So, in 2022 Lent, I started fasting after a cancer diagnosis. Within 9 weeks, I was cancer free, but I continued to fast throughout all of Lent. This is a cancer that has occurred twice, but this was the first time removing it without medical intervention. This fast was a 5:2 fast every week and I lost no weight during the dast. What I lost during the two days of fasting, I found during the five days of eating. I was eating much healthier than normal on the 5 days that I was eating. I also noticed a substantial decrease in portion size probably related to my stomach being shrunk through the two days that I was fasting.
Fast forward to 2023. I haven’t had a return in cancer yet. That being said I decided to fast again this one to maybe see if we could prevent it from coming back. I decided to go with a 72-hour fast this time. I have lost a crazy amount of weight. Some early days I can attribute it to fluid losses. However, most days I lose between 2 lb and 2.2 lb. This doesn’t make sense to me for a couple of reasons. Number one my last fast was not substantially different and I didn’t lose any weight. Number two, in order to lose that amount of weight I’d have to lose 7000-8000 calories a day. However most males only need 3000 calories a day to maintain their metabolism, so I’m not really sure how I’m losing 2 lb a day consistently.
I still have no idea why I didn’t lose weight during the first fast. But I have done some things differently since then. Notably, I got rid of cancer. I also started taking some iodine supplements because it seemed like I was at a deficiency. This time I gave up all alcohol, whereas last time, I just gave up my favorite alcohols: beer, wine, daiquiris, margaritas, any “small alcohols”, etc. I noticed that on days that I do eat I am not gaining weight back. My weight is merely stagnant or even a slight loss.
Any ideas as to the difference? Has anyone else averaged 2 lbs weight loss during these fasts?
You are ingesting lower calories over the week.
You are also not fighting cancer.
72 hours is substantially different than 48.
If, you were say eating 3000 calories a day, without fasting thats 21,000 calories a week. Assuming you eat at maintenance when not fasting a 48 hour fast would bring that down to 15,000, a 3rd day of fasting would bring you down to 12,000