Regular, monthly, 68-hour fast

[S11m]

I am now in the habit of fasting every month.

Last month I did a longer (five-day) fast which I worked in with eating no fibre before a colonoscopy.

They removed an adenoma polyp (non-malignant) which had shrunk due to the fast. (My stools had been "D" or crescent-shaped, as the polyp had been almost blocking the sigmoid (the bit of colon that connects the descending colon to the rectum).

Monthly 68-hour fasts are now routine for me, so I expect no drama... but watch this space for updates.

[HOBIEONE]

Keep at it & good luck !

[Zest]

Hi S11m

Wishing you the best for your Fast.

Zest

[Hidden]

Good luck S11m 👍

[Cosmo501]

I do remember reading about your fast last month. It sounded like a very positive experience on balance. Interesting to hear the effect the fast had on the polyp.

Hope your long fast this month is also positive.

[S11m Volunteer 70lb IF20]

I ended the 68-hour fast Yesterday morning, with half a litre of full-fat live yoghurt... and then a keto-ish carvery (no Yorkshire pudding or potatoes, and very little root vegetables).

Refeeding syndrome is a possible complication of ending a fast, and is, I think due to the massive insulin rush you would get if you ended the fast with a high-carbohydrate meal.

Fasting is a good opportunity to fix you microbiome by getting rid of the "bad" bacteria and replacing it with the good bacteria from the live yoghurt. Last time I fasted was the last time it was 30 Centigrade - and it does not help.

Exercising in a fasted state burns off your glycogen reserves, and gets you into ketosis and autophagy, so, 24 hours in, I walked 5.4Km, and 48 hours in I walked 7.1Km. This was hard - and I had to take it steady and rest regularly. I get upper-body exercise by taking a pruning saw and a machete and cutting back the bramble bushes.

I use the HRV4Traing app, which tells me how fit I am, and is an indication of longevity and this tells me fasting is good for me. Dr Mindy Pells says that fasting improves her HRV.

I feel great - and I am thinking about fasting every fortnight instead of every month.

[Zest in reply to S11m]

Hi S11m

Very glad to hear how well you feel after your fast. Thanks for explaining it in more detail as well, regarding some of the positives etc. Interesting to read, and Congratulations on a good outcome.

Wishing you an excellent day and week ahead.

Zest

[S11m Volunteer 70lb IF20]

Dr Mindy Pelz says that exercising three days or more into a fast is too much stress on your body - and I think that the 7km walk I did 48 hours into this fast was too hard, and I think that is why I have not felt as good after this fast as I did after the last one. Indigenous people can run down an antelope nine days into a fast... but they must be better fat-adapted than us Europeans!

There is no benefit in getting older if you do not get wiser!