I completed a 21 day fast at the beginning of the year and want to do a 40 day fast next week to lead up to my birthday.
Is too much extended fasting bad for my long-term health?
I’m experienced in fasting and extremely obese. So, I’m not too worried and know my body can sustain a 40 day fast.
Personally, the more fat you have to loose, the more likely that your fundamental problem is a bad relationship with food. If this is the case the most effective thing long term is not long fasts, but short ones that have you working with the actual problem; your eating habits.
If you do alternate day fasting you get a lot of the fasting benefits, and on your eating days you get to flex your new found discipline by saying no to snacking between meals and dropping the junk food/liquid calories.
Personally, I would say that everyone makes it complicated. If your extremely obese, the positive benefits in losing weight will far outweigh any potential negatives. Just fast as much as you can, as long as you can. Just remember do electrolyes, and multivitamin for fasts in duration >14 days daily. Ive done a 16 day fast in decemember and doing another one this month, slightly obese. I just listen to my body and stop when it no longer feels good.
By fasting you are depriving your body from energy and nuterients. If it’s carbohydrates (energy) our bodies have a mechanism to cope with that - they burn fats, which are a nature’s way of storing food “for later”.
There is however more to eating than just providing energy - nutrients are extremaly important for our bodies to sustain our lives. Having that in mind and even without going into how much extra fats you have stored “for later” I am quite certain that as long as you continue to provide your body with enough vitamins, minerals, water,electrolytes, etc, 40 days is achievable.
That said, there is ahuge difference between 20 and 40 days, probably comparable to half vs full marathon run, so I cannot stress out HOW important it will be to maintain that intake of EVERYTHING your body requires bar the carbohydrates.
Last but not least a lot can happen in 40 days that may result in a person breaking a fast, and that’s ok - if that happens please do not treat it as a failure.
Neither myself or anyone else in particular can guarantee you will be ok or feel fantastic during that period, but as long as you keep all the important bits in mind I can say I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you :)