Fasting

[Trogdor]

I appreciate the concern, and I'll go ahead and reply to the best of my ability, as I'm sure others would be begging the same question. I'll be nailing out a few things based on your post, and I sincerely do not intend it as a personal affront to you, as much as it may seem.

Firstly, for the past few months I've been preparing my body for this fast. I have been eating foods I deem beneficial based on nutrient content, and have spent a couple of months solely building up muscle mass. Which brings me to my next point about having a low body weight.

I don't blame you or anyone else in the least bit about not reading my wall of text on the first page; to be honest, it was more of a point of reference and of departure, as well as a place for those few (if any) who would like to know the nitty-gritty details of a fast. Anyways, though fat is extremely helpful when deprived of food, muscle is supremely more important. Fat will keep you alive; muscle will keep you healthy. It's entirely up to the body to establish that fine balance between too little muscle consumption and too much. Too little, and the body risks lasting damage to vital organs and tissue; too much, and you lose mobility! TL;DR - Keep skipping walls of text, and muscle is more important to a fasting body than fat.

On to your next point: intentionally starving myself. I know very well you meant it tongue-in-cheek, but it brings up a great point of interest. I know it may not seem like it, but there's a vast difference between fasting and starving oneself. When starving, the body has exhausted all nutrient reserves and almost all of the body's fat and muscle reserves, and in a last ditch effort it begins consuming the vital organs and tissues of the body. Not a pretty way to go. In fasting, you prepare for it. You build up nutrient stores, fat, muscle, etc., and have a specific deadline under which you are to end it. Without that deadline, your stores would eventually be depleted and then you would go into starvation. I'm playing it save, and instead of going on the "traditional" fast of 40 days, I'll be doing less than half, 15. TL;DR - You prepare your body for a fast, whereas starvation you cannot.

If an obese person were to undergo a fast, he or she could easily go above that 40 mark into 50 or 60 days (though don't hold me to that rough estimate). Will that mean they'll be able to cleanse their bodies more thoroughly? Most likely not, as obese people are generally nutritionally deprived, and the body will be spending the majority of its time trying to keep that person alive, vice the time it could use to remove detrimental tissue, toxins, and stored carcinogens. However, if a relatively thin person were to undergo a fast, nutritionally prepared, 20 or 30 days would be more appropriate as the cleansing can be completed much faster and sooner. This all ties into the stage before ketosis, where the body's top priority is to preserve muscle tissue and use fat as the main source of fuel. However long it takes to deplete that store of fat, along with how nutritionally prepared that person is, determines when ketosis will take place, the backbone of the fast. TL;DR - Though fat does play a part in a fast's success, nutrition stores and muscle are much more important.

Once again, I'm doing this for everyone's benefit, not just to bash you. If I get enough questions I may just dedicate a part of the first post to Q&A. Thanks for being my scapegoat! TL;DR - You're lazy.

[Torch]

I have no doubt that you are fully prepared for your fast, I just don't understand how it benefits you specifically. I can't comprehend that your curiosity takes priority over your health and wellbeing. TL;DR - Whats the point?

[Trogdor]

You're a funny guy! This is just one of those many stupid things us humans do to satiate our ever-hungry curiosity. At least I'm not risking sailing off the edge of the world! I've developed an interest in it over the years, and am interested enough in it to try it myself. I suppose that's what it boils down to in my case; interest. That and I'm knowingly risking my health on the possibility that I'll become more healthy, instead of the possibility of becoming rich, or famous. Like I said before, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

EDIT: It's impossible to read sarcasm, but I just want to be sure that you know I wasn't putting in the TL;DR's for your benefit, but for people like this:

i never read trogdors posts always too long

[Torch]

You're a funny guy! This is just one of those many stupid things us humans do to satiate our ever-hungry curiosity. At least I'm not risking sailing off the edge of the world! I've developed an interest in it over the years, and am interested enough in it to try it myself. I suppose that's what it boils down to in my case; interest. That and I'm knowingly risking my health on the possibility that I'll become more healthy, instead of the possibility of becoming rich, or famous. Like I said before, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

EDIT: It's impossible to read sarcasm, but I just want to be sure that you know I wasn't putting in the TL;DR's for your benefit, but for people like this:

i never read trogdors posts always too long

Well then, good luck with not overly-damaging your body. I hope you satisfy your curiosity.

Also yeah, I understood the point of the TL;DRs. No worries, was just making a sarcastic joke.

[Jake]

After not eating for a couple days, does extreme hunger kick in? Or does the body go into some kind of survival mode where it knows it's not gonna eat for a long period of time, and the hunger is satiated.

[Scotty]

After not eating for a couple days, does extreme hunger kick in? Or does the body go into some kind of survival mode where it knows it's not gonna eat for a long period of time, and the hunger is satiated.

From what I understand, if the body stops receiving food, your metabolism slows down drastically to keep yourself from running out of every single resource in your body.  After a while though, your metabolism is going to only have so much to retain, and your body will start eating itself inside out.

[Lucifer]

Again, you seem to know what you're doing, but I wish you luck anyways. I'll be sure to keep up on the updates.

[Trogdor]

Alright, I updated the first post. Does anyone know if there's a character limit, and what number that may be? I think I'm going to run out of room soon; I should've made a reserve post or two, in hindsight. :-\

[Trogdor]

Just so everyone knows, I don't really feel it's necessary to bump this every day that I make a new edit here, since mostly everyone has said what they were going to say on my first attempt. However, if it strays off the first page I'll feel obligated to bump it back to the first page. It's not exactly an active topic, but not a dead one either. So even if there aren't any *new* posts, there will be edits daily to the first post. It's a shame that edits don't bump a topic. :-\

I went ahead and made that Q&A section for convenience's sake, as well as to answer any unanswered questions from those reading this, and tidied up the first post a bit. I'll also write a short description of my current physical/mental status in a few hours.

[foG]

I find it very interessting what you do and I will keep track and check back daily. If it works out well I might try it too in the soon future, of course I know every body reacts differently but you having it tested and documented every points of each day makes it easier for me. :-)

[Trogdor]

Just a short update as the first post is full. The condition in my leg had worsened so much so that I have no choice but to postpone this fast, once again. I'm not disheartened in the least bit, however, since I managed to push my body to the limit until the weakest part of it gave way. Now that I've wrested this valuable bit of knowledge from my body, I know how to better prepare myself in the future.

To give a brief overview of what happened, yesterday I had developed a sort of throbbing ache in the back of my left knee. I tried different ways of positioning and stretching, but nothing seemed to relieve the pain. I didn't really think much of it at the time. A few hours later I had begun to experience decreased blood flow in my leg to such an extent that I had trouble feeling the outer extremities. Additionally, there was some minor swelling in the back of my knee, using my right leg as a benchmark. I'm not sure if the swelling was from inflamed tissue or the beginnings of a synovial cyst, but in all honesty I didn't care to find out. The weird thing was that my right leg was perfectly fine; it was the left one who was giving me trouble.

At any rate, I'll be going on a hiatus until next attempt, but I'll keep this topic open. I'm not sure what to do now that I no longer have space for my day-to-day entries, and I'd prefer not to scatter them haphazardly throughout this topic. I most likely will just make another topic dedicated to the physical and mental changes a fasting body goes through. Of course I'll link back to this one for reference, but I'll be sure to hone my body to a razor-edge before I risk wasting forum space with a three-post foible.

Oh, and you guys need to be sure to tell me if you're getting sick of me yet. I can take a hint. This horse has been dead since my first fasting attempt, but I'll keep on beating it and beating it until you guys tell me to stop being an idiot with my half-assed attempts at starving myself and just eat, goddamnit.

[Mr Pwnage]

Very interesting information...but don't kill yourself bro.

Enjoy the various foods in life, go eat a !@#$ing steak.

[Torch]

I'd say you should probably consult a doctor before attempting another fast.

[Jake]

I'd say you should probably consult a doctor before attempting another fast.

I agree. They most likely won't agree with what you're doing, but they could give you some important advice that is specific to your body.

[krele]

I've fasted before for 8 days, but my goal wasn't nearly as foul (sorry, couldn't find another word) as yours. I'm an extreme martial artist, and was in need of fasting my body to achieve that state of balance to progress more quickly, etc. You're doing it to educate yourself, gamble your health, and to prove science? With no professional help? Sorry, but I have to agree with Torch, since I know how dangerous this can get.

To answer some questions:

• I fasted 2 months ago, few weeks after school was over.
• I consulted a doctor, told him my reasons and he offered to help me out (while still telling me it's not a good idea at my age). I dearly accepted
• I'm only 17!
• I weight 68kg (149.9 lbs) and am 181cm (6ft) tall
• My family supported me

I lasted 8 days. First two and last two days were the hardest. First two days I've drank 5-6 glasses of water, at later days drank less. The hunger was almost unbearable, my stomach hurt like a bitch. After three days, I couldn't feel the hunger at all, nor the pain in my stomach. Only lack of energy, and tiredness. I still did most of activities I usually did, but exercising was out of the question. After like 4 days I felt terrible, was about to give up because of the pain in my body. The pain went away after few more glasses of water. I remember the next day was great, felt no pain, no hunger, and wasn't even tired at all. It passed really quickly. The 7th day was brutal though... I woke up at like 6am, couldn't sleep a wink and felt terrible pain in my stomach. I turned on the computer, and moments later felt the pain again. My body entered a state of detoxification and I got a pretty bad diarrhea. Rushing to the toilet 2 times an hour, for whole day felt pretty bad. At first I thought I had intestinal virosys. My doctor said that wasn't the case, because I would throw up as well. He told me it's about time to start eating again, since my body was detoxicated. I decided to hold on another day. Last day was terrible too, but I had no diarrhea. I was just tired as hell, slept in fever hour by hour waking up every time the pain was felt. At night, I had my first meal in a while. Rice =)

It was pretty bad experience, but it helped me greatly. During this summer, I've progressed in tricking like I never did before. I achieved my goal... But I wouldn't repeat this process, haha... I got my original weight back in something like 3 days.