I’ve been doing a lot of reading online about the 21 day water fast. Some people say to start with a 5-10 day fast. Some people say it’s difficult but it’s okay to jump straight to a 21 day water. I’m wondering if anyone here has tried a longer term fast and could provide any insight , tips, recommendations anything. I’m looking to learn as much as possible so all feedback is appreciated
What type of fasting have you already gotten experience with?
I had to downvote the comment railing against long term fasting, because many people with obesity can and have done them safely in order to reverse the life or death health situations they’re faced with, in regard to metabolic disorders. Medical supervision seems prudent.
So, why are you intrigued by the 21 day fast? What do you hope to achieve?
I would experiment with shorter water fasts (lots of electrolytes!) first, if you’re not already experienced in 24/48/72/etc. hour fasts. Dr. Jason Fung has some good videos discussing extended fasts on YouTube.
21 days without food, only water? Holy shit. That’s an incredibly dangerous idea. At three weeks without food you’ll have a completely compromised immune system due to lack of vitamins and minerals, and your body will have consumed itself so much that you’ll be at great risk of cardiac arrest due to degradation of tissues in the heart. Your bones will also have become brittle. You’ll also have serious mental issues as yours brain needs glucose to function, and any glucose in your body won’t have lasted beyond the first few days. 21 days without food is a rediculous and dangerous proposition, that may well lead to your death.
There is lack of or no research of longer fasts. It is a Tabu subject. Myriad of anecdotal and practical evidence can be found by going to youtube and searching Loren Lockman. He has supervised maybe 1000 water only fasts per year for 20-30 years. For my knowledge no deaths and I haven’t heard any bad stories. There is a some Doctor doing a 40-day fast documentary on his channel. Long fast can be dangerous and I would claim fasting is a skill, so professional supervision is advised.
I don’t know about humans, but generally before mammals go to torpor or hibernation they build lots of fat. They build nest where the sun dosen’t shine, air dosen’t move so much and keeps them warm in homeostasis. For warming their body temporarily they won’t use shivering in torpor, but instead brown fat. Hibernation state itself is shown to produce more brown fat. As they go to rest in their nest they don’t move too much. It is studied that an example bear will wake up about twice in a month to do something.
As mammal is laying down most of the time it’s energy consumption is reduced. Food related metabolism will go down to save more energy. To create needed water, energy and nutrients mammals activate Ketosis and Autophagy. As in ketosis they break fat cells to water and energy. Autophagy is regulated by mTOR which comes from words mammalian target to rapamycin. Autophagy generally is seen cleaning the body from unnecessary components, breaking them as energy, nutrients and water. As hibernation effects lots of body systems and hormones, they are like different mammals in hibernated state. For example they won’t lose a significant amount of muscle, maybe percent or so as hibernation can last for months. This muscle loss is prevented by an elevated amount of growth hormone that protects from muscle loss.
Torpor or hibernation seems to be used by mammal species which for some reason are not energy efficient by moving, eating and building by muscles all the time compared to hibernation. Let’s say because it is winter and food is hard to find. Mental state in hibernation is not a state of sleep or state of being awake. Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Nerve Growth Factor significantly increase.
The only research paper I can find on 21-day fasts is a) with food, just restricted and b) with heavy medical supervision. And the study was specifically undertaken to assess the safety of the fast, which suggests to me that a 21-day water fast is known to be dangerous.