I’ve heard quite a few people speak about the benefits of long fasts like that. I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying the body was made to fast though. Are there any papers or explanations for that biologically? Totally not saying you’re wrong. That’s just a big claim and I’ve never looked into it myself.
Only reason I’m skeptical is because There are a lot of people who feel euphoric and amazing right before death. I’m not saying that fasting is the same as dying, just that feeling amazing isn’t a good metric to say we’re supposed to do something. Being on painkillers feels amazing too but they’re slowly destroying your nervous system the whole time. Again, not saying fasting is like heroin, but “feelings” are just chemical reactions occurring in the brain and body.
If theres any research showing the evolutionary biology of why we feel good after fasting I would really like to read that. My guess would be that back in the old times, you needed an extra “kick” for hunting and feeding yourself when you got close to the starvation point? No idea. . I’m highly interested in all sorts of detoxes and natural therapies. Another theory I have is that definitely believe modern food and life is horrible for humans and I can 100% understand why it feels good to stop the intake of sugar and billshit food. With all the processed carbs, sugar, caffeine, etc. it throws off our hormones and chemical balances and almost puts us in a fog. And I’ve heard a lot of people explain that fasting feeling as “coming out” of the daze that modern life puts us in.
Definitely not choosing a side on this one! I’d love some more info if anyone has it though.
Well worth the time to dig into! My brother-in-law got me into it. He had done a few 5 day water fast over the last 2yrs and said I should give them a go. Eventually started watching a few things on youtube and thought why not.
A few points off the top of my head, keep in mind, my primary goal with fasting was autophagy, not fat loss. I'm mainly interested in autophagy due to an extensive PED use history over decades, I liked the idea that it might clean out damaged cells.
The way I think of it is that autophagy is a healing/repair state, it naturally exists in our bodies but due to our modern dietary habits (an abundance of food always on hand and being taught we must eat 3+ times a day) our bodies never go through natural fasting periods (Tribe runs out of a kill, so off we go hunting an animal that requires days of not eating while expending large amounts of energy with periods of high energy expenditure while chasing down an attempted kill).
So, we are going on a hunt and our body starts preparing itself for a natural period of fasting. It wants to run as streamlined as possible during this period. As the body starts using up the stored glycogen, it triggers the body to start looking back at itself (think of this as self cannibalism... But in a beneficial way)
One of the first things it does is increase natural GH secretion roughly 600%.
It then starts scavenging the body for old/damaged cells so it can operate more efficiently.
It also switches over to using fat as the primary energy source as glycogen is depleted (This happens roughly around the 48-72hr mark) I used ketosis sticks to track this in my urine.
The way I think about this is that while ever we are putting food in, the body is focusing ALL its energy into metabolizing that food and it never gets time to enter its natural repair mechanism (autophagy). This is a relatively modern thing as most of human history, food has not always been plentiful or secure.
A word of warning, A LOT of people who regularly fast recommend using "snake juice" to replenish certain minerals. I didn't, but I have had extensive cramping issues for the last 20yrs so always have powdered magnesium with me at all times and whenever I get a cramp, dump that in water and drink it down. So, that's what I continued to do during the fast. Can't really say if I got more cramps during the fast then normal, normally I get 2-3 per week and it was much the same during the fast.
Also, if you do do a fast that's longer then 5 days, look at refeeding when breaking the fast. This is just adding certain foods back in at certain times (usually over 1 day) to restart your gut biome. Many people claim its not needed until around a 10 day fast but to me, why wouldn't I to give myself the best outcome.
The refeeding I used was:
1 - 1 tablespoon of avocado (Healthy fat), then wait 1hr
2 - Sauerkraut/natural yoghurt - 1 small handful (Priming the gut with good bacteria), then wait 1hr
3 - Steamed fibrous vegies/veggie soup (Fiber = Fuel for the gut bacteria)
4 - Bone broth - Gut nutrients (I made up 1ltr of this in a thermos and sipped on it throughout the day)
5 - Eggs/fish/beef/lamb/chicken - Supports gut growth. I had 3 protein meals spread out through rest of the day 1hr after the steamed vegies. This consisted of a small handful of protein each mean and about the same again of the steamed vegies.
I then went into a semi-comp diet coming out of the refeed. I just ate clean, didn't add back in shit like sugar or processed foods and did that pretty comfortably for 3mths.
If you have even a passing interest in learning more about it, there is great content on youtube from a heap of channels that delves right into the mechanisms and what's going on when in the body.
Not going to say it was easy, especially doing a 10 day fast right off the bat... But what I experienced fundamentally changed my entire outlook about what I thought I knew about the human body! Not only was it worth the self discipline, its now become a thing I will do at least once per year but ideally once each 6mths. I personally think that fits in well with my bodybuilding.
I also found that I had great training focus, intensity and above my average lean muscle gains for roughly 6 weeks post fast.
All up, I'd say it was a massive net benefit to my training, and hopefully a net benefit to my long term health!
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