and immediate access to the toilet/sh*tter

http://themastercleanse.org/salt-water-flush/

Wicklowrider

Just as a matter of Interest: any of you who did fast over a few days exercise/train?

Einhard

Wicklowrider wrote: »

Just as a matter of Interest: any of you who did fast over a few days exercise/train?

I started on a Monday and I went to the gym that day, and did a spinning session the following day. Unfortunately, it was my first spinning session, and I was so busted afterwards I couldn't do anything else for a few days! I didn't experience anything different whilst working out, but I imagine if I had went to the gym after the 2nd day I would have have noticed it. I was feeling somewhat lightheaded at points after the initial 48 hours.

nice_guy80

I'd say maybe 19/20 hours.

But that was due to jetlag.

Normall I can't go 4/5 hours without food.

rocky

Einhard wrote: »

I have to stress that I am quite overweight, so I wasn't endangering muscle

Where was the needed glucose coming form?

Einhard

rocky wrote: »

Where was the needed glucose coming form?

Eh, through osmosis. Yes. That's it. Through osmosis.

:pac:

I really have no idea what glucose does for the body (sugar/energy maybe?), and how it's retained/stored by the body, if at all. Surely the levels wouldn't have gotten critically low over 90 hours of fasting?

rocky

The brain needs glucose. Glucose is stored as glycogen in muscles and liver. An uneducated guess, but I'd say you definitely ran out of it in your fast. After your liver glycogen reaches a low level, the body then turns to muscle for generating glucose from protein/amino acids.

I only did 24 hour fasts max.

Mellor

rocky wrote: »

The brain needs glucose. Glucose is stored as glycogen in muscles and liver. An uneducated guess, but I'd say you definitely ran out of it in your fast. After your liver glycogen reaches a low level, the body then turns to muscle for generating glucose from protein/amino acids.

When the body is using fat as a main energy source it produces ketones as a by-product. These can replace glucose as the brains fuel.
I don't think they can ever replace 100% of energy requirements, but if they are providing 90% or so it reduces the amount of muscle the body consumes via glucogenesis (spelling?).

I've no idea how long glycogen stores would last if you are sedantry while fasting. But probably a while, it takes most of a marathon to deplete them.

Stuck Cone

40 days straight!

rocky

Mellor wrote: »

When the body is using fat as a main energy source it produces ketones as a by-product. These can replace glucose as the brains fuel.
I don't think they can ever replace 100% of energy requirements, but if they are providing 90% or so it reduces the amount of muscle the body consumes via glucogenesis (spelling?).

I've no idea how long glycogen stores would last if you are sedantry while fasting. But probably a while, it takes most of a marathon to deplete them.

Only the liver glycogen can be used by other organs as glucose. Storage capacity for it is about 100-120g, so 500Kcals max worth of glucose.

Says wikipedia:

After the diet has been changed to lower blood glucose for 3 days, the brain gets 25% of its energy from ketone bodies.[4] After about 40 days, this goes up to 70% (during the initial stages the brain does not burn ketones, since they are an important substrate for lipid synthesis in the brain).

I think there are signals that step up GNG before the liver glycogen is depleted - to keep blood sugar at a minimum level, it has to be up and running when glucose is no longer available.

Mellor

For some reason I thought I read it reaches 90% after a week or two. It's been a while since I read much about it.

I think the brain burns about 20% of energy, so that might give an idea of the max time liver glycogen could last.

Einhard

Stuck Cone wrote: »

40 days straight!

Is that you Jesus??

Just an update: I continued my fast into last week. I ate normally on Monday, then naught but water for the following three days. Back to normal on Friday, and fasting again over the weekend. Am going to break that fast in a few minutes. I felt it more this time around than in the previous week. Again, I was rarely hungry which surprised me, but I was noticeably more light-headed. Nothing major or anything, but significant enough to notice. I'm not working over the summer, but I don't think a second week would have been wise if I were.

Going with 2500 calories a day as a standard requirement for someone my size, I estimate that in a fortnight I'd normally require 35k calories. Over the past two weeks, I've taken in approx 10k. This time 16 days ago, I was just over 16 stone, and had been for two weeks despite a diet/gym routine. I weighed myself last Monday, and I was down to 15.7. Today I'm 15st 2lbs. Which means I've lost 12lbs in just over two weeks. Which is quite remarkable.

I'm going back to my regular regime now, exercise and healthy diet. But I do think there's something to be said for such fasting. I realise that people have raised concerns about glucose deficicency, and of course that should be investigated. However, this course of action was approved by my GP (indirectly), so I think that llayed any major concerns that I might have had.

And now- I'm off for brunch. nyom nyom nyom

rocky

For glycogen research I normally go to the Health Correlator blog

http://healthcorrelator.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/do-you-lose-muscle-if-you-lift-weights.html

I guess that's where my idea of a max 24h fast came from.

Chancer3001

1800 cals yesterday, 1700 day before, 20 hour fasts in between. doing the same again today.

Low Energy Eng

I've done 24hours on a number of occassions, probably could have kept goin, I'll keep me eye on this thread to find out what a healthy duration of fasting is

Reality_Check1

I just started a 30 hour fast

btkm8unsl0w5r4

I have lost close on a stone in a week eating 170gramms of protein a day so there are a number of ways to loose big weight, there is method in intermittent fasting but not for prolonged periods of time (14days is a lot) there are a few on here doing 18 hours on 6 off and other things like that.

For me I would be far too grumpy, and to be honest I was pretty much doing IM at my heaviest, was eating pizza mind you but none the less I think its not for me. Best find things that are sustainable for you rather than gimmicks, only then can you keep off the weight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8FRuXJuImM

I managed a few hours once. It was touch and go there for a while. :pac:

madma

good video vitzgeme.. i actually only started IF there about 2 weeks ago and really enjoy doing it now. the first couple of times i felt a bit dizzy etc but now im grand.
just like that guy in the video i look at sunday as good start to the week for it. i did a 20hr one no bother from last sunday i had a nice healthy sunday roast dinner around 3.30/4 and i didnt eat again until 1pm next day. ive introduced it more to my diet this week and its a good boost for me as im looking for weight-loss

its not for everyone though but the early signs for me its working!

Pace2008

Deise Musashi wrote: »

I've often thought about using "Cleanprep" or "Picalax" to clean the auld gut. It's used prior to putting in a camera to check the gut, so should be every bit as efffective a colonic irrigation et al. for gut cleaning?

It would definitely be at least as effective as colonic irrigation because colonic irrigation does not have any positive effects on health. I guess it appeals to the spurious notion that the colon is like a pipe that accumulates unwanted deposits over time but this is not the case; the body has evolved to pass toxic waste and it does it in an efficient manner. If this were not the case we'd suffer from frequent bowel obstructions which are a serious medical condition.

There are no recongised medical benefits to colnic irrigation. possibly bar a placebo effect.

Zoria

I'm gobsmacked at this thread :eek: how on earth some go without eating for so long is just :eek: If I'm really stressed or upset about something I lose my appetite, but normally if I don't eat something throughout the day I get a narky and irritable. Is this really healthy to do? I would have thought it would tinker with your metabolism or something.

Chancer3001

that may be a downside to if alright. Probably the main concern id have with it.

But, as ive said before 6 hour window is plenty for me. just stops me doing stupid things like eating ice cream watching a movie, or eating just for the sake of it.

Locust

If your going for a long term fast - the first three days are the worst - headaches from withdrawals, grumpy and irritable etc... but after that its relatively smooth sailing depending on what you are doing.

I found that after a few days i became more alert and focused, i even felt like i had more energy at some points. Numerous positive studies to support that it is a very healthy thing to do.

rocky

^^ up to 24h fasts, yes. Show us the studies for 3+ days ?

Locust

A quick google of medical journals and some other crap... I think if you go over 24 hours you need to take it a whole lot more serious and be very careful - consult your GP etc and do it right. I would still be a fan of short intermittent fasting.

http://dangerousintersection.org/2012/03/09/long-term-intense-fasting-benefits/

http://www.eje-online.org/content/137/3/229.full.pdf

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3661473

http://www.scribd.com/doc/32727377/Medically-Supervised-Water-only-Fasting-in-the-Treatment-of-Hypertension

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-proven-miracle-health-benefits-water-fasting-1881388.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1610261/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4162798

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=328040

http://suite101.com/article/fasting-for-weight-loss-and-health-a85844

COH

I fasted for almost an hour and a half yesterday - athlete

Gummy Panda

COH wrote: »

I fasted for almost an hour and a half yesterday - athlete

:eek:

Might need to get some Plumpy'nut into ya!

Einhard

Just watching a really interesting Horizon documentary on fasting now. Apparently, the body produces a growth hormone called IGF 1. When we have too much of this, it prompts the cells to constantly divide. The cells are in a frenzy of activity creating new cells driven by this hormone. However, when we have less IGF 1, the cells shift into a different mode, and rather than focusing on division, the body moves to cell repair. All the cells, including DNA apparently, are subject to repair in this process. And food has a major impact on IGF 1 levels in the body. Protein boosts the level of the hormone, and reducing the amount of protein increases cell repair dramatically. The presenter fasted under supervision for almost 90 hours, and his levels dropped by half, cutting his risk of cancers and strokes dramatically.

It's still on now so can't give a full verdict, but they're getting onto alternate day fasting. Very interesting...one might even say it's food for thought!!

echo.lima

When I started IF I started with daily 16 Hour fast with an 8 hour feeding window, Then I moved to 18 and now its 20 Hour fasts daily, I like IF alot and I've experienced some decent body recomposition and endurance gains. Happy days can easily see myself doing this long term.

Einhard

echo.lima wrote: »

When I started IF I started with daily 16 Hour fast with an 8 hour feeding window, Then I moved to 18 and now its 20 Hour fasts daily, I like IF alot and I've experienced some decent body recomposition and endurance gains. Happy days can easily see myself doing this long term.

How exactly does IF work for you? When do you start your 20 hour fast? Surely not at midnight...don't think I could manage holding off eating until 8pm every day!!

echo.lima

Einhard wrote: »

How exactly does IF work for you? When do you start your 20 hour fast? Surely not at midnight...don't think I could manage holding off eating until 8pm every day!!

Depends on the day but usually start at 22:00 - 18:00 but I have done 00:00 - 20:00.

It was difficult the first few days, Now its nothing. I usually train late afternoon. It works well for me.

paky

I did IF for 4 months last year. Did 20 hours fast then 4 hours eating. It's a good way of saving money but you feel cranky as sh.it most of the time. Another downfall is when you eat during the four hours you get a massive amount of energy which makes it hard to sleep at night so its best to have the eating time during the day or morning as opposed to evening or night.