So for the past few weeks I’ve been sticking to a fasting schedule that involves a 72hr fast from Friday-Sunday. I’ve actually found it quite enjoyable and I’ve gotten used to it. However, today (Thursday) I woke up feeling like garbage. Not due to fasting or anything and I tested negative for Covid so I probably caught a cold from a friend or a coworker. I want to have a lazy weekend this weekend to recover but I don’t know if I should still do my 72hr fast. I don’t know if it’s better for my body/immune system to be having food or if fasting won’t affect anything. Just curious if anyone has any ideas, thanks!
I don’t have any good data to back this up, but for me whenever I start feeling sick I usually do a 40 hour water fast and that typically knocks out the illness.
My personal theory is that it allows the body time to focus on what’s making me sick and not process food, but I’m not a medical professional.
If its viral, eat. If its bacterial fast.
I have plenty of anectdotal evidence to confirm this. I have had relapses after almost recovering from viral infections because I started fasting again too soon, of course this could have happened anyways, but had the same thing happen too many times to believe it was a fluke. From my understanding some parts of the immune system wants glucose to multiply or something like that.
Take my anecdotal “evidence” with a grain of salt, but a lot of google results including some research confirm this. (Also read the sticky note to the right regarding vaccines).
https://news.yale.edu/2016/09/08/listening-body-study-examines-effects-fasting-infections