Hi guys
I’ve just completed my 2nd dry fast and I’m not pleased with the results.
My first dry fast was around 1.5 months ago. I did 70 hours with no food or water. I felt great, my digestive system cleared up, had lots of energy, and my tolerance for food was much higher for a week or two.
I started my 2nd 3 day dry fast a couple days ago and didn’t feel great throughout. I had more discomfort in my body, felt a little thirsty, and after I broke it I felt awful and am still recovering.
Does anyone have any idea why this may have happened? I have a couple of ideas below but would love to hear some other opinions:
•I did a play wrestling workout with my girlfriend on day one, which was quite taxing.
•I only had about six weeks since my last dry fast, and think my nutrients reserves may have needed a longer time to build back up
•I immediately started a Carnivore/zero carb diet after my fast (stopped since)
•I went in to the fast not feeling 100%, I had strong migraines and pain in my gut.
Going forward, I would avoid any workouts, space my fasts out by a couple of months, AVOID carnivore post-fast as I’ll already be nutrient depleted after fasting, and wait until I don’t have any short-term sickness before going in to a fast.
I’m looking forward to seeing all of your insights and feedback, guys
Thank you.
A few thoughts:
Keto flu can really knock me out for days sometimes. It’s the transition phases to getting adapted (either to or out of keto) that are the worst. However, I think it is good for the body to learn how to be metabolically flexible.
Secondly, it sounds like you have issues to heal, and healing can be really uncomfortable.
Regarding time between fasts; you shouldn’t need more than a couple of weeks or so in between to refeed, otherwise maybe look over the diet nutrition wise.
I can’t do much work out or exercise during dry fasts or I will feel really bad too. So guessing that is the biggest issue.
>AVOID carnivore post-fast as I’ll already be nutrient depleted after fasting
Are you implying that the carnivore diet is nutrient deficient?
Anyway, I’m on the carnivore diet for over six months and recently I’ve been doing 72 hour dry fasts every 6 days back to back. I’ve done 4 so far and each one has been getting easier than the last(like my body is adapting to the stress), to the point that I’m thinking of doing 96 hours for the next one.
I feel fine and completely normal during the six resting days. Maybe you having migraines and digestive issues just before the fast was due to some kind of illness, which affected the outcome of the fast. Doing taxing physical activities while dry fasting is also a no no.
It amazes me how ignorant people are today. You do realise that humans survived on pretty much 99.9% meat and fat during the ice age correct? Fruits and veggies were extremely rare. They got ALL the nutrition they needed from carnivore sources. Do you see wolves or tigers dying for lack of nutrition since they are missing out on their salads? No I didnt think so.
Carnivore works great for weight loss and maintenance. When i am on carnivore i feel great versus when i have carbs on eating days. Problem is I like most people am a carb addict. Its hard to cut them out.
migraines could be a number of reasons, how was your salt intake during and post fast. did you sufficiently replenish your electrolytes post fast. electrolyte deficiencies are usually linked to migraines.
there was a time i had acid reflux and after numerous dry fasts issue was gone. every time i dry fasted i had stomach pains bc excessive amounts of stomach acid / burps especially at night. when you stopped the carnivore diet did you reintroduce one at a time to find out what are potential food triggers to your stomach pain? like mentioned earlier stomach pain can be a lot of factors however what a person eats/drinks is the largest factor to probable cause.
of course looking at everything else another big factor is your relative environment/life stress but it doesn’t appear to be a problem here.