Fasting Diet: No Food, All Water
I have decided to test my inner strength by undergoing a grueling fasting diet. I won’t be eating anything and will only be drinking water and possibly green tea. I will however take a multi vitamin each morning. This isn’t something I am used to so it should prove to be a challenge.
Why am I doing this? I want to test my will power and test my body. I read and hear of countless people fasting for days on end and they live to tell about it. I plan on doing it for a few days at most. I have read of 2 week fasts. But that’s not something I am interested in doing. I will continue to exercise and go throughout the day as I normally would. That won’t change. I hope.
Now usually I would not do something like this, but I think it’s a welcomed shock to my system. I will make an update the minute I start eating again, which I hope isn’t until Saturday at the earliest. Wow, just thinking about the possibility of fasting for so long amazes me.
I guess we will see if I can last being stranded on a deserted island.
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My friend, this sounds like an act of desperation and not of testing one’s will power.
You are going to slow down your metabolism, stress out your kidneys, liver, gall bladder and your brain. Your body will horde all the calories you consume when you go back to eating. And don’t even think about being able to exercise if you are doing this.
Can I talk you out of this and change it to at least a juice fast?
I was thinking of making it semi-master cleansey. Adding some lemon and lime in with my green tea. What juice fasts did you have in mind/
Israel, good luck man. Have you ever tried the master cleanse? It’s essentially a fast, but you’re taking in some sugar so your brain doesn’t think you’re dying. I did a 14 day and a 19 day master cleanse and it was the best I’ve felt in years – would highly suggest it if you want to see what you’re made of. It also helps you clean your system out.
Never have, thinking of making this one sort of like that.
There’s a really good active support forum for MCers on 43Things @ http://www.43things.com/things/view/153803/master-cleanse
My 48 entries on the topic are @ http://www.43things.com/people/progress/chipware/3517306
Good luck!
Thanks, I will check that out.
Hey Isreal!
It’s been a while. I have contemplated fasting for detox reasons, but have not done it yet. Let me know how it goes.
Best,
Mike
Israel,
I hear of a lot of people shooting stuff into their veins and living to tell about it…
I can’t say I see the point here.
There must be other ways to test ones commitment and mental toughness, no?
Just my .02.
There is no other way…This is THE way.
No food at all? Plus the fact that you will continue exercising, that is something I pretty much will not do! I’m not sure how your body will react to this but I’m interested in seeing the outcome. Best of luck!
Edwin
Interesting. Should save you some money. Let us know how it goes.
Good luck, Israel. Can’t say that I’d even consider doing this. As Kimberly said, this will slow down your metabolism quite a bit. Be very careful with maintaining your activity levels to make sure that you don’t leave yourself in a dangerous position where you might have a lapse in judgement (stepping into traffic) or pass out (and fall off of something.)
Good luck, and I’m interested in reading about the results, but still don’t think it’s a great idea. I’m all about eating regularly throughout the day every couple of hours and drinking a lot of water in the hours between the small meals.
I’ve done this before – my body went into survival mode and retained every iota of every calorie. Not only did I not lose any weight, but I also messed up my metabolism. I wish I had never done it – there was really no point…just my experience…
Let’s hope this doesn’t happen to me.
Not a smart thing to do. Also not a healthy thing to do for your body. Our body requires food and depriving it by drinking only water is not normal. Good luck to you though.
The body can survive on just water for many days.
I’ve tried similar with my wife, and it always ends up unsuccessful. I find that eating healthy, mostly veggies and meats, is far more beneficial, as you can get filled up and lose weight.
I mean, it sounds like a solid idea, but I think you’ll find it’s not what you want it to be.
Just one fat man’s opinion.
We shall see…
Regardless, best of luck to you, man.
Thanks.
I can’t believe you guys fell for this…look at the date on that post…April 1st….you fools! hehe
Wow, I can’t imagine!! Please keep us informed of everything. I wish you much luck in this Challenge.
Thanks, I will need it.
haha nice one!!! At first Iwas like, “wtf… this is a retarded idea”
April fools to you too!
Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not a joke…
Oh, It was a freakin April Fools Joke!! UGH, I can’t believe I fell for it!! I’m kicking myself right now!!
Shana, this is the real deal. Like when that magician stays in a 200 gallon tank of water for 8 days… It’s that crazy.
Take care on this. Alternatively, you can try the Islamic method of fasting. Have a high glyceamic index “meal” early in the morning (before sunrise, really) and a sugar boost in the evening.
Usually, this is without fluids, but you could try and make do with only water.
Problem with most Muslims is we over-do it on the two meals and then snack through the night too!!
Just search on “Ramadhan” “Sehri” or “Iftari” on your favourite search site.
I will look into this Mohammed. Thanks. So far it’s going okay.
Israel –
Great blog, enjoy your adventure, but – a few days on a straight water fast is not that big of a deal. Why all of the drama? You aren’t going to need any luck – you are just going to have a headache, and be hungry for 48 hours.
As several posters on here have pointed out – juice fasting is FAR better for a transformative experience, simply because you can “cleanse” your body safely…for far longer. There is a rich history of fasting in all of the spiritual traditions as mohammad pointed out – and many famous scientists and philosophers of days gone by attributed much of their best work to fasting. There is a wealth of really good info online about juice fasting for crazy amounts of time with radically remarkable results.
(I’ve never done it – but I know people who have – and now juice fast every year religiously)
Best of luck..:-)
I currently writing a magazine article on this and the more I research the more I realize I couldnt do it.
cant wait to see what you thought.
M.
I think drinking green tea is useful for weight loss.
I heard that this methods call detox by drinking only water or juice. I’m not sure it works.
Wow, sounds intense. I tried fasting for 40 days but nothing like what you are doing. I still ate bread and meat. I could hardly do it. I look forward to your results! Good Luck!!!
-Travis
Interesting, I am interested to read how you feel during this fast. Best of luck…
I will be posting it soon.
Hi, Israel.
I am new to your blog, so I answer only now. I did a series of water fasts and juice fasts, 4, 5 and 9 days at a go, when I was informed that I had some clogged arteries, and it solved the problem (apart from bringing my weight down drastically).
But fasting is not a simple thing to do, not easy for everyone and not always effective, so you’d better do a lot of reading before and during the fast.
I was introduced to juice fasting by Chet Day from chetday.com some 12 years ago.
Luck,
Thanks for the advice, I have done some reading and my fast is now over. I will be posting about the experience soon.
Longest i have kept going for is 30 days. Keep up the good work, and yes the method is called detox.
Friend, Go ahead! This is going to help you a lot. But do take honey and lemon juice mixed with water often. It will not disturb your fasting process and prevents you from falling sick. Good luck..
Thank you carole for your ideas because i got one of my friend who used fast regularly. Hope i could help him with these information.
definitely a risky choice.
there is also the vegetable smoothie fast,
for like 3 days, and it very nutricious.
just don’t [not] eat for a long time,
because that is not healthy at all.
I have been oon a wter-only fast (yes, just water, and teh occasional multi-vitamin since April 1, 2009, this is day 24, I have not gotten sick, have worked normally, and lost 40 lbs, it can be done, and I thik individual results differ as much as fingerprints on this.
yikes.
you know people he’s not gonna die in only a few days. if he wants to drink only water and take vitamins whats it bothering you? its not. let him do it. half you people probably are overweight and here you are telling him whats healthy. lames.
Um, thanks for the support Val.
Val – Glad to hear you have tried fasting. Its amazing to see how people freak out when you mention it. I can’t say I blame them. The thought of going without food for 2 hours is enough to make most American’s sick.
I may be wrong but lets looks at some facts. Water fasting has been around for centuries. There are plenty of documented cases of people going 30-40 days on just pure water alone. When the body realizes that it is not getting any food coming in, it will shut down the digestive system (thus eliminating the hunger feeling) and switch to a process called ketosis which will start using mainly fat for fuel, and will conserve muscle. Most people never make it to this state because the “hunger” gets to them and they break the fast. Its a real interesting topic but I wouldn’t recommend doing it for just 2 days. You will mainly just cannibalize muscle and not fat, it is only after the first few days does your body switches to burning fat as its primary fuel, and ONLY if you are doing a water only fast, any caloric intake may throw this process off. (doctor supervision from a fasting specialist is recommender for long fasts)
I like to look at it this way. We forget that we are a part of nature, and nature is programed and designed to return itself to a normal state once the source of the problem have been removed. For instance the earth probably considers humans toxic. We come in, build on her landscape pave roads pollute the air and so on. If we were to become extinct tomorrow in 300 thousand years NYC would look like it did before humans developed it. The earth would return itself to a normal state.
In our bodies most of the processed garbage food we eat is toxic, it is loaded with cancer causing carcinogens that get stored in our fat cells to be activated at a later time. Our digestive system which runs non stop takes up a tremendous amount of energy and our body never has a chance to rest or clean out the damage. Once you stop introducing toxic food and garbage, your body can finally rest and start detoxing itself. It will take 20+ plus days for this to happen completely. You will excrete toxins out of your body in all places, your breath will smell, your tongue will be grimy, your skin oily. (does this sound familiar, it happens when you wake up, usually the only time your body has a chance to start cleaning itself out)
Anyways when the fast is done assuming you were somewhat healthy before with no cancer or anything, your body will be back at a normal state clean and ready to go again. I hope this inspires some people to do the research and take an open mind with it. People fast all the time, your bodies are designed to handle it. What were not designed to do is eat Big Macs and french fries. No wonder we have the highest health care costs and highest obesity and cancer rate in the world. We should all look in the mirror and blame that person for high health care costs, none of us take care of our bodies the way we should, not even me.
Hi Israel,
Fasting is also another step of diet. Muslims have season on fasting and they don’t even drink water for the whole day. But they eat after sunset. For Christians,as I’ve known, have also fasting but should avoid eating meat. So, fasting can be effective but you must eat a little protein for your energy. Just try it..and do a lot of experimentation.