| | Water Fasting

how do i know when to stop a prolonged fast?

googling this gives you answers resembling “stop if you experience nausea, dizziness, diarrhea” etc. on this sub too i mostly find answers along the lines of “stop if you’re not feeling well.” but if i did that, i would never go for more than 12 hours. i can’t believe i’m expected to feel entirely comfortable during a fast, after all, i am depriving my body of food.

thus far i kinda went by the vague idea that i’ll just stick with it unless i faint. within the first week i always experience nausea, insomnia and dizziness. standing up often makes me black out for a second and i tend to be very cold. on day 3 and 4 i frequently feel so weak that i can barely gather the energy to reply to a text. however, this improves during the next days. i am now on day 6 of what i hope to be a 21 day fast. if i manage to go longer i will; if not, i won’t. but i am wondering how to tell whether i am “managing” - in other words, which symptoms to attribute to the stress that fasting generally puts on the body and which symptoms are indications of serious danger.

edit: yes, i supplement electrolytes according to the wiki

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

Feeling cold and insomnia. Normal. Not every gets those; I certainly do and have seen several others report it. For feeling cold, I use warm water and heated blanket at night. For insomnia, I don’t have much to offer.

Dizziness: electrolytes? Possibly a side effect of shifting to fat burning. Consider going very low carb a few days before fasting. Double check your electrolyte dosage. I accidentally glitched badly. Dizziness a vague symptom, but there a a couple of things to try at least.

Standing up leads to almost blacking out: That worries me. Postural hypotension? Could be damned awkward if it happens at a bad time. Worth getting looked at. What’s your BP while fasting?

Feeling too weak to not reply to a text: that scares me. Something is rather wrong. I’d find a sane doc to chat with.

Related Fasting Blogs