My 80-hour water fast experience: Periods, women's hormones and electrolytes

F/36, HW 88kgs, CW 75Kgs, GW 68Kgs, 1,68cm

After some mad couple of months in my professional and personal life where I gained around 8 kgs, ate very poorly and did IF very inconsistently I finally managed to get back to my usual schedule. I’ve been doing IF since July 2021 and went from 88Ks to 71Kgs in less than 8 months but gained around 8 kgs from May to October.

I recently tried a 3-day fast but got to 52 hours and even though I didn’t complete my goal it enabled me to reset my body and mind and get back to healthy eating, OMAD and a 20/4 schedule and also exercise at the gym around 2 to 3x a week. I tried again this week after even more research around women’s cycles and hormones and things settling down in my life and managed to do 80 hours comfortably :-) here are some things that helped

• I started my prolonged fast on the 2nd day of my period. This is because progesterone is lower for women on the first 21 days of our cycles from when our periods start so any hard fasts or hard exercises should be done in the first 21 days of our cycles. With this knowledge, I realised that fasting was a breeze and I didn’t feel hungry at all, which is a surprise because before I started my IF journey in 2021, I was a wreck with cravings, unhealthy eating and moodiness the week before my period and the week of my period. I also had no cramps, moodiness, cravings or excessive bleeding this time while doing my prolonged fast. My period was a breeze.
• Try to eat protein and low-carb and Keto as your last meal, that will enable you to be less hungry
• I also made sure that besides my electrolytes pills I also added a bit of salt to my water once a day on days 3 and 4 to help out with energy levels.
• The weeks before my prolonged fasting I also tried to reduce as much as possible carbs and I think that along with the fact that I’ve been doing OMAD and 20/4 for a while helped with me not feeling hungry at all
• I experienced no dizziness or fatigue and was actually full of energy for the whole 80 hours. I went for a 2-hour walk on days 2,3 and 4 (just before I ended my fast) and even cleaned the house. I also didn’t experience any insomnia as some do maybe because I went for walks and kept active around the house so was able to bring down my energy levels before bed.
• I could have gone longer than 80 hours but chose to stop at 80 hours because is Sunday and just felt like having food while watching a movie lol. Next time that I try prolonged fasting will try to start when I am off from work, so I can start on a Sunday and end on a Sunday
• I will continue to experiment with OMAD and prolonged fasting on the first 21 days of my period occasionally (maybe 3x a year) or when I feel like a need a reset
• I will probably do either 36 hours, 48 hours or 120 hours. Depending on what kind of benefits I want fasting to bring to my body since different fasting lengths bring different benefits to your body
• This prolonged fasting was not necessarily for weight loss, was more for mental clarity and body reset after reading about the many benefits of prolonged fasting, however, I lost 3kgs (probably water weight) and feel generally good with not even thinking about carbs, sweets or fast food
• I broke my fast with bone broth (1st hour), Kefir yoghurt and dates (2nd hour) and for lunch a salad with avocado and salmon.
• My main research came from Dr Jason Fung, Dr Eric Berg Youtube channels. Please research and talk to your doctor if that’s something that you might be interested in doing
• I also going to up my fasting hours from days 21 to 28 of my cycle to 19/5 or 18/6 because that’s when progesterone is higher leading to us women being hungrier and needing more nutrients and balanced hormones. I don’t think I can do more than that my body feels comfortable at 19/5 or 18/6 the week before my period, the other 2 weeks I actually prefer OMAD
• I only drank herbal tea, water and black decaff coffee during those 80 hours

Let me know if you have any questions and good luck on your fasting journey