I’m fasting for weight loss so it doesn’t really matter to me, but other than entering ketosis, I feel like I never get autophagy, mental clarity, or the loss of hunger. Also, I don’t understand what detoxifying or resetting your stomach is. For reference, I’ve done a number of 48-96hr fasts and just completed a five day last week.
I’m not sure whether it is possible to feel autophagy.
Regarding mental clarity, I personally think there’s a lot of placebo involved, so I wouldn’t worry. Detoxifying is also a word people throw around that I’m not sure has a clear meaning. I haven’t heard of resetting your stomach - curious to know what you mean by that!
The only one I have to disagree is loss of hunger. But it took me a few times to understand what people mean by that. What you stop feeling is physical hunger, it is not that you don’t want to eat. The problem is that the vast majority of us have never felt hunger… especially in adult life, since we control our eating/snacking times. I only remember really feeling hungry when I was a kid after a full day swimming and playing. And I do get that feeling when I fast, especially on days 2 and 3, and it does go away. But learning to dissociate that and a craving is an exercise.
I get gassy a few days after resuming my normal eating from a multi day fast. No digestion so no gas during the fast though.
Other less talked about benefits:
Clean kitchen
More time from no cooking and cleanup
Money saved
More time from lack of sleep 😭😭
I don’t feel mental clarity either. I also have ADHD, so not sure if that matters.
When I fast the only times I feel hungry is when I’m attempting to fast after having lots of carbs, and if I’m bored.
If I could take a magic pill everyday with all my calories, macros, micros, etc I would do that and never think about food again.
But the hardest is when I’m bored but also don’t have motivation to do anything, I have 2 dogs so I just say the word “walk” and they get so amped up that I can’t deny them a walk! And then I do it, otherwise I would never forgive myself for doing that to them lolThey get about 6 walks a day lol
I’m not sure how you would “feel” autophagy even though I’ve been in it a lot in my fasting experience, so I would just understand the facts and data behind it.
When it comes to things like “detox” or whatever, I wouldn’t put too much thought into it. Your digestive system takes a break and allows you to make repairs versus the constant work that it does for the typical person eating a western diet on a western schedule. Meaning inflammation, gut permeability, etc.
You could do an experiment where you have your doctor test your blood after eating normally for a while and then fasting for say 5 or 6 days. Not that all of those changes will be guaranteed from fasting especially depending on your baseline and diet and things like that, but you may see changes to your A1c and triglycerides and cholesterol, etc.
Don’t look at this simply by things you can see and feel, there are many other things that are on the orbit that you can’t see or feel with the naked eye.
The best answer is…. it depends
can take a while to feel more mentally clear.
what foods are you consuming on yoyr refeed?
are you fasting consistently?
If you do one fast a month, fasting just feels difficult.
If you fast, refeed, fast, refeed, etc then you hit a cadence and your blood sugar doesn’t elevate as much depending on what you eat. 😉
There is no clear answer to your question because… it depends…..