Water Fasting

[TargeT]

Posted by BlueEyedPersian (here)
so I took the advice of a member here to take a little bit of pink sea salt because I keep feeling weak.

Well that didn't go too well. I literally had to vomit after 1 min and it was a yellowish color.

it has to be Himalayan pink salt (sodium chloride) and Salt Substitute (Potassium chloride) in the correct ratios or there's no point... normally too much salt acts as a laxative, so you got lucky (the yellowish color was Bile, you may have had other stomach turmoils already).

[5th]

Here's an interesting video by Ray Maor (the breatharian guy I mentioned before) about the stages of acceptance by society of anything new such as water fasting, vegetarians, etc.

The stages being: ignore, laugh, fight, accept.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=NBd71AWt8nA

[onawah]

This may have been posted before; if so, please excuse.
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1/12/19

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[Seabreeze]

very interesting Thread...Just did watch a video yesterday about water fasting. A joung girl did it for 20 days, with amazing results. I am thinking about starting my own one soon, to find out the health benefits of it.

I know in old days it was more common to do a fasting once or even twice a year, to clean the body and organs. In our days, most people don`t know anymore, it use to be common for many people in history times.

The before easter time, was meant to do a fasting, for example.

[Chip]

Update Day 7
I am going to break my fast today.

Completed 6 days and felt I could've gone longer but I don't feel comfortable experimenting with this when I'm flying (I have a flight to Geneva Switzerland tomorrow morning from West Palm Beach).

Some of the things that helped me during the fast:
- Staying busy
- Sipping water frequently vs large swigs less frequently
- Taking hot baths (very unusual; this was an intuitive demand as I prefer showers), I found that adding bath salts in the water also was very satisfying.
- Strategic use of black coffee; Developed an extreme sensitivity to caffeine during the 6 days and could not drink more than 2 cups at days 5 and 6.
- Daily meditations for longer durations

I never weighed myself during any of this...I went into this with weight loss less of a priority. However based on the way my cloths are fitting I certainly lost a good 10-13 lbs easily.

My goal was to cleanse my body and mind prior to returning to a more healthier lifestyle (past 6 months I lapsed on eating as healthy than I normally do and my workouts were less frequent).

I feel like I was given some type of mental super man pill after these 6 days, knowing that everything else I do with regards to my diet and exercise routine will be a piece of cake.

Look forward to doing longer fasts and will definitely try to get a 20 day in this year- I'm very curious.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Chip (here)
Some of the things that helped me during the fast:
- Staying busy
- Sipping water frequently vs large swigs less frequently
- Taking hot baths (very unusual; this was an intuitive demand as I prefer showers), I found that adding bath salts in the water also was very satisfying.
- Strategic use of black coffee; Developed an extreme sensitivity to caffeine during the 6 days and could not drink more than 2 cups at days 5 and 6.
- Daily meditations for longer durations

Yes, excellent. The black coffee thing is interesting... I found the same. But black coffee does (apparently) support and assist autophagy. (For more on that, search this thread. AUTOPHAGY is the body's self-healing that kicks in after a few days, and explains why aches and pains and other problems often disappear during a fast. It's also why sick animals in nature instinctively fast to heal themselves.)

Posted by Chip (here)
My goal was to cleanse my body and mind prior to returning to a more healthier lifestyle (past 6 months I lapsed on eating as healthy than I normally do and my workouts were less frequent).

That may be one of the prime benefits of fasting for many... to reset and reboot a bunch of eating and lifestyle habits that might have slipped over time.

When starting to eat again ('refeeding', as it's called), how one does that it really important. For most, what works well is juices and broths and fruit only for 2-3 days, and then there's the opportunity to start anew with one's entire diet regime, just cutting out anything that didn't do one all that much good before.

For anyone who's a little overweight and is using a long-ish fast to support weight loss, keeping the weight off is just as important (of course). Very often, the cause of weight gain is high blood sugar due to too much caffeine/ sugar/ carbs. It's NOT eating fat that's the problem!!

When blood sugar is too high, the liver works hard to deposit the excess glycogen as fat. It's as simple as that. That's why ketogenic (high fat, low carb) diets work so well for many. Coming off a fast is the perfect opportunity to examine all that and reset it all.

[Operator]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Chip (here)
Some of the things that helped me during the fast:
- Staying busy
- Sipping water frequently vs large swigs less frequently
- Taking hot baths (very unusual; this was an intuitive demand as I prefer showers), I found that adding bath salts in the water also was very satisfying.
- Strategic use of black coffee; Developed an extreme sensitivity to caffeine during the 6 days and could not drink more than 2 cups at days 5 and 6.
- Daily meditations for longer durations

Yes, excellent. The black coffee thing is interesting... I found the same. But black coffee does (apparently) support and assist autophagy. (For more on that, search this thread. AUTOPHAGY is the body's self-healing that kicks in after a few days, and explains why aches and pains and other problems often disappear during a fast. It's also why sick animals in nature instinctively fast to heal themselves.)

---

I reduced my coffee intake recently. I was on hypertention medication for the last 5 years and coffee is alleged
to be one of the culprits. I am drastically losing weight (> 27 lbs) and watching my food and drink intake.
They say you can't stop the hypertention medication once you started but after cutting the dose to half and after
consultation with my doctor months later I stopped it completely. It's amazing but I feel much better now, more
energized again.

Anyway, as part of the consultation with my doctor a bloodtest was done. Everything checked was ok except for
my LDL cholesterol level. Not extremely high but it should be lowered.

After some research I found something amazing. Coffee contains substances that influence your LDL cholesterol levels
in a negative way. But by using paper filters you can reduce it by more than 90%. Yes, I can quit with coffee completely
(done that for 18+ months) but the influence on my blood pressure was not significant and (besides some beneficial
effects too) it gives me a relaxation moment in the day. So, I bought an espresso machine ... but now a year later I
realized ... it doesn't use paper filters. I switched back to the old coffee maker and now use paper filters instead of the
metal mesh filter that I always used before. Even more improvement !

I hope this info benefits all other coffee drinkers

[Seabreeze]

About coffee I read some years ago on a toxicologist`s page. It helps the body to outflash certain metalls (I forget which ones) which don`t belong inside a human body. He also wrote about people which have alzheimer....and did give the advice...alzheimer patients should drink every day 2 - 3 cup`s of pure coffee. Or if they don*t like to drink coffee, to swallow a certain amount of
caffeine powder each day. It helps the brain to stay more clear.

[onawah]

People with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) use coffee enemas a lot for detoxifying.
See: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist....-and-recovery/

[ThePythonicCow]

Does one feel more, or less, energized when going on a water fast?

It varies, for reasons that I think I've been gaining more understanding of lately.

It depends on the quality of the "meat" (mostly of the fat) on one's bones. If one built up that fat while living and eating in a fairly clean life style, avoiding toxins, then, like a beef cow raised on Prince Charles private farms, that meat and fat will be relatively toxin free, "better than organic." If one built up that fat while exposed to more toxins in one's food, water, air, meds, and through the skin, that fat will be more like what's found in the supermarket from factory farms.

The body is quite efficient at stashing toxins into the body's fat cells that it can't otherwise metabolize or excrete, so many people have a lot of toxins stashed in their fat cells, and risk feeling tired or flu-like the first time that they go on a prolonged water fast.

On the other hand, I gained energy (many more hours a day of actively doing stuff) when I went on a water fast a couple of weeks ago, as the fat on my body had been laid down from fairly clean food, in a mostly clean environment. It's easier for the body to burn its existing fat stores than it is to do all the mechanical and biochemical processing needed to digest, filter and transport new food. When you're on a water fast, the energy not spending eating and digesting becomes available for other uses.

On a related matter, those who would prepare for disasters (preppers) often recommend keeping a few weeks or months of food stored. One's own body fat should be an optimum way of doing this, in a way that the body is well built to handle. So long as that fat is fairly clean, one can just stop eating, except for water, and ideally the water-soluble vitamins), and live off that fat, at the rate of perhaps a pound of fat per day, for weeks. Various essential nutrients, such as vitamins, amino acids, minerals, and essential fatty acids will become increasingly useful over time, but so long as the fat stores hold out, the body's basic energy requirements are well and easily met, just as nature intended.

So, as a prepper, I'd recommend doing as the bears do -- rebuild your fat stores with clean, healthy fat before the winter cold comes.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by BlueEyedPersian (here)
Quick update

Day 1: 91.6 kg (start weight)
Day 2: 90.2 kg -1.4 kg
Day 3: 89.2 kg -1 kg
Day 4: 88.2 kg -1 kg
Day 5: 87.2 kg -1 kg
Day 6: 86.5 kg -0.7 kg
Day 7: 85.5 kg -1 kg

Total weight loss: 6.1 kg / 13.44 lbs

At this rate, I'll achieve my ideal weight in 7-8 days and it will be a 14-15 day water fast.

Hey there, I'm wondering how you're doing. If you decided to keep on going, you may be nearly at the end of your 14-15 day fast. Do let us know!

A few small points:

1) We were talking about water consumption when fasting, and also coffee enemas. One of the things about enemas of any kind is that they're one way of emergency-rehydrating someone who's seriously dehydrated, under medical conditions. It's just a fast way of getting water into a body that really needs it.

So what happens when fasting and also doing enemas, is that the body will tend to retain the water that it needs. It's like it says: "Hey, thanks, I'll hang on to some of that. I can use it."

2) Paul's post #353 immediately above (about the quality of one's stored fat cells, now being used as fuel, having a marked effect on how one feels), is an excellent point that I've not seen mentioned anywhere else on the net. It makes perfect sense.

It also explains why personally, when I did my first long fast (7 days, 15 years ago), I found it MUCH tougher than all the fasts I've done recently, though I'm 15 years older. In recent years, I've done 99% of my own cooking, very rarely eating out anywhere. I pay a lot of attention to the quality of my diet.

Earlier, when I did my first fast, I was working as a consultant, traveling a lot and eating on the road, in hotels, etc, and although the food seemed pretty healthy most of the time, I often had no control over the quality of what I was consuming, or how it was prepared. Though I felt in good shape back then, it makes 100% sense that my extensive traveling would have made a difference to the stored toxins in the fat cells in my body. Interesting stuff.

3) And a minor personal update. Some of you may have read that a couple of weeks ago I made a huge goof and went on a very high altitude mountain hike on the exact same day when the UV index had coincidentally spiked to the degree that 'stay indoors' warnings were being announced — though I was quite unaware of that. It was super-bright and sunny, I was a whole mile higher vertically than the lower levels where the 'extreme' UV was being recorded, and I'd left my dark glasses behind. AND, there was a really high wind blowing, and we had to fight our way against it, all the time facing the sun as well.

By the time I got back home, my eyes had been fried, and I'd burned my retinas (or my corneas, or something). I wasn't 'blind' per se, but this is what 'snow blindness' is. I spent the next 3 days mostly in the dark, and I've been wearing dark glasses ever since, even indoors, like a secret service agent in a movie.

Then I had the bright idea of doing another fast, simply to help my body heal my eyes. The autophagy (accelerated self-healing that kicks in when fasting) will do that. And sure enough, the last couple of days they've been getting better rapidly. This is Day 3 now, and I'll probably stop tomorrow.

[RunningDeer]

Even though it’s not a bona fide fast, I remind myself we’re all different and that a custom-made plan is the most successful one.

I’m on day six of a dry fast and supplementing it with Harvest Bay Coconut Water which provides a good balance of sodium and potassium. It’s a liter of 100% coconut water. I drink it within the 24 hour spoilage date. I also have a organic strawberry, banana, and apple smoothie at the ready. I took some swigs. It’s enough to keep me going with the fast without the pain, weakness, faintness and dizziness I experiences when I did the eight day water fast that flushed out the good nutrients. I should mention that with both fasts, I drink about 2.5-3 cups of coffee a day.

With this dry/coconut water fast, I’m able to keep up with simple yoga stretches and Tai Chi. Whereas the water fast, my kidneys worked over time and I was always shaky, dizzy, achy and could not sleep. This fast may be easier because my diet is cleaner than a year ago with cutting out Ben and Jerry’s. Since the summer of 2016, I’ve eaten 95-98% clean.

UPDATE: microgreen thread here

This may seem off topic, but it’s the latest edition to my health regimen:

I had no plan to fast when I planted my first crop of microgreens. They take about 7-14 days to grow. So I’ve added microgreens to the fast. They’re stronger in flavor than their mature counterparts and 5x the nutritional value. (more depending on the plant) Rather than soil, I use the micro-mats. I know who’s handled the product from start to finish. It’s organic, non-GMO, no chemicals and freshly harvest for optimal nutrients. You can add them to soups and salads. I eat them straight up with a little Bragg’s amino acids.

Seeds:

• Arugula
• Basic Salad Mix - broccoli, blue curly kale, purple vienna, kohlrabi, arugula, red acre cabbage
• Radish-Rambo

Start up Equipment:

• Micro-Mats Hydroponic Grow Pads 5"x 5"
  
• spray mist bottle
  
• 5x5 trays - with holes
  
• 10”x10" trays no holes - fits 4 5X5 trays for moving and water catcher

YouTube microgreen sites - There are a lot of them out there, but here are a few I’ve subscribed to:

• Daisy Creek Farms with Jag Singh - quick, informative vids
• CoreysCave
• Pepe Fassos
• Microgreens Farmer

I use a 5X5 tray to tilt the 10X10 tray for more direct light. The close-ups are radish, arugula and basic salad mix. These photos are a few days before harvest.

[leavesoftrees]

I did a 16 hour intermittent dry fast a week or so ago. I found this much easier than water fasting as I experienced very little hunger. Hunger is a major problem for me when fasting - I do not switch into ketosis. While dry fasting I found it much easier to deal with thirst than hunger, as the thirst tends to mask the hunger

I found I had a lot of energy and achieved a lot of tasks in the first few hours of the fast

Also meditation was really powerful. Very focused and settled and once I got into the meditation, the thirst disappeared.

The one draw back was the fast really affected my sleep - probably because the lack of water made me very yin deficient. I seemed to spend most of the night on the ceiling. It probably would have been better to get up and have gone for a walk. I drank some water first thing the next morning and ate a few hours later.

Because of the sleep problems I only did the dry fast for 16 hours. Nevertheless I will probably do another intermittent dry fast once a month

It’s easy to see why fasting is considered an integral part of many spiritual paths. I recommend that if you have a regular spiritual practice such as meditation, yoga or tai qi to practice this as often as possible during the fast period. This would mean that ideally you would not have work commitments while fasting. Thanks for bringing the topic of dry fasting to our attention Running deer

[RunningDeer]

Posted by leavesoftrees (here)
It’s easy to see why fasting is considered an integral part of many spiritual paths. I recommend that if you have a regular spiritual practice such as meditation, yoga or tai qi to practice this as often as possible during the fast period. This would mean that ideally you would not have work commitments while fasting. Thanks for bringing the topic of dry fasting to our attention Running deer

Your welcome, leavesoftrees. I’ve added the dry fast information below. For me, it’s not a spiritual thing. It’s more a health thing:

Quality life = more time to figure ‘stuff’ out.

As mentioned earlier, I dry fasted for 44 hours last April, and for 23 hours within this latest one. Based on the research, one day of a dry fast is equivalent to 3 days of water fast. Whether it’s true or not, who really knows? A dry fast is easier on my body. What trips me up is breaking through the belief that you must have X number of glass of water a day. The other belief that quickly follows is if you don’t feel thirsty means you’re already too dehydrated.

I had the opportunity to attend the Microbiotic Kushi Institute in Switzerland for theory and cooking classes. From my research and training, I learned that too much water depletes the body of nutrients. You get enough from the foods you eat. BUT you do require water to flush out the toxins from a diet of process foods, and food and drink that dehydrate the body and physical labor/workouts. Even though I eat clean, I keep water close by to remind myself to drink.

These are some of the places I researched on dry-fasting:

• Dry medical Fasting - Myths and Reality (pdf)
  
• Dry Fasting: The Truth About This New Health Industry Trend

[RunningDeer]

The percentage of water in my body continues to increase on this dry fast/coconut fast: 9 days ago - 55.9% vs. today 57.4%. The healthy range for an active, 5’8” female is 52%-58%. (I may have shrunk since the last doctor’s appt.)
.............................

I didn’t count the two days before because along with the liter of coconut water*, I had a bowl of barley and brown rice (approximately 3/4 c).

As mentioned, one of the ways I keep records is I use a digital scale that measures weight and percentage of: water, bone, muscle, body fat. I was surprised to learn that today is the highest water percentage since I purchased the scale in 2016. And that’s on a ‘mostly’ dry fast.

It’ll be interesting to see if the water trend continues. I've not felt weak nor dizzy and I've only skipped one out of nine days doing Tai Chi and simple yoga stretches which takes about 45-50 minutes. In every respect, it's a 180 degree difference from the 8 day water fast.

* Harvest Bay 100% Coconut Water - liter (33.8 fl oz)

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
I use a digital scale that measures weight and percentage of: water, bone, muscle, body fat.

(Off-topic, forgive me! BUT —>) How on earth does/can that work? Do please link to the thing... would love to take a look.

[Chip]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
I use a digital scale that measures weight and percentage of: water, bone, muscle, body fat.

(Off-topic, forgive me! BUT —>) How on earth does/can that work? Do please link to the thing... would love to take a look.

Hi Bill,
I have the same type of scale at home it has sensors on it that measures resistivity, consisting of sensors you stand on and a retractable metal handle bar with sensors that's held.

As far as accuracy they are not too far off either, my wife calipered me a few times for body fat% and the scale measured within a few percents from that (good enough for me).

If I were home now I would tell you the name and brand but am not.

[RunningDeer]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by RunningDeer (here)
I use a digital scale that measures weight and percentage of: water, bone, muscle, body fat.

(Off-topic, forgive me! BUT —>) How on earth does/can that work? Do please link to the thing... would love to take a look.

I use two methods. The second is where I designed a spreadsheet so I don't have to calculate every time. It also compares/contrasts the current info with last data. (and more) I plug in the information and the measurements which is based on the formulas from Covert Bailey Body Fat Percentage.

This is the main company address where I grabbed the info, but it’s much, MUCH cheaper elsewhere and you can find their discount coupons on the web. One discount code is added below in 2nd summary video. mylifemyshop.com - Digital Body Analyzer.

This Digital Body Analyzer allows you to measure and track your vital body composition statistics from the comfort of your home. The Digital Body Analyzer measures:

• Body Fat – Tracking your body fat percentage lets you know that you’re headed in the right direction for overall health.
• Weight – Monitoring your weight can help you understand your personal patterns so your can achieve optimal health.
• Muscle Mass – Increasing lean muscle mass boosts your metabolism which allows your body to burn more calories.
• Bone Mass – Stay on track with your bone measurements to prevent you from serious medical conditions.
• Water Weight – Maintaining a healthy total body water percentage will ensure the body functions efficiently.

The best scale I've ever had…. (5 minutes)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=S04Tkw2NQcA

Nick's Strength and Power


Published on Mar 9, 2017
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[RunningDeer]

According to the Institute of Medicine, water consumption recommendations vary by gender. Men should consume 3 liters of water each day. While women need to take in 2.2 liters per day.

What percentage of fat is water?

Your muscles contain 75 percent water, same as the amount in your brain. Fat contains only 10 percent water. This is less than bone, which contains 22 percent water. The difference in fat and muscle tissue may be due to glycogen. [article]

Gender Differences

Men tend to carry more water than women. This has to do with the amount of body fat in a woman versus a man. Women carry more essential fat than men. This is the fat around the body that is necessary, including reproductive fat in the breasts and around the uterus. Men inherently have a larger amount of skeletal muscle. For these reasons, men contain about 60 percent water while women have 55 percent water.

Age Differences

At birth, a baby is 78 percent water, but this drops to 65 percent by the first birthday. In the elderly, body water content begins to fall. As you age, you experience something known as sarcopenia. This is a progressive decline in the amount of muscle mass you have. Since muscle mass dwindles with age, so does the water content of the body.

Recommendations

Water consumption is important for replacing fluids that you have lost throughout the day. According to the Institute of Medicine, water consumption recommendations vary by gender. Men should consume 3 liters of water each day. While women need to take in 2.2 liters per day.

What is the ideal body water percentage?

The ideal body water percentage varies. It is influenced by different factors. Gender, age and body composition affect this percentage. In general, women have a lower body water percentage than men. This is because women have more tissue than men. The ideal percentage for adult women will fluctuate between 45 and 60%, while the ideal percentage for adult men will be between 50 and 65% of the total body. For the real athletic body types it is even recommended to have 5% more body water than the average adult range.

Consequences of not drinking enough water

There are many ways to increase your body water percentage. It starts with drinking at least 2 litres of water per day. Most important: never wait until you are thirsty. Furthermore, it is recommended to start your day with a glass of water. This will clean the body from waste and toxins. Another way to increase your body water percentage is to eat raw fruits and vegetables. They are dense in water. This is a good alternative for drinking water all the time. Keep this in mind: drink water and other fluids until you urinate frequently and with light colour. [article]

UPDATE: It's day 11 on my dry fast/coconut water fast. (counting the first two days when I had 3/4c of rice and barley). The water % continues to increase even though I’m drinking less coconut water: 55.9% vs. 57.6%. Will stop the fast sooner than later.

♡

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by RunningDeer, quoting the Institute of Medicine (here)

water consumption recommendations vary by gender. Men should consume 3 liters of water each day. While women need to take in 2.2 liters per day.

Thanks! But a couple of points here to consider.

• It can't be THAT cut-and dried. A well-built 6' 2" woman would surely need more water than a slightly-built 5' 2" man.

• Those amounts, as best I understand, are in addition to regular food. And solid food has water-content as well, especially fruit and veg. So when fasting, with no food at all, I'd imagine one might well need a little more.

It's day 11 on my dry fast/coconut water fast.

Wow. Kudos, and most interesting. I'd love to hear about your perceived benefits.