Fasting is easier than you think (2024)

My 5-day fast to reduce hunger and increase mental focus

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What if someone said you could lose weight, increase mental focus, decrease food cravings, and promote longevity all with one weird trick? If you are like me, you’re probably thinking:

Is this a Yahoo ad?
No way I’m trying that fasting garbage.
I love food. Why would I give it up?

After wolfing down an entire box of Xtra Cheddar Goldfish to calm my nerves, I thought about it and realized I was still curious. After all, Beyonce did it?

Cheerfully succumbing to confirmation bias, I began googling around for serious research substantiating these claims. Here are a few potential benefits I found even fact-checking science types won’t oppose, entirely.

Prevents obesity and neurodegeneration
Increases longevity
Improves cognitive performance
Boosts your immune system
Saves money on food :)

Fasting has the potential to delay aging and help prevent and treat diseases while minimizing the side effects caused by chronic dietary interventions.
Fasting: Molecular Mechanisms Valter D. Longo and Mark P. Mattson

Fasting also has a nice track record. Religious and spiritual groups have been fasting for centuries. Practitioners of meditation and yoga use fasting to improve concentration and self-discipline.

Epilepsy — I’ve had epilepsy since 19. The Grand Mal seizures (the body shaking stuff of TV shows) stopped after we found the right combination of medications. However, I continued to have frequent “dizzy spells” called Auras, despite experimenting with different medications and dosages. I read somewhere that fasting could help.
Mental Focus — Anything promising to give me a mental leg up I’m keen to try. Remember Limitless? Usually this just amounts to me purchasing unscientific junk on Amazon.
Weight Loss — I had just returned from a 3 week trip in Europe. Considering the astounding number of pastries I consumed, I was not surprised to learn I was a few pounds heavier when I returned. I was curious to see if I could “jumpstart” the process of getting into shape.
Food Cravings —I catch myself thinking about food all the time, especially when traveling. Fasting seemed like a plausible way to reduce cravings and become less food dependent. Yes, our ancestors had good reason to think about it — food, sleep, fighting off predators — but life today is very different — Big Macs, La-Z-boys, fighting off Nazi zombies in Call of Duty.

I started fasting Sunday at 9pm and stopped Saturday at 12:30pm. I took measurements in the morning using my Fitbit Aria and Ketone test strips.

Ketones

The body normally runs on glucose, which it gets from breaking down carbohydrates. If you’re starving, however, your body can’t find enough glucose so it starts breaking down fat for energy. Ketones are the acidic byproduct of this switch from glucose to fat.

Ketones are important to track. They signal your body’s transition from carbs to fat and warn you if you’ve gone too far. According to this diagram, the “benefits” of running on fat show up around 1.5–3. Fasting ketosis begins at 4 and ketoacidosis (life-threatening) starts around 9-10.

Weight and Body Fat

I doubt fasting is a sustainable weight loss technique, but it is definitely not a gimmick.

Auras (Dizzy Spells)

This was the most excited find of the entire fast. I typically average 3 Auras per day, but during the fast I went 4 days straight without a single Aura. Better still, the number of Auras remained low after the fast.

Mental Focus

In general I felt more focused and determined. My energy levels remained constant during the day, and at one point I even found myself staying up late to read Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, which had been collecting dust on my nightstand for 6 months.

Food Cravings

Two weeks later and I’m still craving certain foods, but in general I’m less focused on food and I don’t stress out when I can’t eat on time. Similar to how training for a marathon makes make running a 5K trivial, the experience of fasting for 5 days makes skipping a meal, or even fasting for an entire day, seem like child’s play. I suspect my newfound detachment will lead to a healthier relationship with food.

Physical sluggishness — This was by far the most noticeable side effect. 3 days in my legs felt wobbly and walking home from work was pretty funny.
Constipation — Let’s just say I saved money on toilet paper that week ;)
Sensitivity to cold—I remember asking my co-workers more than a few times: “Guys, is it freezing in here or is it just me?” Apparently it was just me.

According to my doctor, the side effects were due to an electrolyte imbalance in my blood. Despite chugging loads of salt water I quickly became dehydrated and deficient in key minerals (potassium, sodium, chloride).

Doctor’s Tip: Use salt tablets instead of salt water and add magnesium and potassium supplements to reduce the symptoms above.

The side effects were manageable for the most part, but I’m glad I talked with my doctor before trying this.

Fasting for 5 days is surprisingly not bad. Based on my experience with 1-day fasts, I assumed fasting for 5 days would equal the pain of a 1-day fast times 5. This was not the case. After a few days my body adjusted and feelings of hunger slowly evolved into a dull ache.
Social implications. I didn’t anticipate how awkward it would be to go out with friends and not eat anything. I found myself repeatedly explaining my reasoning to a skeptical audience. Don’t expect your friends to support you or be impressed.
Coffee helps. So I cheated and drank about 3 cups of coffee per day with half & half (120 calories daily). Coffee is a known appetite suppressant and I definitely benefitted from that fact during my fast. Interestingly, this study suggests decaffeinated coffee is what you should be drinking.

After the fast I returned to my usual low-carb, Brotein diet and started moving around. Most symptoms passed within 48 hours, but one morning I made the mistake of gorging on a breakfast of 6 eggs. Good thing I saved money on toilet paper!

Weight loss maintained?

Weight remained low, but body fat returned, suggesting I also shed muscle and water weight during the fast. On day 12 I started experimenting with a Ketogenic Diet, which may explain the sustained drop in water weight.

Auras return, but not completely

Prior to the fast I averaged 3 Auras per day. During the fast I averaged .5 Auras and after the fast I averaged 1.6. My Ketogenic diet might explain why Ketones stayed above their pre-fast levels while Auras remained below.

So what’s the one weird trick to lose weight, improve your sex life, and acquire superhuman mental capabilities? I’ll save that for another post, but for now here are 3 simple tricks I used to sustain a 5 day fast:

Drink coffee—Ideally decaf. If I were to do it again, I would also include chicken broth, another delicious salt-rich beverage to look forward to.
Embrace sedentary life — Treat yourself to all the non-food related things you’ve been craving. Replace jogging with yoga, ride an Uber to work, binge watch the 1st season of Stranger Things, work from home, or better yet, skip work!
Find a side project — Find an exciting side project and get completely absorbed. Working on Hapi was so much fun I almost forgot to eat.. ;) At the very least, schedule a bunch of pointless meetings at work so you have no downtime at your desk to think about food.

I will definitely fast again shortly. Perhaps not for 5 straight days, but a cadence of quarterly 3 day fasts and biweekly 1 day fasts seems reasonable. Stay tuned!