Fasting

Therapeutic Efforts Supplements & Lifestyle
#1

I’m sure many of you have heard me spouting off about fasting before, so when this article ended up in my in box, I thought of this forum. I’m actually surprised that it was sent from BeachBody, which is the company that puts out the exercise video P90X, which I have been doing for the past two months. Typically you will not see or find this info in the mainstream. Mostly because it takes money away from the pharmaceutical companies and doctors.

Anyway, I’ve completely several lengthy fasts. I’ve done one two week fast and two three week fasts over the course of two and a half years. From these fasts I have eliminated:

Brain Fog
Anxiety
Insomnia
Very bad fatigue
Depression and general malaise
I’ve gotten more of my personality back.
The return of at least a usable penis.

After each fast I’ve stayed on a 100% raw food diet for as long as I could stand it. The longest stretch being three months. That’s a whole other discussion.

For those interested, here it is beachbody.com/product/359.do … S_359_FAST

Not the most scientifically based article, but it does sum it up quite nicely.

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#2

Hello cdnuts,

I’ve seen the link you’ve posted and read the passage about fasting. Thank you for posting
Are you still having these fasting periods in your routine? And does fasting still continue to be beneficial to you. Any progresses since then?

I just wanted to add some more info to your research about the effects of fasting.

I am a muslim living in Turkey. I’ve been suffering sexual sides of fin almost for three years. Since that time I’ve had three fasting sessions due to our religious routine Ramadan. Every one of them lasts one full month. This is a period repeating every year. It has very strict rules of it’s own. During this period we don’t eat or drink anything from 05:00 am to 20:00 pm (depends on the sunrise and sunset times). You can not take any drug or anything via serum etc…
This year daily fasting periods reached about fifteen hours.
I am starving all day of course. I feel my blood sugar reaches the bottom towards the evening. Accompanying this I feel my already low libido also plummets.
When the sunsets and the restrictions ends we eat like cavemen out of control. So my bloodsugar then I think increases to a hig level. I turn to be normal state in about three hours. Unfortunately I have no bloodsugar or any other kind of measurements regarding to it.

Anyways I want to express that during these fasting periods I didn’t notice
any kind of improvements neither on my libido nor on my overall health.

Probably the fasting you’are referring is somekind that keeps the body in a suspended state about bloodsugar, nutrients and hydration so that may be worthy trying I think. But such fasting types that requires to remain completely unnourished for about fourteen or fifteen hours does a disruptive effect on overall system, according to my experience.

#3

Yes, the fasting I am familiar with is water fasting. You don’t eat anything and just consume water and rest for as long as you have reserves to use. I can usually go about three weeks before I need to eat. Sometimes people don’t believe that this is possible. All I have to do is break out the before and after photos I take before each session. It is quite something to see. How you can change the way you look so quickly.

After each session, I have noticed better overall health and vitality. I do want to do another one because I know from where I’m at right now, I would probably be almost completely cured by doing another one. I just can’t sneak away right now. You have to leave everything behind, work, family, friends. It’s not the most convenient thing to do. But living with these sides is more less convenient, so, it wins every time.

Fasting is something I think everyone should do at least once in their lives to better themselves. Not only will you become better physically, but mentally as well. It’s a really good exercise in self control to boot.

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#4

how do you mean?
like you go from being normal weight to being underweight or something?

i tried this whole water fast thing but i got heart palpitations by the second day so was forced to stop , also tried juice fast but that made me feel even worse.

#5

i you are scared of asting, just stick to rawfood… i can tell you, i´m healing and from an uncureable disease… its a gift of god… your body ist perfection… if you live the right way

#6

Yes, Ruffneck, I mean you change so fast physically in your weight and way you look.

The reasons you stopped are the reasons why most people don’t fast. They aren’t willing, or don’t know that they need to go through these symptoms to get through to the other side. There’s no way around it I’m afraid. It can be rather miserable at times to say the least.

My second fast had me stuck in this state of pure anxiety so bad I couldn’t sleep for days. This lasted for four full days and nights and then i finally collapsed and slept. It was the WORST anxiety I ever felt in my life. I would just roam around to keep moving to hopefully burn myself out and keep myself occupied. This anxiety was all consuming. Every cell in my body screamed for relief. Well, since that episode, I no longer suffer from debilitating anxiety.

You need to get that stuff out. It has to express itself. Most doctors today treat the symptoms, not the cause of disease. This of course just causes more disease.

I’m not a Dr., nor do I play one on TV, but my opinion is that those palpitations would just go away once you were in the fast for a week or so.

#7

cdnuts

How long were you on Propecia, how long have you been off, and when did you start noticing side effects? I’ve been trying to find your story on here…

As far as purging all our toxins during a fast, I’m not a fat slob with a ton of body fat. I’ve been an avid natural bodybuilder – as a hobby – for a few years now and I’d be surprised if my body fat was over 14% or so.

#8

Kirra,

I was on propecia for four years.

I stopped propecia on 6/15/07.

I am 32 years old, DOB 4/11/77

I started noticing symptoms about a few months into taking the drug but didn’t realize it was the drug, so kept taking it, until I really started to go nuts. I had a long standing lyme disease infection that I thought was the reason for my on going symptoms, little did I know I was poisoning myself everyday.

Doesn’t matter if you are not a fat slob or not, everyone can benefit from a fast. I hear it over and over again how healthy people think they are until they fast, and then they realize how healthy they weren’t. You can still store toxins inside yourself. You don’t have to be huge. We’re talking microsopic garbage here. What you are actually doing is cleaning yourself on a mollecular level. That takes time. That’s also where everything happens in our bodies, down on the level of cells and even smaller, the atomic level. That’s why most useful fasts are around 21 days. I’ve personally witness one man go for NINE WEEKS. That’s nine weeks without food. He was obese, and he could have went another month, but the clinic I was at maxed out at nine weeks. Things start getting tricky after that, and they want to avoid any problems that can arise from going to long, but most everyone can go for two to three weeks, without a problem.

Still though, I’ve never gone longer than 5 days at home, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone doing it either. You need to be monitored by health professionals who check your stats twice a day, blood work and urine tests once a week just to be on the safe side. It really is just to be safe, it’s not completely necessary but you never know. It also helps to be away from your usual grind, otherwise you start trying to do the things you usually would do at home, and this can lead to problems. When fasting, you literally are supposed to do NOTHING. Lay there and read or meditate, or what ever the hell you can do to pass the time. For some people, it’s all they need to give their adrenals a solid rest. Not to mention there mind. If you take the time and do it right, you come out the other end so refreshed and rested, it really is unbelievable.

But of course it’s what you do after the fast that makes all the difference. If you are going to go out and have fast food, you are going to be in a world of hurt, and could do some really bad damage to yourself. You need to follow a very simple raw diet for at least a month. Fruit, veggies, limited quantities of nuts and seeds, that’s it. The longer you can put pure food into your body, the better.

#9

Sounds like you maybe got thru adrenal fatigue with this.

I would try but to skinny anyway.

How bad were things for you after you quit? Did your ed, fatigue etc get worse? How bad was ed and how much has it gone? Thnx.

#10

You can search through my posts. My ED was bad, about as bad as it can get. The fasts helped most of my symptoms but my unit was still functioning sub par, until I started boosting my T with the Zinger and supplements. Also, working out helped. Now, I can have a satisfying sexual experience most of the time. I have most of my size back and hardness. When work slows down a bit I am going to start a PE routine that should help tremendously in that area. I have been wanting to start it for a long time now but just don’t have the time to put into it. It can do nothing but help the health of my cock. But like working out, you need to stick to it and be consistent, otherwise you might as well not even start, which is why I haven’t.

#11

I did a preliminary 5.5 day water fast preceded by two days of juice fast recently in preparation for my current water fast. I’m on day two of this water fast, which is slated to go about 21 days. I’ve done a 4.5 day and a two day water fast before, and each time the headache and detox symptoms at the beginning become lessen. And I’ve become much angrier at my situation in between the fasts, which I think has propelled me to fast longer and longer each time. I feel like a surgeon who’s had his hands cut off. I’ve told cdnuts this before, but seriously, I was the king of dry humor. It’s not like I went from 100 to 0, but I feel like a shell of myself most of the time.

Ideally, yes, I would go to a clinic and do the water fast there. But I really don’t have any disposable income. I finished up grad school in late May and am living at home for the time being. So on one hand, I don’t have any job or responsibilities. But no money to spend on anything other than food.

I Googled “fasting” last night and came across an LA Times article from a few years ago where a Marc Hellerstein, PhD, at the University of California at Berkeley, said that fasting is almost magical and at the end of three weeks fasting we’re completely difference metabolic creatures. I remember coming across this article in October 2008 when I first became aware of fasting, but tossed it aside and decided to wait things out.

cdnuts. You say fasting for 21-days (your first or second fast?) eliminated your speaking side effects. Even in the remote case mine was from excess soy consumption which affected the thyroid, my hope is this extended fast should clear up my symptoms.

I don’t know if you experienced the same thing, but my parents and some other people don’t think anything is wrong with my speaking, however a couple people have mentioned that my speaking sounds like it has a lilt to it, an up and down tone, although this in my opinion is peripheral to the choppiness/lack of fluency. I often hold back on wit/jokes/comments because I don’t know if it’ll come out right.

During the fast that eliminated the speaking problems, did you start noticing your speaking was better once you stopped or toward the end of your fast? It wasn’t as though you didn’t talk to anyone until the fast was over.

Also, this whole idea of people using 40 day fasts from the Bible as evidence humans can fast that long is a bit troubling for me. Wasn’t that number 40 used in many biblical instances as more symbolic than actual? Also, one would think a fat person could fast much longer than a skinny person.

#12

A fat person CAN fast much longer then a skinny person. It’s all about reserves, and how much you got to go on.

The speaking issues gradually started to fade, as did most of my neurological troubles. It wasn’t like one day I had them, and one day I didn’t. It was a gradual transition, a shift so to speak. My speaking became much less choppy and the thoughts started flowing smoother and smoother, as if someone was slowly turning the fawcet of though back on. That’s what it felt like, Kirra.

I’m going to sound like a broken record here, but I advise against going for three weeks at home. For the record. How do you know you have enough reserves? How do you know if you have the correct balance of electrolytes and minerals to make it through? It will most likely be non-eventfull, but I have to tell you in good conscience that you shouldn’t do it alone. Put it on a credit card bro…there is no price for health. That
s a lesson I’ve learned from this

In regards to people not noticing, when I was at my worst, oh they noticed. It was completely noticeable. I do know what you are saying though. More of it has to do with the flow in your head more then anything. I know the feeling of not being sure if it’s going to come out right or not. That goes into the whole thing of not relating to the group your in. I am at once back to my old witty self. It is a good feeling. Throwing out the one liners and zingers.

Kirra, do you know how to break a fast correctly? That is the most important part of the fast, breaking it. You know you just can’t start eating anything you want, right? Do you also know that you may not feel most of the effects until after the fast, when you start re-feeding. I can’t stress this enough. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. All of your suffering will have been in vain if you don’t follow a strict re-feeding protocol.

#13

From all of the fasting information I’ve read online, it seems to say that your body will tell you when you need to eat again and when to break your fast. Some people describe it as being exponentially more hungry than you’ve ever been. I have my mom and dad and brother around, too. I’m fasting on spring water, since that seems to be the natural route. If I were out in the woods, I’d have no choice but to fast on spring water.

As far as other people not noticing anything is wrong, really it’s only my parents and people who I’ve never met before, who don’t remember my old speaking. On Friday night I saw a couple of people from my high school who I hadn’t seen in eight years and they mentioned how my speaking seemed to have a lilt/a lot of pauses in it, as if I was going to stutter, but then I’d come through, maybe similar to the way Obama speaks, although I didn’t ask that. That was without me saying anything, and they said I never spoke that way before in high school. They mentioned how I would be like, “Hey did you uhhh hear that uhhh that one guy was uhhh…” and so on. Ring a bell?

I plan to break the fast with juice initially, followed by raw foods, and then mostly raw foods along with grains and some meat. But check it out. It’s not like my diet has been shit for the last 10 years and I’m trying to fast to break my bad habits and lose weight. Since I thought my hair was thinning, in spring 2008, I’ve been eating mostly raw foods – mainly because I just buy them at the store but I’m too lazy to cook them. So, for instance, I’ll eat tomato grapes or broccoli raw. Or mushrooms. Avocado. I never called it raw though. Sure, I have some candy or a soda or a burger every now and again, but my diet is better than most people out there. I’ll continue this of course.

When you say your speaking side effects didn’t just go away overnight, was it gradual as in a week or two or as in several months or a year?

#14

I can pretty much guarantee that you weren’t eating “mostly” raw foods. You are telling me, that per calorie, which is how you can calculate what percentage of your diet is raw, you have eaten 75% or what ever you would consider “mostly” raw foods. Considering a container of grape tomates would barely be 75 calories, raw broccoli, the same thing, the calorie count would be miniscule. An avocado would yield about 300 calories from fat. But those cooked grains you mentioned, well now that would pack a wallop of calories and a burger and candy and soda, well I think you get where this is going. To get your diet from “mostly” raw foods, which are foods that are not cooked in any way, you have to eat significantly more fruit and veggies then you would think, to be “mostly” raw.

People underestimate this ALL of the time. You have to calculate what percentage of calories comes from raw foods. If you were doing the whole natural body building thing, I doubt you were eating mostly raw foods because you can’t build much of anything eating that way. I can make a guess and say that you were eating “mostly” cooked food and probably be right. All of those cooked foods have WAY more calories than the raw counter parts. Plus, I’ve already mentioned this to you, 90% raw is nowhere near the results gained from being 100% raw, and I doubt you were even close to 50% raw by calorie. Do you see what I’m getting at?

Bro, I don’t remember the exact second that that particular symptom changed for me, because it was hardly the worst one and hardly one that I was most worried about. I was too busy worrying about my constant state of brain fog that was so thick I could become lost in my own house. Or the crushing anxiety or the chronic insomnia. That symptom for me was barely on the radar compared to the other monsters I was dealing with.

Also, if you plan on breaking your fast when hungry then you aren’t going to last 21 days, I guarantee it. You are going to be hungry the whole time, believe me. I always was. I thought about food constantly but because I was somewhere condusive to what I was doing, I couldn’t just up and eat at a whim, which may end up happening to you.

#15

Agreed on your points there about calories coming from raw foods. For the record, I disagree with the aspect of the “Paleo diet” that says to not eat grains. All cultures around the world have some grain as a staple of their diet that provides them with the calories they need. At one point in time when I was into a high protein-low carb thing, if I didn’t have any bread or rice, I’d feel so hungry. Go ask a person in Africa to not eat cornmeal or rice, and they won’t have any food after that – sometimes that’s all they have.

As far as the post-fast diet being the most important, isn’t the actual fast the most important? Sure, the diet after is part of the whole cleansing process, but my impression is that the physiological process the body goes through during fasting resets things and reinvents our bodies, and the raw food diet is icing on the cake. I don’t see why, physiologically speaking, after a fast eating or not eating grains would make a difference with Propecia problems?

#16

Of course they are going to eat what they have, IT’S ALL THEY HAVE. If you have a choice, we’re talking about the difference between thriving and surviving. There is a big difference between the two.

It’s more than that, way more than that. Yes, the actual fast is when most of the changes occur, but in order for those changes to cement themselves and in some cases express themselves, you need to be vigilant in what you eat. I know for a fact you will get more mileage from your fast by staying raw for as long as possible. What will it hurt? You can eat your rice and grains when ever you want. But if you are going to go through 21 days of no food, you should make sure it counts. This is why you go to a clinic to do this, because they also educate you at the same time. Usually holding several lectures and videos per day. Thats part of what you pay them for, the education you get when your there. I think you may be going into this a bit blindsided.

This is why you go to a clinic. You have some time on your hands, read “Grain Damage.” by Douglas Graham.

#17

Fair points. I don’t think I’m going into the fast blindsided. I do have previous experience. But the more information I can get the merrier. I’ll check out that book. I will do the non-grain thing because I have nothing to lose, really. Would you care to venture a guess as to how sure you think I’ll recover from these speaking side effects once I’m done with this?

Here’s another thought. I’ve heard we’re not supposed to do heavy exercise while water fasting. Why can’t I jog a little each day? Get the blood and lymph flowing and perhaps shortern the fast? I’m not saying fast jogging, but a nice, relaxed jog for half an hour each day? If I feel like I can do it, why not?

cdnuts. You went 21 days on your fast. Could you have gone longer? If you could have, perhaps a longer fast might help you recover from your sexual side effect? This guy Don Tolman on YouTube talks a bit about fasting’s health benefits, and there’s a guy you can Google named Marc Hellerstein, PhD, at UC Berkeley.

#18

You say this above and then you ask this below:

You’re going in blindsided. You don’t have enough information, and I can only help you so much. I’m not going to be able to hold your hand through this fast, sorry. That’s why you go to a clinic and pay them thousands of dollars to do it.

#19

Cd,
Where did you do your water fast? Were they supportive in terms of your anxiety etc?

#20

CD,

I’m not going into the fast blindsided. Sure, there may be some information that I could learn, but I wouldn’t call that blindsided. I’m sure the people that run those fasting clinics have fasting experience themselves, but I think that a combination of outside knowledge and personal intuition is the best formula here. No doubt a clinic experience would be best, but I don’t have that money to shell out. I’m going with the next best option. I’ll be on day three tomorrow and my detox symptoms so far are minimal compared to my first fasts. I just take it one day at a time and try to keep my mind off the fast. Day 21, more or less, is not that far away. I think about what I was doing 21 days ago.