What i learned from a 72 hour water fast
oh my god i’m fuckin’ starving
i’m so hungry
I miss the feeling of food in my mouth
What does food taste like again?
Jokes Aside*
People undertake fasts for a variety of reasons. Some do it for the supposed health benefits, some do it for the mental clarity aspect, some even do it to remind themselves of their privileged access to safe and healthy food. In this blog I intend to highlight: how to undertake a fast, why you should consider it and my personal experience during the fast.
How to fast
This is the really simple part; you just don’t eat anything for a prolonged period of time. This means no sandwiches, no pasta, no midnight cereal and nothing that contains calories really. For the next 72 hours all you’re allowed to consume is water and black coffee. The idea behind it is to stay away from consuming any food or drink with calories in it. You’ll be tempted every hour of the day to pick up an apple and devour it (core included) but you’ve got to remain in control of your own urges. During this period, you’ll consume a lot more water than usual. This is normal. Just ride out those pangs of hunger and remember this is difficult on purpose.
Why?
There are a plethora of supposed benefits to water fasting:
- Water fasting definitely leads to weight loss. After your bodies been on a massive calorie deficit for 3 days straight you start to shed off extra water weight. This point cant be contended. I wouldn’t recommend this as a weight loss strategy as there’s no longevity or sustainability in this method. There’s no substitute for exercise and a healthy diet.
- Can help you achieve a greater mental clarity. Lots of individuals report that they feel a greater sense of cognitive function during their fasting period. With no distractions such as food or drink, individuals can take time to reflect and consider their current mental state. It gives you space to observe automatic processes in your life such as eating & drinking. Meditation while in a fasting state is also practiced by many individuals as a spiritual practice.
- Develops an appreciation for food you never thought you’d have. The majority of individuals reading this will have easy access to safe, healthy and delicious food. You can jump to the supermarket, order an UberEats or if you’re feeling lazy — open the fridge. There’s no denying that our access to food is wonderful, but we often forget how privileged we are to live the life we live. By purposefully fasting you gain a deeper understanding of the roles food plays in your life and by proxy a greater appreciation for the abundance of food sources around you.
- Can aid in “cleansing” your body. Hold on, stay with me a second, I know i’m sounding like a hippy right now but stay with me. Water fasting promotes the process of autophagy, which is where your body breaks down and recycles old cells in your body. Fasting could potentially save your life in the long run.
There’s undoubtedly a plethora of benefits to fasting but don’t run in to this eyes closed and head first. Fasting can be potentially dangerous to some without medical supervision so just know your own limits and consider your own limits.
My Experience
I started my this experience just like I would any other. Full of hope, secretly scared and full of black coffee.
The first day actually wasn’t too bad but by the time it got to night time I was fuckin’ starving. I was lying in bed dreaming about all the mad concoctions of food i’d whip together post fast. Subways wrapped in pizzas, waffles stacked to the ceiling, a cement mixer full of pesto pasta. It was going to be wonderful, and with that thought I drifted off to sleep.
The second morning again wasn’t so bad. I’d consumed enough water to drown a nation and enough black coffee to overdose. I was going strong. That was until I hit mid afternoon, at this point the light headedness started to set in. Literally any time I stood up to get a glass of water, grab my laptop or look out the window was quickly and sharply followed with around 5–10s of intense light headedness. You know that feeling when you stand up after a long time of sitting and your vision goes black and head rings. Yeah, that. Any time I stood up. This was the new normal.
It was only to get worse from here, from afternoon till night the pangs of hunger returned In waves that even Kelly Slater couldn’t surf. They were intense and they were long and every ounce of my being was put in to restraining myself from eating. At some points i’d just pick up an orange and stare at it for minutes on end, at others i’d stare longingly at some grapes. This is what hunger feels like.
At this point I thought it would be best to meditate and reflect on how i’m feeling. I had a pretty good session and the one thing I couldn’t stop thinking was how profoundly weird it was that during my 21 years on earth, i’d never been this hungry before. I’d genuinely never went this long without food before. I still find that crazy that In my privileged life I have such easy access to something that millions along the world struggle to acquire.
Night 2 I struggled to get to sleep, as anyone would when they’re fucking starving. I found no peace in the greater mission of my task and instead tumbled and rolled around my bed longing for food. I can say I found a wee bit of amusement in my extraordinarily long pishes in my trips to the bathroom. I mean i’ve had a lengthy pish before, anyone has after a night out on some jars but fuck me I think I set some new world records.
I’d love to say that I remained a zen master during this whole process. Calmly accepting my self-designated fate of hunger. Stoicly staring into the abyss, content with my situation. But I wasn’t, I really wasn’t.
Day 3 I woke up with what felt like absolutely no energy to do anything. It was like a comedown on a comedown. Double comedown por favor. This entire day I just lazed about the flat watching TV and feeling sorry for myself. The pangs of hunger were constant, the longing for food was intense and the self-pity was at an all time high. This was a tough one, but I managed it.
By the time 7pm had rolled round I had officially finished my 72 hour fast. Now most guides you’ll find on the internet will tell you that you should ease into your post fast with light, healthy meals such as a salad or some small pieces of fruit. They’ll then advise that you work your way up to bigger and more nutritious meals over the coming days before returning to your normal diet.
With good intentions, I started by making me and my flatmate a small salad. It had avocado, tomatoes, quinoa, spinach etc. It looked delightful and let me tell you, my first taste of solid food in 3 days tasted fucking delightful as well. The initial mouthfuls were more glorious than a jump-in after last period on a Friday when you were 16. All sorts of flavour explosions happening, pure and utter joy radiating from every ounce of my mortal being. It was fucking glorious. We had followed the internets plan and we were going to slowly ease ourselves into bigger and bigger meals.
Except we didn’t. We couldn’t. After we got a whiff of the first meal in days we couldn’t stop. Immediately after finishing our salads we directed our attention to the next available food source. It was Kinder Buenos, it was Kinder Buenos that rapidly descended into chaos. After the beunos, it was cookies, then waffles, then Nutella, then biscoff, then cookies again; it was mayhem. We really should of restrained ourselves but after that long we couldn’t keep ourselves from eating. We really couldn’t. This is probably really dangerous as overfeeding can actually lead to death in the post-fast phase but kinder Buenos were calling my name.
Side Note: Kinder Buenos to Chaos is gonna be my band name if I ever develop any musical talent
Closing Thoughts
I personally found this to be an oxymoron of results for me. On one hand I really did gain appreciation for my access to food and the other I finished this challenge thinking “I’m never doing that again”. I’m happy that I did it and I now understand an aspect of my privilege that I previously didn’t. That’s important. It also furthered my meditation practice and allowed me to observe my automatic processes of eating and drinking for what they really are. It probably helped me lose some weight, recycle some old cells and bring me more in touch with reality. It was great, but at the same time i’m never fucking doing that again.
I, and the internet, can feed you any amount of information and bullshit to convince you to do anything. If you want to try this, go for it, but just make sure it’s not because I or anyone else told you to.
Yours Honestly,
Liam Lawson.
