| | Water Fasting

Exercise + Cold shower to finish off a fast ?

Anyone have some info on how well this goes together?

Fasting for 36+ hours, exercising for 15-20 minutes, having a normal shower but finishing off with 1 min on coldest, before immediately breaking the fast with some food.

Not entirely sure if this is the best combo-wombo or not, in terms of optimizing health benefits. Any takes? Is the cold shower a bit over the top? Or would it be best to just immediately grab some food instead? I don’t have much body fat to begin with, I do these things purely for the health and longevity benefits.

Stop Fasting Alone.

Get a private coach and accountability partner for daily check-in's and to help you reach your fasting goals. Any kind of fasting protocol is supported.

Request more information and pricing.

Answer

All 3 are great things for health.

Exercising at the end of fasting window works great for me.

I don’t do cold adaptation stuff myself, but the science is really positive on the health benefits.

I’d say go for it.

Answer

It will have no effect at all on health benefits. The benefits of IF come from sustained periods of keeping insulin low. Exercising briefly and taking a cold shower right before eating don’t do anything to affect insulin long-term.

Now, it likely won’t do any harm, either (edit: as long as you aren’t exercising to a point where you feel bad). So if you like the feeling of having an exercise/cold shower ritual to mark the end of your fast, go right ahead. Just be aware that it’s a psychological effect, not physical.

(Also — “combo-wombo”?)

Related Fasting Blogs