Every now and again I come across an article that questions the future of our generation and the generations to come.
This time it was from The World Health Organization website.
Here are the key facts:
In 2022, 1 in 8 people in the world were living with obesity.
Worldwide adult obesity has more than doubled since 1990, and adolescent obesity has quadrupled.
In 2022, 37 million children under the age of 5 were overweight.
Why is obesity such a problem?
Think for a moment what it means to be obese:
- if obese you have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases like hypertension,
- along with heart disease, and stroke
- you have a higher likelihood of developing type 2 diabetes
- obese people have higher possibilities of certain cancers, including breast cancer, colon cancer, and endometrial cancers
- respiratory issues can appear such as sleep apnea and asthma,
- not to mention psychological effects like depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem
On top of that, you have no energy or motivation to do things that would put you on a better track.
You’re running around in a vicious circle.
The statistics are grim not only for adults but also for our children.
Use our imaginations for a second and visualize the future.
Put yourself in the position of a parent. I can’t imagine sitting at a doctor’s office, processing the news that my child has developed diabetes.
He’ll have to live with injections for the rest of his life.
And I could’ve prevented it by changing our feeding habits.
No parent should go through this.
As parents, we’re the mirrors for our children. If we fix our health problems, they’ll also pick up on them. Possibly even when we’re not there to supervise them.
Fasting – especially prolonged (extended) fasting is a great solution to the problem
Thinking about the problem of obesity I decided to contribute my part in eradicating it.
Maybe, just maybe I can improve someone’s life with the knowledge I have to offer.
Now, combined with the latest research on the topic.
For many years – a quarter of a decade to be exact, I’ve known and used this unconventional method. Sometimes to keep my body in check with obesity. Sometimes for health reasons.
I’m not saying that I’m at my perfect weight. That I couldn’t find a kilogram or two that I’d rather not have.
But overall I’m satisfied with my weight.
Every year I go on a 21-day extended fast. Sometimes even a 42-day fast, when I’m trying to tackle some bigger health issue.
By the end of it, I’m a new woman, literally.
I’m thinner, healthier, motivated for future health endeavors, and with a fresh look at life and my habits.
For the past 25 years, I’ve gone through and witnessed numerous body transformations due to fasting.
What our bodies are capable of in these three weeks is in a word incredible.
But to spread the word I only had my experiences as a reference. No scientific data to support my claims.
Until now.
Studies are now being performed on people going through prolonged fasting. The results and the data are fascinating.
So, this will be the topic of today’s article.
To familiarize you with prolonged fasting (sometimes also called long-term fasting or extended fasting).
We will be covering the following topics:
- What is fasting
- What happens in our bodies when we eat
- What happens in our bodies when we fast
- What are the benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting
- What to look out for when fasting
- Interesting facts about fasting
- What questions to ask yourself to determine if you are in the right mindset to fast
We have a lot to cover, so let’s begin.
What is fasting
If you look for the definition on Google, this pops up on the screen:
To fast:
To abstain from all or some kinds of food or drink
To be deprived of all or some kinds of food, especially for medical or experimental reasons.
In other words: We fast when our bodies are not in the process of eating or digesting food.
We do this naturally when we sleep.
The fasting process begins when the feeding process has ended. This varies and is dependent on several factors:
- when was our last meal and
- what that meal was,
We usually need around 5-6 hours (from our last bite) to finish the digestive process.
So, if we weren’t snacking in the middle of the night and our last bite was at six in the evening, our bodies are in a fasted state from midnight on.
Encouraging thought for those who think they could never last without food.
So, why is the fasted state important for our body?
One of today’s more influential health advocates – Andrew Huberman, had this to say on his podcast:
There is something special with the fasting that occurs during sleep and it’s related to the glymfatic system – the movement of lymf like fluids and other fluids through the brain, that is clearing out the metabolic debre and the bad proceses in the brain, ofsets dementia and the same proceses also occur in the organs in our body.
If you have the time take a listen to the entire podcast it is incredibly educational.
Sleep-related fasting which Huberman is referring to, has been linked to a process called autophagy. Autophagy is our brain and body cleaning out the dead, injured, or sick cells. It’s especially important for the cellular and tissue repair that occurs:
- in the liver,
- in the gut,
- in the microbiome,
- in the brain, and
- all over the body.
To explain things better, let’s look at what happens in our bodies when we eat and when we don’t eat.
What happens in our bodies when we eat
Humans are programmed to function best during the day. This is when we use most of the energy that we’ve gained through food.
The process of food intake is not as simple and short as putting food in our mouth, chewing, and swallowing it.
According to research, this is only the first stage of the digestion process.
Once in our stomach, the acids have to dissolve the food that we just ate (digestive process).
At the last stage, the dissolved food travels through the colon where everything useful is absorbed by our body (gastric emptying process).
So the digestive process consists of the following three processes:
- the feeding process
- the digestive process and
- the gastric emptying process
So, as you can see, ‘eating’ is an active process that requires energy and is time-consuming.
Depending on the type of food ingested, it can take anywhere from 30 minutes (for a low-calorie meal) to anywhere up to 6 hours (for a full meal) to digest.
As science teaches us the food breaking down process increases inflammatory markers. Hormones such as insulin are produced by our liver, which helps break down the food.
If you’re worried, reading about the rise of inflammatory markers, let me reassure you – this is a natural process.
Inflammatory markers become problematic when they are present for most of the day.
This can happen when we’re eating (or nibbling on food) from the time we get out of bed (starting with coffee adding milk and sugar to it) to the time we go to bed. Finishing your day with a late-night snack.
Ideally, the inflammatory markers should be reduced in the period when there is no food present in the intestinal tract.
Yet, not only inflammatory markers rise during the feeding processes.
Two more are on the rise:
The first one is blood glucose. The definition according to The National Library of Medicine:
Blood glucose, or blood sugar, is the main sugar found in your blood. It is your body’s primary source of energy. It comes from the food you eat. Your body breaks down most of that food into glucose and releases it into your bloodstream.
The second is the increase of the hormones associated with cell growth. These hormones stimulate growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration.
In short, the process of eating include:
- increasing inflammatory markers such as insulin
- blood glucose rising
- increasing the hormones associated with cell growth
But we we sleep or fast it is the exact opposite
What happens in our body when we fast
Even though so much good is happening while in the eating process, it also has a bad side.
The production, growth, and regeneration of the cells take enormous amounts of energy.
Our organs associated with our metabolic process are working hard to produce it and if we don’t give them a break during the day we are risking our health.
The liver is such an organ. It is involved in the production of important hormones related to metabolism.
If we eat around the clock, our liver can get very sick.
Fat deposits, combined with other factors essentially lead down the path to liver disease. And this has become a growing problem in the last two decades:
About 100 million people (about 25%) in the United States are estimated to have Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (now called MASLD). NAFLD is the most ordinary form of liver disease in children and has more than doubled over the past 20 years.
One other thing to consider:
When eating, the digestive system doesn’t only grow healthy cells that our body needs.
This is also the time when cancer cells are growing, reproducing, and regenerating.
In the fasting process, our organs that have been working hard during the day have a chance to relax, sit back, and put their feet up.
During the fasting period (when we are asleep) our body promotes cellular repair, where our brain and body clean out the dead, injured, or sick cells.
This is why intermittent fasting is so beneficial to our health.
Limiting our eating window to a specific number of hours a day means extending the time that our body is fasting.
To recap, the process of fasting includes:
- Cellular repair – autophagy (cleaning out the metabolic debree)
- Reduction of hormonal activities connected with growth – healthy cells and in cancer cells of various kinds
- Inflammatory markers go down
- Blood glucose and insulin levels drop
These are the basics.
By now you understand the process of feeding and the process of fasting.
But what would happen, if we were to extend the period of our natural sleep fasting for a day, a week, or three weeks?
What are the benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting
You probably have a clearer picture in your mind that fasting is a good thing.
To recap:
- We all fast when we sleep – when our feeding processes are over
- It is a natural process, helping our bodies function at optimal capacity
But the fasting we all do at night is only a short period, and can only do so much to repair our bodies.
Things we do throughout the day, such as:
- Indulging in processed food
- eating all hours of the day,
- not exercising and
- stress being a common recurring thing
is too much for the nightly cleaning crew.
Things start to stack up and before you know it, you are overweight with a bunch of health problems on your hands.
But what if you could give your body more time and opportunity to do the cleansing process?
Can you imagine the benefits of such an enterprise?
I’ve been a witness to it for the last 25 years, and now multiple studies have been done where people are fasting for multiple days – in my case – my longest time has been 42 days.
We now have scientific evidence of what such extended fasting can do for our bodies.
Let’s look at some.
Scientifically proven benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting on the body:
- fat loss
- significant decrease in body weight
- lean body mass
- accelerated effects of autophagy
- enhance liver health
- blood glucose regulation
- microbiome improvements
- epinephrine and adrenalin increase
- the reduction of the growth hormones – growth of cancer cells of various kinds
- reduction or inflammatory markers
Benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting on the mind:
- clarity of the mind
I will be adding to the list as new evidence presents itself.
However, since I’ve been doing my research on the subject for the past 25 years it would be foolish not to mention my findings on extended fasting.
Keep in mind, I’m not a doctor and I haven’t been medically supervised when fasting, so I cannot tell you if all of the above benefits happened in my body.
I can however tell you what I’ve noticed during and at the end of my 3 weeks of fasting:
My observed benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting on the body
- Fat burning – I usually lose between 8 and 12 kilograms of body weight during my 3-week fast, getting back around 2 kilograms in the next week with food and water. It depends on the weight I start with. I also observed that men lose more than women.
- Fat reduction happens throughout the entire body. You will notice it even on your face and breasts
Cellulite reduction – in my 6-week fasts the cellulite on my legs all but disappeared
- Soft skin all over my body. It can be best compared to a baby’s skin. No more red spots, pimples, and blackheads on your face or other areas.
- No more energy crashes during the day due to glucose spikes and crashes. My energy levels stay consistent throughout the fasting period.
- Improved gut health – my metabolism is better than ever when fasting and my gastric emptying process normalizes to once a day, when before I was lucky to go to the toilet once every three days.
- My body feels light. The feeling is best described as half floating half walking. The feeling I miss the most when I start eating again
- On the health aspect, extended fasting helped with my infertility – getting rid of Endometriosis for a time for my body to conceive.
- It helped with my grandfather’s brain tumors – in 6 weeks three tumors were gone, and there was no need to have the surgery
- It helped with my mother’s breast cancer – she fasted for 6 weeks before having the surgery and it hasn’t returned in the three decades since.
My observed benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting on the mind:
- There are good days and bad days when fasting for so long but on the good days, the feeling I could do anything physically and mentally is present throughout the day. The natural dopamine hit like none I ever experienced for such a long period.
- Every extended fast I have, there is a day or two of extreme creative rush. I don’t know how to describe it better. In the last prolonged fasting in April this year (2024) I wrote the outline of an entire fiction book of 25 chapters in two hours. Ideas are flowing so fast that I can’t keep up with the typing. It’s incredible.
- My memory improves drastically during the 3-6 weeks and persists well into the next month. I can retain more information that I would otherwise miss.
- The ability to concentrate increases and persists longer.
- The appreciation I get for my health when the aches and pains go away. This is when I start looking for new healthy recipes.
Confidence at the end of the fasting period is unlike anything I ever noticed anywhere else. I’m proud of my ‘new body’ and of the achievement. After 25 years, this still hasn’t gotten old.
- My mindset shifts to other areas of life as well. If I can withstand food for 3 weeks, what else are you capable of? This is when I usually take on projects and challenges I was hesitant about before.
- I’m more observant in the fasting period. I start appreciating nature more, other people and their gestures, I focus more time on myself.
My observed benefits of prolonged (extended) fasting on life in general:
- The time I get back when not eating. Every time I fast, for the first couple of days I don’t know what to do with myself, something is missing (the habit of eating). And it amounts to up to 4 hours per day. I’m always amazed at how much time I spend preparing, cooking, and eating food and cleaning up afterward.
- The money I’m left with by the end of the month that would normally be spent on groceries is concerning. Especially when a lot of it is spent on snacks, coffee, and other food indulgences.
- The free time I now have from not dealing with food, I usually spent outside, going on walks, and gardening. Something I don’t do enough of during the rest of the year
This is the bulk of it. I’m certain there are additional things that slipped my mind, but you get the picture.
However, fasting also has its downsides.
What to watch out for when thinking of prolonged (extended) fasting
If you’re hyped up about the benefits of extended fasting it means I’ve done my job.
However, before you jump in and start there are some things to consider beforehand.
As we found, fasting reduces the growth hormone and with it cell growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration.
This is great when you want to get rid of foreign cells in your body like tumors or cancer cells.
Prolonged fasting is not advisable when you want to recover from any major medical procedure.
Your body has been stressed enough by the procedure and now you have to give it time to heal – grow/heal the necessary parts that have been ‘damaged or removed’ by the procedure.
Extended fasting is also not advisable if you are trying to conceive.
I know this is contradictory to what I’ve written about in the benefits of prolonged fasting and how it helped with my infertility, but hear me out.
My reason for not being able to conceive was Endometriosis. These are foreign cells that are multiplied by every period cycle women have.
If I wanted to conceive I needed to remove these cells that were in my fallopian tubes, and in my uterus preventing me from having a baby.
Since I was already in the procedure of IVF when the endometrial cells were cleaned out by a 6-week extended fast, the artificial insemination was successful and I was able to conceive.
The removal of endometriotic cells was so efficient, that the Endometriosis didn’t return for the next 2 years, so I was able to have the second child without any IVF procedure.
I haven’t had a medical examination since the birth of my youngest son, so I can’t tell you if the disease has returned. But all of the regular checkups at my gynecologists never hinted at it being back.
Also, all of the side effects of Endometriosis I experienced before haven’t returned:
- painful periods
- heavy bleeding, and
- periods lasting for more than 8 days.
To get back on the subject, you need to have enough leptin in your body (fat) to have ovulation.
Similarly, prolonged fasting reduces testosterone in men and with it the sperm count and fertility.
Another thing to keep in mind is stress.
Our body doesn’t distinguish between mental stress and physical stress. You have to understand that prolonged fasting is stressful to our bodies, no matter the benefits it brings.
If you have a stressful job, are learning for exams or you’re in conflict with somebody regularly that creates stress.
To stress the body further with fasting is not a good idea.
I had a similar experience myself when attempting to fast while in a very stressful period in my life. The results were not pretty. In the 18 days that I did manage to fast my body protested vigorously,
- with diarrhea,
- eye infection,
- a particularly nasty cold and
- overall exhaustion.
By day 18 I decided to stop and deal with the problems head on. It took me a year to try fasting again and be successful.
To conclude this topic, we all know what is best for our bodies and what we can handle at a certain period.
If you’re thinking of prolonged fasting take into account your current health.
Consulting your physician on the subject is always a good idea, especially if you are on any kind of medication.
Everybody needs to determine for themselves if extended fasting is good for them.
And for some people, it won’t be compatible with their hormone health.
Interesting facts regarding prolonged (extended) fasting
There are some interesting facts discovered by the research, regarding prolonged fasting that you might like to know.
Many people find that the kind of lightheadedness and shakiness that’s accustomed to having slightly low blood sugar – the by-product of extended fasting, can be offset by taking a pinch or 1/2 of a teaspoon of sea salt with some water.
Studies have also dove into the specifics of what will break your fast and what won’t:
Among the things that won’t break your fast are:
- water
- tea – provided it isn’t sweetened
- coffee – provided it’s black
- artificial sweeteners like stevia
- going into a sauna
What will break your fast:
- wine
- anything that involves sugar – in particular, simple sugars
- any food even in small dosages
The best way to know if you’re still in a fasted state is to monitor the levels of your blood glucose, with a blood glucose monitor, but the basics should be the ones I’ve listed above.
What questions to ask to determine if you are in the right mindset to fast
Now that you know all the scientific and practical specifics about prolonged fasting I have one short exercise for you.
There are not many people who would take on a challenge like extended fasting.
Especially if the fasting period would be 3 weeks or more.
After reflecting on all the pros and cons, here is a set of questions you can answer to see if you are a prolonged fasting material.
1. What is the reason that led you to believe extended fasting can be the solution?
Think about this. The answer will be there for you on the bad days when you’ll want to quit.
It can be anything from
- proving to yourself that you can do it,
- the desire to change your body in a short amount of time, or
- you’re doing it for health reasons.
No answer is wrong and I’ve tried them all.
If you’re determined enough any of them will work.
2. If you look back on your life, what is your track record of sticking to things you set your mind to? Poor? Mediocre? Excellent?
Whatever it is, if the reason you decided to do it is strong enough you’re on the right path.
Revise the first question and be sure it’s important enough to you.
3. What does your average day look like?
Is it stressful? Do you think you can add more to your plate or do you think it would be a good idea to let some of it go?
We all have stressful situations in life but take some time to figure out if it’s a reoccurring thing.
If your answer is yes then put off on your prolonged fasting plans until you solve your stress issues.
4. What will the people around you think?
Think about these before you commit to extended fasting:
- Do you have a family to take care of?
- Do you live alone?
- What do your friends think about this?
- Can you do this despite everything?
I’ve been fasting for 25 years.
I started when I was still in college and single with no one to take care of than myself.
Then I was married and now, I have a family to look after.
People knew I was fasting and there were times that I didn’t tell anybody. It can be done either way.
But doing it for the first time can be easier if you don’t have to cook dinner for the whole family every day and if you have somebody to talk to about your struggles.
But don’t let that stop you. If you decide to do it no matter what, good for you.
5. Do you have a project or a hobby you’re working on and would like to finish?
It’s not a trick question. You’ll have more time on your hands that you’ll know what to do with – even taking care of your family. Occupying that time with something you like doing is a very beneficial thing.
This will keep your mind off the food and cravings and will make your days more tolerable.
I did everything from gardening to writing a novel, but in the last few years, my family has been enjoying a different dinner recipe every day of my fast.
6. Is it time for a makeover?
The transformation of your body will be dramatic.
Especially if you have more than just a couple of kilograms over your ideal weight.
I lost anywhere from 8 kilograms to 12 kilograms of body weight during my 3-week fast. My ideal weight (in my head at least) is about 10 kilograms less than I have now. If you have substantial weight problems, chances are you’ll lose more.
In any case shopping for a new wardrobe will be required. Why not change the whole look while you’re at it?
The answers to these questions will help you with your decision regarding prolonged fasting.
If you have a limited amount of time to work on them, spend the majority of them answering the first one. This is the most important one.
I find when my mind is set there are no obstacles big enough I can’t overcome.
The conclusion
My wish when writing this article has been to combine scientific research with my practical knowledge.
To give you as much information about extended fasting as possible.
I hope I’ve been successful in my attempt.
In my opinion, this is still the best tool for losing weight, detoxifying your body, and changing our thinking about health in general.
My grandmother described prolonged fasting as a surgery without the scalpel. From what my experiences are, she was right. And now we have the science to back up our findings.
Extended fasting has a wide reach of benefits that influence our bodies, minds, and lifestyles.
If you manage to start, endure, and finish a period without food, you have what it takes to tackle any other challenge that comes your way.
Taking into consideration all the knowledge you’ve learned this far, prolonged fasting at its core is a mental undertaking.
It is a battle of wills and wants.
I can help you with the information, tips, tricks, and encouragement, but the work you’ll have to do on your own.
Until next time,
Ann
