Why I've Decided to Begin a Water Fast Starting This Evening

in #waterfast7 years ago (edited)

Good afternoon, Steemians!

I've decided I'm going to do a water fast of at least 3 days with no medical supervision. Oh no! The skies are falling. Wrong. I just watched a video that really made sense to me and I'd like to share it with you all.

I live in a country that lives to eat, not the other way around. I've been overeating for a long time. I'm not noticeably fat, rather a little overweight. I'm not fat, because I don't eat crappy food. I eat really healthy food, every single day, but I eat for 1.5-2 people. I'm not kidding, sometimes I eat 4,000 - 5,000 calories, and yes, I've counted. Some of you vegans might be in the same boat that I'm in and understand what I'm talking about.

I don't know why I do it, but I generally eat all of the food that I prepare. I hardly ever "put something away for later." Over the years I've trained myself just to finish everything on my plate. This began as a child where I was told that I needed to finish everything on my plate. Since then, I have a really hard time wasting food. I hardly EVER throw any food away, and when I do, it's when fruit has gone bad and I just chuck it in the compost, so at least I'm putting it back to nature.

I'm not new to fasting, but rather to complete water fasting. I'm telling you, this 12 minute video I just watched is very intriguing. I've been stuffing my face to the brim and hardly giving my body a chance to digest it before I start eating again. I believe this fast is going to do wonders for my overall health.

I decided to document this experience here, as well, because I know there are people on Steemit who have water fasted, and might be able to give me some pointers here and there even though it's not a very hard thing to do.

I highly suggest you watch this video that has experiments and science backing up the results before you begin to tell me that this isn't healthy in the comments section.

My last meal was just one hour ago, and I ate about double a normal meal as my last meal (go figure). I had curried vegetables with two whole huge bowls of pasta.

After this epic meal which probably weighed 3-5 pounds on its own, I decided to weigh myself with only my boxers on.

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Just now I weighed in at 183 lbs. and I'm 5'10" which puts me in the "Overweight" category, but not by much.

I'd like to see what happens if I go 3-5 days without food. Just water. No coffee. I know that the beginning of caffeine withdrawal isn't fun, I've gone through it before. It usually takes about 3 days for the headaches to stop. But after that, I remember life is great. Lol.

Realize that I just ate a huge meal, and I look pregnant because of that - started my fast at 4:30 EST on 07/20/17

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Thanks for stopping by, Steemians! Wish me luck! I will keep you updated each day :)

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good luck!!!

Thank you bud.

Good luck with your fast! I'm really looking forward to your daily progress updates. I've been curious about water fasting myself for some time now, but am scared to try it as I don't have much extra weight to lose. Still, really hoping to try it out for myself one day though :)

Cool :) Yeah I'd like to drop about 20 pounds but I think I'd have to do at least 10-12 days for that. I'm shooting for 5-10 but since my family is in town from up north I may have to cut it short... Hopefully not though!

Awesome video, thank you. I wish every post on Steemit was as rich as this one. (((Be sure to drink lots of lime in your water; it alkalizes ))))

Thank you! I will look into that. I was thinking about putting turmeric in the water some of the time.

Marvelous idea. Be sure to include pepper or pepper corns with the turmeric; it increases the uptake by something like 400%.

Weird. Will do!

This sounds scary man. Please take care!

I will. You'll see, I'll be fine lol

I'm in the very same boat as you. I do already intermittent fast and very active. 6 days active and one day of rest. However, I still fit in the overweight category. It is slowly changing due to some extra workouts and dieting I've done.

That video is very informative and intriguing. Thanks for sharing.

My pleasure, yes the video was pretty awesome.

I am really curious to see how you're progressing. I haven't ever fasted as such and that is a ways off for me, I think. What is more within my scope right now is the quitting caffeine. I'll be looking forward to your posts on the fasting !

Thanks. I'm optimistic about it. I think I'm going to probably lose 10-20 pounds and feel amazing. ;-)

Wishing you all the best! I believe Fasting is good for you, and even for your teeth. I used to fast often in my 20's. My longest water fast was 11 days and I felt better than ever!
Unfortunately, I have not been fasting for the last several years . . . Eating healthy, but way too much: like you described.
Steemed tomatoes or pears was my favourite food to break the fasts. People can die if they are not careful breaking fast gently.
Sorry for long post - I am very interested in the subject. :)

Thank you! Mmmmm I love steemed tomatoes! I will likely break the fast with watermelon as it's one of the most water-rich fruits. ;-)

That sounds great!

I expect your body will go into emergency preservation mode and begin to create 'glucose like' simple sugars by breaking down Protein(amino acids) stored in you muscles and also powers your brain. Which means you will lose muscle mass while retaining most of the fat stores in your body.
And as a fun side effect of burning protein for energy instead of glucose, you body produces Acetone(paint stripper) from the leftover bits of amino acid and you pass that paint stripper through your urinary tract and pee it out! The Human body doing gross, fun stuff just to mess with you. Huzzar!

Ha watch the video man I will go into ketosis and mostly lose fat.

I just explained what ketosis really is, how it works and it's side effects. if you don't eat any protein(like you are going to do by not eating at all) then your body will take it from your muscles and your brain. It's just how it works.

Good luck dude, I've told myself I was going to try this before but after about 24hrs I always give in. I have heard some interesting things about the benefits of fasting, or ever intermittent fasting/time restrictive eating which I do try to follow on a daily basis.

Thanks man. Yeah but supposedly you don't get a lot of the benefits until about day 3, depending on your level of activity and what you ate before starting the fast of course.

Wow 4,000 to 5,000 calories. That's a lot. We eat half of that. In the past I had issues with eating everything too since I can't throw food away... but then I learned to keep small leftovers in the fridge as a snack or use it the day after in another dish. Good luck with the fast! I'm sure you can do it. We did a 3-day coconut water fast not so long ago. Though I never felt really hungry, on day 2-3 mornings were so clear, energized, and I got a lot of work done, but afternoons brain capacity went down a lot. Luckily we work from home and could take afternoons off.

Thank you :-) yeah I'm coming up to the end of my summer vacation here so I figured I wouldn't be able to do it once the school year starts again - I teach :-)

Fasting and teaching don't work indeed!

Definitely not! I would probably go crazy haha

Fasting up regulates longevity genes and increases both the mean and maximum lifespan of laboratory animals. Ive done fasting on and off for the last ten years. Most people freak out if they find out that I'm fasting. Recently Ive become interested other things found in food and herbs that up-regulate longevity genes. Some berry and seed extracts have increased lifespan 28% more than fasting when eaten between fasts. Ive started writing about what I'm finding so if you are interested here are the links.
https://steemit.com/technology/@tombot/can-biohacking-double-lifespan-1-0

https://steemit.com/health/@tombot/can-biohacking-double-lifespan-2-0

Sounds cool! I will check it out!

Fasting has other interesting side effects. It clears your mind and helps you to focus and think very clearly and it has a spiritual aspect to it. In the Bible, people would fast as a way to become more in-tune with God.

I always feel super hazy when I'm hungry.

Yeah, that goes away on the 3rd day.

Gosh. I would not have the strength for that.. Kudos for people who can.

if you "eat everything on your plate" simple answer is "don't put it on your plate". Easy to lose weight hard to keep it off.

You're right bud!

I recently replaced a fair amount of what I eat with blended veggies, feel a lot better for it, not had the courage to do a fast yet.

Check back to see how it goes!

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