Fasting for Health

 Fasting is a word that used to cause me unease. I grew up with a family obsessed with being thin and a whole host of eating disorders and bad relationships with food because of it. I was always subjected to those underhanded compliments or outright insults because I ate what I liked and was a little heavier and thicker than they were. However, until my late 20s, I always had a healthy BMI. I’ve gone into this before, but in summary, taking mood stabilizers numbed me and all I did was sleep and eat for nearly a year and put on a shocking 80 lbs in doing so. Needless to say, I was pretty skeptical of doctors and medication for a long time after that as well.

I’ve also said this before, but don’t be afraid of anyone in a position to help you; just be prepared to advocate for your own problems and solutions. Don’t do their job for them, just make sure to suggest things if they don’t arrive there first. Respect their years of expertise but also remember you’re the foremost expert of your symptoms and concerns. You’re not going to make them your best ally if you’re overriding their training. 

That was a little aside but the main idea is this; what made fasting a viable option for me. I’ve spent the past seven months rigorously attempting to lose weight and be healthier in general, which I’ve also gone into the failures and frustrations in previous posts. I exercised to the point of pain and exhaustion, ate strictly in terms of calories and macros and types of food, but I was constantly fluctuating between 208-212 lbs no matter what I did. For a woman of my age and height, this amounts to being stuck with, in no uncertain terms, obesity. I teeter on the edge of overweight at 185 so this isn’t even close to ‘a little’ obese.

To say I haven’t made any strides wouldn’t be true. I’ve clearly built muscle and flexibility and areas like my face, shoulders, lower arms and stomach have shrunk a bit. However, my upper legs and upper arms, where I tend to hold most of my weight, haven’t budged at all. I do have better energy and moods but I still have pretty low days that are much rarer when I’m at my healthiest.

So I researched fasting. You’ll get a lot of mixed info, from both regular fasters and even medical doctors. However, I really dug into possible side effects, positive and negative, and came away with a renewed attitude towards the fasting process. First and foremost, I looked into accelerated autophagy, a process through which, once your body has depleted glucose and is burning more fat, your growth cells begin to speed up and streamline your immune system, getting rid of old, dead or inefficient cells and replacing them with new ones. This can also attribute to anti-aging. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s actually quite difficult to reach this stage; you can get there between 24-48 hours of fasting but studies seem to lean towards its peak being between the 48-72 hour mark. The second day of fasting is always a real test in discipline, even when you’re being safe and keeping your electrolytes up…

So reaching these burn stages between 24 and 72 are ideal. There are no real advantages I’ve seen to doing more than a 3 day fast and beyond that, it is highly suggested it be medically supervised. There are some pretty bad side effects and they are akin to what is termed ‘keto flu’ if you want to look at them. It’s a rather varied list like cramps, aches, decreased energy, diarrhea, etc. Long term or excessive fasting can lead to the opposite of good health; increased risk of diabetes, lowered immunity, kidney diseases, cardiovascular diseases and starvation complications. This is why long term frequent fasting is advised against when you’re not supervised or at the very least, testing your blood and vitals.

What really got me curious, more so than autophagy (which they’re really looking into as a possible treatment for chemo patients), are the improvements to gut health, hormonal levels and digestive issues, all of which really seem to be my setbacks in losing weight. I also like the idea of relaxing on tracking food intake for two days every week and feeling less guilty when I want to eat more.

You do need to go easy when breaking fasts of 36 hours or longer though. Refeeding  syndrome is a possibly deadly issue where you shock your system by eating too much too fast after your digestive system has slowed down or shut down once it’s used to not getting solid foods. I haven’t found this to be an issue personally. I’ve had issues like diarrhea and constipation while I’ve been adjusting but these have been expected and very temporary.

At this point, I’ve done a 3 day fast, a couple 20-24 hr fasts, and a couple full 36 hour fasts. It gets easier but you will constantly think about food if you don’t stay distracted. You will notice just how many food commercials are on TV (if you don’t pay for ad-free services). However, I’m happy to say that my weight currently sits between 204 and 206 now so it is currently dropping again. I was not expecting huge losses and I never wanted that to happen. There are a lot of bad side effects that come with dropping weight too fast and I definitely don’t want them. It’s not a huge health concern to do so so I won’t. I’m not at risk for diabetes at this time and my weight isn’t disabling. 

I will continue to fast for 36 hours twice a week for the next month at least. If the results and side effects are not worrisome, I may continue to do this for six months to a year. Every three months I’d like to do a full three days and will not be fasting at all the remainder of that week. I have also seen advice not to fast during menstrual periods, as it can cause shedding and toxicity issues as well as intensified cramps.

I have been very careful in my research since fasting is starving yourself, no matter how you word it. However, I am going to be very careful with duration, my weight loss and any symptoms I don’t like along the way. This can only be for the sake of health and I must be aware of any dysphoria or unhealthy body image perceptions. Anorexia and bulemia are NOT options here. There may be some maintenance fasting, for autophagy or weight maintenance, beyond this regimen but I am not taking this lightly. I am aware that, having tried everything, this is simply the last and safest resort towards sustainable results.

So I’m optimistic. I will be supplementing electrolyte nutrients (also discussed before) as well. I have no desire for a ‘pure’ water fast. Those just aren’t medically sound, especially with my health and hormonal issues. I feel like I’ve certainly researched enough to handle this with confidence and care and look forward to seeing where this goes.