40 day water fasts are done by a lot more people than 15-16 day dry fasts
Can it be almost equally similar in regards to the transformative healing potentials?
Having just broke my recent dry fast on Day 15 and having done an extended water fast, which I broke on Day 30, the following are my observations on comparative equivalency and differences:
On soft and hard dry fasts the rate of fat metabolism and weight loss is consistent throughout the entire fast, at \~ 2 to 3 lbs per day – even on the 15th day!
On a water fast the rate of fat metabolism and weight loss declines significantly throughout the fast to less than 0.25 lbs per day towards later stages.
The body and mind also does not experience a water fast in the same way as a dry fast. There are too many differences to note here, so just accept the fact they are completely different fasts in terms of experiential effects, not simply more or less intense versions of the same thing.
There is a significance in the difference in the rate and thoroughness of catabolic effects (i.e. autophagy, autolysis, apoptosis) in the various approaches to physiological house cleaning:
The more important point regarding all these different approaches (extended water, soft dry and hard dry) is the breaking and recovery period:
The extended water fast loses more lean muscle mass (due to the extended period of inactivity) than soft or dry fasts – one needs a longer anabolic period of hypertrophy to recover previous levels.
Similarly on an extended soft or hard dry fast one can feel completely recovered after two days of rehydration and refeeding, not so much on an extended water fast.
There are other differences, but these are what I can share from top of mind.
Cheers!
PS The “transformative healing potentials” are realized and fully accomplished in the recovery and refeeding discipline after breaking the fast, not really during the fast. So the efficacy of any fast is absolutely how well you break it, not how long you go.