Alternate Day Fasting

It’s been three weeks since I completed my 7-day water fast. As I expected, my weight increased by 3kg the first week after the fast as I started re-feeding, but I was still down 2kg from when I started the fast. And since then, as I started alternate day fasting again, I have already lost a further two kilograms which brings me back down to 61kg for a total loss of 4kg since the fast started.

By far the most significant outcome of this 7-day water fast was that it amazingly helped me beat my sugar addiction! This was a wholly unexpected but extremely welcome outcome. I’ve been alternate day fasting for more than 9 months now, but it has had absolutely no beneficial effect on my addiction to sugar. Although I’ve been fine on fasting days, on feeding days I’ve definitely been actively seeking out sugar. If I had known that something as simple as a 7-day water fast would have cured me of this addiction, I would have done it many, many years ago! Given my history of addiction, I cannot express in words how monumental this is. And strange. After all these years of being a chocoholic, it’s very strange to not crave it and to actually feel like I’m in control.

On a negative note, in addition to losing fat, I obviously also lost muscle. After the fast, I was only able to do 50 consecutive pushups and 13 chin-ups, which was down from 60 pushups and 14 chin-ups. My muscle loss is making me think twice about my plan to attempt four 14-day fasts throughout the year, one each quarter. If I can successfully manage to reduce the muscle loss by performing minimal maintenance strength training during the fast, then I may continue with this plan, but otherwise, I may only do two extended fasts per year.

I also now clearly understand what people mean by saying that a long fast is an opportunity to change your eating habits. I myself had no such intentions. My only goal while breaking my fast was to be able to eat everything at the two birthday parties I was attending the first weekend after my fast. But if you want to go vegan, become vegetarian, quit carbs or go paleo, I can see how a fast would provide the perfect opportunity. With a newly reset digestive system, you really are in control of exactly what you put in your mouth. Reducing your food diversity while breaking your fast would very naturally and easily put you on your chosen path.

In short, after having finally successfully completed one myself, I wholeheartedly recommend that everyone attempt a 7-day water fast. If you don’t feel like you’re quite ready for one just yet, at least put it on your bucket list of things to do. I only wish that I had done this years ago myself!