My first 36-hour fast. \ stacker news ~Fitness

3032 sats \ 19 comments \ @handsome_latino 12 Dec 2023 Fitness

I just finished my first water (and tea) only 36-hour fast.

Previously, my longest fast had been around 22 hours.

The hardest part was sleeping the second night in a row on an empty stomach -- I started dreaming about food and dreamt that I accidentally broke my fast! (sometimes, while fasting my kids bring a snack or piece of fruit to me and put it in my mouth, and if I am working, I might accidentally just eat it).

The most challenging part is to eat in moderation after that, but we managed to eat as much as I usually eat after a 16-hour fast.

I just ate fruits, veggies, cheese, a small loaf of bread at night, and I might go at it again for 36 hours. My goal is to build it to 72 hours and maybe even go beyond.

(BTW props to @POTUS for all the motivation).

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60 sats \ 1 reply \ @Signal312 12 Dec 2023

Fasting is amazing. Huge positive effects. Check out this post as well: #283881

But all that stuff about how it gets easy after the third day - I never felt that. Maybe if you have weight to lose, but I don't.

My longest fast was 4 days. On days 3 and 4 I felt pretty weak.

Now I'm getting into a more meat-based diet - semi carnivore. And based on my recent, admittedly limited experience, it's even more positive than regular fasting. I feel much more energetic (obviously comparing to post-fast, since during the fast you don't feel energetic, at least I didn't)

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @handsome_latino OP 13 Dec 2023

That's good to hear -- I also wonder it myself, I find it hard to believe that hunger just disappears, I think people probably mean that something else compensates for it. Just like I feel "amazing" while hiking, it's mostly that the breahtaking views and hormones and brain chemicals overtake the soreness, swelling of legs, and very often the unbearable heat and mosquitoes.

But "luckily" I have a lot of fat and weight to lose, so I'll try it myself after the holidays and see if it's true or not in my case.

60 sats \ 1 reply \ @POTUS 12 Dec 2023

Very impressive! I have not attempted a fast yet but I do believe it could be very helpful for me. What length did you start at?

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @handsome_latino OP 13 Dec 2023

I started at 12 hours many years ago. It felt very tough, but I was quite convinced that it is not natural to be eating all day. We had a dog whom only ate once a day and was mostly okay about it. I saw the same pattern in many bigger animals with fat deposits.

After that I transitioned quite easily to 16-8 Intermittent Fasting (eat for 8 hours, fast for 16), and once I reached 16, 22 was easy especially if I went on a hike while fasting and kept myself entertained.

I spend a lot of time at home, and we have children who often eat very different foods than I eat (you can't force broccoli and kale to kids), so fasting is the best option. Else I was eating what they eat and became fat very quickly.

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @GlobalThreat 12 Dec 2023

I didn't fast, but I ate nothing but fruit and vegetables for 2 weeks and my extremely high BP came down to normal. BUt it wasnj't a sustainable diet for me.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @handsome_latino OP 13 Dec 2023

That's awesome to hear! I don't have BP issues, but if you fast and it helps would love to know

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @knorozov 12 Dec 2023

You're only doing the most difficult part. After 3 days fasting, you feel better and the hunger goes away. After 5 days you feel great.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @handsome_latino OP 13 Dec 2023

I've heard so. But honestly 24 hours is quite easy for me, I do it often and feel very productive the whole time. Will try to do longer times as soon as December festivities and gatherings finish.

40 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 12 Dec 2023

Awesome! The longest water only fast I've ever done was three days and I've done two days a few times. My experience was also that day two was the hardest. I think our bodies sort of get resigned to not having food after that.

Kudos to you for not bingeing when you came out of your fast. I don't think I've ever managed to do that.

490 sats \ 1 reply \ @handsome_latino OP 13 Dec 2023

I've heard such is the case, but since it's december we have a lot of festivities and meetings with friends and family whom we haven't seen in a long time, so I need to keep it real and two days worked. I'm getting myself ready to see what I can achieve early next year.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Undisciplined 13 Dec 2023

I hear you. It's hard enough for me to maintain my daily intermittent fasts with all the family around. There's almost no way I could do multiple days in a row, now.

40 sats \ 1 reply \ @r3drun3 12 Dec 2023

Do you feel better after fasting? I cannot stand 3 hours without some food :(

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @handsome_latino OP 13 Dec 2023

Easiest way is for me in the beginning was to entertain myself with something that didn't let me reach food easily. Let's say going for a long bike ride, a hike, taking some workshop, etc.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitSapien 13 Dec 2023

My longest was a 34 hour water only fast. Im not sure why but I had bad headaches throughout the day. I also had a hard time sleeping as my heart rate was elevated through the night.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @PRA3S3NT1A 12 Dec 2023

That's nice, congratulation! Once I did only body weight exercises and really paid attention to what I ate for a year. The change was huge in many ways. Energy level was up, light body feeling was great and eating light food was the best to my stomach. However, after I changed the country where I am operating I found very hard to keep this routine because of the weather. In countries where most of the time is cold I found much harder to stay slim and do not eat carbohydrate all the time. Previously I was living in a tropical country and the weather was more than perfect to support this habit.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @DesertDave 12 Dec 2023

Awesome job. That is not easy to do. In my experience, fasting is one of the very best things we can do to help our bodies heal. I have learned so much about myself with fasting. It gets easier the more you go. Keep it up.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @orthwyrm 12 Dec 2023

That's great! I've been meaning to try it again myself one day.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @SpaceHodler 12 Dec 2023

I've done a 34 hour fast, IIRC. Before that, my record was 24 hours. I also used to do intermittent fasting, eating only between 11 am - 5 pm, but then a change to my daily schedule / work made it a bit incompatible, so I stopped.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @BitcoinIsTheFuture 12 Dec 2023

Well done! I never fasted more than 12 hours and did a 4 day one after watching Limitless with Chris Hemsworth. I’ll probably do it once a year the week of Easter again.