Dry Fasting Question

I recently gained 40 pounds in one year and it makes me super depressed. I went from 130lbs to 170lbs. I'm not new to fasting, I've been water fasting on and off since 2018, and have done the master cleanse in 2006. So far I'm about 34hours into a hard dry fast and I haven't lost anything. I looked at some reviews online to encourage me and saw that certain people completed 4 days dry fasting and lost only 8lbs. I was expecting to lose 14lbs in 4 days. Other people who dry fasted (the videos that inspired me) were losing between 12-14lbs in 4 days. My question is what on earth could cause it to be so slow for me or other people? At first I thought it was because the slower progressed people where overweight, but I literally just got done watching a video of a woman who lost 30lbs in 7 days. Her starting weight was 289. So what did I do wrong? Or what am I doing wrong? Or am I letting my weight gain insecurity override my patience. How many days should I do in order to lose the 40lbs I gained, and what can I do after to keep it off? I've considered breaking up the fast doing a certain amount of days consecutively and then drinking and eating for 2 and then going back. Thank you in advance and God bless.

Answer

In my experience, you kind of need to super hydrate before a dry fast to shed lots of water.

Our bodies have ways of holding onto water, and really hydrating, especially with plenty of minerals, will get your body to let go of water.

If you haven’t been sleeping well, or consume lots of sodium without plenty of other minerals before your fast, that could contribute to holding onto water as well.

Answer

Weight is not a determination of doing the fast “right”, so try to toss that out of your head. Your body could be holding onto water if it is accustomed to that - the body isn’t stupid, so it tries to retain water to protect you if it thinks you are in some sort of danger. Generally people say you lose about 2 kg a day, but that’s such a generalization given that we all have different bodies and begin at different weights. That’s why it’s beneficial to focus more on the inches you’ve lost versus the weight. People get so stuck on weight without realizing that half of the weight lost with dry fasting for example is just water weight and will return. Fat is what you want to lose.

My advice is to abstain from the scale and continue fasting. You’ll see the results and that is far more important than what a number tells you. Don’t get stressed about that when it’s always fluctuating as is - losing the fat is far more significant. Good luck 🙏🏻

Answer

If you stress out too much your cortisol will be all over the place. The dry fasting is already a stress for your body (beneficial but a stress still) so you really need to relax in order to burn fat. Then maybe you take any anti-depressant ? I know from ewperience that I could not lose anything while I was on a specific one (even though I was fasting with success before the medication). And lastly you can buy ketone strips and see if you have excess ketones in your urine. If so then you are burning fat and you can be reinsured that everything is going well even if the scale fluctuates. I think (don’t take it as an offense) that maybe you are not ready for dry fasting especially for weight loss. Cole robinson said don’t go dry if you are scared to see the scale skyrocket. I myself had swings of 8 to 10 pounds after refeeding and rehydrating but I don’t panic. I would stay on water (with electrolytes) fasting if I were you and go more on an intermittent schedule (why not dry). Good luck !