My longest water fast has been 5 days and I’m keen to try going a bit longer next time. I see people getting impressive weight loss results around the 7-10 day mark and seriously incredible weight loss in 20-30 days fasts. I’ve never done longer than 5 days as I’m worried about hormonal cycle and hair loss, both of which I’ve heard of being negatively impacted. I’d really like to hear the experiences of other female fasters on this, if you’ve been able to do an extended fast without negative health impacts, or if you did have the side effects, what length of fast caused them?
longer than 2 or 3 day fasts are really not good for my sleep or mental health. i quit because consistently fasting lead to me to develop an eating disorder, but even after my first ~8 day water + vitamin (potassium and salt included) fast i fainted, was constantly dizzy and foggy and had the worst constant migraines of my life. i lost 10.3 pounds but the next week i gained 8 pounds back. i find it really hard to lose weight now because of the half-year of fasting i did and what it did to my metabolism…i occasionally do a 2 day fast or intermittent fasting still, but the way i lost weight was with changing habits and exercise. trust me lovely, if you have the self-discipline to not eat for a week, you have the self-discipline to go for a walk and eat a little less. unless it’s an emergency i wouldn’t recommend long-term fasting; it doesn’t work and it hurts your body.
I can’t speak to cycle because I have an IUD, but I have never experienced hair loss in extended fasts. I’ve done up to 14 days. I experience sleep disturbances in days 1 and 2 and general body aches, especially in my back, the rest of the first week. (I sleep on my stomach and usually have back pain so I have always attributed that to healing.) The second week is all mental game—boredom hunger and “oh well I’ve done enough, I should just stuff my face”.
I also have an IUD, and experienced spotting during a 29 day fast. I had tons of pains on my body, especially in my lower back/sacrum and abdominal pains. I was basically attached to a heating pad for the first 2 weeks! No hair loss. No negative health impacts to report, just a generally unpleasant experience, compared to all the success stories I found here and on YouTube.