Fasting experience and benefits

November 17, 2024

What type of impact does food have on our ability to focus, train, and function for daily life?

These are all my personal experiences and a culmination of research, diet experience, and health benefits I've gathered over years of being an athlete.

In this post, I will explore my experiences with the food I've consumed over the past few years. I've experimented extensively with intermittent fasting, longer fasting periods (over 24 hours), and a low-carb, fat-based nutritional plan.

We will focus on the following:

1. Daily Intermittent Fasting (16-20hrs)

2. Longer Fasting (24-48-72hrs)

3. Fat-based, low carb diet (impacts/benefits)

I have undertaken all of the mentioned activities at various times over the past few years, including a full 5-day fast, a 4-day and 15-hour fast, and many fasting periods lasting 24, 36, and 48 hours. Each fasting plan was chosen for particular reasons, with a specific rationale for the duration of each fast. Nonetheless, it can be stated that 95% of the fasting was intentionally aimed at the following reasons:

• resetting of gut bacteria (as much as possible)

• understanding my relationship with food (and how it's changed)

• testing my ability to have discipline with a goal (manage my time spent throughout the day)

• specific amount of weight loss (in the form of fat storage)

#1 Daily Intermittent Fasting (16-20hrs)

Short input window or OMAD (one meal a day)

These are probably the simplest to adopt, and I've enjoyed experimenting with different fasting durations, challenging myself with daily life demands, and observing how they affect my fasting ability. The ease or difficulty of fasting depends on what I consume in the days leading to the start of the fasting period.

My specific reasons/experiences for fasting for 18-22hrs:

• I feel better throughout the day.

  • Less time thinking about meals.

  • Becomes a discipline and an attainable goal for that day.

  • Less time eating meals.

  • Better performance in fitness as my stomach is not busy digesting.

• I may hit into Autophagy. A natural process that cells undergo where old/damaged or unneeded parts are broken down and recycled by new cells.

• I have more mental clarity. My ability to get things done, stay focused and hydrate is improved overall.

All of the above reasons typically results in an OMAD (One Meal A Day) situation.

Typical OMAD day:

• Time with in the family in the morning, routines, errands, cleaning, etc.

• Meal between 12-2pm

• Work after that

Example meal:

• 1 medium sized organic mixed greens container

• 1-2 packs of organic dried mushrooms

• 2 big tablespoons organic of Olive Tepanade

• 6oz of Protein. Typically Halal Grassfed beef or chicken (sometimes fish)

• 8oz of organic coldbrew black coffee

• 4 total coconut oil dark chocolate keto cups (roughly 4g net carbs)

• 1 Keto Bar (sometimes)

• 5-6oz Brie or grassfed cheese

• sometimes a bag of organic Kale Chips

MACROS:

Mixed Greens: around 5-6g net carbs.... this is a lot of mixed greens but can be consumed in one meal. It's much bigger than a normal restaurant entree salad.

Dried Mushrooms: 3-6 net carbs (depending on eating 1 or 2 packs)

Olive Tepenade: 20g fat, maybe 3-4g carbs

Protein: 6g fat, 8g net carbs, 48g protein

Coffee: 1g carbs

Keto Cup: 52g fat, 8g net carbs, 8g protein

Cheese: 54g fat, 6g net carbs, 36g protein

Totals

Fat: 132g

Carbs: 34-38g

Protein: 92g protein

This is an example of a meal based on what we have available at home and the time we have to prepare for work or eat lunch. Occasionally, I might use less cheese or substitute the keto cups with Cocoa Butter chunks and some grass-fed chocolate with hazelnut butter.

The above is an approximate calculation, but it is certainly a meal that fully satisfies me, allowing me to fast for 18-22 hours afterward without any issues. It takes me about 30-45 minutes to finish the meal. I eat slowly because it's quite a lot to consume in one sitting.

I create my own "green juice" using a small amount of apple and pear, along with plenty of kale, spinach, apple cider vinegar, alfalfa/wheat/barley grass powder, other alkaline green powders, and lemon juice. I drink this after a meal for a touch of sweetness and a substantial amount of fiber and vegetables. I enjoy this at home when I can have a different type of OMAD meal, which includes some fish with a mix of grilled or baked vegetables and some sour cream or cream cheese. Pickled or fermented vegetables also make a great addition, offering a unique flavor and taste.

Longer Fasting (24-48-72hrs +)

no input window (hormonal benefits/resets)

This form of fasting requires mental resilience, support from your family, and a comprehension of your body's biological functions. I conducted extensive research before deciding to pursue this approach. Understanding the science behind the benefits made the process more manageable. Knowing which biological systems were activating, resetting, or slowing down internally greatly motivated me to maintain longer fasts to achieve those benefits.

Key hormonal benefits for a longer fasting period:

1. Autophagy - Body cleans up damaged or older cells and recycles their components, replaces with new cells.

2. HGH (Human Growth Hormone) - Levels increase as your body will produce more. This helps with muscle growth, repairing of cells and fat loss.

3. Ghrelin - Mainly known as the Hunger hormone. Levels of this hormone decrease. The signal to the body to eat becomes less significant over longer periods of time.

4. Ketosis - The body's ability to use Ketones as a fuel source. The brain functions quite well and with some studies saying it functions better on a Ketone fuel source.

All of this is based on the individual, and hormone level changes will differ for each person. However, the body's response to a significantly longer fast will generally be the same. The body is an intelligent system and knows to activate the aforementioned biological processes when prompted.

In the summer of 2022, I finished a 5-day fast. Previously, I had done a fast lasting 4 days and 15 hours. I questioned why I hadn't extended it to a full 5 days, but couldn't remember any reason. Thus, this 5-day fast was a personal challenge, a "let's see if I can do this" kind of fast.

Since this fast had a specific intent, I wanted to:

1. Collect as much data as possible

2. Take notes on my metabolic and functional reactions and it's progress

3. Track my body weight over the fasting window.

Here are the notes/results form the full 5-day fast:

Start date: Sunday 6/5 10:30pm was the last meal.

End date: Friday 6/10 10:30pm will be the next meal.

Pre-notes:

• Consuming water, black coffee, teas and electrolytes (raw liquid form) not from processed drinks.

• Fitness should be incorporated each day. However, coaching tennis in the heat (Atlanta, Ga summer) for hours was likely as much as I could handle.

• Body weight is recorded after using the bathroom each morning for consistency.

• After day 2 there was no Bowel Movement.

  
  

6/06 Day 1: AM weight ~ 167.8lbs [0-24hrs]

Input:

• Around 2 gallons of H20

• 2 shots of Espresso (completely forgot that this has some carbs + sugar -around 5g total- Oops!

• 2 "Soups" with Salt, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Garlic Seasoning, ACV, other spices. Around 40oz total (included in 2 gallons of H20)

Fitness:

• About 45 lunges and 40 pushups total throughout the day

• 15 mins of hitting (in a lesson)

• 4hrs on-court coaching

• Felt pretty solid, enjoyed the day and had pretty high energy.

6/07 Day 2: AM weight ~ 165.4lbs [24-48hrs]

Input:

• Around 1.5 gallons of H20

• 2 coffee

• 1 "Soup" with Salt, Turmeric, Black Pepper, Garlic Seasoning, ACV, other spices. Around 20oz total (included in 2 gallons of H20)

Fitness:

• No fitness

• 7.5hrs on-court coaching

• Felt great again, no aches or pains, long day on court.

6/08 Day 3: AM weight ~ 162.6lbs [48-72hrs]

Input:

• Around 1.5 gallons of H20

• 1 coffee

Fitness:

• No fitness

• 8hrs on-court coaching

• Starting to have some joint pains, definitely due to dehydration.

• Atlanta summer coaching is pretty rough.

• Calfs were getting tight, likely due to being on my feet for the majority of the day.

6/09 Day 4: AM weight ~ 160.5lbs [72-96hrs]

Input:

• Around 1.25 gallons of H20

• 1 coffee

Fitness:

• No fitness

• 0hrs on-court coaching

• Much easier day (due to no work) tried to rest as much as possible, stay cool indoors and stay focused.

• Felt much better knowing that it was close to the 5-day mark.

6/10 Day 5: AM weight ~ 159lbs [96-120hrs]

Input:

• Around 1.25 gallons of H20

• 1 coffee

Fitness:

• No fitness

• 5.75hrs on-court coaching

Day 5 was a pretty tough day on court, heat was intense and quite humid. Looking forward to the end of the night at 10:30pm to break the fast. Ended up breaking it with a small salad (cheese, sauteed chicken, olive oil, light veggies) and a low-carb fat bar.

PM weight before completing day 5 ~ 157.9lbs

Post Notes:

I would love to do this type of longer fast again but not for 5 days. I feel 48-72hrs 2x per month along with regular 16-18hr fasts are the best for me. Need to keep fitness regular and the longer fasting with work, family and life responsibilities and interactions would make it not very conducive. It's important to have meals with the family. To sit down, interact and all enjoy the food together is a blessing.

Fat-based, low carb diet (impacts/benefits)

This are likely the easiest to adopt and I've had a lot of fun trying various fasting lengths out and challenging myself with daily life requirements and how it impacts my ability to fast. Depending on what I eat before I start the fasting period, the fasting time becomes easier or harder.

Fat-based, low carb diet (impacts/benefits)

with or without intermittent fasting (Ketone based fuel)

We have two parts to this section:

1. Fat-based nutritional input

2. Fat-based nutritional input + intermittent fasting

This was likely the most interesting type of daily nutritional input I tried. Personally, there was a lot of scientific factors to consider, understand and test over a lengthy period of time. Here were some of the things that I learned on a fat-based, low/very low carb nutritional plan:

1. My body did quite well on it.

2. It creates a new social interaction for better or worse.

3. My perception of food, nutritional input is changed for good.

4. My tasting palette was skewed.

5. It became a little bit overwhelming.

6. Athletic performance was boosted (in a matter of speaking).

Key hormonal benefits for a longer fasting period:

1. Autophagy - Body cleans up damaged or older cells and recycles their components, replaces with new cells.

2. HGH (Human Growth Hormone) - Levels increase as your body will produce more. This helps with muscle growth, repairing of cells and fat loss.

3. Ghrelin - Mainly known as the Hunger hormone. Levels of this hormone decrease. The signal to the body to eat becomes less significant over longer periods of time.

4. Ketosis - The body's ability to use Ketones as a fuel source. The brain functions quite well and with some studies saying it functions better on a Ketone fuel source.

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