I am on a 10 day fast currently and wrapping up day 6. I can say confidently, today was the hardest, far harder than day 3. Yes my mental clarity was there for work, but my body didn’t feel good, and after my workout I just collapsed in bed for about 2 hours.
I am supplementing electrolytes: 4g of potassium dicarbonate pills (400mg potassium each) of which I break the pills and spread the powder through water, about 10-15g of salt, and 400mg of magnesium.
I really like the idea of fasts, both for mental stability, weight loss, and I’ll admit as well, the cost savings since I am not well off/unemployed and even with refeeding protein later I am saving money.
I want to know whether anyone else has had shitty days like these on extended fasts from just the fast itself?
For details: 5’8 male, starting weight of 80-81 kg and 18-19% body fat, currently at 76kg and 17% body fat. No health conditions. Calisthenics workouts and 5km runs 4-6 days a week.
Edit: specified 4 grams of potassium a day via 10x400mg pills mixed with water.
Hey there! I’m currently on day 6 and yesterday was pretty much like that for me! I didn’t feel like complete death but I just felt off and shitty like my electrolytes were off and noticed a bit more heart palpitations but kept drinking my electrolytes. Today I woke up completely fine feeling way better and I’m not exactly sure why this happens. I supplement with a men’s multivitamin, snake juice (1tsp salt lite/no salt brand, 1/2tsp of pink Himalayan salt, and 1tsp of baking powder all in 1L of water) and about maybe 750mg of magnesium spread throught the day. I’ve read some other posts awhile back, not sure if it’s true, but some people would say that it’s similar to withdrawals and your body is going through fat that’s been in your body for awhile causing you to feel like shit. Now I’m no scientist so I can’t validate whether that’s true or not but that’s as much as I got out of it. I’m shooting to break my record of 12 days and everyday I feel like I’m learning something new about my body and how it reacts to too much supps, too little supps, drinking too much fresh water, or even not enough. Good luck on your journey and keep strong! Know when to keep going and know when to listen to your body!
That’s definitely not enough potassium and depending on what kind of magnesium you are taking, it’s possibly not enough magnesium (as most magnesium does not have 100% bioavailability, some kinds are as low as 3%!)
To me, the words that jumped out were “after my workout”, which makes it sound like you’re regularly working out during your extended fasts. That is asking a lot of your body. Just because you can exert yourself despite not having eaten for a week doesn’t mean your body’s going to be particularly happy about it.
To me, common sense suggests that collapsing into bed for two hours after a workout is a pretty good sign that your body is having trouble coping with the demands you’re making on it. You started your fast at a low body fat percentage, so there wasn’t a lot there for it to burn, and you’re constantly damaging muscles that aren’t receiving very much new protein to repair them.
My general advice is that if fasting causes mood issues, push through it, but if you’re running into objective evidence of physical failure, you need to listen to your body and ease up - stopping all the exercise would be a good start.