As you all may or may not know, about four weeks ago I stated that I would be going on a four week water fast. Thats 28 days without food, only water. That being said, I have some good news and some bad news. First I will tell you all the bad news; I only made it to 12 days before I broke down out of boredom and lack of motivation. I’ll go into detail about that later on. As for the good news, I got many tangible benefits from ONLY fasting for 12 days. Obviously what this implies is that I stand to reap even greater benefits from going on another fast, and from fasting for an even longer period of time. The only reason I waited this long to write about my experience fasting was because I wanted to make sure that the benefits were lasting and not temporary. I started the fast around January 20th, ended it around february 1st, and I have been refeeding for about two weeks now,since february 1st.
how I benefited
-My overall mood is better now; everyday I get out of bed and I feel like I have purpose, or hope. Overall, I just feel much more optimistic. Before going on the fast I would feel fairly neutral on a day to day basis. Not really that depressed or bad, but not really that happy either. Just sort of blah. Now it seems as though life is a little bit more vivid, it seems like something I am actively participating in as oppose to just something I am a passive player in. I would say now, my general feeling throughout the day is the same feeling you have when you’re in a good dream. So basically now I feel like I’m connected to everything, and that existence is an overall pleasant endeavor, so my general mood now is ‘dream like’ but in a good way. I’m not gonna lie and say that everything is fucking fantastic now, but I will say that now I do feel much more like a real, living human being as opposed to being a robot that is just watching life past by. To anyone out there, don’t underestimate the power of how much a general feeling of well being can contribute to your overall quality of life. If all I got out of this fast was just this mood upgrade alone, it would be worth it.
Before the fast my mood was probably a 4.5/10, now I rate it maybe 6/10, or maybe even 6.5/10.
-My appetite is a lot better now. Its still not perfect, but its much improved from what it was before. That being said, I still don’t experience extreme hunger pangs like I would have used to have got before taking propecia. (and accutane, I took both btw at different stages of my life) However when I do eat now, as soon as I start eating I get a voracious appetite and can keep eating and eating and eating. In fact, if theres enough food present, its not unusual for me to down 2500 calories in a single sitting, and even when I do get full, I will start feeling hungry enough to snack only an hour or two later. I actually have a pretty good example of this; before I went on my fast I would go to mcdonalds for dinner (before the fast I didnt really eat breakfast and I usually skipped lunch, or ate a really late lunch/dinner combined) and I would consume two double cheeseburger combos. (2x double cheeseburgers, 2x medium fry, and I would usually only drink one of the cokes) I would literally have to force myself to finish the last few bites of that. Now, after having fasted for close to two weeks I can consume two big mac combos (big mac has like 100 more calories than a double cheese burger) AND I can also eat a 10 piece chicken nugget on top of that, and thats for lunch alone. Thus, my capacity for how much I can eat seems to have increased significantly. In fact, I can eat the same thing, or a similar amount of calories for dinner as well. Before going on the fast, this would have been completely impossible to me. Another thing is that before the fast, my emotional state would affect how hungry I was. If I was the slightest bit sad or distressed (before going on the fast) it would totally destroy my appetite. Now my appetite is much more stable and even if im feeling shitty, I can still eat a lot.
Before the fast, my appetite was maybe 4/10, now its 6.5/10 or maybe even as high as 7/10.
-My average body weight is about five pounds more than what it used to be. I measured my weight before the fast and I was about 134 pounds, now I consistently weigh in at about 139 pounds and thats how much I weight the first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything. Plus, I have only been refeeding for about two weeks, so its plausible that I might experience even more weight gain.
-My sleep has improved as well. I still have major issues with continually waking up throughout the night, however the difference now is that my sleep is much deeper and I consistently have vivid dreams throughout the night, and I usually wake up feeling decently refreshed now. I think the improvement in sleep is also a big reason why my general mood is also much better. Before going on the fast, I would occasionally have vivid dreams, but usually not, especially if I wasn’t able to sleep for 8-10 hours. (interrupted sleep, not sleeping for 8-10 straight through) Now I can nap for only like an hour or two and I usually end up having vivid dreams, and even if I don’t, I still wake up feeling refreshed. So basically, even though I still wake up a lot during the night, in spite of that I still have quality, deep sleep.
before the fast my sleep was 4.5/10 or maybe 5/10, now my sleep is probably 6.5/10 to 7/10.
-In terms of sexual improvements, my flaccid hangs lower and it looks thicker/healthier. My erections haven’t improved drastically, but now if I have an erection it will stay up (without stimulation) for a noticeably longer amount of time than it did before. Additionally my erections seem ‘heavier’, like before the fast my erections would seem ‘light’ and squishy, but now my erections are heavier and harder. Its still not perfect by any means but its definitely an improvement. Also I think sensitivity has improved, in fact this is the only ‘bad’ thing about the fast, now when I masturbate I come a LOT quicker than before. Since breaking the fast I haven’t had actual sex yet so I don’t know how this will affect my performance, but I’m sure that stamina is something that I can improve with practice so I am happy either way. Its hard to tell if I experienced an increase in girth, maybe so, but only slightly. Another noticeable benefit is that I get consistent night AND morning wood. Before fasting I would only get semi consistent morning wood. Another thing is that before the fast I would ONLY get morning wood if I got 7-8 hours of decent sleep. Now, it doesn’t matter how much or how little sleep I get, I still get erections while I sleep. So say for example, if I take a nap in the middle of the day for only like an hour or two, I will wake up with an erection. Before the fast, this never happened to me.
before the fast, my general sexual condition was maybe…5/10, now I’ll give it a 7/10. Although I want to point out that this is the rating for my GENERAL sexual condition, not for just performance alone. In this rating I include all of the above, things like flaccid size, erection quality, nocturnal erections, morning erections, etc.
I’d say overall thats a pretty good summary of the benefits I got from fasting. There may be some more stuff I forgot, so I’ll just add it if I remember.
additional notes
-prior to going on the fast i was a regular smoker, and I quit that as well for the duration of the fast. After breaking the fast I took up smoking again, partly because I wanted to, and partly because I wanted to be thorough about the results of this fast, and I wanted to rule out any benefits I gained from the fast being caused by my cessation of smoking. Needless to say, since breaking the fast I have been smoking for about two weeks now and all of the benefits I gained from the fast are still present.
-My stools used to be like rabbit pellets before the fast, now they are more like soft serve hahah.
-I didn’t get any benefits from the fast until AFTER I broke it and started eating again.
-Strangely enough, after breaking the fast, I didn’t get morning wood the first few days. However after I went to the gym once, I started getting them again regularly. Currently I am doing some traveling and haven’t been to the gym in about a week, however I am still getting consistent morning/night erections. To me, this indicates that maybe my body has resensitized itself to androgens perhaps? So maybe just going to the gym once was able to “shock” my system back into semi-normality.
-Since breaking the fast, my diet is pretty much crap. I eat a bunch of fast food and junkfood, and I smoke cigarettes and drink occasionally, and in spite of all that my health benefits have remained. If you are fasting in order to heal PFS health problems then the fast itself is all you need to worry about it. Its a one and done deal, after you finish the fast, you can eat pretty much however you want. A lot of the literature on fasting talks about how you should continue eating healthily after you finish the fast in order to maintain the benefits, however I think this really mainly applies to people who are fasting for more mundane reasons as opposed to fasting to heal PFS. So yeah, if you’re fasting to heal PFS then only worry about the fasting, once you finish that, you can eat as you like.
-its plausible that fasting has resensitized my body to many things, so I think its possible now that I can benefit from taking vitamins and supplements. I haven’t tried yet, but I might start taking vitamin D in the future to see if it I get any improvements from it now.
If anyone has any questions, I will be happy to answer them for you.
Either way, good luck to you! I want to try a fast but I’m too scared to change my routine right now. lol