I've been in the fitness and nutrition industry for years now. More than that however I feel I have a natural knack for how the human body works in general and I voraciously research everything about it in my free time. Its not a brag, I think everyone has a unique gift that just comes naturally to them. For instance I cannot draw or paint for shit, and play no musical instruments. But I digress back to the point here.
Fasting is a very useful tool in many regards and I will explain them in detail here.
But first, you must have a goal when it comes to health. For instance, some people want to add lots of muscle, which is fine. Some people just care about longevity and health in general, which is also fine. Some people want both of these.
For me, my goal has three parts:
I want to add muscle and strength and have a very impressive physique that is also capable of real-world activities.
I want to be very lean aesthetically and also to be more athletic.
I want to be healthy as well on the inside as well as mentally. I want healthy organs that are not overburdened by eating too much, which is a problem in the fitness industry. Looking like a physique competitor is a trade off with overall health as the body is not meant to digest massive quantities of food.
So what is fasting? There are several types. Its not just about not eating.
There is water fasting which I prefer when I do fast. This means that all I am consuming is water, to help my body remove toxins and other build up through the kidney filtration system.
By Madhero88 - Own workReferenceshere, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9665603
Water fasting is optimal for me because it contains zero calories which is the real point of fasting, which is to reduce load on the digestive tract and allow it to heal and fully optimize.
There is also dry fasting which is a complete fast devoid of even water, allowing your body to remove all excess fluids and totally rejuvenate.
This is a very mentally tough type of fast, at least for me, because I definitely notice a drop in energy and mental alertness. I would not advise this type of fasting for most people especially if you are overweight and looking to lose weight.
You can do pseudo-fasts like juice cleanses and coffee fasts where you still consume some calories but the amount of work for the digestive system is minimal, while you still get some vital nutrients.
what to expect with fasting
If you experience a bit of dizziness, loss of energy or headaches this could actually be a good sign, but you should still consume lots of water.
The reason most people get these symptoms is because they're body is adapted to burning sugar as fuel, which is very quickly absorbed and burned for fuel. Your body will have to shift over to alternate fuel sources, such as fat...this can take several days. Its important to stick with the process for at least three days or so. But if you're absolutely feeling like shit you can have a small snack like some fruit to get you through the bumpy spots.
One of the key points of fasting is that your body will shift to burning fat primarly for fuel and once this adaptation is complete you will reap enormous benefits because not only will this burn off excess body fat and aid with fat loss but fat is a much more efficient fuel. Carbs (sugars) typically burn about 4 calories per gram, fat burns 9 calories per gram so a pound of fat fuel will give you over twice the energy of sugar.
As your body fasts and adapts to burning fat, it will naturally burn off most stored carbohydrates until they are depleted...this is called ketosis and can be measured with blood analysis.
You will notice that you will think more clearly when you are in a fasted state, because sugar wreaks havoc on the body, and most of those sugary foods contain all types of toxins anyway and they can build up in the brain. There is an epidemic of brain fog in the world right now and it mainly has to do with massive amounts of shitty foods, full of processed sugars.
Many common disorders can be resolved through prolonged fasting. Your skin, nails and hair should become healthier, you might notice skin blotches, acne or eczema disappear (I did).
You might notice that you are in the bathroom much more frequently at first when you are fasting, and this is a great sign, since your digestive system is frantically cleaning house. Basically your organs are cleared for working at 100% efficiency and they take advantage of this to remove all the built up gunk that we all have inside of us.
fasting protocol
One of the best ways to start experimenting with fasting is to do intermittent fasting where you fast for 16 hours and eat in a 8 hour window. This isn't as hard as it seems, since a large portion of your fast will be while you sleep! Generally you would eat between noon and eight p.m. and fast the rest of the time. This will allow you to still eat and avoid some of the unfortunate side effects listed above while slowly shifting your body into burning fat.
Once you do that for awhile, you can try a simple 24 hour water fast. Just don't eat for an entire day and drink water throughout, its that simple. This will actually amount to around 30 hours since you will fast for the entire day and then sleep for 6-8 hours or so. You can try doing this once a week.
After awhile you'll notice that its not as bad as it seems and you can start doing 36 hour fasts, 72, and even 96.
Society, especially in the West, conditions us to believe that we need to constantly eat and that we will somehow keel over and die if we don't for a few days. Its nonsense and generally propaganda by food industries (obviously they don't profit if you're not eating!).
Give it a try and see how you feel!
Zydane