We all know autophagy is a wonderful thing. I myself have done over 10 extended fasts in my life, all ranging from 7.5 to 10 days. I already am for when entering them, and usually enter them at roughly my normal walk around 11 or 12 percent body fat with no problem at all.
This time I went significantly linger than I ever have. I went for 14.75 days. This is way linger than I have ever gone. Also I noticed it dropped pretty much all of my body fat in a way I never have seen myself. So I decided to end it at 14.75 days because I seemingly did not have enough body fat left to go much linger anyway.
Anyway, after this fast I have now refer for roughly one and one half weeks. I will indeed say it seems to me that I have reached my starting body fat according to my calipers, however my face and upper torso seem more gaunt despite weighing the same as when I started and also being the same body fat level that I started. I must say my knee pain is super absent after this one though.
The gauntness of the mentioned parts of my body worry me though. Has anyone ever gone in a long extended fast and ever noticed something like this at all? I am quite surprised as I have never experienced such a thing even with my 10 day fasts. I know 14.75 days is significantly longer but still.
How low do you think your body fat got to at the end of the fast? I think it was wise to stop as at your low BF your body will start eating more muscle. I think your gauntness will change as you eat, your fat in the facial area was being consumed as a last resort, but right now it may be prioritizing storing fat around your gut.
I think you are in uncharted territory and I would be super cautious with fasts. Refeeds after long fasts would be concerning to me. I just went below 20% body fat, but would still like to get rid of some of the fat around my midsection which by my calculation will happen at around 15% BF. At that point my thinking is I will switch mostly to intermittent fasting with a few 2-3 day fasts through the year as my BF warrants.
May I ask what your goals are?
I don’t have any research to share on the subject but from a logical standpoint, I don’t think you should be doing extended fasts. You don’t have enough body fat to support these fasts so you’re at an increased risk of muscle breakdown. It would probably be best to stick to 72-hour fasts at most.