#INTRODUCTION
Hello there! I am a faster, although infrequent, I am slightly experienced. My experience may be a little different then yours as I have anhedonia. I have done plenty of water fasts before and I usually always start them with a three day dry fast.
I recently embarked on a six day dry fast! I will explain my experience with it..
##MY EXPERIENCE
Day 1
• A little thirsty.
• Slight hunger.
Day 2
• Very thirsty once awakening.
• Very little thirst throughout day.
• A little hunger but not much.
Day 3
• Thirst once awakening.
• No thirst or hunger throughout day unless if thinking about it.
• My anhedonia felt amplified on this day, everything was boring and I did not want to do anything.
Day 4
• Anhedonia has amplified even more.
• Rare and random bouts of being able to enjoy certain activities I usually have a hard time feeling emotions with.
• While bored and thinking, I began to become slightly worried about how dry fasting can affect one’s health.
Day 5
• Anhedonia amplification seems to have settled.
• The random bouts of being able to feel emotions with certain tasks has increased in repetition slightly.
• Started to think about food due to boredom.
• At night, a painful migraine set upon me making it nearly impossible to sleep.
Day 6
• It is around 2 A.M, and I had woken up from my migraine and couldn’t fall back asleep. I grew worried about my health as I’ve never felt a migraine before.
• I came to the decision that I should break it.
• I took a sip of water, then another ten minutes later. I rushed the food and water process out of impatience with my migraine.
• Thirty minutes later of sipping, I went to get get something to eat. I came to the realization I had no low sugar vegetables, which is the food I like to break my fast with, so I ended up eating a couple grapes and then fell asleep finally.
• It is morning now, and I sipped on some water and ate a couple more grapes. Then I got a hold of some sauerkraut, kimchi and low sugar green juice later in the day.
###MY THOUGHTS
I wish I could have gone longer while looking back, but I am very happy I made it to six days. That is my longest dry fast ever.
My original goals was nine to eleven days of dry fasting. I read Dr. Filinov’s explanation of the benefits that can come from reaching that length, and it seemed quite intriguing!
During the fast, I grew concerned for my health even though I probably had nothing to really worry about. I began searching for studies on dry fasting so I can confirm I’m doing no real harm by doing lengthy dry fasts. I couldn’t find any legitimate studies which imcreased my concern, as I love my studies for confirmation.
Once I ended up getting that migraine, I became paranoid about my health. I was quite concerned and quickly came to the conclusion that I should break my fast soon. I knew migraines are to be expected with dry fasting, but it shocked me a bit as I’ve never had one before.
I plan on doing another dry fast in the future again, but I want to go the full eleven days. This is only if I can let go of my deep worries on lengthy dry fasting. Which I hope I truly can, that is my next step.
###MY QUESTIONS
Have you had similar worries as I have with lengthy dry fasts? And did you find any information, studies or anything to help settle your worries?
The 1st time I dry fasted I set a a goal of 3-5 days. I found myself getting scared, like all the things we’d been told about dying without food or water in 3 days were buzzing around my brain. Even though I knew it was unnecessary, I broke my fast early. BUT, after the 1st dry fast and I KNEW I wouldn’t die, I was waaay more confident, and quite frankly, excited to start the next. My longest fast before that was 10 days water and juice so I knew from experience that the lack of food wasn’t an issue. I was surprised that I was scared, but I was. Listen to your body and your mind, and be gentle with yourself. If your experience is pleasant, not too scary, it’s much easier to attempt again.
The information that said dry fasting was safe is what got me to try it in the 1st place and no, when I was actually dry fasting, that knowledge DID NOT help.
One of the most understated benefits of fasting is it will show you to yourself.
Thank you for this detailed post, very interesting. I’ve done numerous 3 (sometimes 4) day dry fasts but I always wanted to try a full week. I have had mild headaches before but nothing like a migraine. Actually I used to get awful migraines very frequently before I cut sugar out of my life and started incorporating fasting into my life.
Like you I am very intrigued by Dr. Filinov’s thoughts so would love to try a 11 day dry fast in the near future. If you’re up for it, give me a shout and we could try to sync our fasts maybe?