what happens to your body if you dont eat for 3 days
You've heard the benefits of extended fasts, but what actually happens?
I decided information technology's time. Time to practise an extended fast. It's been on my listing all twelvemonth. Number nine. Do a 3-day fast and brand a video about it.
I'm scared. I don't know why. I know I'll exist fine. I've heard the stories, listened to the podcasts, know the science (sort of). It makes sense logically. Years ago, we didn't always accept nutrient on mitt, going a few days without eating would be normal.
Only I was notwithstanding scared. I ask myself, what if I get hungry? What if I tin't do the work I need to do? What if a good mealtime comes up? Think, oh there was that thing I had to exercise. I'll probably need food for that.
All this happened within the infinite of a 20-minute afternoon bike ride. Before I get abode I've decided. I'yard doing it.
I accept dinner knowing I'm not going to be eating for the next 3-days. 72-hours. Like shooting fish in a barrel. I tell my family. I'm not eating for the adjacent 3-days. They inquire why. I tell them information technology's for an experiment. My mum asks if I'grand going to be alright. I say yes. She says are you sure? I say I'thousand sure.
Dinner is steak, potatoes and greens with a few spoonfuls of plain probiotic yoghurt later on. I meliorate prepare my gut bacteria. It'due south a repast worthy of beingness a last repast. Uncomplicated and succulent. It finishes around vii:30 pm. The clock starts.
I tell the world. Decide I'm going to document what happens to me. Let's run into.
— Daniel Bourke (@mrdbourke) August 8, 2019It'south Thursday dark, simply after dinner.
I've decided I'thou going to fast for 3-days (h2o only).
My next repast will exist Sunday dark.
I'll write a blog mail service about it when I'm washed.
Why fast for 3 days?
I acquire things best when I'm in them. One of my rules is I can't talk almost annihilation where I don't accept peel in the game. I'd never done an extended fast only being a health nerd, I'd heard of their endless list of benefits. And if yous've listened to a Tim Ferriss, Joe Rogan, Peter Attia or Aubrey Marcus podcast, you lot take besides.
I'd done 24-hours, dinner to dinner and exercise 16/8 (not eating for 16-hours, eating for 8-hours) basically every solar day simply never longer than a 24-hour interval.
To observe out more, I had to stop existence an outside observer and become a practitioner.
I could always terminate. At whatever given time I'm inside 20 meters of food.
Day i (Friday) — I've been here before
74.7 kgs (164.seven lb) this morning. Nil out of the ordinary. I'one thousand meeting a friend at gym. We practise a bodyweight workout, lots of crawling, lots of mobility work and then some kettlebells at the terminate.
After the workout, we sit in the sauna for 25-minutes. I tell him about my program to fast for the next 3-days. He asks why. I say it's for an experiment and tell him nigh a few things I plan to measure.
I tell him I've realised most diseases are diseases of abundance. Heart illness is excess debris in the arteries, Alzheimer's is excess protein in the brain, Diabetes is excess glucose, Cancer is excess cells. And if backlog kills u.s. all eventually, spending some time with less may foreclose it.
By this stage, I haven't researched fasting enough to know if what I'one thousand maxim holds its basis. But my friend agrees with me and says it makes sense.
I buy two claret glucose monitors later our workout. I plan on tracking my blood saccharide levels throughout and beyond equally a longer-term personalized diet experiment.
Why blood sugar?
I read The Personalized Diet and learned claret glucose response to food can be an indicator of potential health problems. Besides big a spike in blood glucose, from eating the wrong food or eating besides much tin can lead to too much insulin beingness released. Insulin is a growth hormone. Too much growth leads to excess and as I realised earlier, excess leads to disease.
I won't be eating for the adjacent iii days but I make up one's mind to beginning quantifying my body anyhow.
To track everything, I create an Airtable. I log my outset entries along with the coffee I had at the cafe. Some would argue black java isn't a true fast. I'd concord but decide it's allowed for mine.
By the end of the fast, I plan on having a skilful baseline understanding of what my blood glucose levels are throughout various times of the day.
Information technology's mid-afternoon. I've been reading and digesting the work of Dr. Jason Fung. Information technology could be confirmation bias but his posts on fasting are all making sense (whilst I'm fasting).
I oasis't eaten in 20-hours and I feel fine. I've been reading, taking notes and running errands as normal. This is chartered waters for me though. I've done 24-hour fasts before.
Dave sends a message through to the Jiu-Jitsu chat.
Training? I answer.
In.
Nosotros get to grooming. I tell him I oasis't eaten since dinner terminal nighttime. Nearly 24-hours without a calorie. He asks why. I tell him.
Training is phenomenal. It's one of the best sessions I've e'er had. Sparring is hard and intense, three five-minute sessions back-to-back. I discover no lack of functioning and even a potential increase in performance since I tapped out a more advanced training partner for the first time e'er. Information technology means nil in the long-run but it's a heave to the ego in the brusque-term. A warrior goes to battle hungry.
I have my blood glucose measurements later on training and they're higher than before I started. This is idea-provoking since my intuition figured they'd exist down since muscles use glucose during exercise. I plough to Google.
I observe a study which involved Type I diabetics and unlike kinds of do. The researchers found glucose levels may increase and proceed to increase up to 2-hours after high-intensity interval training versus steady country. The reason beingness an increased production of glucose during high-intensity training but a lack of the muscles ability to employ information technology.¹
I don't take Type I diabetes but Jiu-Jitsu is very high intensity.
The kitchen is usually the adjacent battleground. My brothers and I become home from training, melt and feast. Not tonight. I know I'k non going to eat. I'm slightly hungry, as usual after grooming but null intolerable. The family have dinner and I watch on with a compression of table salt in water.
I write in my journal.
I don't miss food equally much I as I miss the ritual of food.
I go to bed for the first time I can remember without eating anything since the night earlier. 26-hours into my starting time extended fast.
Day 2 (Saturday) — Learning whilst doing
I wake upward naturally, go the bathroom and weigh in at 72.four kg (159.6 lbs). My oral cavity is dry. Nothing which tin't exist stock-still with a few cups of water. I record my sleep quality as five/5 and mensurate my waking blood glucose. 4.2 mmol/Fifty on meter 1 and iv.0 mmol/L on meter two.
My Dad and I have the dogs for a walk. I feel fine aside from existence a little snappier. Our dogs are on a dual pb. When ane decides to aroma something and the other doesn't follow, the atomic number 82 pulls tight and throws you off balance. This pisses me off more than usual. Merely I remind myself of where I am and what I'1000 doing. It's not something worth being concerned nigh.
Dad and I go for coffee. I beverage black again. I check my blood glucose levels, they remain stable.
It's been twoscore-hours without food. Which is perfect timing considering I've been reading more of Jason Fung and Peter Attia's piece of work on fasting and body parameters. One of Jason'southward articles stands out.
Not eating for 36-hours does not make people more than of less hungry than when they started the fast. Whether you lot consume or don't, your hunger will be the same. Why? Because if you don't eat, your trunk volition simply accept the food energy (calories) it needs from your stores (trunk fat). You are, in essence, letting your trunk 'eat' your ain trunk fat. Perfect! Once yous open up those stores of trunk fat, you lot are not hungry, because your organs accept admission to all the energy they demand. — Dr Jason Fung in Controlling Hunger (Part 1)
I believe it. I'm feeling it. I'm non hungry at all. No cravings. Cipher. My trunk must exist starting to burn fat (entering nutritional ketosis).
Starting the fast my body fat was already low, my abs are visible. Let's say I'thousand 10% body fat. At 72.four kg, this means I've got 7.24kg of fat. At ix calories per gram, that's 65,000 calories (9 calories x 7240 grams). And then I've got enough to spare.
By mid-afternoon, I decide to do some stretching. I get into it and showtime noticing my joint pain. Or lack of information technology. I got diagnosed with Ross River Virus at the start of the year and the symptoms are chronic fatigue and achy joints.
There's no cure except fourth dimension. When I first got it, I was like an arthritic 97-year-erstwhile. I couldn't walk upstairs, couldn't open the lid of a sauce bottle, couldn't clothing shoes. A few weeks in, almost of the joint pain calmed downwardly. But information technology stuck around in my right hand and elbow. Doing a pushup was painful.
Except now, I didn't notice whatsoever pain at all. I was moving how I usually would, even trying to aggravate it. Nothing. This was surprising. I told my friend. He said placebo event. Placebo or not my elbow feels the all-time it has in months.
Questions arose. Did my joint hurting go away because of fasting? Or was it because of the lack of some food I was eating which was causing inflammation?
The whole day I've been pissing on ketone strips and never noticed a alter off the baseline (0 mmol/L). If my body has truly switched to ketosis, I should see an increase in ketone levels in the blood or urine.
Five trips to the toilet with a container of strips afterwards, I find a modify.
The lesser tile, ketone levels (height is glucose), moves from a chocolate-brown color (neutral) to a pinky-red. Which past my middle means my ketone levels are between 1.5 mmol/L and 4.0 mmol/L.
According to the blood ketone levels required to be in ketosis past Diabetes U.k., thanks to fasting, I'm officially in a state of ketosis.
I keep reading almost fasting. Some other article by Jason Fung which provides evidence for fasting not burning musculus. It makes sense to me. Why would fasting start to burn down muscle immediately?
Before food was within a couple of minutes for all of usa, if we hunted an animal, had a banquet so couldn't notice another one for a couple of days, what utilize would nosotros be if we'd burned all our muscle whilst waiting? We'd need it to hunt another fauna.
At that place was as well the written report on fasting and ghrelin levels.² Ghrelin is a hormone which triggers hunger. And after fasting for a consecutive number of days, ghrelin levels of participants went down. This again lined up with what I was feeling. My body knew deep downwards it had to eat at some indicate just at no stage nevertheless have I been overwhelmingly hungry.
Afterwards a couple of hours of programming report and responding to emails (annotation: the report and email responding was washed with a state of mental clarity I don't usually achieve, another tidbit), information technology hits 4:00 pm.
4:00 pm is a trigger in my brain to eat an apple covered in almond butter as fuel for preparation at 6:00 pm.
Since I'm not eating, I suspension the habit with kettlebells. The outset 5-minutes are hell. My previous blood glucose measurements are the lowest they've been, iii.4 mmol/L and 2.viii mmol/50. But one time the blood starts flowing, I feel much improve.
The workout finishes and my blood glucose levels are upward again, iv.8 mmol/L and iv.2 mmol/L. I still don't quite empathise why but it's cool to meet the changes in real-time.
I'g downstairs but it hits me. I run upstairs and it gets stronger as I go.
Closer.
Stronger.
I come across it. Mum has baked brownies. Steam is coming off them. I speak. They smell amazing. She speaks.
I but pulled them out of the oven. I say I tin't have whatsoever. She says bad luck. I express mirth.
I tell her my sense of aroma has increased 10-fold. Next door is cooking dinner. Some kind of stir fry.
The rest of the family accept dinner, I stay downstairs and do some writing, measure my blood glucose and record how I'm feeling. I discover an app to track fasting, Goose egg. I enter my details. 49-hours without food. More than two days. Other than missing out on mealtime, I experience great.
I go to bed with a new superpower. Super smell.
Day 3 (Sunday) — Intermittent sleeping
vi:45 am wide awake.
I woke upwardly three times concluding night. The offset fourth dimension I asked Alexa what the fourth dimension was. 2:17 am. I'm a sleep fiend. It had been a while since I woke up in the middle of the night. The other two times were virtually an hour autonomously.
Each time I felt alert enough to leave of bed, fifty-fifty though I'd only slept a few hours. No hunger but I yet had a deep-downwards feeling. Something inside was starting to signal food might be a practiced idea presently.
When I become out of bed I'g more dehydrated than usual. I drink a litre of water with a pinch of salt. It doesn't feel similar enough and so I beverage some more.
I accept a blood glucose sample, 3.iii mmol/L and 2.8 mmol/L, the lowest notwithstanding. And I feel it. This morning time I'm moving tiresome.
I'm meet a friend at gym. The same one every bit Day ane. He's coming off a 12-hour nighttime shift straight at that place, I'm coming off vi-hours broken sleep and lx-hours without food. Walking through the shopping mall I odour everything. It'southward Sunday morning. In that location'south bacon. Coffee. Bread toast breakfast eggs. I aroma it all.
We laugh when nosotros run across each other. He speaks. How y'all feeling? Slow. Me too.
We spend the next twoscore-minutes stretching and doing bending exercises, once the blood starts flowing I feel not bad. Movement is medicine. Sitting in the sauna afterwards I put another pinch of salt in my water canteen. I know I'm losing water faster than usual and the common salt helps retain information technology.
I tell my friend I've been thinking nearly extending the fast and going to 4-days. He says why non terminate today as a trial and do 4-days next time. I don't argue with him.
Afterwards gym, I buy a blood ketone meter and apply information technology. 3.six mmol/L. I'grand officially in nutritional ketosis. I wish I had this from the beginning, it would've been cool to see how my ketone levels increased equally I started getting deeper into ketosis.
On Sun's I edit videos. I set a timer for 2-hours to take another measurement and get-go editing.
5-hours later the video is done. Ordinarily I'd swallow as a reward for finishing a video. I don't. I'm not hungry but I practice miss the ritual.
I replace the ritual with a small movement session and afternoon walk.
It's 5:00 pm and the sun is setting. I haven't eaten in 3-days but I feel total. I expect at the water, grin at people walking by, watch the dominicus sinking. I tin feel an aurora of remainder. This fast has been physical, mental and spiritual. Some things you can't explain. Simply information technology'due south in that location. I decide to exercise an extra 24-hour interval.
Mum has fabricated dinner. I tell her I'chiliad going an extra solar day. She asks me if I'k alright, I say yeah, I feel amazing. I tell her I really exercise feel amazing.
I explain some of the things I've learned over the past few days to her. My trunk is helping me. The hunger hormone, ghrelin tapers off over a few days, I'1000 in ketosis now so my trunk is using its fatty stores for energy. She listens, says ok, as long as y'all're alright.
I cantankerous the 3-mean solar day mark. 72-hours without food.
Before bed, I take a glucose measurement, 3.6 mmol/Fifty and iii.3 mmol/L. And a ketone measurement, three.four mmol/50. Sleep.
Day iv (Monday) — Business equally usual
viii:xxx am. I've been awake for one-half an 60 minutes reading in bed sipping h2o. No wake-ups concluding nighttime merely I woke upward feeling as if my sleep wasn't ideal. I rate it ii/5 in my periodical.
My glucose levels are the lowest they've been so far, 3.0 mmol/50 on meter 1 and 2.7 mmol/Fifty on meter 2. Ketones are at 3.5 mmol/L.
I sip salted h2o in the sun and and so go to the cafe and club blackness java and programme out the rest of the day. It's Monday and I've got some piece of work to exercise.
I go what I demand to get done done. My concentration levels are at an all-time high. It's like my trunk realises its got cipher else to do except work. The energy I would've used hunting for nutrient gets used mashing letters into a keyboard, writing lawmaking, writing words.
I'm getting excited. I've said to myself I'll break the fast after Jiu-Jitsu grooming tonight. I'yard not hungry and accept no cravings simply I'm ready for food once more. I'chiliad ready to exist rewarded later on a hard session.
five:00 pm hits and I realise I've been sitting in a chair in front of a screen for 6-hours straight without moving. Non adequate. I take a ketone measurement, 5.7 mmol/L, the highest yet. Maybe that's where the concentration and unbroken stream of work came from. I become upwards put my mat out front and move around in the sunset. Stretching, yoga, angle, some squats.
I go to Jiu-Jitsu preparation. I'chiliad excited. I know I'm going to swallow after training. The ritual will return.
Dave'due south in that location. I tell him I oasis't eaten in iv days. He asks me how I'm feeling. I say fine. Fix to fight. He laughs. Nosotros become through the motions practice takedowns. When information technology'south fourth dimension to curl, I taunt him, remind him I've had no food in four days, he pats hits stomach says I've had plenty. We express mirth. Go into it.
The roll goes as usual. Hard. Two egos battling it out. No one gets a tap. Dave would've won on points though. I last the distance even later on 4-days without food. Nosotros complement each other afterwards say information technology was a skillful curl. The just thing missing was my loftier-terminate explosive free energy. Dave says he didn't find anything different.
I get home with the biggest smile on my face up. I know what's coming. It's time. I'1000 all the same not hungry merely it'south time. I consider extending it another solar day. I don't. Information technology's time.
1 of my brothers has cooked steaks. Thank you, Will. It'southward set to get. I could consume it right now. Just I don't. I have a shower, accept information technology ho-hum. Information technology's been iv-days, I'chiliad not in a rush.
The counter has ticked over. 96-hours without food. I'1000 not in a rush.
The family gathers around the table. I set vegetables to go with the steak. Mix upward a fresh tub of my favourite food. My favourite food I eat every day. My favourite food I haven't had in iv days. Almond butter. I mix the oil into the crushed almonds spotter it create a beautiful brown flossy goodness. My favourite food.
I put the food on the plate, steak, greens, olives, pickles, cauliflower, almond butter, lots of almond butter. I plan on staying in ketosis for the next week so I make sure there'southward plenty of fat on the plate.
I sit down down. Look at my food. Smile. Look at my family. Grinning. Mum asks if I'grand excited. I say yes. I tell them what I felt this afternoon. I still can't explain it. I feel great. Connected with the world. Excited to sit effectually and share a meal with loved ones. This is what I've missed.
The starting time bite reignites my desire for food. It's not overwhelming but information technology's dorsum. Not hungry the entire time simply the minute food hits my oral cavity, I beginning thinking about what else I could eat.
I take my claret glucose afterwards dinner. vi.0 mmol/L and 5.4 mmol/L, slightly higher than what they were after training. Double what they were this morn. This makes sense. I've only eaten my showtime meal in 4 days. Maybe it was too high in protein or carbohydrates. I promise it doesn't kick me out of ketosis.
I go to bed proud. Excited for nutrient the adjacent twenty-four hour period.
Takeaways and findings
Tracking blood glucose and ketones every couple of hours is tedious. The hardware could be improved. There were times I forgot and times where I didn't take a measurement because I was doing something else.
I'thou not stopping though. I treated the fast as the start of a longer-term personalised nutrition experiment. My goal is to get data behind how different foods and activities influence my different body parameters.
Below is an insight into how my torso parameters changed over the four-twenty-four hours fast.
Blood glucose (mmol/Fifty)
I used ii meters to compare different values. One of them was consistently lower than the other. The consistency of one being lower than the other was a good thing. If they alternated between one being higher or lower, the accuracy of each would be in question. My blood glucose levels were usually lowest in the forenoon and generally increased with physical action. The more intense the activity, the heavier the increase in blood glucose.
Blood ketones (mmol/Fifty)
I didn't get ketone measurements until day three. By and then I was already in ketosis. But past the urine strips (I didn't record these), my ketone levels were flatlining up until only before this fourth dimension anyhow.
Weight changes
My weight didn't change equally much as I expected. Information technology even went upward on Day 3. This is probably because it was the morning I drank 2-litres of water after waking.
Numbers at a glance
It was interesting to see how the ii blood sugar meters differed. Meter ii was consistently lower than meter i but they both finished with the aforementioned standard deviation (corporeality of variation in measurements). Notation how my hunger level stayed an average of just over one/v.
Progress pictures
These aren't perfect. I took them equally I was recording a clip for the video version of this article each morning. Each has slightly unlike lighting and were done at slightly different times. Day 5 also uses an iPhone instead of my camera.
Despite the trackable parameters, I learned eating habits kicking in even when you're not eating. My hunger increased (not anything dramatic) around mealtimes like clockwork. Remember the 4:00 pm apple and almond butter? Every mean solar day at 4:00 pm a switch went off reminding me of this.
As for the health benefits of fasting, it's hard to tell if I acquired any immediately. Just what I did learn past reading the works of Jason Fung, Peter Attia and various others, eating less often with periods of extended fasting hither and there is likely benign.
And this makes sense. If you're eating constantly, you're going to be triggering insulin releases. Insulin leads to growth, more than growth leads to a higher hazard of unnecessary growth, unnecessary growth leads to a higher run a risk of developing unwanted diseases.
What would I change?
- Water only— If you count the black java, I didn't really do a true water-only fast. This is something I'd change for side by side time. H2o and electrolytes simply.
- Low carbohydrates beforehand— The hardest office of the fast was when I was switching from burning glucose to burning fat. Information technology was nil unbearable merely eating depression carbohydrates or beingness in ketosis a week beforehand would probably rule out almost all discomfort.
- Ketone measurements from the start — This ties into the previous point. It would have been helpful (and cool) to know my blood ketones from the showtime and all the way through to come across how they changed.
- Measurements— My method of taking measurements is still imperfect. In an platonic world, everything would exist at the same time each solar day, weight, claret glucose, blood ketones. Just most of the fourth dimension reality isn't platonic. I'm currently looking into a continuous claret glucose monitor to aid set this.
What adjacent?
This was an experiment to learn more. And I did. I larn best when I'm in the middle of something.
I don't know why I was scared to begin. There was never a single fourth dimension where I felt any discomfort college than a four/10. And after getting into ketosis, I achieved states of concentration similar I've never felt earlier.
I program on doing more than extended fasts at to the lowest degree in one case every 6–12 months. I've been playing with the timeline of 3-days every quarter and a v-day one time per year.
I'm going to read Jason Fung's book, The Obesity Code, in the near future. I used to be the person who ate half dozen times per twenty-four hour period and tracked every macronutrient they ate to maintain a healthy weight level. At present I'm starting to realise doing and then was taking my hormones on a rollercoaster ride. I could've done away with that and eaten less often instead.
If y'all're thinking about doing an extended fast, try information technology out. Become from dinner to dinner to start with. If things go bad, you can e'er eat.*
*This is not medical advice, consult your dr. before doing annihilation drastic.
You can discover a video version of this article on YouTube.
¹ Consequence of intermittent high-intensity compared with continuous moderate practice on glucose production and utilization in individuals with type one diabetes.
² Fasting unmasks a strong changed association between ghrelin and cortisol in serum: studies in obese and normal-weight subjects.
Source: https://www.mrdbourke.com/4-day-fast/
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